Adult Duties: Grocery Shopping

Dear Me, 

In your second day in Berlin, Germany, the worst thing that could possible happen while you're in another country happened. You had no money. Now it's not like you came here with no money because that would just be dumb, but the cards that were given to you and your fellow cohort mates for food could not be used anywhere because everywhere was cash only. Now you're here for two weeks and can't buy food? Luckily you have an uncle who went to Greece recently and gave you his leftover euros. unable to use your card, you realize that snacks and fresh fruit will be the way you survive and what place has both? Edeka! It looked like any regular grocery store...well kinda. The layout was very different from how it is back home in America. Right when you walk in there's a bakery which made no sense because people had to pay for their groceries and then go to the bakery. Also, you had to pay for your cart when you walked in like you're already spending money and you haven't even made it to the register yet. 

Sparkling water. It's everywhere. There's no getting away from it. The amount of times you've accidentally drank sparkling water instead of what they call here as "flat" water, you should know the difference by now. There’s so many types of sparkling water too I had no idea. There was no Deer Park or Aquafina in sight. You felt like a foreigner. One thing that looked like home was the Froot Loops in the cereal aisle and the Häagen-Dazs in the freezer. No need to look at junk food like that though because the fresh produce looked amazing. The grapes looked juicy, the peaches were ripe, and nothing looked oversize like it is back home. I would eat fruit all the time if it looked like that.

Check out was even more confusing. First of all, where are the bags? Finding out you had to pay for a bag was a complete shocker. It’s like it’s not even a grocery store. Paying for carts and bags. Walking out of there with food was my goal and although being in there was what some may say as an adventure, you made it out with your food. And yes, the peaches were delicious.

Later,

Saron