einkaufen gehen - to go shopping

IKEA - a giant swedish home furnishing, etc. store located outside large cities all over the world. it also contains a cafe featuring swedish meatballs and lingonberry juice. admit it - you love IKEA.

our new apartment is so clean! everything is from IKEA. everything. the kitchen, the floor, probably the toilet. and, everything is WHITE! there is no way dan can live in an all white apartment. frau penco, the owner of the apartment, must be a very careful woman. (we know this much - she is uber-friendly! she greeted us with hugs and kisses, and carried our heaviest suitcase up the stairs! she is so nice i want her to stay so we have a friendly face.)

today we went to IKEA ourselves to buy a cheap colored blanket to put over the white couch so that we can sit on it without worry. IKEA was kind of a warm up for us. everything is exactly the same as the IKEAs in the states, except that the cafe menu is in german and there was some sort of strange doughnut eating competition going on outside.

normally, like if we were on vacation, i would shun the thought of going to a chain store or restaurant in another country, but it was comforting to see some familiar things in our new surroundings. we LIVE here, and we don't understand anything. that can be very disconcerting. thank god for IKEA.