Weekly German lessons..

One common question I get here in Switzerland is, "How's your German coming along?" I'll be honest...I can say hello and goodbye in a sort of mumble way... that is scandalous I know but my tongue just struggles with those words. My weekly trip to the grocery store you would think would help me IMMERSE myself in the community and learn some German but it has become a comedy of errors and unfortunately the only audience who gets it is me... I laugh at myself and perform some pretty awesome pantomimes and practice my mumble goodbye and leave...

Well-- it begins with going GREEN! I pack my reusable garbage bags holding my recycling as I head out the door. I have a two franc coin tucked in my pocket-- which is what it costs to use grocery cart! So funny, all the carts are connected together and you need one 2 franc coin, which is like 2 dollars. It is not 2 one franc coins but 1 two franc.. Yes, I have tried that before and it doesn't work.

Sometimes Switzerland feels like the bizarro world where everything is the opposite. You weigh your own produce and punch the code in-- hoping you have read the correct German word-- and then place it in the plastic bag. I have loved taking a yogurt drink to school for lunch and I head over to that aisle. I pick up what I think is a strawberry yogurt drink and plop in my bag. Oh yeah... don't worry when I drank that at school the next day it tasted a bit sour and I looked for the expiration date and decided that I think I bought Strawberry goat's milk. Oops! But I was so hungry that it was lunch that day!

I think I am what is called a marketers dream! Now shopping in Switzerland-- things that are in English just jump out at me--- Now if you saw two containers of what you think is milk and one has a sweet picture of Heidi on it, which one would you choose? Or you find honey, which is a celebration in an of itself, and it says Bee Easy-- what am I to do? I buy-- Yes, I can't communicate with anyone but the conversation I have with myself and the "English labels that I find!"

I head to the check out-- where I bag my own groceries and give my practiced goodbye and head out the door. I am passed by some Swiss German older women with their wicker baskets piled high and think they must have some seriously buff arms! As I put my cart back and lock it back in its place my coin pops out! I smile as I think of being rewarded for successfully completing the shopping experience!

I carry it all back, grateful today that I don't need laundry soap. I walk, wondering if they have online grocery shopping like they did in New York where they delivered it to your door... But then again what an experience I would miss!!