Well, it is the New Year and I had to go back to work today. Thankfully, I am well enough to do that even though I still feel week whenever I do much but I am on the way to recovery.
Since I last updated my blog I became adventurous. I needed to get something to help settle my stomach and decided it was past time that I went to the Real store. This is the chain of stores in Germany that took over when Wal-Mart pulled out. On Saturday the 27th, I got on the internet and looked up the address of the local stores. There were several that were within the Mannheim area so I picked the one that a couple of the other ex-pats had mentioned to me. From the Google map it looked like it was further away, but I thought I would take a chance. I got in my car and of course that felt funny since I had not driven for a few weeks and proceeded to setup my Nav system with the address. Fortunately, Cathy had changed the language to English the first time she was in my car so I did not have to try to decipher the instructions in German. It took me 15 minutes to figure it out and I was just starting to wonder if I could asphyxiate myself in a parking garage by running the car for that long. So off I went. The sky that day was a beautiful blue with wispy clouds and I was confident that with the Nav system yelling instructions at me I would be able to find my way.
The distance calculated by Google maps was only 6.6KM so I knew that it should not take me too long to get there but I remembered the last time that I took off with some Google instructions and walked forever to go 2 blocks from my house. I made my way through the traffic in Mannheim and out to the 36 Autobahn. The woman in the Nav system told me to get in the left lane to exit so I did; I was always one to follow directions. When I got off the autobahn, I was not sure exactly where the Real store was so I just kept following directions. Pretty soon I was in a residential area that I knew was not part of the business district but I kept going since system kept telling me to turn here and there. In about 10 minutes I found myself back at the entrance to the autobahn at the same place that I exited earlier. I had no idea what was going on but decided to blindly follow the Nav system no matter where it was going to take me. Back out on the autobahn, I drove for about 100 yards and it told me again to get in the left lane to exit. I thought, ‘Yeah, this is the last time that I am going to do this.”. I felt that I could spend the whole day just getting off the autobahn, driving around and then getting back on. But then I saw IT! The store!!!! Off to the left of the autobahn. I guessed that I could find it even if the Nav system wanted me to drive through the residential areas again.
Right off the autobahn, there was a McDonald’s that was in a house. I thought that it was so different that I took a picture of it from the Real parking lot.
After I parked, I realized that I was at the far end of the lot and would have to walk quite a ways to get into the store. This is a picture from the car. I will try to get better picture next time I go.
That was ok because the cool fresh air felt good. Once I got to the entrance, I realized that I needed to bring in a cart from the parking lot so I walked out to one of the covered cart areas and found that I again needed 1 Euro to get a cart just like at Aldi. Of course, I did not have a 1 Euro coin and could not find anyone that would trade the cart for 2-50Cent Euro coins. Finally, I found a family with a child that understood some English. He spoke to his parents and his father smiled and dug his billfold out of his pocket. Finally, I thought was going to be able to get a Euro and a cart but instead he pulled out a white disk with red markings from his billfold. I looked at it with what I am sure was a confused look on my face and the boy just laughed and said that it was a disk that would work in any cart. I understood then and tried to give them a Euro for it, but the father would not take any money. His son said that they did not want anything for it and he hoped that I would be happy in Germany. I thanked them over and over and walked into the store.
When I got inside I realized that it was not just a store, but kind of a mini mall. There were several shops there besides the Real store. Electronics, barber, clothing stores, apothecaries, and a florist were all there along with a beverage store. I quickly breezed past all of those and went directly to Real. I started to look around thinking that I would be able to recognize most of what I needed. After all, wasn’t this a large chain store? Wouldn’t they have most of the brands that I was used to? The answer to that was a big NO! As I went up and down the isles, I would recognize some of the food by the picture on the front, but no brands that I knew. I found most of what I was hunting for except for pop. So I went into the beverage store and started to look around. In the Coke section I found it...Sprite Zero. I had not had any pop for a couple of weeks because the only diet pop I had been able to find was Coke Light. It is almost my least favorite pop and had not been setting well with my stomach so the Sprite Zero was a very welcome sight. Then I decided that if they had that, maybe they would have Diet Pepsi. That is my first love when it comes to soft drinks. I walked around the store a couple of times and decided that I would have to count myself lucky to have found the Sprite.
The last thing that I thought I might be able to find is salt and pepper so I went back into Real and tried to find the spices. Once I did, I realized that this was not going to be easy. I was trying to rely on pictures to help me find what I wanted and there really is not a picture of a salt or a pepper on the containers. I found some that had words that looked like pepper on it, but I did not know what the rest of the words were. I did find a garlic one and picked that up and decided that was enough until I could find out what the German words were for just plain table salt and pepper. I got the cart turned around and headed for the front of the store to check out and passed by an aisle that had bottled water on the end cap. I swung the cart into the aisle and there it was…PEPSI LIGHT. I almost fell on the floor and cried I was so excited. They did not have caffeine-free but I figured that I would take anything at this point. I had to stand on the bottom shelf to get it from the top and knew that the climb would be worth it. Elated, I took my cart to the front and got in line to pay.
As I stood there, I was watching the people in other lines. It is strange to see what people in other countries buy at the grocery store. One person had a fish that had the eyes, scales and everything still on it. Another had several jars of something that looked pickled, but it was not anything that I recognized. I was behind an older woman in the line and smiled to her as she gave me the divider for our groceries. She was carrying a large willow basket with her and I realized that we needed to bring our own bags here also. I looked in my purse and decided that the 3 Bears bags that I had may be enough to hold everything that I bought except the Brita pitcher. I unloaded the cart and waited as she slowly counted out the change for her bill. When she was done, the clerk looked at her and said something. She wanted one more penny and the woman did not have it in change. I got one out of my purse and almost had to beg her to take it. Finally she did and I got checked out. After the clerk scans your goods, it goes down to the end of the counter and you have to pack it yourself. I always like to watch what is being rung up and that put me behind in packing my purchases. The person behind me in line was not as understanding as one might hope and I know what a German evil eye looks like now. In the parking lot I found my car, unloaded and returned the cart then settled in to program the Nav system to get me back home. It’s funny that it took much less time to get back to the apartment then it did to get to Real. Maybe it was the side trip that took so much time before?
