In some ways, it’s been a bit of culture shock being back in the US. Part of it is because we lived a really pared down existence in Hungary…we had a three-room apartment and we traveled so extensively that we were literally living out of a suitcase (one for the two of us) most of the time. We learned to live with less. I wasn’t as hard as you might imagine.
My daughter and I went to the market to pick up a few groceries. I was distressed because I forgot my grocery bags. In Debrecen, I would have walked to the piac and B and I would have used our nylon bags that I always kept rolled up inside my purse. Even when we went to the grocery chains, like Match or Spar, we had to pack our own groceries and use our own bags. If we didn’t have enough room, we had to buy their bags. Katie and I drove. The Stop-and-Shop provided a woman to pack our groceries, but she used those plastic grocery bags. For a small order, we ended up with 10 of those bags. It’s not a huge deal, but I really felt distressed about it…a small piece of my European life was already slipping away.
We walked or used mass transportation wherever we went while we were in Europe. Here we live in a small town where it becomes a major excursion if you forget to buy milk after a certain hour. We have to drive everywhere. I drive a Prius, a green car, but I drive nonetheless. America is a car-culture. I was sad to hear that one of the bus routes from Little Compton to Providence had been cut because of the budget crisis in Rhode Island. It seems counter-intuitive to me. Gas prices are rising again and more people have been using the public transportation that is available…so what do they cut? Go figure.
We had a washer, but no dryer, in our apartment in Debrecen. Although I know that some Hungarians have dryers, the vast majority of the people we talked to only had a washer and hung out their clothes to dry. The apartments with high ceilings often had a rack suspended from the ceiling and accessible via a rope and pulley system. It worked really well and you didn’t have your laundry at eye level. We used a drying rack in the small spare room…you had to plan ahead if you needed clean clothes because you had to allocate enough time for them to dry. It was a little bit of a pain in the neck, but on the other hand, we weren’t using electricity which saved us and the environment! On the other hand, it is nice having the convenience of a dryer.
In the years before we left for Hungary, Bernard and I had already begun down-sizing. I find that as I get older, excess really gets on my last nerve. It wasn’t just giving away or donating things that we no longer needed or wanted, it was also saying no to too many commitments on our time…we really felt, at least I did, that it was important to have time that was unstructured…we really enjoy walking the dogs on the beach, sitting in our yard, getting together with friends and family over a leisurely dinner…taking things a little more slowly. Despite our best intentions, life would get intolerably hectic.
I have really come to hate those periods of time when you are just surviving until the meetings, or the deadlines, or the tasks are completed…Europeans seem to have a better grasp of taking time to enjoy life a little. I think that is what the cafe culture is all about. In most Hungarian cities, for example, stores close around 1p on Saturdays and they are closed, except for some of the large international chains, on Sundays. Bernard often took issue with this…saying that especially when the economy is so distressed, that stores (particularly those that might cater to tourists) should be open longer hours. I only half agree with him. I like the idea of families or young couples going to the baths or taking a walk on a Saturday afternoon….but maybe that’s just me.
Anyway, this is just a long winded way of getting to my point. I thought I had pared down. But after returning from Europe, one of the first things that hit me (and it hit me hard) is how much stuff we have. I have to do more purging.
On a positive note, the US is way ahead of Hungary on recycling. In Debrecen, our apartment building had a separate site for the newspapers, but bottles and plastics all went into the garbage. Since we did a lot of our shopping at the piac, most of our food was not packaged…but, what there was wasn’t easily recycled. Here in LC, we not only recycle, but we compost. On the whole, though, one aspect of American life that I can’t help but notice is the wastefulness. I hope the Obama administration will be successful in its efforts to promote a more green and healthy American economy.
Thanks for tuning in and best regards,
Marcsi
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