Today, I used up the last of my Williams-Sonoma hickory smoked sea salt, one of my most prized kitchen imports. Since we only have about nine days left of our five months in Rijeka, I think I timed the use of that staple quite satisfactorily. But with my favorite smoked salt gone, it's almost time to depart, which means it's time for my top ten lists.
I'm going to start with the top ten things I am looking forward to at home, and another post will cover the top ten things I'll miss about Rijeka. I didn't put in friends and family because that's too obvious, and of course, it goes without saying.
Top Ten Things I Miss
1. Target
Target is amazing. Does your kid need soccer shorts? You can count on Target to have several colors. Did you stain your only white T-shirt? Pick up a replacement in the clothing section. Does your daughter have hives? Stock up on Benadryl in the pharmacy section. Do your kids not have a single crayon longer than 1/2"? Snag a big box of Crayolas. Get all these things, plus lots of things you didn't know you needed, in one easy trip! I've really missed the convenience of Target, and there is nothing comparable here.
2. A Grill
We could have picked up a little charcoal grill for our balcony, but we didn't. In fact, I don't know where we would have bought one (see item #1). It will be nice to pass the responsibility for the carnivorous parts of our spring/summer/fall meals and have that be taken care of in a delicious way that doesn't mess or heat up the kitchen.
3. Library
There is a library here that carries English language material. But you are required to have a residency permit, which we didn't get until April 28 (three months after our arrival). If you do pay the library fee, you are only allowed to check out three items at a time, which would be enough books for about 1/4th of a kid. So we had to rely on the Kindle, and on reading materials we brought (and that my parents brought), and it worked out fine, but I will be glad to have the library and its online reservation system at my fingertips. As handy as our Kindle has been, I prefer the library.
4. Single-ply toilet paper
Three-ply is the standard here. If you look very hard, you can find 2-ply toilet paper, and that's what we've been making do with. There is no single-ply available anywhere. As a result of Croatian ply-happiness, the toilet paper rolls in our apartment have to be changed daily (and of course, no one knows how to do that complicated maneuver but me). And if you need to blow your nose with 2 or 3 ply paper, it has about as much give as cardstock. I am looking forward to my single-ply Scott tp rolls that last three weeks and are very environmentally-friendly.
5. Mad Men
I sometimes like to watch TV after the kids have gone to bed with a glass of wine. Mad Men, HGTV, the Food Network, Netflix movies... Although we have about 1,500 TV channels here, the only reliable English channels are BBC World, CNN International, and the like. The German and Italian cartoons entertain the kids when they're desperate, and the Canadian Christian children's channel with all the furry puppets worked for a couple weeks (after which the channel was completely mocked and dismissed), but we've been essentially TV-free these past five months. I'll be happy to catch up with Don Draper this fall.
6. Glue Gun
It can fix ANYTHING. It can hem bluejeans, put the bindings back on books, fix rattan chair seats, repair shoes, you name it. I can't wait for it to be back in my arsenal.
7. Almond Milk
In some specialty hyper-markets, you can find soy milk (which we don't drink), but I have never seen almond milk. The kids have been on a 100% cow milk diet since February, which isn't probably going to hurt them in the long-run, but I'll be very happy to go back to the almond milk when we're back and get away from the hormones.
8. Drinking fountains
Considering that the water in Rijeka is REMARKABLY DELICIOUS, it surprised me that there are no drinking fountains anywhere, not even in the locker rooms of Jonah's soccer club or the girls' gymnastics club. You have to remember to fill your water bottles at home before any trip, and if you run out before you're home, you have to buy more plastic bottles of water. I guess they are a luxury I've never really considered before, but they are a nice thing to have access to.
9. Gardening
On our balcony here, I have two window boxes crammed with 36 Genovese basil plants (the summer herb I can't live without), and one small rose plant. At home, we have over an acre of perennial gardens, annuals, vegetable gardens, a herb garden, and a lot of constantly-changing landscaping. While it's been nice to have vastly-pared down gardening responsibilities for a few months, I have to admit that I like the gardening work and it will be feel very good to get my gardening gloves dirty again.
10. A car
This item could go in both top ten lists. I don't really miss having a car, but I miss the spontaneity and the flexibility that you get by having a car. We have been very liberal with car rentals, and we haven't missed anything because we didn't lease a car. Still, renting requires advance notice and added logistics and time with picking up and returning the car. Sometimes, these logistics are quite complicated. For example, the car rental agency we've been using tends to provide us with cars that have no gas in the tank, and we are supposed to return the tank empty. In theory, that's fine, but in practice, it's very difficult to estimate how much gas to put in a car so that at such and such a time on such and such a date, with an X-kilometer trip on Eurodisel 95 gas, the tank will be completely empty.
