And even that has presented a number of difficulties for us.
For example, the first time we went to Netto, a grocery store similar to ALDI, we took a swamp-path that brought us out behind the building. On one of my later Netto experiences I saw a rat running around there if that gives you any sort of picture of what this “grocery store” is like. As we walked to the front doors, we saw a sign telling us not to use those doors. We continued heading toward the big glass doors and started walking in. Seeing the check-out lines, we realized we were at the exit and embarrassingly walked back out of the building. We walked further, searching for the entrance but found only the end of the building.
A building with people in it but no entrance. People are leaving but nobody can come in? Sounds similar to Man Island!
(As it turns out, that was the entrance. We ended up just playing it cool outside until a woman walked in. Then we casually ran up behind her and inconspicuously stalked her as she passed the check-out lines to enter the store. It was real slick. I’m sure nobody could tell we had no idea what we were doing. The key to studying abroad is just blending it. I've definitely got that mastered...)
We walked the aisles, French-English dictionary in hand, until we started finding things. Walking down an aisle toward the back of the store we found escargot. Of course! We’re in France! What’s more French than escargot?
As the girls scrutinized the container of shell-less snails on the shelf, I started flipping through my dictionary. I couldn't believe escargot would be sold in the supermarket…and unrefrigerated!? It made sense for a country that doesn’t refrigerate milk or eggs but I was still shocked and excited that we had found escargot in France! And on one of our very first adventures! We really had France all figured out!
As I turned to the word in my dictionary, I laughed at our fascination of water chestnuts.
And that’s about how things usually go here.
No comments:
Post a Comment