Take a Trip

I was sitting at a small, round table in a cheery little café, chatting with my mother and sister, when out of the corner of my eye I noticed an older lady with bleached blond hair and sunglasses trip as she was walking to the front counter to order. She caught herself immediately and all was well, however, instead of walking on, she removed her sunglasses and turned to look back to see what it was she had tripped on. As I thought about it, I realized that it's something that many of us, unconsciously, do. But why? Why do we feel the need to look back? Are we worried that we hurt something other than our own pride? Or have we been so trained to review our mistakes to prevent us from repeating them in the future that it has become a habit in daily life?

And so ends the weekend of three observations, with something that I too stumbled upon and looked back on.

College Dorms

It's August and there is no lack of college move-in day posts on social media. New roommates posing for a picture, images of cars stuffed full with belongings, and photographs of neat dorm room halves with cute pillows on the bed and trinkets on the desk. To foreigners though this phenomena is strange. Since when is college boarding school? The students are adults now—isn't it time they go out into the world and find an apartment to rent and learn to cook their own dinners? But no, that's not how it works in the "land of the free." At most colleges Freshman are required to either live at home with parents who cook for them, or to live in dorms on campus where people are paid cook for them.

And that's not the only strange part of the dorm phenomena. The word "dorm" is short for "dormity," a word that originated from the Latin "dormire," which means "to sleep." Ask any college student what sleep is, and all you'll get is a blank stare for an answer. Maybe an alphabet class should be added to the list of required General Ed because I don't think a single one of them has ever made it to their Zzzzzs.

Grocery Store Names

Safeway, Fareway, Hy-Vee, Food Maxx, Plus—all over the world grocery stores have strange names. Only when one sees a grocery store name for the first time though, does it come as a confusing surprise. Safeway? What's so safe about that store and its products? At least half of the foods sold there have high fructose corn syrup listed under ingredients I'm sure! Food Maxx? What even does Maxx mean? Looks like a typo to me! And yet, somehow, these names become sounds recognizable to the ear as the local grocery store rather than a strange combination of words. These stores receive many many customers each day, make millions of dollars, and no one blinks an eye. Stay safe, kids!