Grocery shopping

Little did I know that moving to Switzerland would have the hidden benefit of my husband learning to grocery shop!

I initially tried to "teach" my husband how to grocery shop when we lived in the US. He was very good at going to the store for chips and soda, but nothing else. I even created a inventory check list that he could use prior to going to the store. I thought it would appeal to his sense of organization, but it was to no avail. I can't tell you how many times we have had this conversation:

Elastomom- Can you go to the grocery store today?

Mr.I - I don't know what we need.

Elastomom - Food (sarcasm) Really, look in fridge, what are we short of?

Mr.I - I don't know.

Elastomom - Milk?

Mr.I - Uh, yes.

Elastomom - What else?

Mr. I - I don't know.......

You get the picture. It took me less time to just do it myself.

In Switzerland however, with stores closing at 5 pm and not open at all on Sunday, it became a matter of neccesity for my husband to shop for groceries. Shopping here is not at all like in America. Here you really have to hunt for what you need. Bread at one store, Milk at another, meat and produce somewhere else. I think this challenge appealed to my husband, either that or he realized that it was a better alternative to starving to death. He has searched high and low and found what we need at the different shops in the area. Succesfully finding things like Ritz crackers, sourcream, spaghetti sauce, hot dogs, and wheat sandwhich bread that doesn't taste like cardboard!

So now he is my grocery shopping expert. I don't know if this will last when we return to the US. He'll be back to working in the yard and comfortable in knowing that the grocery store is open 24/7.