You say tomato, I say paste. Tomato! Paste!

Some of you may have already heard this story, but I couldn't not blog about it.

Remember when I tell you this, that things are weird here. They have food called "breakfast beef." This is like sausage, but not pork. And chicken sausage. Or a bacon cheeseburger, with "beef bacon." Yep. Woof. Also, I have yet to read any publication, in English, published here, without some major type-o's. (Yes, I have tons as well, but this is for fun. Not for publication.) I have yet to be in a car, any car, that doesn't have their "check engine" light on. It's just the way things are. Who'd fix their cars? They don't have auto garages to do so. ( I think some dealers do, must mostly - no.) And I've been in probably 15 different cars since I've been here.

Anyway, things are out of whack. And lots of times you just say...o-kaaaay. So when I sent the kids juice boxes to school the first week, I just wasn't that surprised that their apple juice box looked like a tomato. Nothing seems to make sense here. People say this is a 'logic free zone.' Example; let's say you're riding your bike around camp. Doo, doo, doo. On the side walk, ramp down to off the side walk, across the street, up the ramp back onto the side walk. Doo, doo, doo. Right? You with me? We have ramps on our curbs, so people can ride bikes, or wheeled transport of any kind can move freely, right? Well here, you're just riding along, just like normal. And...CLUNK! Guess what? No ramp. Just curb. And across that intersection you're crossing, no ramp. Then another block, ramp. Then ramp. Then no ramp. Then ramp. And so on. Here's the million dollar question!!!???? Why? Why not put a ramp on every corner where the sidewalk meets an intersection???!!! Sounds simple, huh?

So again, here we are with the juice box. Hmmm. No straws? Hmmm. Maybe they open like the boxed soup in the U.S., I'm thinking, you know? Where you lift up the end, and they have a perferated corner? Okay. Why not. Things are strange here. And it does look like a tomato, but it's red and shiney, and that can be confusing. Right? Oh well. Juice it is for a snack today. (Peter had purchased these packages and were in the fridge when we got here, BTW)

So when Simon came home for lunch he says, "Why did you send us tomato paste for a snack, mom?" "I didn't" "Yes you did." "No I didn't." ..... Uh. Actually. I did.

Note to self: Next time, if you can't read the language, TURN THE BOX OVER.

Dear Sam and Si,

Sorry for traumatizing you, your first week of school in a foreign country. Nothing like being the weirdo-s with tomato paste for a snack.

Love,

Mom

*Because Tiff just can't believe I am such a moron, I have to explain a little more. (you'd think she knows me better than that - haha) So here goes:

Before Peter left to come home and move us, I asked him to stock the house. I went through our entire pantry in the U.S. and made him go and buy some kind of equivilant over here. On the list was Tomato Paste. We buy it in cans where I live. Not being too important of an item, when we got here I didn't even look for it. But in glancing through the house, I did notice that in an empty veggie tray in the fridge, wrapped in a six pack of plastic wrap, were some kind of juice boxes. Just like when you buy them at home. All of the milk and juices around here are made by this particular company, and I recognized the logo from the milk, to be the same on the boxes of "juice." And that's as far as it went. When I went to the store, the week school started, I thought to myself, "we already have juice boxes." And I actually thought it was really great of Peter to think of the kids. These are a treat for us at home.

And that's how it happened. I saw them, got it in my mind they were juice, and didn't even take a second look. Again, I am a dork. And when I looked at them when they came home from school unopened, I couldn't believe I even sent them. But a big red circle on a small rectangle box, stored in the fridge, equals juice box to me.