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SaraP

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As for missed goods: I keep importing (read: asking mom and aunts and friends to send...) German winegums, peanut puffs (!!), vanilla sugar, vanilla pudding powder, baking powder, hazelnuts, certain spices and herbs, baking paper (non-sticky cookie sheet liner), non-sticky hairspray, tampons (no, seriously), anti-flea collars for the pooches, moisturizing lotion, lip balm, leashes for the pooches, and CDs. Quite a shopping list. :)

Men - I am sorry but I have to ask this: why the tampons?

Oh, what about kinder eggs and kinder chocolate bars??? Don't you miss those?

We have Kinder eggs and chocolate here. :D
 

Bookewyrme

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What an interesting thread.

I'm an American currently living in the UK, though moving back to the US in a month and a half. I've been getting my MA over here, and I really have fallen in love with England, the north-east specifically. I love the food (most of it) the weather is pretty much perfect in my opinion (no seriously! I could do with slightly less actual rain, but it's not that bad!) and having everything be so close and easy to get to is really nice. Plus, I adore the people. I've made some amazing friends over here who I am going to miss like crazy when I leave.

Things I miss about the US: having a car to drive, fast-food (I have been CRAVING some good Tex-mex for MONTHS) and my friends and family. I also miss being able to get Hulu on my computer (grrrrr) but that's about it. Honestly, I'd love to emigrate here if I could just convince all my US friends/family to come along too!
 

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Men - I am sorry but I have to ask this: why the tampons?
Because those that I can get in the U.S. just don't do it for me. 90 % of tampons over here come with an applicator, which I would never use, and those that don't come with an applicator are poor quality.
Oddly enough, most of the German gals I know over here import their tampons, too - seems to be a strictly German oddity. :D
 

aruna

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I was born in Guyana (South America) and lived in India for about 18 months before moving to Germany in 1975. Lived in Germany till 2001 when I moved to the UK. I've also lived in the USA (Cambridge Mass), Ecuador and France.
I have German citizenship and have been intending to get British citizenship for years now, but the very year I was eligible they raised the price to £700 and I couldn't afford it. So I have to wait some more, till I can.
Now that I'm nearing retirement age I have to figure out where I'm going to spend the rest of my life. India is the home of my heart, but my husabnd would have a problem like that, being quinitessentially German and disabled as well. But in India we could not only live very cheaply, we could also afford day and night care for him.

Foodwise, the thing I miss most about Germany is good bread. I can't believe the stuff that passes for bread in the UK: it's like fluffy cardboard! Going into a German bakery is like stepping into heaven.

When I moved to the UK I was fed up with Germany, but I soonlearned to appreciate some aspects of it. The UK seems so backward in so many ways. All of the houses I moved in to (three so far) had carpets in the bathroom, and separate hot and cold taps. And the Brits were so environmentally infantile... we didn't have any kind of recycing when I first moved; now they do, fortunately. I was so well trained in Germany, it was actually painful throwing stuff like paper and glass into the bin. Things have improved over the years. I just can't stand waste. Living in India is good for that; NOTHING is wasted. Even if you throw away a used pastic water bottle on to the side of the road, in five seconds somebody has picked it up to use it or sell it.
Yes, I love India best of all; in spite of some rather alarming developments over th elast 30 years.
 

SaraP

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I think everyone takes certain things for granted when we live in a country and then move and go without them. I remember when we moved to the USA I used to really miss our pastry. Now, there are lots of things I miss about the States and many are small everyday things, like light switches.
 

OneWriter

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You don't have light switches there?

:roll:

They are different! Every country has its own light switches!
Oh, and BTW: every country has its own TOILETS!!! Let's talk about that, shall we??
 

aruna

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What are your light switches like? In the countries I've lived in they are all pretty similar - except in UK bathrooms, where you have a string to pull!

As for toilets -- well, the most -- interesting -- are Indian squat toilets; especially in--um--rural areas where people are not sure where they are supposed to squat etc...
WHat I love in some Asian toilets are the water squirts in lieu of toilet paper.
 

Griesmeel

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Hey all!

Enjoyed reading all of the above a lot.

I've moved from the Netherlands to Portugal last October to live with my girlfriend upgrading a three year, long distance relationship. Maybe it's a bit of a head in the clouds thing but after quitting an IT job going nowhere and the wet weather I ended up trying to become a writer (reads: unemployed :) ) and in far more likable climate. The food is brilliant, the people more relaxed and there is room to spare on the beach. They even sell my deodorant, including my favourite which they practically discontinued up north. :) I do miss my favourite brand of peanut butter though, but we’ll drive over next month so there will be a ton of that here soon.

