When I was younger, I loved the idea of a scavenger hunt. I didn’t partake in many myself, but the concept seemed so fun. What could bring more excitement to a kid than competing against their friends as they run around collecting random items from the neighbors? Even today, I think it’s a fun activity to plan for my own children and their friends. For my son’s last birthday at home, he and his friends did a hunt around town complete with digital instructions dubbed in a C3PO voice that actually had them picking up various party items. We have also done a few selfie scavenger hunts at the mall for the kids and their friends during the holidays which typically ended with rambunctious teens, curious onlookers, and sweaty mall cops.
One scavenger hunt that I’ve never personally hosted is the “Bigger or Better” hunt. This is when participants start with a small item such as a paperclip and run from house to house “trading up” for anything that is…bigger or better. The team bringing home the biggest or best item in the end wins. You can imagine how my curiosity was piqued when my teens introduced me to YouTuber, Ryan Trahan’s similar concept of traveling across the country with only a penny to start.
But the question is…is bigger better?
A few years ago, I offered to give a co-worker a ride home from our place of work in Amsterdam. We walked down to the parking garage together and she commenced chuckling when I unlocked the doors to my Volvo XC90. “What is it?” I asked.
“Your car!” she exclaimed. “It’s so big!!”
I tried reasoning with her that, in fact, for a family of six this car was on the small side, but she wouldn’t hear it. I like the size of my car – both in Europe and in the U.S.
“You Americans have big everything,” she concluded.
In my defense, our XC90 is really not that large. In fact, compared to a Chevy Suburban or Ford F-150, my XC90 is practically a smart car. But, I can see how she may think it’s large, when she doesn’t typically see anything bigger on the road.
When considering roads, especially in Europe, I can see the advantages of driving a smaller car. These old narrow streets are challenging to navigate and the tight quarters make parking more difficult too. After living three years in Germany, I never will forget my son’s comment as we drove down I-17 in Arizona. There was roadwork with a large sign flashing “CAUTION: Narrow Road ahead.” My eldest piped up and chuckled, “Narrow Road? They don’t know what a narrow road is!” And I can say that he is NOT wrong.
BUT…Recently a box of Angel Soft toilet paper was delivered to my family from the US. It contained 12 super mega rolls, the equivalent to 72 regular rolls. Seriously? The packaging boasts “1 Super Mega Roll = 6 Regular Rolls which means fewer roll changes. That’s math any angel can do.” Initially I did a double take because I thought the rolls of TP were really rolls of paper towels. They are ginormous! I shook my head wondering if changing the roll less often is really that big of a deal. I wondered if these rolls would even fit onto my small European TP holders. They do…about as well as I fit into a pair of my jeans from the 90’s. Would these rolls fit onto an American holder? Probably. But would they roll? Not so much…at least not at first.
Other small items that I have had to deal with while living in Europe include packages of food items. It’s annoying to buy 20 small packages of something here instead of 1 large package of the same item in the US, like croutons for example. It seems like there would be a lot more waste with all these tiny packages. But, whatever, I guess it makes sense since the storage space in European homes is not adequate for XXL Costco-sized items. When living in Germany, I had a friend who couldn’t even store frozen pizzas in her freezer because her freezer was too small…I mean, come on! That’s just silliness in the 21st century.
Angel Soft’s regular roll compared to The Netherlands’ Page regular roll
So, I have come to the following conclusions:
For cars in Europe, bigger is not always better. For rolls of toilet paper anywhere, bigger is not always better. For packages of food items in Europe, bigger is not always better – but it sure would be nice if they were an option. I would gladly buy (and find a place to store) large bags of cereal, rice, and beans. But until then I’ll just burn extra calories each week walking back and forth to the store every couple of days to get what the family needs since, God knows, I won’t be burning calories by changing the toilet paper roll anytime soon.