I’m heading back to New York in less than two weeks and have been making a list of things I need to buy or experience while back home, and it is unbelievably short. Stuff to buy: Balance Bars, undershirts, running shoes. Stuff to see/do: “Milk,” a museum exhibit or two, maybe get my computer battery replaced. That’s it. If you had asked me before I came, I would have predicted I would have needed an extra suitcase to take stuff back.
The fact is, just about everything I need is available in Europe, in exactly the same if not better form. From food to clothing to movies to books to toiletries, I can get whatever I need here. In fact, the only reason I want to buy running shoes back home is that they’re a bit cheaper in the States. But I could get them here if I needed to, whether online or at a sporting goods store. (OK, admittedly not everything that you can find in NYC — say, an amazing bagel — is available here in Berlin, but my frequent trips elsewhere (especially London and Paris) have helped in that regard.)
What’s worse — and maybe this is just a matter of some kind of present bias — is that I can imagine if the situation were reversed, and I were coming back to Berlin for a week, I would, in fact, need an extra suitcase to take stuff home: my new favorite toothpaste, aluminum-free deodorant, fancy and inexpensive dark chocolate bars, sanddorn preserves, this delicious horseradish spread I found… and then I’d have another really long list of places to eat and drink I would absolutely have to visit while in Berlin! What is going on here?!
