She certainly does know how to shop. She especially liked buying food, cosmetics, and clothes. We took her to a mundane Price Chopper because we needed some more groceries for the week. And there, she got so excited about the flavored Oreo cookies! They can't get mint Oreos in Japan, so she took 4 packages, for presents for everyone at home.
Interesting. She also bought chocolates - we encouraged her to buy Russell Stover, since it's a Kansas City brand - and a big bag of Twizzlers. She put back two of the Oreo packages.
Earlier that same day we had gone to several shopping centers. There, she especially liked Victoria's Secret, but curiously, she focused on lotions and perfumes from the "Pink" side of the store. She had been to VS earlier in her stay with her previous host family, and had bought some clothing at the store at that time. She also liked Dick's Sporting Goods (present for Dad), Forever 21 (clothing for her), and Tommy Hilfiger.
Later in the week we went to Target. There, she picked out tube after tube of mascara (at least 6 tubes!), eye shadow, powder foundation, and false eyelashes. Also she bought a box of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese - very American, I told her.
To her, all of these items were insanely cheap. And culturally, it is important that she bring gifts for everyone when she returns from travel - family, extended family, her classes, her friends, etc. She had a suitcase stuffed with gifts when she went home.
We had one incident of culture shock and hurt feelings. When we picked her up on Sunday we decided to go shopping first. Being a 40-something old person, I thought she'd be happier if I kept out of her business while she was shopping. She thought I was bored with her! Husband did the same thing....she thought we both were bored. She was used to friends and family being in her business, admiring her choices, helping her pick things out, sharing opinions. We thought she'd not want us, with our uncool old-person tastes, around her. We hurt her feelings and she was certain she had offended us.
What a terrible way to start off with her host family! The poor thing....I felt bad that we'd upset her.
However, it took us a while to figure out what was wrong. Once we did (actually, husband figured it out - he's more astute about Japanese culture than I am), we changed our behavior. When we went to Target, I made sure I stayed with her and showed her things and commented on her choices, etc. It went much better.
There's a lot more to write about, but I don't want this post to get too long.
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