Chipiphany

Chip (or Pope's hat?)

I had an epiphanic flashback yesterday; a flashback to an epiphany I experienced while living in Japan. I still remember vividly the day I realized Japanese chip bags open differently than American chip bags. I’d been living in Japan for about 4 months at the time, and was relatively used to swearing at Japanese engineering every time I tried to enjoy the crunchy snack. The damn bags would NOT open. Was I doing something wrong? Was the bag design seriously, catastrophically, failed? I mean, how hard could it be to open a bag of chips? I did have some experience on this front after all...

Traditional chip opening process in the good ol’ U S of A:
Step 1: Firmly grasp either side of the bag near top seam.

Step 2: Gently pull sides of bag apart until the seam opens.

Step 3: Enjoy crunchy, salty goodness.

In Japan the process went more like this:
Step 1: Firmly grasp either side of the bag near top seam.

Step 2: Gently pull sides of bag apart until the seam...

Step 3: Firmly pull sides of bag apart until the seam...

Step 4: Swear.

Step 5: Grab either side of bag in a death grip, jerk, twist and pull apart until the seam...

Step 6: Repeat steps 4 and 5

Step 7: Search for scissors. Swear. You have no scissors.

Step 8: Grab knife. Consider chip homicide.

Step 9: Stab bag until it surrenders inner contents.

Step 10: Enjoy finely smashed pieces of previously crunchy salty goodness.

There must be a better way, I thought. Indeed there was. While eating lunch with a group of Japanese colleagues, one of them pulled out a bag of chips. FINALLY I thought, I would see how the locals convinced these little plastic vaults to release their fried treasures. He grabbed the chip bag at the top corner, twisted the seam and pulled straight down, opening a gap along the side of the bag, not along the top.

Stained glass in Aachen Cathedral, Aachen Germany

It was truly a beautiful moment.

I sat there for a few moments dumbstruck, a quirky smile frozen on my face; lost in this, the perfect metaphor for a foreigner living abroad. 

When we move or travel to a new place, we bring our own cultural “tool-belt” with us. Our definitions, interpretations, assumptions and rationale are always along for the ride. When we encounter something that seems similar, we naturally approach it with the tools we’ve brought with us. Often times to great frustration. Like using a hammer to type this blog post, or a screwdriver to stir my coffee in the morning. It might work, (I got the chip bag open eventually), but there is usually an infinitely easier and more graceful tool for the job, if we just open ourselves to the possibility of discovering it.

This is part of the joy (and pain) of living abroad; the opportunity to add more tools to our belts. If we can stay conscious after bashing our heads against the wall, that is.

Yesterday, I discovered that chip bags in Germany are the same as those in Japan, which led to the recollection above. I enjoyed the chips without incident or trauma, having just the right tool to complete the task. 

What chipiphanies await us here in Germany I wonder...?

Hillary and Jeff