9/8/09 - I found a grocery store!

I haven’t had a chance to do real food shopping, and up until today I have just picked up a few things here and there from the produktiy right by school. The produktiy near me is what I would call a convenience/liquor store. There are 5 different counters, each with its own cashier. One for the pastries, dairy, and snacks, one for hot food, one for office supplies, one for household supplies, and one for fruit, frozen products (veggies, meat, fish), and alcohol. If you want something from a section, you have to pay for it before going onto the next. Another thing about the stores here is that you usually have to pay for bags, they don’t just give them to you. I brought two durable reusable bags from home and I am happy I did.

So far I have been surviving mostly on a few things I brought from home (1 packet of soup and some oatmeal), yogurt, cereal, bananas, apples, piroshkies (these are not pierogies, but bread with various types of filling), cabbage “salad”, and chicken. I can’t wait to go to the central market when I have time, and supposedly there is some type of western style grocery store in the center of town, which I am excited to find. However, this little grocery store, which is also really close to my dorm, was an exciting find. Instead of having to tell the cashier what you want, you can go around with a basket and pick things out which is less stressful. They have a little bit wider of a selection, but it is mostly the same stuff as the other produktiy, including a decent supply of 5L jugs of bottled water, which until I buy a filter, I need for drinking, cooking, and brushing my teeth. Still, it was overwhelming to see all of these new products, and trying to figure out what half of everything was, but I made out ok. I bought some pasta and cooked my first real dinner. Unfortunately, the tomato sauce that I bought tastes like ketchup so it wasn’t the most appetizing of all meals. Tomorrow I plan on finding the big grocery store, and hopefully I will have better luck.