Shopping at COOP

Last night,while Jenny started dinner, Amanda and I ran to the larger of the two grocery stores near our apartment, the COOP. We had skipped our planned Saturday grocery stop, which meant that we were scraping the bottom of the jam jar and eating the last bananas on Sunday.

The COOP is a lifesaver and currently our favorite "happy place," and last night was a particularly good stop. First, while in the produce section, I had to climb over some crates of oranges to get to the tomatoes. In the process, and without knowing it, I got a plastic bag stuck to my foot. Yes, wonderful, I know. Well, after walking to the other end of the produce section I hear, "Signorina, signorina...blah blah blah (something in a Italian)." I turn to see a pleasant-looking COOP employee-man pointing at my foot and the plastic bag. I laughed and said, "Oh grazie," and did some charade-like gesture expressing my mild embarassment accompanied with eye-rolling. He laughed. He held out his hand and after I got that bag disentangled and off my foot, he threw it away for me and I thanked him again. Pleasant encounter #1.

Then, when I was browsing through the gelato section, here comes those words again. "Signorina, signorina, scusa." It was a very small, elderly lady who then pointed to some frozen pizzas on a high shelf and rattled off in Italian. "Oh...si," I said and reached for a pizza on the top shelf. "Questa (this)?" I said. "Oh no, davanti (in front of)" she replied. I grabbed the pizza in front of it and handed it to her. "Oh grazie," she said and smiled widely and I replied, using my FAVORITE word, "Prego."

In the time that we have been here, getting a chance to be helpful is wonderful. When you wander around most of time, feeling completely out of your element and completely incompetent, grabbing the pizza on the top shelf for a little lady that can't reach it becomes the highlight of your week.

Lauryn

(A word from Jenny... while Lauryn and Amanda were having their nice little visit to the COOP for an HOUR, I was at home staring at a cooked meal, choosing not to scarf it down until they got home, and instead putting a major dent in the Nutella. Resolution: walk more.)