Of course there will be the drawbacks but for now the only worry I have on the horizon is the economy compared to where I come from. But even in that regard I have a Portuguese teacher that has offered to give me a call if there is a need for an English tutor. Something tells me that problem is not insurmountable if I just put in the work.
Of course the dream is to get published and make a decent living being a writer but I’m sure you all know that one.

I have never had any issues with homesickness and started out studying to become a mariner. Maybe better to have one sweetheart in one port though. :)

Oh, by the way, considering myself amongst the broader minded: Once upon and long ago the Dutch were seen as a very open-minded and tolerant lot. I am dead set on keeping that tradition alive, so, if you happen to come across a bleach blond Dutch politician doing a speech on ground zero on the 11th next month, please ignore him.
 

Griesmeel

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Toilets!

I love the matter of fact bidets are in Portugal! :)

I have installed some lightswitches here already too, no biggy Sara. ;)
 

SaraP

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This is an american light switch:

20060802110641-interruptores.jpg
hQnVlBTglkCdYr0EuldqwqiMqj3h6voIP55V4U_q2Rz3VveMkfJTWLLqpolLHfA2OSW7WmExfK4uDfwEoPSxeBwTaq0ebF_-R1mam_sRH0AOcnPhMIirbVOaZr0fsjaAVyiBFIAgFyZSiWXZyS3dZHEj61Vsop07luJ3eqHTcCd7MQemXl8MqiPrjSeQpchhgpt2BH8YskazElGMx3rfCnfY


This is closer to what portuguese light switches look like:

interruptores.jpg
 

aruna

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This is an american light switch:

20060802110641-interruptores.jpg


This is closer to what portuguese light switches look like:

Oh... I'm disappointed. To me those are all just -- light switches. :tongue
I have both kinds in my UK house; the US ones are in the older rooms, the others are newly installed.
 

OneWriter

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Toilets!

I love the matter of fact bidets are in Portugal! :)

I have installed some lightswitches here already too, no biggy Sara. ;)

Ha, il bidet...
My kids never saw a bidet until we brought them to Italy and the first thing they said was: "Look! A sink for us kids!!"

And then they looked at the toilet and said: "It's clogged."
We told them that no, Italian toilets are like that, with no water. I wonder if they go to the UK, are they going to think that the toilet is a bidet???? :D

I've never seen Asian toilets but I hear those water spurts do wonders!!!! :D
 

SaraP

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Oooooh I forgot the full vs. empty toliet thing! I mean, seriously, why the heck are US toilets full?

Oh and I LOVE bidets. They are the best thing to have in a bathroom, good for so many things!
 

OneWriter

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Oooooh I forgot the full vs. empty toliet thing! I mean, seriously, why the heck are US toilets full?

Tsk tsk. Sara, there's MANY GOOD reasons why the toilets are full, I just can't get into nasty and gory details right here on a public forum.... Especially since somebody may be having lunch or dinner or whatever right now.....
 

Griesmeel

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Oooooh I forgot the full vs. empty toliet thing! I mean, seriously, why the heck are US toilets full?

Oh and I LOVE bidets. They are the best thing to have in a bathroom, good for so many things!

Some water is not a bad thing. If you have ever done a number 2 in what they call a German toilet you will appreciate the reduction in cleaning effort.
Those toiletbowls are quite common in the Netherlands too and they have this little plateau on which you can examine stuff before flushing it.
Yep, my thoughts exactly.

Maybe there is a non fiction opportunity in a work on the unintended qualities of the humble bidet. I'd buy one. :)
 

aruna

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From the above article, and I can vouch what this is true. German housewives are reallly on a crusade on this matter. A close friend of mine informed me proudly of her success in training her son to always "do it" sitting down.
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The German toilet's shortcomings are not limited exclusively to Number Twos. It is almost impossible for males to urinate while standing without soaking the bathroom. Urine sprays everywhere. There is a technique, but is tricky and requires a certain degree of penile agility: bestride the toilet and direct the stream vertically down into the hole at the front of the shelf. If you are sufficiently flexible and accurate, it's relatively clean, though it makes one hell of a noise.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The alternative, of course, is to pee sitting down - the dreaded Sitzpinkel. Herein lies the source of much gender conflict, for German women have become increasingly militant in their efforts to encourage or enforce the Sitzpinkel Rule. It's not uncommon to see little stickers on the underside of toilet lids, reminders to less civilized males that they really need to embrace their feminine side and sit the hell down. [/FONT]
On the flip side of that scenario, there are many Indian women who pee standing up. The spread their legs and whoosh!! The sari, of course, covers up everything and many of them (the ones that do this, almost exclusively rural women) don't wear underwear.