Yardsticks

Everything you look at out here is different. Foreign and yet familiar. It attacks the senses with a dichotomy of similar and strange. I feel like a stranger in a strange land.

Although Wal-mart is big, in an infinate Tesco kind of way, in its own way its also really small. While its not possible to question the quantity and variety of goods for sale - nor for that matter the quality, so many staples that become part of a supermarket routine are noticable in their lack of presence. Cheese, for example, good fruit and vegetables.

And all the cars are american, and the beer is lite. On one scale its just the same as everything else - yet the differences are apparent if you are looking for them.

Perhaps I measure everything on the wrong scale and I should be looking past these subtle differences, or maybe these details are what comprise the richness of life. Perhaps we do just fear the unknown.

In contrast, there is no thing so comforting as the familiar sound, laughter and conversation of those you love when you phone home.