So things have somehow slowed down but been busier at the same time, hence the not updating. Not that I’m planning on updating every single day after things truly slow down…just the days in which something interesting occurs.
One liter is not a lot, I have discovered. I’ve already bought milk three times. Luckily, milk is cheap, less than $1/L. But even still, I only buy 1L of milk at a time, and 1L of orange juice, and they’re gone like that. Kind of like my money around here.
In class, we are apparently a very quick group, and so Inger (pronounced “Ing-uh”) leaves time at the end for us to ask her pretty much whatever we like. Usually it centers around grocery shopping, as things are so different here. First, you have to find everything in a new language. Second, you have to find if they even have the product you’re searching for. We ran into a bit of a problem with baking soda. Inger did not understand when I tried to describe the difference between baking powder and baking soda, which I find unusual as she has mentioned several times baking for her family. With the help of friends and a wonderfully fantastic website that has the UK English, American English, and Danish names for common baking items, I discovered that Denmark does indeed have baking soda.
Things they don’t have:
Peanut butter – there is one form of organic peanut butter, but it’s not so good…I am no expert on organic peanut butter, but I heard another American complaining to a friend, and she said she eats organic at home but it is far better than the sole Danish option
Cans of soup – believe it or not, what I thought was universal is not. The only options for soup are a few of these two-serving bags of soup. Yes, bags. Not bags like plastic bags, but closer to chips bags, but even thicker. And the flavors? Some sort of Asian flavor, tomato, and vegetable. Not a single can of chicken noodle soup to be found, or even chicken broth.
Chocolate chips – As our class is doing a series of national dinners, I plan on making chocolate chip cookies as part of the American dinner (apple pie would involve far too much work – making two pies completely from scratch, as they also do not have pre-made pie crust is more effort than I want to make if I’m to cook an entire dinner for 15 people). It is still possible, now that I have found baking soda, but I will have to do it the old-fashioned way and chop up a chocolate bar.
Zip-loc bags – I don’t just mean the brand name, I mean any kind of bag that has a sealing mechanism. All they have is regular plastic bags for sandwiches, reminiscent of Subway sandwich bags. I guess I’ll be investing in twist ties (let’s hope they have those).
Things they do have:
Tacos – surprisingly, it seems that Mexican food is if not popular, at least getting there. They have both tortillas and hard shells, they have the taco meat mix as well as a “burrito mix” (which I am curious as to how it’s different than the taco mix) and a fajita spice mix.
Dark Chocolate – we learned in class how to say dark chocolate (probably the most helpful thing to learn) – mørk chokolade – and I wish I could pronounce that for you, because it is perhaps the most unattractive way to say chocolate…it’s not all nice and “choc-o-lade”y but “sho-ko-laaal”, which does not do it justice – and so, I decided after class to get myself some mørk chokolade. I saw a fairly cheap bar, and I saw one with Odense written on it, so I figured, even though it was $4, I would see what local chocolate was. Needless to say, it was the best spent $4 of my life. This Odense chocolate has replaced Cadbury dark chocolate (which, though made by a British company can only be found in America, not in the UK) as my all-time favorite.
Yogurt in cartons – their yogurt is poured out of a carton, as in a milk carton. It’s not as thick as yogurt at home, but is quite good. However, the verdict is still out on whether or not I like the pouring of yogurt.
Bread – and lots of it.
Pastries – enough said.
So, I’ll deal with my sub-par peanut butter and jelly sandwiches by overcompensating with delicious bread, Nutella, and pastries.
Short anecdote of the day: I tagged along with a friend at a used bike shop. The man behind the desk was from Iraq, and when we left I said "Shukran" (thank you). But that was, sadly, all that I could remember of two years of Arabic. It made him happy, though, so that's good :)
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