Fringe Benefit of TEFL #5: Receiving Care Packages

I won’t lie: when I get a package, I tear it open like there’s no tomorrow, and I don’t mind admitting that this may say something about my character or outlook. It’s fun to get stuff when you’re living far from home, and to know that someone picked things out with you in mind and went to the trouble of wrapping them up and sending them to you.

So imagine your mother was going to send you a package for your upcoming birthday, and asked you, in addition to some small birthday gifts which will remain a mystery, what you’d like in that package. What would you request? What do you regularly wish someone would send you and then forget as soon as they ask?

I looked back at a past TEFL Logue post and am happy to see I mentioned Peanut Butter Chocolate Balance Bars, as I’d forgotten about those this time. As much as I do in fact miss that artificially engineered coffee creamer, it might be risky to send that, even the little “no refrigeration necessary” packets you can appropriate from restaurants.

Books and magazines tend to be heavy, and for a price I can generally get them on my own somehow. I think it’s silly to ask for things that I’m just too cheap to buy here; these should be things I really can’t get but would buy at home.

Taco spice is for sure, as are tortillas, so I can pretend that I made them myself as a reader requested here. Other important spices I can’t get locally? I can’t think of any. Chocolate tends to be better in Europe, though sadly lacking the chocolate-peanut butter combination. Macaroni and cheese rates highly on the lists of many North Americans abroad – probably of the President’s Choice variety for patriotic Canadians – but I’m not a huge mac and cheese fan….though there is something to be said for comfort food that reminds you of childhood.

I’m mostly okay with what I can get locally, and I have imposed some rather silly restrictions on my own package. But it’s fun to get stuff from home…so what else do you think I want? What would you ask for? I’ve noticed an upsurge in the number of comments recently, which I appreciate, so please don’t let me down now!