We’re spending 3 months in Europe, at the moment we’re doing house sits, working and schooling from France.
This morning I was thinking about things that are different here (not necessarily good or bad – mostly just different) and decided to make a list of the first 10 things I can think of (there are too many to list all of them!)
- The church bells – here the church bells reminds you of who you are, the time, and the fact that you’re not in South Africa!
- Buying a Baguette for lunch – every day! Here even the smallest towns have Boulangeries with fresh bread (we just can’t resist them!)
- Not using an alarm system – it’s safe enough to just lock the door (if you really want to) and close the windows – without burglar bars…
- Saying “Bonjour”, “Merci” and “Au Revoir” – we got so used to it that we might just greet an Afrikaans oom or Swazi lady with a “Bonjour” without even realizing!
- Driving on the “wrong” side of the road… whether it’s the right or the wrong side – it’s different!
- Recycling has become second nature now – we’ll feel guilty not to do it back at home.
- Lunch breaks – here most of the shops close for 2 hours over lunch time – we’re still pitching up there all dressed up and nowhere to go sometimes!
- Here the sun only sets between 22:00-23:00 at night, giving us long summer days!
- Shopping bags – here everyone uses their own, re-usable shopping bags – again we’ll feel guilty to use the plastic bags back home!
- Markets – we will miss the markets! We can barely afford to buy something with our currency value at this stage, but we still love wandering around the day and night markets 🙂
Even though it’s different, it’s divinely different, and we’ll surely miss most of it! …maybe just not the bell donging 12 times at midnight!
