Shopping for Home

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Half of this quick trip down to Mexico was to link up with the parents and teachers at the School of the Americas in Puebla. The rich snooty parents were excited about buying American clothes and specifically requested the expensive brands like American Eagle and Gap. Of course, I aim to please so I went shopping and brought a huge variety of clothes for them to select from. I got an email from my friend that the mother organizing the event wanted to reschedule for Monday because Friday was their payday and the teachers didn't get paid until Monday either. What person organizes a shopping event and doesn't know when their payday is going to fall? I asked her to tell the mother that it was this weekend or never. After much back and forth, it was decided that we would meet up tomorrow at the Starbucks in Las Animas. Time to be determined when everyone headed in to meet up.

I didn't want to waste one of my precious days here so it was off to Santa Ana to buy all the stuff on Jose's shopping list. We did so much shopping that we had to return to the car twice to drop off our shopping bags. I returned to the same store where I bought towels last trip and they had raised their prices almost 30 pesos ($2.50) per towel. The woman attending the store didn't seem too inclined to fill my requests either. There was only one Chivas towel left and it was pinned up by the ceiling and she was trying to call for some male to come get it down, even asking a male customer if he would get it down, all to no avail. I wanted that towel though and I remembered the gentlemen last time using a ladder to get down my purchases so I went looking. The ladder was tucked behind the door so I dragged it out and leaned it against the wall and pulled my towel down. Why do women insist on acting like they can't do something and summoning a man? What a waste of my time waiting.

The shopping list that José had given me for this trip included things like toallas (towels), bufandas (scarves), calzetines (socks), gorras (winter hats), gorros (baseball caps), cigarillos (cigarettes), pills (pastillas de levadura de cerveza), and tequila. Now this isn't like driving to a specific store and finding the products you're looking for. It more resembles parking near the epicenter of the stores and going through them one by one, sometimes finding the exact thing you want even though the clerk claims to have nothing like that in stock. I found things that weren't on the list but that fit the bill . I walked out of one store with bathrobes, towels,and bed comforters. I also found some gag gifts as well, male thongs! One was out of material with the America logo all over it for his cousin and I got one for José that was a red bull with horns sitting out of the top and a ring through the nose. I can't wait to see his face when I give it to him :o I found a store selling boots for 250 pesos ($20.83) so I called José to ask him if he could look in one of Erika's shoes and tell me what size she wears in centimeters. He said that her Heely's said 18 inside so I bought her a pair even though they looked rather small.

After shopping, we headed back to the house and dropped off all the shopping bags in the living room. Mia stayed at home with Isabel and Lalo while I walked back over to the store to check in with the girls. We had more customers coming in and out of the store while I was trying to separate out what clothes to take tomorrow and what to leave. At one point in time, I was just ready to give it up and not go due to the lack of confirmation from the buying parties. I even tossed a coin and called my media naraja (better half) who advised me to go since I was already here. By the time we were done, both suitcases were packed up with a collection of men's, women's, girls, and boys clothes. We left the suitcases packed and ready by the door to pick up in the morning. On the way back home, I detoured down the street to the panaderia (bakery) and picked out eight pieces of fresh bread. When I get lucky, they tell me that I can pick out another piece of bread for free and they did tonight! When we walked in after 10pm, there were four young adults hard at work kneading the dough and getting ready to make all the bread. Back at the house, I went through my purchases and Mia spied the boots for Erika and decided to try them on. It turns out that Mia's shoes inside say that she wears a 17.5 in Mexico so these size 18 boots are definitely not going to fit Erika! She was quite happy to put on one of her new pairs of knee high Dora socks and the boots. Better luck next time Momma!

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Photos

Fresh Honey
The vendor had a container in the middle of his cart filled with honeycomb on hanger with lots of live bees buzzing around. I got about 16 oz of fresh honey and 8 oz of bee pollen for 45 pesos (about $3.90).

Pan Dulce y Te de Canela
My typical dinner in Mexico consists of cinnamon tea and fresh sweet bread. I can't eat a heavy meal late at night and the bread is fresh out of the oven when we buy it.

New Boots and Socks
Mia had to try on her new boots and the knee high Dora socks that we found for her.

Comments

[Autum]

Yumm! All that honey looks goood! I love fresh honey/bee pollen. And Mia is rockin' those new boots and socks :) So cute! Sounds like quite the busy adventure.