What I Did on My Summer Vacation (Part 1)
I’m BAAAACK! It’s been wonderful to take a break from reality over the summer break. I turned off my alarm, let the kids stay up way too late, ate a lot of ice cream, and generally checked out and chilled out.
Oh yeah - we also took a month long trip back to the United States.
It was our first trip back as a family since January of 2020, right before the world changed. My youngest only had vague memories of the US and most of those were filtered through the stories we tell at home. I’m not sure how much of it she independently remembers. My son, who was five when we moved and six when he last returned, has a few more memories, but even those are a bit hazy. In this blog, I thought it would be fun to go through the things that stood out the most to us during our four week repatriation. We spent our time travelling from Dallas to Austin to Houston and back to Dallas for our all-Texas trip, so some of these are very specific to where we’re from.
The Food - Yes, everything really is bigger in Texas, and the food portions were no exception. I don’t know why this was such a surprise because I know I’m going to be served a massive quantity of food, yet the first week of our trip was me over-ordering in restaurants and eating my weight in guacamole. After about ten days I felt physically gross from all of the food and had to consciously cut back on what I ate.
On the plus side, oh how I have missed American grocery stores! One of my first stops was to a Central Market, and I wanted to swoon over the massive selection of fresh produce. The most depressing (from the Kiwi side of things) yet exciting (from the American side of things) was the watermelon. I had just paid NZ$10 (about US$6.50) for a watermelon shortly before we left, and it was a mealy, pink, tasteless mass even though it is watermelon season in the southern hemisphere. In Texas, in the middle of winter, I was able to get a larger, delicious watermelon for US$3.98.
There were aisles upon aisles of fresh produce, meat, poultry, fish, and anything else you could ever want. There were even more aisles of prepackaged options and it felt like the ration of fresh vs. packaged foods was much different in the American stores. I can’t say that was a bad thing because I was incredibly excited to have a gazillion coffees to choose from, even more different types of cereal, and more crackers and cookies than I could county.
Prices - In my mind, prices in the United States were stuck at 2020 or even 2018 levels. Even though I periodically do posts on Where Is It More Expensive, my default is “its always less expensive in the US.” I was surprised to see just how much prices had gone up on every day items, and it made me feel much better about the prices we pay for things in New Zealand. Were things still cheaper in the US? Typically, yes - but often it was only by the difference in tax (15% in New Zealand versus the 8.25% in Texas). I found this to be true especially at restaurants, where a meal (plus the expected tip) seemed about the same as what it would cost in New Zealand - but in American dollars and therefore about 35% more expensive. Which brings me to…
Tipping - is out of control in America. I cannot express exactly how much a detest the large screen that demands to know if you want to leave a tip for every little thing in full view of the person expecting the tip. And EVERYONE expects a tip now. I felt like I was constantly being judged on how much I tipped, and that constant vigilance made me feel on guard and uncomfortable. It was a chronic stressor I had sloughed off in my time outside of the US.
Paying the check - Since we’re on the subject of restaurants, I should mention how annoying I found it to have to wait for the server to come over to ask for the check at the end of a meal. I have grown accustomed to getting up and going to the front of the restaurant to pay whenever I’m done with a meal - whether it be immediately after finishing because I’m in a hurry or after my dining companions and I have had a nice leisurely chat. I was perpetually annoyed that instead of my departure being on my time, I was now at the mercy of my server and his/her attentiveness and schedule. When we first moved, I remember thinking how strange and casual it felt to have to get up and go to the host stand to pay. Now I’ve done a complete 180 on this.
Cars and Driving - Cars in the US are, on average, massive compared to what I see day to day in Auckland. It is intimidating to be driving down the highway wedged between two 18-wheelers and a pickup up with a lift, but I really enjoyed the wider lanes, gigantic parking spots, and the totally amazing gas stations that come with American car culture (here’s looking at you Buccee’s!)
And the price of gas! It was so cheap to fill up the tank on our rental car (a Hyundai SUV of some sort.) I know people have been complaining about the price of gas in the US, but it is peanuts compared to what we pay in New Zealand.
On the flip side, my body noticed how much less I was walking in Texas. Nothing was walkable - not even to get a cup of coffee. I’ve become so spoiled to a life where there is at least one cafe within walking distance of pretty much everywhere and where there isn’t a huge stigma against walking anywhere.
Holiday Decorations - I’ve talked about how New Zealand doesn’t do much in the way of holiday decorations before, but it really sank in when we saw all of the lights, Santas, reindeer, etc. in the States. Our first night back we came across a car decorated with antlers and a red nose, and the kids could not believe their eyes. It was the silliest/most wonderful thing they had ever seen. We spent several evening driving around neighbourhoods looking at all of the lights in tress and on houses.
