Even a quick trip to the grocery store (sometimes I run to the 24-hour Number 1 in our apartment building after seeing Peggy off to school to pick up heavier items) produces a United Nations in my grocery basket.
This morning I picked up a 5L bottle of water and juice from Romania, canned corn from Germany, peas from Hungary, and carmel ice cream sundae from Turkey.
I am an avid reader of nutritional information on packaging. Or, should I say, I WAS obsessed with reading the information on packaging when selecting products back home.
Early in my grocery shopping adventures, I continued my habit of trying to read the nutritional information. I am sure if there was a hidden camera, we could all get a good laugh at the pensive look on my face as I tried to decipher the packaging.
Actually, first I had to figure out if I had the right product! Thank goodness for photos/illustrations on packages. I am pretty sure my first few weeks here I was buying/using Russian margarine (not butter) -- until I found Romanian butter (unt!). Not only could I find "unt" (thanks to the Latin alphabet), but also the Romanians added the helpful cartoon cow to assist me in finding real butter. (If only more of the products sold at my grocery store were labeled in Romanian, then I am sure I would have a much easier time shopping)
Peggy's new favorite cereal has nutritional information in 10 languages -- that's right - zece - and not one of them is in English. My new favorite cereal has nutritional information in 8 languages (opt!) - and not one of them is English. Oh, well. It tastes good. That's what's driving our food choices these days . . .
We've actually been here long enough that we have our favorite products, and we have fallen into a routine, so grocery shopping is no longer the ordeal it once was.
Other than having to walk a few blocks and up 4 flights of stairs with the groceries like a pack mule.
Hence the quick trips for the heavier items from the shop in our apartment building
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