Grocery Store with Guess Who...

I'll try to give a little glimpse into the normal way things are done around Valencia before I distort the whole cultural picture with what WE do. First of all, we are a sort of freak of nature around here. Three kids is freakish enough, but when all 11 members of our household are around, it's a circus act (I am reminded of a few certain friends of mine who also have circus music playing in the background of their daily lives).

OK, so the grocery store. We go about every other day since we have a small refrigerator, little pantry space and 11 people. People here mostly shop for 1-3 people in their house so their baskets are small. BUT NOT OURS! After all we are American and everything we do is BIG right? Ugh. We try not to perpetuate that stereotype, but sometimes it's impossible.

Once, I went with three kids to the store. Once. THAT was a freak show. OK, now, one or two, max. Lucky me, the other day I took Eva. It's coming up on her birthday and she wanted to look at all the possible dessert options. As we meandered throught the aisles, she was evaluating ice cream, cakes, donuts, cookies, pastries, candy, chocolate, etc. As she's looking, I'm actually getting the shopping done. Nice. Then we go to check out.

Now because we don't have a car we bought what we Americans might consider those little old lady pull-carts that you occasionally see when older ladies go shopping and walk home. Well, we have two of them! And not only us, but lots of people use them here. Just so you know we're not geeks. ;-)

At the entrance to the store is a little cart corral where you can lock up your cart, just like you might lock up a bike, but they have these little chains with a lock on the end that you lace through the handle of your cart. When we got to the check-out I gave Eva the key and said to go get the cart. She ran off. I unloaded the cart onto the belt. I looked over to the cart lock-up and our cart was there, but not Eva. Oy vey! Of course by now there are three people behind me in line, when 2 seconds ago there was no one. And of course I have a relatively large load that I have yet to get off the check out counter and into our cart. (They don't really bag for you here, you kind of do it yourself and they'll help you a little bit). I told the cashier that I'd be right back that my daughter was missing and I ran back toward the aisles.

Thankfully, I saw her wandering around the middle of the store, suspciously close to the ice cream. I called her and rushed her back to the check out. I ran to get the cart, hurried back to the check out and started loading it up, all the while I have an audience. Me, prattling off in English to my child (of a color different than mine) who had just ran away and look at all the groceries I had! What a sight we were I'm sure.

But wait, there's more! While I'm being examined during the hurried loading, the woman behind me in line says "Excuse me." I look at her and she points to my side and says that my zipper is down on the side seam of my dress. Fabulous. I thanked her, zipped up, threw the rest of the groceries in the cart and continued Eva's lecture while we walked home. Good thing I bought a bottle of wine...