More Than a Wanderlust, It's a Disorder

I walked past some apple vinegar in the store today and had a mystical moment. It was on of those flashbacks you see in movies and TV. Instantly, I was experiencing the emotions and feelings of our first weeks in Germany. Not only that, but they were the same feelings and emotions I went through when I first moved to Costa Rica, Chile, and to a lesser degree back to the US. It wasn’t just a moment, followed by a smile and a little jog down memory lane. It awoke a desire in me that comes every so often in the life of all MKs. I got the itch.

We have lived in the same city, in the same house for nearly three years now. That makes my current situation one of the longest runs in the same surroundings in my life. It is the longest of my married life. Starting out in any new place is never easy. Doing so in a completely different culture is exponentially harder. Why do I like it so much? Chalk it up to one of the many “disorders” common to most Third Culture Kids. I love it. Everything is different. Everything is strange. You don’t know what anyone is saying. You become an expert in mime. You frequently look like an idiot. It must be something akin to the adrenaline rush sought out by daredevils.

So, how did a bottle of apple vinegar trigger this temptation? There was a bottle of it among the things they had stocked our cupboards with when we moved here. Apfel is similar to English. I had no idea if Essig meant juice, but there was an easy way to find out.

I never forgot the word for vinegar.