Shopping

As guests of the military, we are allowed to shop at the PX and commissary. We also have a few other little shops at the PX, and even more if we're willing to drive an hour to Ramstein, which is a huge Air Force Base. We do buy some things on base, either because they're too hard to find on the economy, or they're just too expensive. We don't know all of the appropriate stores here, yet, so we'll also get stuff on base then. Some of the things we can't get on the economy are purely American - Mt Dew, Fig Newtons, Fiber One granola bars, etc) and some  I haven't found garbanzo beans at all, nor do they have lemon juice that tastes like lemons. Their lemon juice tastes like grapefruit for some reason. Another thing that I would have thought they would have is peanut butter, but apparently that's more American than I thought. They do have it, but only one kind, and it's like 3€ for a little tiny jar. Beef is horribly expensive here, but they have a great ground pork/beef combo that's even better than ground beef. We get all of our other meat at the commissary, though.

We are very lucky to be within walking distance of three small grocery stores (Aktivmart, Lidl, and Aldi) and within a 5 minute drive of a really large one (Real). Real is rather like a small Kmart attached to a medium-sized grocery store. We do most of our day to day shopping at Aktivmart, because we can get there and back in less than 5 minutes walking, and we have a path that goes straight there. In the Aktivmart, there's a separate bakery where Em goes to get our lunch every day. I love that she can go on her own, it's wonderful. I also love that I get a fresh baguette and chocolate croissant for lunch every day. :)

Shopping here is interesting. If you want bags for your groceries, you either bring your own or you buy their reusable bags at the store. We bring ours. I have found that they will give you bags at clothing places, though. About bagging, it is your job to bag, and you'd better do it while they're checking you out, or the next person's groceries will end up in your stuff. They will not wait for you to finish. It's rather stressful.

The sucky thing is that you will not find a German grocery store open on Sunday. Very little is open on Sunday. Maybe a gas station and a few restaurants, but no shopping. Nor is anything open past 10pm, and most things close much earlier. It is Saturday night right now, and I just discovered that we're out of milk. We won't be able to get any until Monday, which pretty much bites. We could get some at the commissary tomorrow, if we want to pay $4 for a half gallon. Though, we can get Organic Valley, so that's good. At the German stores, we get it by the liter, but it works out to be cheaper.

Emma says - I went to the store to get milk for the first time the other evening. It was only 20 minutes before the store closed, so I was a bit nervous about that. Then when I got the milk and got up to the register, I discovered that I had lost my money! So, I had to run back home and get more, then come back before the store closed! But she very nicely held my milks under the counter for me. 

The bakery ladies know me by looks. The one that's there most often even knows my order. If she's there and she sees me, she says, "Ba-Lü, shokocroissant?" because that's what I always get. Sometimes, they'll give me fresh ones from the back if they don't have any at the counter yet!