I hate my bread

One of the most challenging parts so far is not being able to ready my groceries. I cannot Google things when I’m not using the WiFi in my apartment. I’ve learned how to read many foods in German (plus I have eyes and can recognize foods when I look at them), but what I failed to do is study German words for different types of breads. My first grocery store experience was at Aldi. Here, there were 1-2 choices and 1-2 brands for each food. I’ve never really shopped for groceries at Costco but I think it’s similar in terms of amount of choices, but Aldi is at a much smaller scale and doesn’t sell in bulk. It’s funny how many different options of brands are available at Safeway, Giant, etc of pretty much the same exact product. Toothpaste, cereal, crackers, coffee, eggs. I guess people like choices and like to feel that they are in control of the details of what they buy. But are we really in control? Or is it just a facade? Anyway, I like that Aldi didn’t have too many choices because it made the experience underwhelming. Until I got to the bread section…dun dun dun! There were MANY choices and I narrowed it down to 2 based on the smaller size of the loaves and tan color. I really could not decipher what kind of breads they were so I just picked one. I got in line and prepared myself to throw all my groceries in my backpack as fast as I could. When I had Googled “things to know before moving to Germany,” I read many warnings about grocery stores. They say that the cashier will be finished scanning all your items before you can say “Guten Tag.” None of my eggs broke during my rapid transaction, so I call it a success! On the downside, I HATE the bread I got 😦

Thanks to my new school and my landlord, there was a lot of stuff that I did not have to buy on my first day. Everything was included in my adorable apartment (including sheets, towels, laundry detergent, and soap), and my school provided me a box of things to get settled in. It included all the necessities: spaghetti, pesto sauce, toilet paper, soap, milk, 2 boxes of tea, gummy bears, and chocolate-filled biscuits. Hehe. A very nice Australian woman from my school picked me up at the airport, and she helped me carry this box and my 2 suitcases up 8 flights of stairs. It was quite an event! I don’t think I’ll need to join a gym here with all these stairs I’ll have to climb each day! Not that I went to the gym in the US anyway haha…

Just yesterday, I ran down, then up, then down, then up the stairs consecutively! NOT for exercise…but because a package I had shipped from the US had arrived. The delivery man rang my phone, and when I answered he said things I didn’t understand in German but I assumed it was about my package. I mean it’s not like I was expecting anyone else in this country to come to my door. So, in German I said “I’m coming” and I ran down all the stairs. When I got to him he said more things I didn’t understand and I said, in German, “I’m sorry, I understand only a little German!” He showed me the amount of money I owed for the delivery, which I was totally unaware of, so I had not brought any money downstairs with me. So I ran up all the stairs, grabbed money, and ran down them again. When I got back down, the man was on the phone and when he hung up he showed me that one paper said I owe one amount of money, and another paper said I owe a different amount. He didn’t know which one was what I actually owe, so he said he would come back tomorrow. I walked slowly up all the steps.