Saturday, July 16, 2011

A Grocery Shopping We Go


I love stopping in grocery stores when we are in foreign countries and having a poke around, but the situation is quiet different when I know I must walk out of the store with enough food so that we don't starve for at least 3 days. Before we left I dutifully made my list of three meals – tacos, spaghetti & stir fry – and the needed ingredients. Then I looked up every ingredient I could find in Spanish and wrote that down as well. I figured how hard could it really be to find the basics? I should have known better because when Meijer switches things up for the fun of it I am lost and frustrated for a month!

Our new friend, Joe, picked us up and drove us to Carrefour, one of the major supermarkets in Bogota. He parked in the underground parking warning us that it is better to pay for parking in the city than park on the street as your side mirrors are likely to be swiped. Attendants with nifty little carts were walking around asking if you would like your car washed while you were shopping. How brilliant, because everyone lives in apartments you must rely on someone else to wash your car for you.

I began passing out lists as we walked into the store. I had broken up my list and given Chad, the girls and myself items to look for. Chad and Joe were off. I knew Chad would be lost in the aisles filling his cart with many interesting things to try. The girls dove into their task, passing me with smiles and waves. I began on my list. Walking up and down the aisles, looking at the pictures and packages trying to decide if it was the item I was really wanting. Ironically the items to actually make healthy dinners were quiet difficult to find whereas every aisle seemed to have Oreos. Two aisles of rice (are there really that many varieties?) and one aisle of beans and another of corn flour later I was frustrated out of my mind. Do they seriously not use white flour in this country? Thank goodness I had written the Spanish words on my paper. I walked up to an employee and after listening to a string of words I didn't understand I simply said “harina”. The employee kept on talking not seeming to realize that I had no idea what he was saying (thank you Orlando for teaching me proper annunciation). Fortunately he was the type that talks with his hands so I just followed the arm waving over to a very small section a few aisles over. Not much choice but I am just happy to find the powdery white stuff. I have since learned that flour is one item we can not have shipped from the USA because of the similarity of another powdery white substance. It seems to me they have their trafficking directions a bit mixed up!

We were fairly set with the grocery items so now it was on to the personal items which we were informed were on the second floor. This would be interesting as we had 2 carts ½ full. Nifty electric moving ramps took us, carts and all, up to the second floor. We found our items quickly (due to my insistence because I was tired and didn't really care at this point if I had soap and shampoo to use in the shower). We wheeled back over to the nifty ramps and I told the girls to be careful because I hadn't seen anyone actually come down on one. Amazingly the cart wheels locked and gripped onto the ramp. We grabbed a few items out of the center aisle of the ramp as we were descending.

We wheeled over to the check-out area. There was no “paper or plastic” choice and I didn't see a single person there who brought their own bags.

We never did find baking soda, taco seasoning or shells, and garlic bread. When I went to put the soap in the dishwasher that evening I opened the tub and found some hard gritty stuff. Chad read the package for me and turns out it is some other sort of dish soap. Not too bad for the first trip. In a few days after Damon has arrived I will take him and let him read the packages for me.

Kris


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