I try to live life as much like a Spaniard as I can. My language stinks and my appearance will always yell foreigner, but in other ways I can try to adapt, for example, with shopping.
My impression (and teaching) is that most women do most of their shopping at small shops - meat stores, fruit stands, bread store, etc. After my language lesson yesterday I made my shopping list and headed out. The list wasn't long - laundry detergent, pie crust, diet coke, lomo (Pork tenderloin slices), pot roast, tomatoes, lettuce, carrots, potatoes, bananas, and bread. Not much, right?
I grabbed my granny cart and off to the first stop (a 5- 10 minute walk) - Mercadona. Mercadona is a typical grocery store. Not huge in American standards, but decent size. Laundry detergent and pie crust were marked off the list for this stop. Of course I picked up several things that were not on the list, loaded them into the granny cart and was off to the next stop, the fruit store.
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| Mercadona - Grocery Store |
There are two fruit stores near me that I like. One is combined with a fish store. The lady there is VERY patient with me and will attempt to teach me Spanish as well. I got lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes (5 kg - had to rearrange the granny cart so they were on the bottom and not squishing anything else), bananas, and then I saw mangoes. Hannah loves mangoes so I thought this would be a treat for her. They were 5.95€/kg ($8.03/2.2lbs) so I only asked for one. Do you know how much a single mango weighs? One mango was 2.75€ (nearly $4). Oh my - it better be good! The mango cost as much as the rest of my produce all together.
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My Favorite Meat Store
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Next stop was the meat store. Two young guys are the butchers. They are always laughing and smiling and I think they probably roll in the floor laughing every time I leave - but at least while I am in there they are helpful. There are two lines - one for chicken, one for beef and pork. I almost always get chicken (because it is healthier, right? uh not the real reason - I know the vocabulary for ordering it better than the beef). So the "chicken butcher" immediately gets ready and I tell him not today. He "pouts" while the other tells him I have left him for the better side of the market. I order the lomo - that one is easy - then I attempt my pot roast.
The pot roast is an on-going story. I can only imagine that a pot roast here will be wonderful and tender. The meat is much better here than at home. This was my 3rd attempt at a roast. First time I just tried it - no real vocabulary, figured I could wing it. We all laughed and I came home with my standard chicken. Second attempt I had looked up the part of the cow it comes from and knew that word. Chicken again. This time I had my language tutor write down for me what I wanted. Much more laughter, but at least this time the butcher had a piece of meat in his hands. I asked if it was from the shoulder and he said no. We then (along with the chicken butcher) played charades as I tried to explain again what I wanted. Finally the chicken butcher went in the back and brought a huge hunk of meat - a beef shoulder and we all thought we were finally making progress. I told him how much I wanted and he trimmed it and weighed it and then the cost came up.
16€ for 1.4 kilograms ($21.59/3 lbs). Gulp! At that point I didn't have any option except to buy it - they had been so good at trying to figure out what I wanted. After I paid for it I asked the beef butcher to write down for me what I had finally gotten so that I could ask for it again (or avoid it). He wrote it down and off to the next stop.
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| Blue "Chino" |
Granny cart is full and heavy - remember the laundry detergent and 5 kg (11lbs) of potatoes but we are almost finished. I stop at my favorite "chino" for bread and order two "bars of de la casa, caliente" (2 loaves of the house bread, hot). As I am coming out - bread under arm, granny cart dragging behind me, and list in my hand - I realize I forgot carrots. No problem, I'll just go to the other fruit and veggie stand I like - no way I am going all the way back to the first one - too far and she'd laugh at me for forgetting it. The lady at this fruit stand always laughs and is personable and if she has no customers she is standing out in the courtyard visiting. When I arrive she comes in (along with her 2 friends she was visiting with - I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't tell them, oh here comes the crazy American with no language - this will be fun). I ask for my 5 carrots (in Spanish as I now know both of those words) but have no clue how much money she said it was. She came around the counter and then very slowly said the amount (45 cents). When I understood what she said her face lit up and she got all excited. Nothing like having your own language cheerleader!
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| Entrance to Apartment |
Almost back to the apartment and I realized the one thing on my list that wasn't crossed off - Diet Coke! No way I am going home without that. Right below our apartment is another "chino" (these are small variety stores with everything from food to hardware in them - called "chino" because the majority are owned by Chinese residents). I work my way into that door (remember, the granny cart, bread under the arm, carrots in a bag in my hand, winter coat on, .... ) wiggle past the others and find my diet coke (yes, they even have caffeine free diet coke here!) and purchase it. Oh if there had been a video camera I could have won America's Funnies Videos! Out the door I come, dragging my very heavy granny cart, toting the bread, carrots, and now diet coke under my arm, and digging in my purse to find my keys (you have to have a key to get into the building) and I see one of my Spanish friends. We speak and she comments on all my "things." I tell her about my variety of stops and she responds in Spanish and some English "I go to Mercadona (remember the store I started at?)"
What do you do but laugh at that moment and pray that the mango and "roast" are the best things we have tasted in months! (check back tomorrow for a roast update - by the way, when I got home I translated what the butcher wrote down for me - it meant butcher's cut - so I still have no real idea what I bought)
