Since I am on the theme of treats from Les États-Unis…
Personal mail is just the greatest thing when you live abroad. I remember way back to days of summer camp, a friend on her Mission and friends in the Peace Corps. Writing a letter, making a card, putting together a package- sort of a throwback to another time. I remember once I sent rice krispy treats to a friend in the Peace Corps. I think they must have been delicious when they arrived a month later.
Bryan and I have felt the love here in England (well mostly me as these things seem gender-stratified). A week has hardly gone by over the last year where we have not received a postcard, card or package from a family member or friend. I feel lucky we have people in our lives who know just what an American adrift might need: Girl Scout Cookies, mac & cheese, Valentine’s Day baking supplies from Target, a cute sweater, pregnancy or baby must-haves…whatever the season dictates. Sometimes just a photo or magazine or newspaper article we might find amusing or a postcard from somewhere not here. I am always conscious of the postage and the effort someone made to figure out how to mail abroad. And here we are thanking you. And maybe think about someone today that might need a piece of mail- even if they live nearby. As a pick-me-up, there is just no better bang for the buck.
the part where we move to london 
i wish your hubby had been privy to the joys of mail and care packages while I spent 3.5 years in the african bush. all i got was a sprinkling of emails asking me why i don’t email more often. i’m due to send a package, let me know what you need. and by you, i mean yael and child. and by child, i mean the one in your belly, not the one sleep next to.
Holy, this makes me laugh. I would have mailed you many packages.
Me and in utero child request peeps and Rice A Roni and a small Asian manicurist.
Wow, you have a great bunch of friends. Most people moving abroad have the opposite experience, if bloggers are anything to go by. Out of sight, out of mind, is a common theme of expat blog posts.
Mike – my gift to you was allowing you to watch 5 days of The Real World, Survivor, The Hills, and other “reality” shows when you arrived back from your 3 year vacation in Africa.
who’s Mike??? [anonymity please!]
AA- thanks for highlighting yet more neglect. Had you bothered to spend any time with me on that return trip from ‘vacation’, you would know that Yael’s ‘cultural readjustment’ lesson for me involved NONE of those shows.
uhm, you were by far the single person i received the most snail mail from when i was a PC volunteer- and that is huge bc i didn’t even have an email account when i went down there (that’s how old we are).
and … i think i never thanked you for the postcard from iceland telling me that you didn’t see enough black people there and that i should go. i love love it and it made me giggle out loud AND i have it displayed on my dresser 🙂
YAEL, no one can ever match your thoughtfulness when it comes to sending cards, postcards, etc… cmon……send me a list!!!