Tuesday 20 August 2002

gifts from home



My Mom sent me a "care package" that arrived yesterday. In it, she sent me: fat free Jello chocolate pudding, Orville Redenbacher light microwave popcorn, Japanese rice crackers, Sapporo Ichiban soup, "Canadian truffles" (maple-flavoured chocolates), "Canadian Delight" tea (your basic bags of ceylon in a box with a picture of Niagara Falls and a mountie on it), and "Moose Droppings" (chocolate-covered almonds).



This tells me that a) my Mom has made note of all the North American foods I stocked up on last time I was home and b) all the weird Canadian stuff she sent me indicates that she must be going insane. For some bizarre reason, my Mom keeps sending me Canadian things ever since I moved to the UK - like I need to keep reminding myself that I'm Canadian. We're not really a very patriotic flag-waving people; we're rather quiet about our Canadianness. It's rather odd to have a houseful of things with the word "Canada" and maple leafs on them. I've got so much Roots clothing I could open up my own outlet, I have a baseball cap and a t-shirt that says "I am Canadian", I have a beaver dressed up as a mountie mousepad, I had a wall calendar of Canada last year, and every care package always contains some sort of Canadian chocolate (not really complaining there, though).



Don't get me wrong - I love these packages from home. It warms my heart to open my kitchen cupboards and see food products with French and English writing on them. I think it's really sweet that my Mom sends me a parcel every few months (my ex-workmates at Convergys used to love her for all the chocolate she'd send). I'm just worried about the state of her mental health. Do other ex-pats go through this as well? I wonder if my mate Mark in Montreal gets jars of Branston pickle and packets of Bisto from his mother.

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