"Um do you speak English?" #4

The difference between the language of Czech and English is not a small one. Learning this language is a little big challenging and frustrating. The most frustrating part is trying to speak to these extremely nice people that have no idea what the heck I'm saying. At first, it was a fun adventure trying to talk to the locals and communicating through pointing and nodding or shaking heads. Now that I have been here for a little over three weeks, I don't feel as much like a tourist, and I feel more obligated to know most of these words or phrases that people use on a day to day basis. Scratching the surface of learning this language is showing how challenging it can be to live where not everyone can communicate as easily as back at home.
On one of the first days that we arrived in Olomouc, Anna and I went to the Walmart of the Czech Republic, Globus. We thought that we would just pick up the basics (sandwich supplies, snacks, wine) and be in and out.  We did not realize how dumbfounded we would be when we walked into a store with little to nothing in English, because for some reason, we expected a Czech speaking country to be filled with English marked foods. It was overwhelming to say the least and all of a sudden I found myself craving things like Cheetos, microwave meals and ranch. Slowly but surely making our way through the store, we decide we want some pickles. Both of us prefer dill pickles over sweet ones and there was no indication in English which ones were sweet vs. which ones were salty. We stared at a hopeless cause for a couple of minutes before we sauntered off with our baskets full of food we didnt really know anything about. We discovered that trial and error is somthing that heavily occurs when going to a non-English speaking country.
I have learned that the most important words are "Esspresso", "English", "Thank you", and "Sorry for being a dumb American".
This experience is making me appreciate simple things like communication, and language differences. I am so happy to be here and I am already dreading the day I no longer get to say "Dobry Den" when I walk into a building.