Lost in Translation

Tomorrow night I have my first book club with the girls. We are discussing The Help, by Kathryn Stockett. I really enjoyed it and am so thankful that I will be introduced to other English speaking ladies in Salzburg. I'm sure we are going to have a blast. For our get together, I am making an appetizer. I called Jason's Mom this weekend and got a great recipe for pinwheels that I want to make. Easy, right? Not so much...

I went to the grocery store this afternoon to try to find all the ingredients. Grocery stores are much more stressful here than in the US.

When you first walk in, all of the carts are chained together. In order to use one, you must put a Euro in to unchain one. They do this so people will return their carts in order to get their money back. I think this is a great idea so there are not carts all over the streets. I can dig.

After you get your cart, you immediately walk into the produce section. Here, you have to bag and weigh what you want and then put a sticker on the bag with the price. Sounds easy, right? Not really, when it's all in German.

Thank God Jason got me an iPhone when I arrived in Salzburg and I could use google translation. People were staring at me as I typed in everything that I was picking out throughout the store. I kept circling the store like I was lost because nothing was where I thought it should be. Between trying to guess what some things were and then having to google translate it, grocery shopping took forever.

Some things are easy to tell, what they are.

Others, not so much.

This is a tube of mustard, by the way. Some things I'm just going to have to get used to.

The checkout part is the WORST. If you want sacks (bags) to put your stuff in, you have to pay for them. If you get more than a couple, people look at you funny. And you just better pray that you got the right amount because either you will have extras or not enough. Most people just bring in containers to put their stuff in. They are super big on recycling here, so it doesn't surprise me. If you need bags, the cashier rings them up with your food and pushes everything to the end after she scans them. So, you are rushing to pay while packing up everything you've purchased before the stuff the person behind you has just bought comes flying at you. All of this, while they are talking to you in German. Phew! I'm glad it's over.

I am not sure if I got the right chilis and pimentos that the recipe calls for, but I've had enough with the grocery store for today. So, let's just hope that the pinwheels turn out the way they are supposed to. I can tell that grocery shopping is going to take extra patience and some getting used to. My everyday life is quite the adventure.