Let's Go Shopping

(This is from yesterday, Sept. 11)

Things I learned today:

1. Aldis do not have shopping baskets inside their stores; only carts outside.

2. Once you have entered the store, you cannot get back outside to get a cart unless you pass through the check out and get stared at.

3. When shopping for such diverse items as contact solution, detergent, and food, you can expect to go to 3 different stores to find all of this.

And there you go. Not to mention how confusing it was trying to find things when all the products have completely different packaging and descriptions. It took me a little while to find just a few things. It was kind of fun to see how different everything was. Although it was a bit difficult trying to find contact lens solution without actually knowing the word in German. I’m sure the clerk who helped me was confused how I could describe the item in such detail, and yet not know the word itself.

So I have roommates now. Those 2 other rooms are being put to use. It turns out some students in the other dorms have to switch rooms because of some repairs or something. At any rate, it means they got moved in here with me. And they’re eyeing my room, too, I know. I was anxiously asked at least twice today by staff how my apartment search was going.

Not so well, even though I have two very good candidates. The best one is close by and very cheap. The downside? The owner’s not answering her phone. The instructors suggested I stop by and see her. I’m not sure how I feel about just popping by some stranger’s house. They did offer to go with me, but it was during the shopping trip today that I so desperately needed to go on. I’ll see if they can go with me tomorrow.

I had my first introduction to the classes here today. I thought I would be sitting in and listening, but they had me start right away. Which isn’t such a big deal, since they just had me sit in an adjacent room and sent in students one by one (or in pairs) to just converse with me. Simple. I had fun chatting with the students. It was kind of mind-blowing, since several of them would come in and just start talking right away and would be able to talk about anything. They all knew English pretty well. Sure, once or twice they didn’t know a word, but they still definitely had a good command of the language.

For my last class of the today, the instructor thought it’d be a good idea if I stayed in the classroom and the students would ask me questions about the American dream. Yes, they actually have a unit on the American dream. As we headed to the classroom I asked myself if I was even sure if I could pin down a solid explanation of just what the “American dream” is. It seems like it would be different things to different people. At any rate, they mostly asked me questions about myself or America kind of generally. From all my discussions today, it became clear most of them know whatever they know about America from TV and movies. So they’d heard of New York, California, and Las Vegas, but Wisconsin was a bit of a stretch. I’m starting to think I should carry around a little map with me. Everyone asks where I’m from. I say “Wisconsin” and they nod and I can see their eyes glaze over. It’s okay, 50 states is a lot to remember, especially if you don’t live there.

And finally, all of the instructors and staff here call me “Mrs. Smith” (For the sake of prudence, I'm changing my last name in this blog, though I'm sure anyone who wanted to could figure it out). They introduce me that way and have it printed on all my forms. Now, I initially thought this was just a translation error. They used to refer to single women in German as Fräulein, but have since switched to Frau for all women. I figured they took this and just literally translated it, without realizing the implication in English. I guess it’s more than that. I had a nice chat with one of the instructors about chess and he invited me to come to a chess club on Friday. Since we were getting along so well, I figured this was a good time to casually ask why everyone was calling me “Mrs. Smith” when I wasn’t married. Suddenly the mood changed and he seemed uncomfortable. He told me “I think most women would be happy not to...be addressed in a way that reveals something personal like their marital status. I remember a woman in the 70’s telling me that she was single and she still preferred ‘misses’ for that reason.” He said it in this half explanatory, half lecturing way like I was the one who wasn’t getting it. I figured if it was indeed a sign of respect for both me and my privacy and everyone was already doing it, then I’d just let it drop. It still is weird for me, though.