Today was grocery day, and I'll admit... I dreaded it.
So far for me, it is the simple things like gathering my groceries in an unfamiliar way that I find most challenging. After enough time, this will be the new normal, but for now it is still, well, foreign.
Let me walk you through our first Israeli grocery store experience 3 weeks ago:
We were dropped off at our apartment for the first time, checked in by the Embassy, and then left....in the empty apartment....with no food....on Friday....the beginning of Shabbat. We didn't know where to go, and we didn't know what, if anything, was going to be open.
So, we drove until we saw a sign that we thought was a grocery store.
Took the exit.
Circled the mall.
Found nothing.
Circled the mall again.
Then discovered that the grocery store is in the basement of the mall (as we now know most are).
Parked the car in a paid parking lot.
Finally arrived at our destination only to discover that yes, in fact, it was closed.
We were able to grab a bite to eat in the mall before it too closed, and came back 2 days later to try again.
Attempt #2
- Drive to the mall, enter underground parking and find grocery store.
- Figure out how to procure a shopping cart. Here's something fun. All the carts are locked, like baggage trollies at an airport. So we had to figure out which of the 10 new currency coins in our possession it required before "renting" our cart.
- Next, take shopping cart up an escalator, through a revolving door and past security. Good times.
- Finally, once in the store, your senses are completely overwhelmed. Foreign products. Foreign currency. Foreign language. We now have to make sense of everything, product by product, aisle by aisle.
So, in an attempt to not bore you further, I'll just point out a few of the glaring differences between an American grocery store and an Israeli one (besides price):
- The dairy section. It is enormous and full of soft white cheeses, spreads, dips, yogurts of every imaginable variety, goats milk, sheep's milk, flavored milks, varying percentages of milks, etc. Did I mention that all the labels are in Hebrew? And to the untrained eye and palate they all kinda look the same? I am so very thankful for my Hebrew training; I was actually able to avoid buying goat's milk and drinkable yogurt instead of regular old plain milk. However, I was bamboozled by the vanilla flavored milk. Totally missed that one. Oh, and despite the enormous dairy section, there is no coffee creamer. None. No International Delights. No CoffeeMate. This is steadily helping me kick my coffee habit.
- They don't sell milk by the gallon. Only the quart or half gallon. You can, however, buy yogurt by the gallon, which is what your husband will do when you send him out for milk.
- Vats of open spices, dried fruits, and dried grains/ couscous. This is a feature that I really like. If only I knew what any of them were or how to cook with them.
- You bag your own groceries. Gotta say, this one is not fun. Not fun when the store is empty and definitely not fun when there is a line of impatient Israelis behind you. Really not fun.
This is a box of baking soda. It is 2 inches tall. It is the only size they sell.
This is the only variety of shredded cheese available: mozzarella. Hungry for cheddar or heaven forbid, monterey jack? Sorry, you're out of luck in the land of milk and honey.
These are three different varieties of soft white cheeses. We don't have anything like this in the states. They are absolutely delicious. Much like sour cream, but better.
Once home, the fun continues on grocery day. Now I have to get the groceries from the parking garage to the door of the apartment building, trip by trip. Then from the door of the apartment building onto the elevator, and then back off the elevator trip by trip to our apartment door, and then finally into the apartment and put away. Whew, I'm beat.
So today was grocery day again. I tried a new store in the bottom of a new mall. It was nice. The products are becoming more familiar. I am less likely to buy something other than milk when in need of milk. I know which cheese we like. I can now carry more grocery bags at one time than I knew was humanly possible. Before you know it, I just may figure some of those spices out and whip up something nice. If only I could figure out how to use my oven.....
And last but not least & completely unrelated.....This is what happens when the older sister helps the little brother "accessorize" his spiderman costume.
