We aren't in Kansas anymore

That's what Ken keeps telling me. We are reminded on an hourly basis that we are far far from home. We woke up at 5:30am this morning and went for a walk up the hill. It was a beautiful sunrise walk. Nice to not see so many cars on the street. After doing some things around the house we thought we would try to brave the grocery store again today with the hopes of getting enough to last us a few weeks. Since yesterday was quite an ordeal we thought we might try a different grocery store. Well we drove until we got lost, and then decided to go for a walk on the beach. The water was refreshing on our feet. The beach we went to was a bit dirty but as we walked we came to the swimming area which was much nicer. We got a little hungry so we tried a snack from the street vendor. I guess it was a pastry with cheese in it (and a pickle on the side). It was okay. I was hoping to try falafel instead. Maybe tomorrow.

Back to getting groceries, we ended up at the same store we went to yesterday. While we were successful in leaving the store with 10 plastic bags of groceries, I can't confirm we have enough to make any specific dish. Apparently today is shopping day for most Israelis as the stores all close at 3pm until 9pm tomorrow. We wandered the store for about 2 hours. I did brave the meat counter line (20 minutes waiting) with the goal of getting some hamburger and chicken. I had ticket number 406. I waited carefully when I saw they were currently working on 405... Then they changed to 406. I worked my way to the counter and tried to make eye contact with one of the 3 butchers with no luck (they were all helping other people). The next thing I knew they switched to helping 407! So I spoke up and started waving my ticket. One finally agreed to help me. I asked do you speak English? He said no and started to back away like he was going to help someone else. The lady next to me said I can help you I know a little English. So I told her I wanted 2 lbs of hamburger. The man said we don't have hamburger. I looked at the case and pointed. They looked at me like you want raw hamburger? And then wanted to know what I meant by 2 pounds. How many Kilos is that? Oh what a challenge. After aimlessly wandering the canned vegetable aisles, we finally decided we had enough fun and stood in line. The cashier said something to us in Hebrew which we took to mean her line was closed so we moved one line over. After standing there for 5 minutes, the cashier said something to us as well which again looked like that line was closed. We did succesfully checkout in the 3rd attempt but VISA has shut off our credit card since we are in amother country (even though we advised them of this fact!) All this to say I need to develop a better strategy for getting groceries. We made it back to our apartment and were unloading the groceries and I looked up to see the lady who helped me at the meat counter. I said Ken! This is the nice lady who helped me at the store. She was a bit shocked to see me but said "looks like we are neighbors, if you need anything let me know". Maybe I should go shopping with her next time? What an adventure!