sleeping is B O R I N G

Last night, Caden told Jim, "sleeping is boring and you never let me do anything at bedtime."  Poor kid has so much energy he doesn't know what to do with himself! Life is just too exciting to sleep in his opinion. If it's boring to him- forget about it. The alphabet is one of those things on the "not so exciting" side of things. He knows his letters but really would rather not work on them. But, he can tell you just about every NFL team in the league just looking at their mascot. If only football players wore letters instead of numbers... he'd be set. He runs circles around me every day, oh... school is going to be so much fun... his poor teacher! I have a feeling I'll be helping out in his classroom a LOT.

To burn some energy and get out of the house, we did a little shopping today. My good friend Traci told me in Kansas that she liked a store called Aldi. I found one in Wichita, but never made it there. I always wanted to, just didn't fit it in. But, they have it here and we went this afternoon. Nothing extraordinary, just a little supermarket but I really liked it.

No surprise, but shopping is a bit different over here. In my orientation last month, I learned {from the German man teaching the class} that shopping and socializing are two different things that the Germans keep totally separate. Walking in to the grocery stores feels the same to me as walking in to a library- not a peep. I've probably shopped in the German store 6-8 times now and still haven't even heard even a child or baby making any kind of noise. They don't smile or visit {not even a hello}, they do their business and get out of there. Makes sense, really but it's hard for me to not want to say hi to everyone I see. Just driving this moring, I waved at an older couple taking their walk. The lady {sort of} waved back but both just stared at me in a sort of perplexed way, probably wondering who the heck I was. When you live in the country- you just wave, that's what we do! I'm learning. Even upon checking out- you get a quick "halo" from the clerk, then how much your total is and an even quicker tschuss! That's it- no "how's your day?" or " nice weather" even... pay and get out of the way.  Everyone brings their own bags or baskets as well to shop. New bags every time you shop is quite wasteful, but still quite acceptable in the US. Here, recycling and conservation are the way they live- like it or not. I think you can buy plastic bags if you don't have any. Or, you just load up your arms. There are carts but you have to put a deposit in (usually 25 euro cents), then you get it when you return it. This is typical at all of the stores- even the BX on base.

Today, I was looking for bread and some apricot jam spread {that I am in love with} then thought to grab some cream. Nothing big, but still quite a treasure hunt. Never found the cream. Eggs are out on a shelf- not in the fridge, maybe it's that freshness factor, who knows? Straight from the chicken to the shelf?  I haven't seen any 18 or 24-pack eggs either, they'd probably laugh at me... here, they are all in little packages of 6. Guess when you shop every day {or only have 1 kid} you only need six at a time. Can't imagine the expression on their faces if they ever walked in to a Costco.