Little Differences

Not to rip off Pulp Fiction, but you know what the thing is about Ireland? It's the little differences. They got the same shit here as we got at home, but it's different. What's that, Vincent Vega, you want examples?



Stores don't give bags. At least not for free. And they don't bag what you buy in your bags when you bring them or buy them, either. It's just - here's your stuff, deal with it. My first instinct was quite American. What, would it kill you to throw in the five-cent plastic bag with it? You gotta charge me for it? But upon further reflection, I suppose when they're "given" away in America the store must take the cost of the bags into account when they price stuff. So it's probably fair. That being said, when I was in the Lidl Grocery Store (which is German for "we don't have much, but what we do have is cheap") the other day watching a mother frantically bag her own 80 euro worth of groceries for the week, it seemed kind of silly. Here she is flipping open bags and throwing stuff in as fast as she can to avoid holding everyone else in line up, while the cashier sits with her hands folded in her lap. I felt both foolish and guilty. I wanted to say, look I'm in no rush, please don't hurry and smoosh your bread on my account. But she did, and then threw down 100 euro. Which means she had to get a handful of change, since the smallest euro bill is 5. But that's another story.

At first I thought I would just throw stuff in my bookbag, but it's really designed as a briefcase, so groceries don't fit so well. I finally broke down in Dunnes and paid 15c for a heavy duty plastic bag. Now I'm determined to make it last the entire semester. Yeah, I'll show them!