This week has had a few funny incidents and a few discoveries due to my current lack of ability to understand the French language. Many people here speak multiple languages. I feel I have missed an opportunity by not learning more than English. I am trying to pick up a few more phrases in French.
Shopping at the grocery store is always an adventure. I have been experimenting with meals I am used to cooking and trying new recipes using the fresh ingredients I find each day. Fruits and vegetables are relatively easy since I can identify most of them. Bread smells delightful and is easy to buy. Meat is a little different but I am good at reading pictures. There is a picture of a pig on the porc, a picture of a chicken on the poulet, and so on. This week the fish looked good. But all the pictures of the fish looked the same. I could guess saumon probably was salmon but I grabbed a piece of white fish that I thought was cod or maybe halibut. It had a picture of a ship on it so I thought it was probably wild caught. As I was checking out I suddenly thought perhaps this isn't cod; what if it is eel or something else? I didn't have service on my phone so I couldn't use my French translation app so I just purchased it and said I'm sure it will be fine. I baked it with lemon and chopped tomato with garlic and melted a piece of Swiss cheese on top. It was delicious.
I tackled learning how to do laundry this week. Since I am still resting my sprained knee as much as possible I grabbed all the things I needed so I only had to make one trip on the 3 flights of stairs. I walked down the stairs with my laundry basket, detergent, key for the machine, my trash, purse and shopping bags. The washing machines and dryers are much smaller than the ones I have used in the past so I was unsure how many clothes to put in at a time. They all fit so that seemed right. The instructions were written in French, German and Italian; none of which I could read. The laundry supplies in the store are also not familiar to me so I stare at the label, take my best guess and go with it. I figured out how to load the machine with clothes and my "soap" and closed the door of the drum. I chose a cold water wash at 20 degrees C. The meter said it would take 20 minutes so I programed the machine and started it. Later I found the English instructions for the washer which confirmed I had figured it out correctly.
During the 20 minute wash cycle I took my recyclables to their appropriate neighborhood bins. In Switzerland everything is recycled if at all possible. I had separated all my trash already. All the plastic, glass, and aluminum with labels removed. All cardboard. All items that could be composted in their own green bag. Finally remaining trash in a black bag. It is a great system and so ecological. I love it. I had already discovered where the trash bins and recycling area were located but had not ever found the compost bins. I had learned cardboard pick up is on Mondays. During this walk I saw a green bin on the curb. I looked inside and found bags of composting items. Yay! Composting must be on Wednesdays. I quickly put my items in and hoped I was allowed to use this one. The trash area is about 100 meters from my apartment, the recycling area about 300 meters, and the compost bin about 250 meters.
My wash was finished by the time I got back. I was a bit troubled though as I realized I have just washed my clothes with fabric softener. They sure smell nice and are very soft. The dryer is even more confusing to me than the washer because there are lots of options and I can't read any of them. I just loaded the dryer pressed some buttons, and knew I had at least 80 minutes before the machine would stop. I left thinking "I hope they dry and don't shrink." Next up - shopping for dinner and hopefully detergent. Success on the detergent. It is the one that has the different wash temperatures listed on it with a picture of a washing machine. When I returned from shopping I had an 11 minute wait for my clothes and I snuck in a little sudoku time. When I removed the clothes from the dryer they were mostly dry but not warm. Hum, probably need to explore that a bit more next time. I have a drying rack in my apartment to take care of the rest of the drying so no problem.
I used my rest time this week to learn a bit more French. I have added some greetings, foods, colors, and numbers to my very limited repertoire but already it has helped me. I recognized a few more words at the grocery like white wine vinegar and red pepper flakes and am beginning to hear the numbers as the clerk tells me how much I owe.
I have added a language translation app to my iPad which has already proved most helpful in reading directions on packages and hopefully dryer directions next week. I continually am thankful for this opportunity and treasure every discovery and learning in my new culture.
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