Tasting Europe

One of the ways I know for sure I am in Europe is by the taste of Coke Light. For those of you who have crossed the pond, you know that Diet Coke is branded as Coke Light in most of Europe--and the taste is so distinctive, it becomes a sensory anchor to the location.

While Diet Coke is actually, light on flavor, just a subtle hint really, Coke Light bursts with a syrupy aftertaste that is sweet to the tongue. In the modern world, where much is not merely globalized but homogenized, it is these little things, like a sweeter version of Diet Coke that remind us we are in fact not in the United States.

I took pleasure in slurping my Coke Light outside the museum, next to three women from Virginia complaining about their nannies (who were on the trip and in their company), as well as a German couple oogling over a pair of Obama ovenmits.

It may be a small world after all, but sometimes, I don't want small: I want big and overstuffed with possibility. For times that like, for times like this, I pick up my Coke Light and know there's always more to see.