We are getting packed out of here in a 20-ft container. It's a lot of stuff and it isn't. But packing myself or not, there is still a lot to go through, decide whether to sell, chuck, keep, foist upon friends.
And there they were in the bottom kitchen drawer: some extra Brita filters, unopened. To go with our Brita filter pitcher, of course.
And then it struck me, after nearly 20 years of filtering my water for the deposits, for the taste, for the I-have-no-idea-why-but-it's-best: Do I really need to take the filter with me? Do they even have them in the US? And I didn't have an answer. I never used them growing up, but maybe people have started filtering their water since I left? How will I feel about blithely filling my electric teapot (gee, I hope they have those there!) from the tap, or pouring myself a cup of cold water and downing it without a thought? Or maybe they do have them and I should take it? Yes, truly clueless.
The reality of just how long I've been gone and how little I know about the foreign place whose passport (my only one) I hold hit me like a load of bricks. There was nothing for it. I fired off a query on Facebook: Do I need a Brita filter in the US? Hoping my friends rescue me from this conundrum!
