A Peanut Butter Travesty

(Written 9/1)

Those of you who know me well know I eat a LOT of peanut butter. Since peanut butter is not a staple in Spain the way it is in the US, I decided that this would be the food item I would bring with me this semester. And so, my mother bought me four jars of peanut butter to stuff in my bag. I knew I was close to the weight limit on my checked bag, but I thought, “I have plenty of space in my carry-on, so if I have to take the peanut butter out of my checked bag, it’ll be fine.” And that is precisely what happened. I put all four jars of peanut butter in my carry-on to get my checked bag to—yup, you guessed it—exactly 50 lbs.

Now, I’m pretty good at packing to fly at this point. So when TSA asked to search my carry-on, I assumed they would find, say, my external hard-drive. Instead they found my peanut butter. To all other peanut butter lovers, take note: peanut butter is considered a gel and cannot go in your carry-on in large amounts. They confiscated all four of my peanut butter jars. I’ll be on the lookout for cheap peanut butter this semester. If it evades me, well, goodbye “healthy” comfort food until sometime in December!

Spanish word of the day: tragedia = tragedy (because losing my peanut butter was indeed a tragedy)

peace,
elizabeth