Midwestern Grocery Stores vs Argentina: A Comparison

Alright, since I drafted that post yesterday and didn't post it only because I forgot, I'm calling it yesterday's post and writing another one for today.

Today's post is dedicated to travelling. This is not only because I leave for Argentina in a little over a week and am completely freaking out about it; we went to visit my grandparents earlier in the summer and I found some photos I'd forgotten about, so I figured today was a good a day as any to lump everything together under one heading.

So, to get this over with: Things I Like (warning, it's a little picture-heavy today)
 
3. Midwestern Grocery Stores
Yeah, I know, it seems like a pretty strange thing to find on this list. Really, we didn't do a huge amount of grocery shopping so I'm talking about one in particular: Woodman's. I can tell what you are thinking. You're calling up all sorts of stereotypes about the kind of people who live in the Midwest, the types of food they eat, and the kind of things they might have (and not have) in their grocery stores. I can tell this because I was the very same way until actually experiencing one of these behemoths.

I can honestly say that I was so astonished by the Woodman's we went to that I just had to add it to the list. This grocery store must have been the size of a small castle. You could probably jog around the place and call it more than a mile; this place was GIGANTIC.

They even had crazy things like okra pickles!

And they had everything in there! Their selection of hot sauces alone was larger than any I'd ever seen outside a hot sauce specialty shop. They also had huge containers of things, like jars of pickles and olives bigger than my head.

Hell, this store was so large they had to organize the aisles with numbers AND letters!

Madman and I got separated from our parents at one point... and were afraid we would never find them again. Don't lose your kids in here.

It was great. I'm sure you could find just about anything in that store (except, strangely enough, plastic serving platters). It was AWESOME. I maybe even for a second considered moving to the Midwest... but only for a second.


Moving to Argentina, however, is a completely different story. I really like travelling but I think it's the whole idea of going somewhere for five months that's freaking me out. And I am really, supremely, and completely freaking out about going to Argentina. I've mostly just avoided thinking about it; I only started thinking about packing yesterday which is bad, considering I leave in a little over a week. Whoops.

I don't know. I guess what's getting to me the most is the fact that I'm going to be away from everyone I love for half a year. More than the thought of being in a completely foreign environment, more than the idea of getting used to another language, even more than the idea of having to pick up tons of strange customs and live with a family is the stress of being away from everyone. If I were going on a summer program it would be completely different. I don't see a lot of my friends during the summer to begin with; while some of them do live close to me a lot of them live on the other side of the country or places where it's just not convenient or practical to visit. I do get to visit people some, but my parents are really big on spending time with me (I am NOT complaining about this, but it's hard to balance family time and friend time, for sure).

Mostly I think it's the thought that the semester will still go on without me that is making me hesitate so much. People will still take classes, have parties, and get to know each other without me. Life as usual will go on without me. And I'm going to miss everyone so, so much, but I can't do anything about it. And I think that's what's killing me a bit inside. Is that normal?