Shopping Part II

First off let me apologize to those that anxiously await pictures and words from us here in Poland.  I'm trying to find a happy balance between not inundating people with our new lives and also not running out of things to share during our stay here.  I have all sorts of posts running through my brain all the time.  Some require more time, pictures, and collection of information than others.  We appreciate our family and friends back home and the fact that you are just as excited as we are to learn about Polish culture and our ministry here!

Also after much consideration, I've decided to use our blog as a platform for less intimate stuff.  In other words, there are aspects of our ministry that I don't want to leave on the open web.  So, if you would like to get our private newsletter, let us know.

Okay so while the shopping here is different and may pose a small challenge to us, I can highlight some cool aspects.  I've already mentioned that you have to go to different stores to get different things because not every store has everything you need.  Here are some examples of some differences:

Previously posted on Facebook, this is Cuprum Arena and it is not a sports arena.  It is a shopping mall but slightly different than what we expect in the states.

From a first glance, it's the same as in the U.S.  It has clothing stores, shoes stores, athletic stores, book stores, house ware stores, pet stores, electronic stores, a few banks, a food court, and a movie theater.  Unlike the dying U.S. malls, this mall is thriving because people need it.  

But there are big differences, like this.  Lidl is a grocery store on the first level of the mall.  It isn't a large anchor store like Target or Walmart.  Just a simple grocery store.  There was a time when I vaguely remember stores like this maybe in malls in the U.S. but not recently.

This store is like the health and beauty isles in Walmart except with other stuff, too.  You can buy makeup, dog food, kitchen tools, and it happens to be one of the only places you can get contact solution.

This was a HUGE shock to me.  At Rossman, you can buy contact lenses without a doctor right off the shelf.  No prescription required.  WOW!

This is a beautiful thing my friends.  This is the spice isle at Kaufland.  At first, buying spices was intimidating as anything.  They don't usually come in nice little plastic containers.  Here they come in pouches.  Why is this isle beautiful?  This isle takes the guess work out of seasoning everything.  You want to season potatoes?
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Buy this lovely packet of spices just for seasoning potatoes.  Want to season your chicken?

Buy this packet of chicken seasoning.  Want to season your homemade pizza sauce?

Buy this packet of seasoning!  To my gluten free friends, notice the "Bez Glutaminianu."  Gluten free is easy to come by and readily marked.  Plus no mono sodium or additives.  Beautiful folks!  For real!

So here is where it gets tricky sometimes.  We wanted to buy cumin for Chili soup.  Easy enough.  We translated it with Google translate, asked for help from an employee, and we were directed to a spice packet.  Bought it.  Brought it home and turns out cumin translates the same as caraway.  If you know what caraway is, uh NO!  NOT the same thing.  We realized the error of our ways and found this spice packet later which indicates India cumin.  MUCH better!

You organize these packets in little baskets like this.

I personally like it.  It's different but the shear number of spice packets you can buy is quite fantastic.  The downside is that since these are prepackaged, recreating the exact spice combinations from scratch could prove to be tricky.  Most people don't know exactly what the spices are in these packets.  You can easily translate the ingredients but the actual proportions would be the trick.  They have packets for gravies, salad dressings, and soups as well.  In fact, you cannot generally buy soup in a can.  You have to buy a packet and add water for mushroom or tomato soup.

So when I posted this picture to Facebook, I did so not just because of the delicious Polish soup but also because I had used the chicken spice packet for the first time to bake this chicken.  It turned out really good.  The soup has a homemade vegetable stock with potatoes, carrots, small homemade dumplings, fried bacon strips, and fresh baby dill.

I will continue to share more on shopping because it's fun.  Hopefully, you enjoy it, too.

Shopping

We have been here in Poland for just over one month already and the adjustment has been better than we could have anticipated.  No doubt, we have a huge prayer army that has been faithful during our time of transition! 

So what's been the hardest thing to adjust to?  Shopping, shopping, and then shopping again.  It sounds silly but it has truly been the toughest part for our family.  There are many things that factor into why shopping is tough.  There's the obvious part where we are an American family trying to make American food in a foreign country.  We are open to making Polish food but we need help learning how to make some of the traditional and staple foods.  We will find someone to teach us but it's summer vacation here and people are busy with travel, etc.

If you are Facebook friends with Dustin or myself, you've probably viewed the video on how small our kitchen appliances are here in Poland.  The oven is small and the fridge is small.  This means less storage and limited cooking space.  While the refrigerator is small, you also have to keep in mind that things like eggs and liter milk cartons, unless opened, aren't refrigerated here.  This frees up some space in the fridge.  Our kitchen also has limited storage space.  So space is a factor but it's not the biggest issue.

Cartons of milk that don't expire until November in our cabinet.

We are a large family and so we consume more food.  The problem with buying a lot of food all at once though is that we do not have a car.  When we go shopping, we either catch a bus, walk, or we ride bikes.  This means whatever we buy has to fit in backpacks, on arms, and/or in bicycle baskets.  We sometimes take three people to shop but even then, we are limited on what we can bring home at one time.  Taking all seven of us is complete chaos and we try to avoid it if at all possible.  Although, it does give us more arms for carrying stuff.

The elements also play a role in shopping.  The weather completely matters when you are walking to bus stops or biking to stores.  We've had quite a bit of rainy weather lately and a few of us have been caught in storms.  Waiting storms out takes time and that isn't always a choice we want to make.  Winter will be really tough as bikes won't be an option which means waiting on buses.

Last thing that makes it difficult is that not every store carries every item.  We are blessed to have many shops and stores available to purchase food from but even the large ones like Tesco or Kaufland have some things and not other things.  So many times, we have to stop at more than one store to grab everything we need.

The good news is that we are slowly learning what each store carries and we are getting to the point we can go about every other day to the store.  It's still often but without a car, this is probably about as good as we are going to get for now.  We've talked about buying a cheap vehicle or a vehicle that can hold us all and then selling it before we leave but we really haven't felt clear direction on what to do yet.  Public transportation within Lubin is free.  Hard to beat free but it also limits our family to Lubin.

I have said multiple times that if shopping is the hardest part of our transition, we are truly blessed.  Our needs are being met daily and we've joined a wonderful mission and church team here.  We have much to be thankful for.

This is our sliced deli meat location usually.  I also like to buy fruit from the stand just outside. 
Notice the name of this and then the store just below.

We don't shop here really ever because it's not as close to us but it is funny that it's on the same road as Alfa.

This place is great for rotisserie chickens, pizza dough, and crescent roll dough. 
It's a nice large grocery store and the prices are fairly good.

This is an English owned store that's exactly like Walmart with food, clothing, and home items. 
Has a great gluten free selection and ethnic food area.

This place is conveniently located close to our church.  If we need something quick, we may swing in here. 
The name actually translates as Ladybug.

This is our go to quick place.  It's on the walk to church/school.  We have found single yogurts here for less than $0.20/each.  So we get all our breakfast yogurts here and some other staples like bread and milk.  The logo contains a Scottish terrier but Netto actually translates as net.  Not sure what these two things have to do with each other but whatever!