The first big shopping

(CT, June 2006)

As with everything else we had also to learn how to shop in the USA. That is something what you learn easily… Of course we did not know any furniture store and did not know where to go. But here came the rescue! One of my husbands colleagues told us, there is an Ikea Store, only a few miles away. Yes!! That was just perfect for us. To be honest, in Germany we made it to Ikea maybe once, even though around every corner there`s an Ikea store. But, my husband who loves beautiful and contemporary furniture never liked to shop there. But the irony of our life change is that since we came to the USA we have been to Ikea at least about 10 times! We know already every aisle there. Always when we think about it we have a lot of fun, laughing about ourselves… The truth is that this is the only store we knew that had a kind of European style and we did not feel lost there. Everything was more familiar. At our first shopping tour we got: a table with stools, beds for our son and us. (We learned for the first time about Queen and King size. Why do the Americans have a different measurement system for everything?) Bedcovers, chairs, many lamps, curtains, stuff for the kitchen, and How do you buy everything you need in one day to spend a few weeks in a new house? I do not know, but we did. And, most of this stuff fitted even in our huge car. We spend the whole Sunday there. Funny, we were wondering in the morning if the furniture stores are open on Sunday. We are (were?) still Europeans, at least in thinking. You know, the exciting part about Ikea starts when you get home, because then you have to put everything together… This was an experience for me. Before, I never thought I could put a chair or a lamp together. But I did. And it was even fun. Especially since there was not so much to do in the evening with no tv and radio. We would shop for these next!

However, the first night in our new house arrived. Surprise! We slept very well, because we were so exhausted, and still had some jet lag. It was very interesting to live in a half empty house - and I enjoyed it! Sometimes I wish we did not have so much stuff…