Other than missing family, shopping is probably one of the biggest adjustments in moving internationally. You don't realize how comforting 'the familiar' is! Shortly after we moved here, I wrote these blogs (click here and here) about our favorite foods that they don't have here and some new ones that they do. Whenever I travel I like to go to the grocery store in that country. I like to see all the different products and usually buy as many of that country's unique chocolate bars as I can! :o) But visiting a country and checking out their unique grocery store shelves, and living permanently in a country and realizing that these are now the only choices you have is quite a different reality!
So while there is no Overwaitea or Costco, there is Foodtown and PaknSave
; while there is no Kraft Dinner or Hamburger Helper, there is pasta in one package and cheese in the dairy section; while there is no Crisco shortening or Hershey's Chipits, there is yummy NZ butter and amazing 
milk chocolate drops; and while there are no graham crackers, there are tea biscuits....
You wouldn't think it, but shopping in a familiar grocery store, buying familiar foods and common ingredients is something we totally take for granted growing up in the same country our whole lives. Something so simple, so basic, so everyday, can be completely overwhelming when you move to another country. The first few months we were here I remember asking women in the grocery stores for their suggestions on substitutes for things that I would use in my recipes. Such as graham crackers for a graham cracker crust....no one here even knows what a graham cracker is! Or quick and easy meals like Hamburger Helper or Kraft Dinner are non- existent! Or the Crisco shortening I used in my all-time favorite chocolate chip cookies isn't here either. New recipes had to be found and new foods had to be accepted.
And really, we don't even have it that bad! People who move to some countries have vastly different food options and stores that they have to get familiar with, and not only that but they have to shop in a completely different language with a completely different currency! We at least can read the labels and understand the price of dollars and cents.
So while there is no Overwaitea or Costco, there is Foodtown and PaknSave
; while there is no Kraft Dinner or Hamburger Helper, there is pasta in one package and cheese in the dairy section; while there is no Crisco shortening or Hershey's Chipits, there is yummy NZ butter and amazing 
milk chocolate drops; and while there are no graham crackers, there are tea biscuits.... and most of all, when all else fails and we just really miss our favorites from home, there is always suitcase Christmas lovingly brought along by friends and family who come to visit! We are so blessed! 
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