Love for the Mom and Pop

There are many things that are different in Europe than in the states but I think the biggest thing is the lack of super stores. At first I hated that I couldn't go to one store such as Target or WalMart for everything I needed. Now I am beginning to love the different places you can buy food. When I got to France I instantly fell in love with the bakery around the corner from our flat. Who wouldn't love fresh baked bread and pastries a hop, skip, and a jump away? Ya, nobody. This week I had my first butchers experience. Like a real butcher that only sells meat. Now I love me some meat so it didn't gross me out in any way but alot of you would probably disagree. It was just so cool so buy fresh meat from a butcher. I don't even know where to find a butcher in the states. The closest thing would be the back of the grocery store, just not as cool. Today I had my first experience with a tea house. I am in love. It is just a little place that is decorated like a cottage in the English countryside. There were a dozen little tables with mismatching table clothes and beautiful little knick knacks. An enormous table filled with any dessert you can imagine, fat kid heaven. Our tea came out in little pots with little tea cups, all mismatching. It was so quaint I just loved it. Why don't we have those in the states? I love to drink tea and having a fun little place to drink tea would be amazing. We have the equivalent of the coffee houses here so why don't we have other fabulous things too. Don't get me wrong the convenience of super stores is wonderful but having that personal touch just makes things better. I now see that having the mom and pop stores is extremely necessary to keep America humble. We need to work on giving them our business and not the convenient satan super stores. And trust me on this tea houses and bakeries are the best way to live a happy life.