Growing Up International: Nutella

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/Nutella-1.jpg

This is the second in a series of posts about my international experience.

One of my first memories, or at least realizations that other countries and people existed, was in elementary (primary) school.

I do not remember which grade I was in, who my teacher was at the time, or how old I was, but I still can remember the feeling.

The feeling of the joy of Nutella.

Someone, it was either my teacher, a student teacher, a friend of the teacher, or another teacher at the school, had just recently come back from abroad.

She brought back Nutella.

This may not seem very unusual to you, considering you can by Nutella at any grocery store, any Walmart, etc.  But this was the early 90s.  Nutella just wasn't on the American scene at that time.  The idea that you could spread chocolate on bread was astounding.

It was awesome.

It boggled all of our little prepubescent minds.  It made me wonder about why America, THE country, did not have such a wonderful and amazing thing such as this.

Nutella wasn't the only thing this bringer of new worlds brought to our class.  She talked about some of the places she went, the people she met, the cultures she experienced.  It was probably the first time I had ever heard of Muslims.  She showed us a picture of an elderly man in a turban walking down a foreign street.  She explained that people like him generally don't like to have people take their photo, but she did it on the sly.  And the result was very impressive.  I don't condone taking pictures of people who don't want their photo taken, but it was a cool photo.

I can't recall most of this presentation that she shared with us.  But I do remember the photo, and I remember the Nutella.  It would be years before I experienced Nutella again, but when I did, it was like meeting an old friend.