Adjusting to new things

Being in a new country, you will encounter things and experiences that will be new and different to you. I thought I would share a few things that are a bit different than America. 

Flying in Europe - Unless you are on a big international flight back to the States or outside the EU, you will not board your flight at the gate. In hindsight, I am glad that the first time I visited Tyler, he gave me a heads up on this otherwise I would have been completely confused as to what was going on. When boarding for a flight from one EU country to another, everyone stands in line and goes through and gets their ticket scanned. Instead of walking down the jet bridge and entering the plane, you wait in an area for a bus to come. Everyone crams onto the bus and it drives you out onto the middle of the tarmac to wherever your plane is. You get off the bus and everyone walks up a mobile set of stairs to the plane. (Somehow, I always fly on extremely cold days and am at the end of the line. Happens every time.) When the plane lands at your destination, they park again in the middle of the tarmac and you walk off, load onto a bus and they take you the airport doors. 

Grocery carts and grocery bags - You are going to have to pay for these. When grocery shopping, all the of the shopping carts are chained together. If you want to use one, you have to put 1 euro into a slot on the handle bar and it releases it from the other carts. You get your euro back at the end of your shopping trip as long as you bring it back to the other carts, chain it back up and your euro pops out. It's actually a pretty good system - there aren't random shopping carts all over parking lots because people have to return them in an orderly fashion to get their money back! A lot of people bring their own bags to the grocery store but if not, you will need to purchase them. Grocery bags typically cost around 5 or 10 cents each.You pick up however many bags you need for your groceries at the register and pay for them just like anything else. You also have to bag your own groceries as well.

Milk is not refrigerated - Yes, you read this right and I can imagine what you are thinking. This was probably the hardest for me to get used to. My first visit to see Tyler, I was looking for something and I saw extra cartons of milk in his cupboard. I was like "Tyler!? Why is there milk in your cupboard?!" He had to explain to me that you don't buy milk cold and it only gets refrigerated when you bring it home and put in in the refrigerator yourself. I could not wrap my mind around this! Milk is just sold on the shelf like soda or juice - how can milk be sold at room temperature and not spoil!? I don't know how it works but the process of making milk must be different here! It took me until my next trip to Europe when I was with him for three months to get more comfortable with this. I drink milk all time in the States. I can go through about 3 gallons a week by myself (should I be proud of this or is it weird that I drink that much milk!?) but here, I am taking baby steps and only use milk for my cereal.

Ovens and dryers - Two major appliances not commonly found in European apartments. Not having an oven really gets me. There is only so much you can do on a stove top! You realize how limited you are in making meals when you only have a stove! This year, Tyler and I decided it would be a good investment to buy a countertop oven. It was a good chunk of change but it's definitely worth it. We use it every day and I can make entire meals and bake! This is exciting, guys! Fortunately, this year Tyler got an apartment with a dryer. This is also very exciting! In previous years, we have just had this big tri-folded rack to hang all of our laundry on to air dry. You truly don't appreciate the value of a dryer until your freshly washed and dried towel you grab after showering is hard, stiff and feels like sandpaper on your body. Also, air dried socks are the worst too. Nothing like putting on a pair of crunchy socks and breaking them in for the day! I am thankful my towels and socks are going to be soft and fluffy this year! 

Items that are rare and expensive - You really don't realize how much stuff we have in America! We have entire aisles for soda, chips, cereal, etc. Here, there are only sections of these items in aisles. While we are able to find what we need and have plenty of options, there are some things here that are rarely found and if they are found, it will be a small quantity and cost a pretty penny. Here are some examples of things that are cheap and easy to find in America but if you are able to find them here, this is approximately what you will spend:

6 oz bottle of maple syrup - $12
6 oz jar of peanut butter - $6
3 oz bottle of vanilla extract - $14
8 oz bottle of BBQ sauce - $7
6 oz package of strawberries - $12 
6 oz bottle of salad dressing - $5

Those items are just a few random things that we commonly use in America but are not common here! We obviously get by without having these, but we will splurge sometimes on peanut butter or salad dressing just because there is really nothing we can do about the price!

These are a handful of things that we experience here. Just a little different way of life but when I share with my friends and family, they are always so intrigued. Hope you all found this interesting as well :)