When you live outside your passport country it’s normal to crave things that will help your new environment feel “normal” to you.  For me, that’s why I spend hours trying to create a certain food dish from scratch because certain dishes help me feel normal.  I think everyone who lives outside his/her passport country has their own thing that helps them feel normal.  Trying to create that normal means needing to improvise or substitute something to try and create whatever it is.  I’m always amazed at the ingenuity of what others use to improvise.

While at RFIS with camera in hand, I saw an example of this type of improvising in their weight room.  The weights on the barbells are Nido (powdered milk) cans filled with cement.  It made me chuckle.  Do those who use this set brag that they can lift four Nido cans?