Today it took me almost two hours to go shopping for groceries. Maybe it doesn't sound that crazy to you, I can pass two hours shopping in Wal-Mart easily . . . but this wasn't even a big shopping trip. I only bought enough to be able to carry home on my own & it all cost me under 60€ (~$66).
Though I speak French quite well, I still face many challenges every single day. At home I can pop into Wal-Mart or Harris Teeter for a quick shopping trip. I may only be frustrated by the busyness or the crazy people, but I'm hardly ever lost and confused. Yes, sometimes it takes a little bit of time to get used to the layout of a new store, but that was only half my problem today.
In France, I shop at a store called Carrefour. To give you an idea of the store: As per Wikipedia, Carrefour "is one of the largest hypermarket chains in the world, the fourth largest retail group in the world in terms of revenue (after Wal-Mart, Tesco, and Costco), and the third in profit." When I'm in a real Carrefour it feels just like I'm shopping in Wal-Mart. It's big and sells almost anything you're looking for. However I live too far from a regular sized Carrefour. Nearby there is a Carrefour City and a Carrefour Market. Carrefour City is slightly bigger than a gas station but the prices are much higher than a regular store. Carrefour Market is about half the size of a regular Carrefour. It resembles a Harris Teeter since it mostly sells food and household products (like paper products, cleaning products, beauty products, baby and pet products) but also has a few other things like a small selection of school supplies, magazines, DVDs, socks and slippers / cheap shoes, etc.
This was my first real shopping trip by myself. My mom and I made a few trips when she was here for just a few things. This time I found myself walking up and down each aisle multiple times. I had to look up so many words. If you thought it was hard to choose between products already, then imagine the challenge it was for me. Sometimes I wasn't even sure what I was staring at. Sometimes I didn't know if the product would even be in the store at all. It was possible that I was running around searching for something that isn't commonly sold in France or not offered at this particular store. Having no way of knowing I just kept on looking. [Never did find black beans, so I bought kidney beans instead]
The whole time it was painfully obvious that I had no idea what I was doing. This made me uncomfortable since I usually try very hard to blend in everywhere I go. I don't want to be noticed or immediately pegged as an American. I think my efforts work because nobody bothers me and sometimes people even ask me for directions or about products in the grocery store (yes that happened today with a cute little old lady).
Eventually I managed to find almost everything that I needed. I stood in the fruit and vegetable section for about 10 minutes just waiting for someone to weigh their produce. I saw the scale and read the sign and knew that I needed to weigh my produce before I went to the cash register. Instead of struggling to understand the directions, I just waited and watched other people do it. It wasn't rocket science after all. I just put my produce on the scale, selected the product, and my bar code sticker printed out instantly. I wish Wal-Mart had this! Think of how much faster our cashiers could ring people up if the produce was pre-weighed & stickered.
After it was all said and done, after rushing all of my things into my bags so that I could pay and get out of the way, after wobbling home with said heavy bags (lots of products in France come in glass jars instead of plastic), and after putting everything in it's place on the shelf, I felt incredibly relieved. Relieved that it was over and that I succeeded. I felt exhausted mentally from the constant confusion and exhausted physically from spending two hours at the store.
It's hard to explain how terrible it was since nothing really went wrong. Nothing bad happened and it all worked out, but it just wasn't pleasant. It may be hard to imagine being in a place where you don't understand everything you see and hear right away or at all. It's hard to experience something that's usually so simple, such as grocery shopping, in such a frustrating and confusing way. It's something silly that I didn't realize would affect me.
I got over it though and I know that it will get easier. The next trip should take me at least half the amount of time if I buy exactly the same stuff! Haha. Anyway, just another day of this exciting journey! I am still living my dream and appreciating every moment of it, even the frustrating moments.
Fun Fact: I spent twenty minutes of my time at the store just in the cheese aisle. You heard me correctly: there's an entire aisle just for cheese. And I mean a real, full length aisle. You could get lost in there, and I did just trying to find cheddar cheese! I will probably spend just as much time in the cheese aisle next time while picking out some French cheeses to sample. I'm open to seeing if I can enjoy cheese since I never really have before. After all:
When in Rome, live as the Romans do; when elsewhere, live as they live elsewhere.
Saint Ambrose
Well elsewhere right now is France, and the French love their wine & cheese! See [THIS] post about another French tradition that I recently got to experience. And yes, it also involved cheese!
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