Market Day

Wednesdays and Saturdays are market days in our neighborhood. Merchants and farmers set up booths with flowers, cheeses, vegetables, etc. and no matter what the weather people are out shopping.

Last December, my first week in St. Gallen, I was entirely intimidated by this process. Sherman had shown me around for a couple of days then went back to work leaving me on my own so I set out to buy a piece of cheese from a vendor we had visited over the weekend. When I asked ‘Sprechen Sie English?’ this young man said ‘English OK.’ Then I asked how to say 100 grams in German. He told me, ‘Hunnert Gramme,’ whereupon I started to weep (feeling SO stupid in an alien place). Silly! After all, the guy was really nice to me and I did get my cheese.

Yesterday we were out shopping and I saw him again. When he stepped over to help us he nailed us as Americans right off and greeted us with a Hello instead of a Grüezi. I reminded him that he’d been so nice to me when I first arrived that it had made me cry. Then I proceeded to order two pieces of cheese and some freshly made spinach ravioli in German. My reward was a surprised laugh and a compliment on my German. It made me feel like a million bucks (oops) Swissfrancs. My guess is this guy speaks Italian too!
K Q:-)