grocery shopping

 

Brianna spent the night with a friend and Doug went into the office today to do interviews. I decided to gird up my loins and go grocery shopping…alone.

First I had to find the grocery carter thing-a-ma-gigy, which ended up being on the patio. Then I practiced locking and unlocking my front door because I wanted to make sure that I could actually get into the house when I returned.

Seriously, I feel like Daisy Mae “Granny” Moses from the Beverly Hillbillies. Things that used to be so easy like locking the door, now come with their special and unique idiosyncrasies. I cannot tell you the number of times that I have turned on the garbage disposal thinking that I was going to get light, or opened the coat closet looking for the bathroom. We also have a new series of bells ringing at our house. It can be the US phone, the Argentine phone, the gate phone or one of our cell phones. Sometimes we just look at each other and laugh because we have no idea what to answer.

Back to the grocery store. I spent a l-o-n-g time walking around today trying to figure out what things were. Packaging/advertising has taken on a whole new level of appreciation in my eyes.

I was moaning to Tricia the other day about the fact that Baggies come in boxes of 10. Am I supposed to by 10 boxes? Afterwards, I realized that I did exaggerate. They actually come in boxes of 6. I can use a whole box of baggies just making my lunch!

Since it was Saturday, the store was really crowded. An elderly lady standing by me in line was chatting to me. I was trying to get the gist of the conversation. She eventually left her cart for me to watch while she ran around the store and collected her groceries, returning every so often to check the status of the line and empty her armfuls. Then she continued with her shopping plan while I continued to tend.

One of my favorite things about Argentina is how much they love children and every accommodation is made for them. Doug and I were out to eat last night at a very nice restaurant that, by the way, didn’t even open until 8:00pm. There were plenty of children there though, enjoying the beautiful food and attention from the waiters.

I finally got through the line, loaded up my  grocery carter thing-a-ma-gigy and negotiated my was across the street, where I bought flowers and took a picture of the fruteria and verduleria, my next stop to purchase my fruits and vegetables.

Then I walked my nine blocks back home, without getting lost! and took this picture at the front door just before I successfully opened it.

 

The whole experience took me about two hours and was terrifying on so many levels, from start to finish, but chances are excellent that I will do it again

…and again…

and again.

So, I sat down and ate lunch and rejoiced that I had  food to eat.