On that Sunday, my brothers had the Bush family Christmas gathering. That was something that I knew I would miss out on. Usually, I have lasagna at my house. I love to decorate the house and have them over, but this year it was just them and their families with ham and turkey. Mike and Kelly could not make it down from Racine because of the ice and Amanda had to work but otherwise everyone was there. I wish that I could have been to see the kids open their gifts and to share the meal. I told David that I would kill for some of Margo’s macaroni and cheese. It sounded like something that my stomach would be able to handle. He told me that I should make some since it is only elbow macaroni and Velveeta and I said that would be fine if I had thought to bring Velveeta with me. He forgets that the things that we take for granted as being available at any grocery store are not necessarily here. I was also able to watch the last Bears game of the season over the internet. They lost and are out of the playoffs. Oh well, next year will be here amazingly soon.
The beginning of last week was pretty much, rest, eat, rest, read. I was feeling better each day but did not want to push it.
On New Year’s Eve, I started watching CNN when I got up and they were already getting ready to celebrate the New Year in New Zealand. It was strange to watch the different countries celebrate the start of the year as it happened. In the U.S. we rarely see that. It is like we are the only country in the world sometimes. That is one of the things that I have learned since I came here. As the day went on, I was determined that I would stay up until midnight so that I could ring in the New Year. I did not want to miss it. I should not have worried. About 2 minutes to midnight, the fireworks started. I am not talking about the small fireworks that you get in the U.S. for the backyard celebrations on the 4th of July. These were huge and all over the place. I called Mom at midnight like I do every year and she could hear them on the phone. It was so beautiful I can’t describe it. After I talked with Mom, I called Mike and Kelly to wish them Happy New Year. The fireworks were still going on. I told Mike that it was too bad he was not with me. When he was a kid, he always wanted to buy fireworks whenever we went to Wisconsin or Missouri but we were never able to buy fireworks like these. Bob Loch had told me that people in Germany shot off fireworks at midnight on New Year’s Eve, but I did not expect it to continue for 90 minutes. I sat in my living room and watched the fireworks over the park and at the next complex for quite a while. Then I decided that it was time for me to go to bed. When I looked out the sliding door in my bedroom towards the quad in my apartment complex, there were several beautiful displays going on there also. So I opened the curtains and stood for awhile watching them. After 1:00 I went to bed and could still see them going off for another half hour. It is something that I will never forget!
On New Year’s day Don called to say hello and was telling me that at work they had the usual day after crowd. Drunks were sleeping it off in their cells. People wanting visits. Just the normal stuff for a county jail. The rest of the day was very subdued other than phone calls from Mom. That was until 2:20 am on Friday morning. The phone rang and startled me. I jumped out of bed and ran to answer it. Who would call at that time unless it was an emergency? It was my Aunt Regina. She got Mom’s Christmas letter with my phone number in it and wanted to touch base. She said it was ringing when she realized that Mom had written that there would be a 7 hour time difference from Central US time. It was good to hear from her anyway.
The rest of the weekend went fast. I knew that I would have to go back to work today so I really spent the time resting. I also had to get tax forms from the internet and email them to Mom. She has a dial up connection that she uses and it is useful mainly for getting her email since it is so slow.
Today when I got up and looked outdoors, there was a thin layer of snow on the ground. So I wore a new turtleneck with a snowflake design on it to work. I did not think that it would ever snow after the first little bit we got at the end of November. Then I decided to drive to work today so that I would not have to tromp through the snow and slush to get to and from the tram. When I pulled out of the parking garage, I realized that they do not use salt on the roads all the time here. It was a little slippery but not bad. Then I pulled into the parking lot at work and thought that I must have made a mistake. It must not be Monday. There were hardly any cars in the lot. I drove in and parked and went inside and only Gudrun was there in the AD department. I asked where everyone was and she said that they were still on holiday. I asked why they would not have come back today and she said that a lot of people took today off since tomorrow was a holiday also. I had forgotten that my German teacher told me that we would not be in class on Tuesday but would start back on Thursday. So this is a real bonus for me! It was really quite at work so I was able to get quite a bit done. I also received a Christmas card through intercompany mail from Sue Haley. It was beautiful.
It snowed all day here but the snow is so fine that we did not have an accumulation of more than 1-2 inches. I thought of the all day snowstorms at home and remembered that I would have to be out clearing the walks several times just to keep up. Like last time, I am sure that this will be gone soon. They tell me that when it snows here it rarely lasts more than a day or two. I am sure the next winter I am at home I will be wishing that to be the case there. Or maybe have weather like Mom. She told me yesterday that she was considering turning on the air conditioner in her mobile home since she was doing some sewing and ironing. When Dad was alive, he would call me and tell me stuff like that when it was negative something at home and I would always threaten to hang up if he kept talking like that. It’s unbelievable what a difference a few states make.
One last thing, for all of you that know me, it will not be a surprise. I fell on the ice tonight and twisted my ankle. Nothing is broken. Just have to ice it to keep the swelling down. No big deal.
Well, I think that I have rambled on enough for now. Hope everyone is doing well and that the New Year is wonderful for you all.
