Reading is Fundamental!

So a kind of funny thing happened to me the other day.  Backstory first, we have a tiny kitchen with an even tinier refrigerator so grocery shopping must be done with care.  If not planned properly, I simply have no place to put anything and watching food spoil is like taking my euros and throwing it in the garbage.  So imagine my delight upon encountering these beauties in the produce section of the grocery store!

Deko-kurbis (German for decorative pumpkins)

I was beside myself with joy, taking time to select the perfect serving sizes for meals for two.  Mumbling to myself, ‘Oh, this would be great to roast and have as a side-dish/starch component with a steak/lamb’ and ‘This one should make a pretty nice soap with no left-overs – hubby will love that!’ as other shoppers threw side-eyes and slowly backed away from the crazy woman…

I hurried home with my treasures, so pleased with myself, and again singing the praises of my new city and their outstanding produce.  I mean, they even thought of two-person families and provide perfectly sized options for us at reasonable prices!  Ha ha, jokes on me – I get home and after putting away the perishables turn my attention to my beauties and then I notice the sticker on the side…deko-kurbis.  I think I might have even held my breath!  ‘Oh no’, I thought, ‘please no!’ as I grab my phone and dial my MIL.  She confirmed, they were fall decorations for the home.  Oh, they were real pumpkins but immature and would yield little flesh and a poor taste.

Thus folks, reading is fundamental!  As with anywhere, even as an English speaker in an English-speaking country, if you can’t read, you will feel.  This experience, while funny, has also hardened my resolve to learn how to speak, read, and write German fully.  But hey, at least I have a really nice bit of decoration for our apartment! 😀