One of my favorite things of the overseas tour (of which I have had four and a half) is the mid-tour consumables shipment. You arrived at post, new place - exciting! Then your 250 pound UAB (unaccompanied air baggage) arrives - yeah! Then your HHE (Household Effects) come and you get to move in, make it fit, decorate, and generally make it a home - fun! If you were smart, you put some of the food you love in your packout. For me, that includes Lucky Charms, Gobstoppers, Craisins, and whatever Trader Joes had on sale. But 6 months in you realize that there are things you just can't get in your country or things that are too expensive to buy in bulk. For Argentina it is the following:
- Cadbury Milk Chocolate (from the United States, not made overseas)
- peanut butter
- maple syrup
- spices of all kinds
- good raisins
- marshmallows
- graham crackers
- Fudgie Grahams
- brown sugar
- tortilla chips
- Kashi cereal
- Lucky Charms
- tennis balls
So thanks to my brother and Bonnie, I got to shop like crazy for a few days and fill their garage with lots of fun things (also was lots of stuff I didn't need but couldn't pass it up). And man, was that a fun few days. And now, I am waiting for it to arrive so I get the fun of unpacking!
Woohoo! We will silly and thought we didn't need consumables, that we'd totally embrace local food. Um, big mistake. Never again. Luckily we were able to place an order from afar about six months into our tour.
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