Anna Overseas

So, as I mentioned before, I have a friend who's coming over to live here, and every other day or so we have a conversation like this:

Her: Should I bring my hair dryer?

Me: Well, you'd need a plugin adapter and a voltage adapter, so it's probably better to just buy one here.

Her: Oh... what about my curling iron?

Me: Well, you'd need a plugin adapter and a voltage adapter, so it's probably just better to buy one here.

Her: Oh... what about my hair straightener?

Me: *sigh*

Her: Okay, okay... but maybe I should bring some collapsable clothes storage! And my duvet!

Me: You know, it's not the Outback. They do have stores here. It's only one bus to the Ikea, and there's a mall behind my flat.
Her: Oh... they have malls?
*sigh*

I love her like a sister, I really do, but some days I just want to scream. It's not that scary! They have *fire* here now, I'm telling ya!

But seriously, I get that she's scared and nervous and full of anticipation. I remember feeling that way myself... and that whole 'oh god, what do I pack?' freaking out thing. But it's rather surreal being on this side of it.

She thinks I'm brave because I did it myself, when I went to China.

I haven't the heart to tell her I was leaving freaking out comments in people's blogs in the hopes that *someone* would tell me if I should bring water purification tablets or if they'd sell them in China or something. (God, so green... they do bottle their water there, by the way. Or boil it.)

Thus, I don't mind her asking.

But really... there are stores. And fire. Honest.