Being "On"

Being a newcomer to a foreign country and learning to adapt and live in that country, especially with the language barrier, is, quite frankly, quite exhausting.  I feel like most of the day I am on high-alert trying to understand what is being said, by people, advertisements, signs, and food packaging, formulate the right phrases to get me what I need, and paying attention to all the social and cultural cues.  Our whole family is being challenged to rethink how we do things and devising new routines and habits.  It is exciting and fun, much of the time, but it can leave us drained by the end of the day.

For example: Luneburg has a fabulous farmers market on Saturday and Wednesday mornings.  Our local friend described it to us as a "small" market.  For us, it turned out to be HUGE.  Back in Ohio we have a Farmers market which has only been established the last five years or so.  We feel lucky that it is located right at the end of our street, is open generally May (plants and a few veggies) through October, and extends more than a full block along one side of the street.

The Luneburg market, however is located in the central cobblestone square and takes up an entire square block and has a year-round offering of fruits, veggies, cheeses, meat and seafood, breads and baked goods, flowers, and dry good such as beans and seasonings.  We could almost do our entire grocery shopping here.

For the inexperienced and non-native speaker, it can also be intimidating.  Of course, you have to TALK to the shop keepers; easy enough if what you want is right in front of you and you simply point and hold up your fingers to show what you want (be sure to use your thumb to indicate one, adding fingers from there) or you can use a limited vocabulary of numbers and read the food name from the sign.  If you do not have a good knowledge or pronunciation of the food vocabulary, you can do as I do, move from stall to stall until you find a couple of items you need within close pointing range - these stalls are pretty big, by the way- and then move on to the next stall.

Germans don't have a good habit of queuing up, so you need to be somewhat assertive about your turn, but I have found most stall workers to be very friendly and helpful.  The produce is usually sold by the kilo, so you need to have a good idea of just how much you want.  Except mushrooms.  These are sold by 100 grams!  Additionally, there is the "funny-money" Euros to sort out - coins come in 2 and 1 Euro (two colored) and then 50, 20, 10, 2, and 1 cent pieces.  We have ended up with a lot of coin cash because we don't want to hold people up as we sort through them.

So, produce is not so bad and the bakery is about the same, but I haven't gotten up the courage to try purchasing fish or meat.  It all looks good and fresh, but 1.) I'm not used to buying directly from the butcher/fishmonger, even at home, 2.) I am not sure about the German words for varieties, cuts, and preparations, and 3.) those pesky kilos!  I need to find an English speaking friend to coach me through this.  Tom has managed to buy cheese from the cheese monger, which has similar challenges.


By the time we finish with the market, we are all tired and drained from the metric converting (or guessing), mental translating, the crowds, and generally being alert to the people, culture, and architecture surrounding us.  We have heavy bags of produce and baked goods to carry home (walking!).  However, there is still time, and just a few Euros left to treat ourselves to something yummy from the bakery or Italian icecram cones!  What an experience!