Small pleasures.

Everyone needs a small pleasure once in a while, but when you live in a foreign country, those small pleasures shift and take on new meaning.

Take, for instance, Oreos. Chocolate-stuffed Oreos have always been one of my guilty little pleasures. I used to eat them to celebrate good times and to cheer myself up during bad times. I have never taken those little chocolate frisbees for granted. Now that I live in Germany, Oreos have earned a new place on the list of small pleasures. Since they're imported, they are really, really expensive. A box of 24 cookies costs €3.79. That's more than $5! For 24 cookies! And that's just the ones with white filling. Beyond the high price, the rarity of oreos adds to the personal value of these chocolate sins. The ones with white filling are relatively easy to find. Once you know which stores carry them, you know where to look if you're in desperate need. The chocolate filled ones, however, only recently became available in Germany. Even then, it's hard to find them. Thus, they have taken a particularly high place on my list of small pleasures.

Now take Hershey's syrup, or rather, chocolate syrup in general. I used to enjoy the occasional chocolate milk, chocolate chip pancakes with chocolate syrup or an ice cream sundae with chocolate syrup on top. These things have never been really that important to me, so chocolate syrup would never have made my guilty pleasures list while I lived in the states. Now? Oh yeah. I went four years without a decent chocolate syrup (at least according to my American standards) until I found one at my local Edeka. Instead of being Hershey's, it's Nestlé. And it tastes just like home. It's inexpensive (€2.50 or $3.50) for 400mL, and I think I will have some on hand from now on.

So, things that used to be small pleasures become more valuable, and things that were never small pleasures before become small pleasures.