From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come)

...well, maybe one day but not yet!   ...EVERYTHING IS SMALL HERE!

I don't know why. 

Is it because geographically European countries are smaller in area, so factories have to be smaller, therefore they can only make small things???

Is it because Europeans don't want to be bothered carrying large items up and down all of those stairs? (OK, I would get that!!!!)

Now, I'm not exactly from ("Everything's Big In") Texas.  I live in Boston.  We have old cities, narrow streets, and small homes,  and you can even drive a hybrid without someone calling you a *$%#ing liberal sissy.  Yet I'm continually amazed at how small things are over here.

The stereotypical small things that are still worth a mention:

°Cars - the biggest SUV we have seen here is a Jeep Cherokee.  Most of the cars are just tiny.  That translates into tiny trunks, which makes things tough for us with all our luggage, stroller, etc.

°Roads - this is a big concern with Lance riding his bike over here; the shoulder is a line to them here!

The more surprising and odd small items are:

°Toilet paper squares - not sure what's the point of this.  Is having smaller squares supposed to dissuade me from using any less than the amount that I feel I need?  Seriously? 

°Paper towels - see comment above, messy kids require the same amount of cleaning in France, don't they?  Maybe French kids aren't messy.  ...or maybe they aren't clean.  Hmm...

°Toothpaste tubes - I asked Lance to get toothpaste when we divided up at the grocery store and when I unpacked it at home I asked him why he brought me the travel size?  He said it was the biggest one they had.

°Food containers of ANY kind - milk, dried cranberries, hot dogs, apple juice, drinkable yogurts regular yogurts, chicken, etc.  When you're used to buying these things in bulk quantities (or even just normal gallon sized jugs) those mini drinkable yogurts just aren't cutting it for Ellie.   After she's done she looks up and says "where's the rest of it?"  And the regular yogurt containers are just really MINI - I am sure they are less than a serving size.

°Glasses - OK this one is funny.  We get to the house and they have an entire cupboard full of glass wear.  Pastis glasses, juice glasses, cappuccino cups, tea cups, coffee mugs, white, red, and rosé glasses (bien sur), champagne glasses, and 3 -- count them -- 3 highball glasses.  Apparently if you want to drink 6 ounces of something then you use one of these glasses.  OK - not bad for first few days but when Lance and I have to refill our water glass like 10 times (and heaven forbid our gin and tonics), it gets kinda old.  So we set out to the hypermarché to get some bigger glasses.  The selection was bleak but we left with something that resembled a pint glass (in theory.)  Nope, got it home and although it is shaped like a pint glass - it held the SAME AMOUNT as the stupid tiny ones we already had!  But at least now we have 6 of them and don't have to hand wash them as much (not sure why but all glasses are sold in sets of 3 here).  We've resorted to using Lance's cycling water bottles for our everyday beverage needs.

°Scissors - this goes in the "what up?" category.  We got here and in addition to the house being entirely void of office supplies (no tape, stapler, paper clips, post-its, etc.) there was only one set of scissors for the entire house.  The scissors apparently must have been stolen from some Kindergarten classroom because they are a mini set that one would use when learning to cut. Mercifully we did find FULL sized scissors at the store!  I've never been so excited about an office supply purchase in my life.