Day 3: Where Do You Go Shopping?
Where do you go to buy things?
I asked myself this the first morning I was alone in my new apartment. My girlfriend had gone to her first day of work after the holidays and it was the first time I was “alone” in Sydney. The day was mine and I planned to spend it decorating and organizing the apartment.
Where do people go to buy household items, I wondered. I felt homesickness ripple across my body and settle in my chest.
When I had first moved to the Bay Area, I wrote a short personal essay about how homesick I was for Reno. The growing mountain town had stolen my heart during the four years I went to school there. I missed my friends and my old life. I wrote that San Francisco, the Bay Area, was my new home although still foreign to me. It had felt surreal to be living in a city that exists on postcards and in other people’s fantasies.
At least there I had certain familiarities, creature comforts you could call them. After all a Target in one town is about the same as the next. Even in a new city I could still find my favorite conditioner, my usual cleaning products, and all the other things I needed to live. Even if I moved, those little idiosyncrasies did not. They followed me.
In Sydney, I did not have access to any of my old habits or routines. What was most familiar to me, besides my partner, were the places I had visited only one time before, six months ago during my first visit. Not exactly the creature comfort I needed after moving 12,000 miles, I mean kilometers, away. I didn’t know where to go shopping, or what stores had the items I needed. There were malls, sure, but the stores were unusual with names that sounded like American knock offs. Forever 21 is now Forever New. Bed Bath & Beyond you are now Bed Bath n’ Table and yes, the coupons here do expire. When I saw a Target appear on my Google Maps search I was relieved, comforted by a name I knew well. I could find my way around a Target.
I was disappointed.
This was not a regular Target. It had none of the mesmerizing glamour drawing shoppers in with beautiful affordable products that we don’t need but always manage to walk out with. Oh no. This Target was simple, no bells and whistles. The home section carried a bare minimum of products to turn your apartment into an instagram photo, there was no food, a tiny stationary and crafts section, a single make-up aisle, and a mess of clothing basics. It was not the store in my memory and I realized now why there were only two locations in a 25 kilometer radius (15 miles for you Americans). I felt discouraged, unable to walk down the aisles with the same confidence I used to. Instead, I wandered around trying to find the storage section and not asking for help.
I left the Target feeling underwhelmed before being engulfed into the commotion of the mall it was located in. It’s summer and all of the kids are on holiday. Still feels like I’m on holiday.
