Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Experiences while 'Settling In'

We have not had any television service since moving into our new place last Saturday.  For some reason, our cable service wasn't working properly... until yesterday.  After a failed attempt to fix it on Saturday by our landlord and after I waited home all Monday afternoon for the cable repairman who never showed up, our tv suddenly began working properly last night.  We're not sure why... but we'll take it!

At present we have very few English speaking channels, but soon we will have a few more!  We had purchased a Ziggo premium channel card that will be inserted into our cable box sometime later today.  We are hoping it works!

Anyhow, as we were watching tv last night, we decided that we both had a sweet tooth that needed to be satisfied.  Knowing that we had strawberries remaining from The Hague's fresh market on Saturday, we decided that I would run down to the nearby grocery store to get a pound cake, whipped cream and a few items that we needed.

As I approached the grocery store, I realized that I had forgotten my discount card and my empty grocery bags to carry all of my items home.  I also started to wonder if things like pound cake and whipped cream even exist here.

After several laps around the store, I gradually found everything I wanted.  I decided at check out to not invest in anymore shopping bags and so I loaded as many items as I could into all of my pockets.  The pound cake I simply carried in my hand.

It occurred to me, as I was exiting the store, that I must look like a thief!  I had also failed to get a receipt and so now I could only hope that I wouldn't be 'stopped' on my walk home.

Luckily for me I made it home fine and it didn't take long for us to enjoy some fresh strawberries, pound cake and whip cream while sitting on our sofa, in front of our tv!  Each of our sweet tooths were satisfied!

A few interesting notes...

I learned last night that going to the grocery store after enjoying a nice bottle of wine with dinner isn't probably the best idea!

Also, I learned the other day that it costs 50 cents (euros) to use a shopping cart.  This was determined only after I tried taking hold of a woman's cart while she was returning it.  The woman made it very clear that she was not 'giving it' to me.  She mumbled that it cost 50 cents for its use.  She was nice about it, but I can't help but to wonder if she knew that I was clueless or if she thought that I might be trying to pull a fast one!  She was probably thinking 'dumb American'!