I used to be from here
An expat family spends three weeks back in Texas.
Each year we go back to Texas for the Christmas break. We’ve lived in Amsterdam for six years, so when you’re a stranger yourself at home, you notice things. Here’s a selection.
Using the word “awesome.”
Dip Cup.
People starting sentences with “Honestly…”
Adults saying the word “TikTok.”
Ford Ranger truck.
Hotel rooms with three flat screen TVs.
Egg Nog, various sizes, brands, also available in soy and oat.
Can’t buy wine before 10am on Sunday, whether to drink now or later.
“Have a nice day!”
Transcendental experience eating a breakfast taco in the gas station parking lot.
Free samples.
Colder inside than outside, in December.
Or: the only reason you need to bring a jacket is if you’re gonna stay inside a long time.
“Ranch Hand.”
Baker’s dozen of glazed donuts.
Plastic lids on all drinks, unasked for.
Cardboard sleeves on hot drinks.
Plastic straws.
Cradling a giant Stanley cup, straw with end cover.
Pack your own doggie bag.
“The thing about no ice-maker, though, is that we always need ice.”
Old guys talking about Vietnam.
“Cowboys won, I don’t wanna see it. I lost twenty dollars on that game.”
“I forgot my koozie.”
“It’s fun with the ice in the water. A nice touch.” Expat Kim
Bike racks on the front of the city bus.
“Still workin’ on that?” asked to see if you’re done eating.
Leggings.
Toilet paper that you could use as bed sheets.
“So that’s where we’re at…”
Free parking.
Public bathrooms that accommodate wheelchairs.
“I wonder if they like HEB as much as we do.”
Talking about HEB, at least once a day.
Annoyingly helpful.
“Insert shmear here.”
The strawberries tase like strawberries, the bananas taste like bananas!
“Everyone is so friendly, and they actually mean it.”
Watch out for the coyote in the creek.
Alejandra: “They have big gardens.” Me: “Oh, you mean ‘yards’?” Alejandra: “Yes.”
Previous installments from 2023: part 01, part 02, part 03. Also, here are some observations from our 2022 trip.
Wastebook
“Everything we do is so specific and so unnecessary,” RotL #564.
“Science as an employment program for scientists” Seems a little cynical.
“how can you tell if something is a zero-percent-interest phenomenon vs. a real step change?” Questions for Tyler
“Form follows failure,” Henry Petroski.
“All parents leave some scars in their kids and that’s one I inherited from two parents who grew up very poor and reached through hard work a certain level of security (that they both never felt).” Here.
“‘you guys’ energy, a chatty, ersatz intimacy that feels consonant with the way we exist on social media—offering a glimpse of our private lives, but in a deliberate and mediated way.” Amanda Petrusich.
“Someday I’ll remember that Command+Option+Esc is the Mac’s Ctrl+Alt+Delete. Someday.” Here.
“They have a specific selfish narrative they want their manager to build, so they carefully select a subset of the truth and market it as the complete picture. They believe their manager is so busy and soup tasting that their interpreted version of the story will become canonical.” Here.
“But that’s not important,” Future Noah. // This is a common trope, here. It is a way of saying "that was good, and possibly True, but we have to wrap this up and keep moving. Maybe we’ll get back to it. Or maybe we won’t. But, right now, it’s not what we should be doing. Even worse, it’s possible that, right now if we keep going, we’ll ruin it.
“I am so glad I put your number in speed-dial.” First time caller.
First: “It’s possible, though, that Brombert had a secretary to type up, when necessary, his handwritten texts. I mean, the guy is wearing an ascot, and it is a truth universally acknowledged that men who wear ascots do not do their own typing.” But, more importantly: “Sergeant Brombert’s unit eventually reached the Seine, and he sneaked away to Paris in its first stirrings of liberation. He visited his old home, school and playground. In the heart of the city, he accepted wine from celebrating passers-by and, in fluent French, gave speeches whose content, he said, he was too drunk to remember. The war, he thought, was over. He dreamed of finding an apartment and a French girlfriend."
“Prince was never big in Finland.”
Logoff
If you do anything with marketing and community management in tech, and also big events, check out our interview with Katie Greenley at the CNCF. There’s also some Tupperware theory in the back-half.
//
It’s the last day of 2024. I’m sitting in Austin, in a living room of an AirBnB. The weather has been in the 80’s (ChatGPT tells me “80°F to 89°F converts to 26.7°C to 31.7°C”), sunny, blue skies. So different than Amsterdam and Northern Europe.
It’s a cliche observation, but the most concise way to describe the difference between America and Europe is: in America everything is bigger than it needs to be, in Europe, everything is as small as it needs to be.