If we're being honest here, I have to admit I'm pretty inexperienced in fending for myself to start with. This might not be the best time to mention it, seeing how I just moved to a foreign city, but it feels good to get that off my chest. I went from living at home to living in the residence halls on campus as a resident and then an RA. When I had a meal plan at school, it was pointless and wasteful for me to shop for myself a lot and I always ate with my family at home.
That's not to say I am a total recluse and have never shopped for food before or cooked. It's just different when you finally have to start making all of your meals by yourself; it's a whole different ballgame. See, I actually think that might be the least of the problem. The big part of the problem could possibly that I don't speak Dutch.
My first experience in the store was a hurried experience where I went in with my friend that I had just met. After wandering around aimlessly for a bit we had to start making decisions. It wasn't just that we couldn't read what was in the packages; we weren't familiar with a lot of the foods that we were seeing. I know how people cook quick meals at home but I didn't see a single thing of Easy Mac or pizza roles in the place.
Needless to say, this was not a very successful trip and I ended up eating only rice cakes (or maybe they were Styrofoam) and carrots for the three days that I was here. Oh, and I also bought paper towel instead of toilet paper.
The next time I went, I tried a closer store and bought some vegetables, bread and pasta and some cheese. I have to say the cheese was fabulous, although I'm not sure what kind it was. I think the package said Gouda when I looked at it but there was also some numbers that came along with it in the name. It's hard to know what a good price of things are because a lot of things aren't necessarily things I'm familiar with the prices of in that form, plus it takes a conversion to Euros to know what it would cost in USD. My sophisticated technique primary was to find something that looked like it might be half way familiar, and then buy the cheapest one of that selection available. At one point, I was hoping what I was buying was butter and somebody with me told me to "just buy it; you might find something new you like on your toast."
The stores are small in the city, even though they're called "supermarkets," they are the size of a small convenience store. People don't really seem to do the whole "stock up at Wal-Mart for months in case of emergency" thing here and instead seem to buy things for only a couple of days at a time. I ventured out today to the recommended store in the area that was actually quite a bit bigger. It was located under the football stadium. They had these hand held scanner things that you can carry around with you and scan your groceries as you go so you just have to swipe the scanner to checkout and can keep a running total. It was actually really interesting and very helpful, although it still couldn't help me figure out what to buy. I branched out at this store and attempted to buy some meat today. I cannot honestly say what kind it is, but I think the sign said it was on sale.
The only problem that I've found with the giant kitchen in our house is that everybody else seems to be able to make it smell more appetizing than I can. This is probably another thing that I need to work on, but the good news is that my cupboard has expanded beyond rice cakes and carrots.
My next goal when I go shopping is to cut my wandering aimlessly and confused time in half. I know I'll have a lot of practice so I think I should be able to know what I'm buying by at least the 10th time I go to the store. The reason it's so easy to get all of this practice is that you can only get a small bit of groceries that you put into your bag or backpack when you go to the store because you have to manage your way home with it on your bicycle on the ice.
