Dikkat! (Caution)

Yesterday going to the supermarket Real (and I mean SUPERmarket, in the sense of like Stop'n'Shop plus JC Penney plus Bed Bath'n'Beyond all in one [sorry, that's probably less remarkable to people from outside Maine]), I was almost run over in the maddeningly complex and pedestrian-unfriendly rotary/entrance. Once inside, I found myself boxed out of viewing the kefir collection, reached in front of at the cookie aisle and cut off at nearly every turn through the produce section by fellow shoppers with the willingness to accede the right of way equal to your average NFL defensive back. The most potentially aggravating setback was when I turned around to set my frozen vegetables in my cart and it was gone. Apparently someone else helped themselves to it because it was empty. (Mom, I know you are thinking "why on earth were you getting frozen stuff FIRST!". Another lesson learned, I promise.)

I recount all this not to carp about how difficult life is in a foreign country (I'm actually as happy here as I have ever been I think), where rude people with mustaches and B.O. could use a lesson in courtesy, but instead to say that I don't really care about any of it. People's perceptions of personal space and pedestrian rights are very different here than in the US, and I'm pretty much OK with that. As I wrote a couple weeks ago, the people you interact with on a regular basis are so nice that it's hard to take any of perceived "rudeness" in these situations personally (except for those guys that almost hit Meredith in your white sports car- I have your license plate number and a bag of sugar with your gas tank's name on it). It's a combination of "just getting used to it" and cultural awareness (mostly the first one, I would be giving myself toooo much credit to claim I was aware of much beyond the fact that Red Sox games happen during my best sleep cycles here and instead televised sports matches in prime time tend to feature at best three scores in an entire game, if you're lucky), where the 437th time someone turns their cart in front of you going towards the Chokella (a delicious, less healthy, cheaper version of Nutella) you just make sure to get close enough to them going through that the next person doesn't close you out also.

It's amazing what you can get used to.