Smooth shopping in a new country; feeling at home in the stores in Maadi

Shopping in a new country is always a time consuming ordeal in the beginning. I remember the first time I had to go shopping in the United States by myself, to stock up my kitchen; I found a Piggly Wiggly down the street, and I’m sure I spent well over three hours in there and came home with less than half the things I had set out to find.

Here in Egypt shopping has been particularly challenging since most things are very different from what we are used to, and some products only have Arabic writing on them. Until about last week, I wasn’t able to read the labels (this newly won ability only helps a bit though). Shopping has sometimes taken on the shape of a guessing game, where, based on the shape, feel and weight of an item, I will purchase something, and then find out at home what I actually got. This method has sometimes proven very effective, but then at times not. I will say though, that there are a lot of American and some Western European products in the stores here in Maadi, however since a lot of these items are imported, they’ll be very expensive and way overprized. It’s so easy to grab something you are familiar with, but for economical reasons, we’re trying to rely on local products as much as possible.

Once products have successfully been found, and you’ve gone through most of the regular purchases in your new country, shopping gets easier and takes less time. Today I could run into Seoudi on my way home from dropping off the kids at school, and get a pack of garbage bags in under a minute. I felt at home. Little by little, I feel at home here in Egypt.