The Power of Facebook

Just before Christmas I received a very nice Facebook message from a women here in Berlin that said she found me through my blog.  Interesting, I thought as we had no mutual friends. 

She was very kind and said she followed the blog and that she has a 2nd kitchen and that if I still needed stuff for our kitchen for our new place she'd be happy to gift or loan them to me.  She even mentioned that she had a car and I wouldn't have to lug everything with me back on a bus or a train.  She obviously had read about me having to trek back home with overly full arms through the city of Berlin with wardrobes and microwaves. 
How incredibly sweet!!  So amazing that she found me and reached out. 

We made a date to get together after Christmas,  our whirlwind trip to Barcelona and the kids were back in school.   What a lovely woman.  She and her husband welcomed me into their home.  We had tea and a nice conversation about family (they have 5 children and 8 or 9 - sorry, I can't remember- grandchildren) They both spoke perfect English.  We also talked about the differences between the US and Germany.  They both had spent some time in the States.  And lo and behold the art of grocery shopping came up.  In a way it is nice to know that even long time German residents and citizens often feel rushed and baffled by the checking out and bagging process here.  

On a side note, grocery shopping still remains a bit stressful.  It is so funny how something seemingly so small can be so different from country to country.  Most of the stores the checkers are SO fast and they fling your items at you at record speed. You are expected to keep up because the area that they fling them into is about the size of a notebook.  Seriously, I think people would buy more at their store if they made the check out process a bit more comfortable.  Customers either butt their cart right up to the notebook sized area and immediately just start refilling their cart whilly nilly and then have to pull over to a nearly equally small space to then rebag everything to then take to their cars or bikes or just carry which seems SOOO inefficient.  Or they have bags like we do and they have to rebag everything in lightening speed as stuff is being flung at you.  I have become a bit smarter.  I now put everything on the conveyor belt in the order it should go back into my bag.  Heaviest stuff first, then produce then rolls.  And I love it when the checker has to stop and look something up before ringing it in.  What a dream to get a couple of extra seconds to breathe before paying and getting the heck out of the way because ALWAYS there is another German right behind you and even if you are trying to put your wallet away they just push their way to the notebook sized area.  It is kind of rude but I get it.  If they are delayed because of me then they won't have time to get their groceries put away.  Also, funny story about grocery shopping.  So if you want to use a grocery cart you have to put in a 1 Euro coin and then you can use one.  When you return your cart and plug it back in to the stall your 1 Euro coin pops out.  So really it is just a deposit.  But if you don't know this - which we didn't when we first came- it makes things a bit comical.  When Elliott's family were here they went to the store.  And then Chris retold us the story after and we all died laughing. So in the states you would typically offer to take back a cart for someone who is walking back to the store pushing an empty cart.  But here no one would let you do that because they want their 1 Euro back.  So Chris offered to take someone's cart and they looked at him with a cold German stare and obviously he had no clue why his act of generosity was being met with such disdain.  Then when Chris was done shopping (he just assumed you had to pay the 1 Euro to use the cart and had no idea you actually got your Euro back) he offered his cart to another customer as they were walking into the store.  He said that person acted like they won the lottery.  Not only did he give them his cart but when that customer returned it they would get Chris' 1 Euro deposit.  So funny.

OK, so back to my new friends.  They honestly could not have been nicer.  After a very nice conversation she led me downstairs and let me borrow and hand mixer (yay!!  I see cookies and cakes on the horizon) and an immersion blender (soups, soups, yay!) and a few other essentials.  And then she drove me home in her car.  And all of this because she knows someone who lives in Seattle who liked one of Marty's Facebook posts about us moving to Berlin.  How cool is that? Thanks again, Karin!!!  We will see each other again soon. 💗