The plane was delayed,
and we did not arrive in Rochester until midnight. Our program coordinator,
Ellie, suggested to go Walmart directly and buy those necessities. But we were
all exhausted and only hope to fly to our beds. We went to Walmart in a warm night.
I supposed that the
Walmart would be the same as the one near my community back to Shenzhen. Which
is the first mall I became familiar with. I was so young, and could not
pronounce its name clearly, so I called it Waymar, all the other families did
that to tease me.
It could be the
second Walmart I get familiar with. Thinking of this, I realized that parking
lot here was much more spacious. Ellie found her place to park in, like, only one
second. And it always took my dad fifteen minutes and a bad mood to find one in
home.
The good starting
then wrecked by the super heavy cart. So heavy that I thought my strength could
be used up before I find things to buy. With a ten minutes’ crawling, I left it
somewhere between the shelves. Shelves are bigger here, and light are darker,
made me drowsy.
I found the laundry
detergent successfully, even though all the smells were so strange to me. Ellie
highly recommended a pack of paper used to put in the dryer. I only used dryer
in rainy days back to home, and never knew there’s such thing that could put
inside dryer to make clothes softer. Well, in order to not break her heart, I
put it back as she turned round to find others.
There were so many
things I had to learn about, and I couldn’t believe there’s no need to
signature and enter password when using credit card. But my confusion in front
of the cashier was not the last straw. As we walk out, security guard smiled to the
woman ahead of me and said “good bye, madam.”
I was ready to
smile and say something, but his grin just vanished, and stared me until I stepped
out of the second Walmart I would soon be acquainted with. I was wrong, because
outside was cold, actually.
hi
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DeleteOh my gosh, I had so many feelings reading this! You really help me imagine the experience. I'm always fascinated by the little things that are different - like dryer sheets, the new smells. I love how you describe all of the senses, as well as how things are different and similar and make you think about things back home. I never thought about how big our parking lots are - 15 minutes sounds like such a long time!
ReplyDeleteThe last bit with the security guard made me quite sad. All of this sounds like a whirlwind - the arriving, the arriving late, all the new sensations with familiar yet unfamiliar Walmart, and that just seems like an upsetting experience at the end. Reading this, it feels to me like the end of the night might have seemed quite different if it didn't end with a cold security guard. I wonder how that makes you feel about going back to Walmart.
I'm curious if you have pictures of Walmart back home. I love the way you describe the differences, and it would be interesting to see what you experience, too!
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ReplyDeleteLike Kate, I really enjoy the way you discuss all the different senses - touch, feel, sight, sound, smell - of your encounter with Walmart. As a reader, I greatly enjoyed the comparison to the Walmart you knew back home, and I laughed out loud when you mentioned your dad taking "fifteen minutes and a bad mood" to get a parking spot. I would be interested in hearing more about why this Walmart experience was so very different from what you knew. But, perhaps, the story is really about your sensations being here, and experiencing a new 'old' experience.
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