The case of the mysterious fowl

Another hilarious incident took place at the supermarket when I was out shoppping for some fowl which I thought would be a change from my daily rice, fried vegetables, ground pork routine.
I stared hard at the meat varieties that were available at the meat section of the supermarket. I saw a rather large sized bird stripped of all feather and minus its neck on display. I could not discern what it could be. was it a turkey? Or a big chicken? Not ready to take any chances with unfamiliar items I asked the person in charge in English what kind of bird was that. But as usual the all German staff covered in sterile clothing had little to tell me that could be of help.
An elderly lady with a fractured hand was watching this strange one way conversation and felt she had to contribute.
Turning towards us she started flapping her hands vigorously making cackling sounds as she did and we all, including the old lady ended up laughing up hilariously.
What she was saying was that it was a bird, probably a big bird and was safe to eat. But that didn't answer our question- what bird was it.
So I left it at that and went for the usual ground pork routine and headed home with a light heart. These Germans.. they were funloving and..... crazy!!

The Language Barrier

Language seems to be the main barrier for visitors to Germany. I was in the supermarket the other day and I was looking out for some sunflower oil to cook the vegetables which happened to be my staple diet. Unfortunately I just failed to recall where the mall guys stocked the oil. To add to the problem I didn't know the German for sunflower. Sunflower oil was closest to what we use to cook in India so I had not bothered to experiment with the other cooking oils.
I asked a lady mall assistant in English, stressing on the word "sunflower". She was at a loss to understand so she asked her accomplice for help. Help from three or four people was sought before I was led to the mall supervisor.
Thankfully this guy knew a little broken English and his puzzled face brightened suddenly. "Sonnenblumen" he exclaimed, and took me to the shelf where they kept the sunflower oil. I mentally made a note of the location, lest I find myself at odds once again on my quest for sunflower oil on my next shopping trip.

Adventures at the SuperMarket (MiniMall)

The supermarket is one place where you bump into German people with whom otherwise you would not interact much. I had some interesting experiences at the MiniMall a popular German retail market chain in Endingen.
You entered the supermarket with a push cart in which you dumped all the stuff that you intended to buy before checking out at the cash counter. The supermarkets had an intricate way to make sure that the push carts were replaced at their original place after use and not scattered all over the supermarket frontyard. All the push carts were qued up in a line, each one coupled to the other through a locking mechanism. You could extract a cart from the que by inserting a low denomination coin which would open the lock and you could later get back the coin when you placed the cart back to the que after shopping.
I was under the impression that the slot in the push cart took only one and half euro coins just like the cigarette vending machines did.
One fine day I was at the supermarket and was about to remove a pushcart from its que when I noticed that I didnt have the correct denomination coins, only small loose change.
Desperately I tried to get my 5, 10, 20 cent coins exchanged for one or half euro coins which I thought would allow me to extract a push cart for my shopping spree.
One old gentleman looked at me with disgust as I thrust the loose change I had towards him. At that moment I didn't understand why he should be so offended.
Anyways, he gave me a couple of half and one euro coins but without accepting the equivalent 5, 10 and 20 cent coins I had with me.
Gleefully I went over to the pushcart que, inserted the coin and got my pushcart.
It was later I realised that the locking mechanism in the push cart que also accepted 5, 10 and 20 cent coins.
No wonder the venerable gentleman who had handed me the one and half euro coins was not happy with me. Most probably he took me for a beggar!