This One's For You Dad

Yesterday was pretty relaxing at least for Scott and I. Jara's best friend's, Svenja, birthday is today. However, in Germany, when someone turns eighteen, friends and family gather to celebrate at the stroke of midnight. Jara was busy yesterday preparing Svenja's presents. Jara made a very extravagant birthday cake (two layers of chocolate cake, homemade butter cream frosting, and topped with hazelnuts and chocolate shavings). It says London on the top, because Svenja's parents gave her a shopping trip to London!

Jara also gave her many other gifts, and we traveled to the city center aka downtown to help Jara shop for them. While downtown, I went in the largest bookstore in Hannover in hopes that they would have a selection of English books, since I finally finished the book Kaitlin let me borrow for the trip. Sure enough, the bookstore did have an English section, though small (about 3 columns of shelves and a table) it still carried the book I was hoping to find!

As you know I'm a foodie so this should come as no surprise that I'm about to talk about grocery stores in Hannover. My dad has a few questions and is curious to see what they look like. So here is a culture lesson for some of you.

As I have mentioned before, Germans along with Europeans do things on a much smaller scale compared to Americans. For example, their cars, garages, ice cream scoops, and super-sized McDonald meals. Grocery stores are no exception. As I mentioned in a previous blog, Germans don't just have a one-stop shop for their grocery shopping. They go to the butcher, the grocery store, and the bakery. There are a few grocery stores that combined these services into one store. But these stores are not like your typical Vons or Winco where there are aisles on end of everything you can imagine. The grocery stores here in Hannover have about 7 aisles MAX.

The grocery stores still carry your typical items: produce, dairy, packaged meats, frozen foods, beverages, pet food, canned goods, etc. It is just that everything is on a much smaller scale. The produce sections is small. Not too many vegetables. :( For the first time in my life I saw baby carrots canned in a glass jar. Apparently, Grimmway Farms hasn't reached Hannover.

In Thailand last summer, I noticed there were so many new fruits that I had never seen before. But here, the only fruit that is out of the norm is lingonberries. Also, the asparagus here is white and the stalk is much thicker. Leeks are also very common here along with radishes.

Lingonberries

There are very few brands that I recognize. Some of the common kids' cereals and granola bars, Nutella, and candy/gum.

Anything look familiar?

Though the grocery store provides a grocery cart, no one except the elderly use them. When I went to the checkout counter, I was in shock at the amount of food people were purchasing! My thought was 'how long is that apple juice, sausage, and yogurt going to last you? Four hours? Then you come back to the store again?' In America, our carts are full of groceries as if we are hoarding for the next World War.

Also, you have to PAY for your grocery bags. There are 9 cents a bag, so you must pack wisely if you have a bag at all! My brother and I were naive to this fact. So when we saw a man stash his yogurts in his backpack while shopping, we thought he was shoplifting. Jara then clued us in that he was not in fact stealing but using his backpack as a bag. Very common here.

The yellow bags are to purchase

But then again, the size of their refrigerators are SMALL! I thought Jara's family just had a smaller one since only two people live here. But when I visit other homes with families of 4 or 5 people, the size of the refrigerator is the same! (And they don't have an extra freezer in the garage either!) Jara's refrigerator is located underneath the countertop!

The top section is the freezer! My first thought was 'How will ice cream ever fit in there?!'

What I've observed of the German diet is that they eat a lot of sausage, pork, and salami. Chicken, fish, and turkey are hard to come by. One, two, or three potato dishes are served with a meal. They have a large selection of gravies, but the most common is hollandaise sauce (my brother's favorite). Even though chocolate is so common here, the desserts are without chocolate! Most of the dessert included cherries or some type of berry with yogurt and cookies baked into cake-like dish. I'm not complaining...they are delicious.

Today, I ventured byself to downtown, because it was already 3:00 in the afternoon and Scott or Jara were awake yet!! Yes, you read that right...3:00 PM. So I went back to the bookstore to browse some more books and cookbooks, window shopped, and had my first bratwurst sandwich.

Hannover's downtown

Bratwurst Sandwich

Don't worry Scott and Jara were awake when I returned. Tonight, we are off to Cafe & Bar Celona (get it...Barcelona) to have cocktails for Svenja's birthday.

Sorry this blog is so long!

Three Things I Learned Today:

1. I know how to get to the city's center all on my own.

2. I really miss vegetables.

3. People stare at you funny when you take pictures of the grocery store.