It´s the little things

Moving to Chile has taught me that when you move to a country where you´ve never been, you have no idea what you´re going to miss from home. Sure, I knew I would miss my friends, public libraries teeming with books (in English), and my corporate salary. But I didn´t imagine that waffles and shaving cream would top the list.

So, first, I miss breakfast. Typical Chilean breakfast is bread with butter and jam and coffee (not real coffee, Nescafe). They might mix it up with cheese instead of jam. Oooh. Frequently the food is skipped all together. For me, a cup of wanna-be joe is not gonna cut it. Even though I rarely ate "real" breakfast in the States, I find myself lusting after waffles or pancakes with butter and real maple syrup. I want French toast with powdered sugar. I want scrambled eggs, sausage, scones, bacon.

Okay, I´d better stop before I drool on myself.

Second, what´s a girl got to do to have smooth legs around here?? I ran out of shaving cream a few weeks ago and have been floja ("flow-ha" = lazy) about buying more. The freezing-cold temperatures and luke-warm water haven´t been big motivators to spend more time in the shower anyhow. But yesterday I decided enough was enough because my legs were starting to resemble and old-growth forest. You know that I´m all for preserving nature, but even I have my limits!

I first went to the Chilean Wal-Mart equivalent but they don´t have shaving cream for women. I ask some clerks for help. They are very nice and patient, but after almost 10 minutes of back and forth, they say, "You have that in your country?" Next, I try the pharmacy next door. The guys there have a buffudled look and ask me if I want to shave my face. Ummm, no. Then they offer me a dipilatory cream, which I describe to them (in Spanish) as "chemicals that eat your hair" and say that´s not what I want. When it seems like one is about to open the package to demonstrate, I quickly thank them and leave. Next, I try a bigger pharmacy, hoping square footage will be my friend. I recruit help again when all I find is shaving cream for men. I then reconfirm that I don´t want to shave my face, that I don´t want dipilatories, and that I´d rather not have "an odor of a man" (my Spanish might not be pretty, but it gets the job done!).

But, in the end, I bought the men´s shaving cream. It was the store brand and so, therefore, cheap. And I left the store feeling victorious for having spoken so much Spanish during my quest. Plus, now my legs are finally smooth ... even if I do smell faintly of menthol.