Thursday, June 21, 2012

THE Shopping Trip

On Tuesday we finally had time to head to the mall for our big shopping trip. You see in Chile, the grocery stores are inside of the malls - always. They have these escalator things going from the stores to the underground parking that are flat and magnetic. That allows you to push your cart onto the "escalator" and ride down with your groceries to your car. Interesting but totally convenient.

As I went through unpacking and sorting down the kitchen, I kept a list of things we needed to get. Rugs (to help with the warmth and echo), groceries, shelves, hangers, cookie sheet, etc. It was quite a list. I knew it would take a few hours.

The big grocery here in Chile is the Jumbo. It vaguely resembles a Walmart. It has some housewares, a few clothing items and lots of groceries. Perfect! There are two malls within 10 minutes of us (heaven!) and the 'fancier' of the two, Portal something or other, houses the Jumbo. We headed that way and decided to peruse the stores before heading to Jumbo. We need an additional external hard-drive and thought we'd explore some of the rugs at the stores that resemble a Macy's or Nordstroms. We found lots of things - for lots of money. HOLY COW! I had been told that things were double the price here, but to see the reality of it caused a little sticker shock. We decided to head to the Jumbo hoping for more reasonably priced options. I don't want to spend $400 on a runner rug for a rental house.

As we began searching and searching through the cookware at Jumbo for a cookie sheet, it dawns on Greg that we need to get visa photos for the kids and myself that day so that he could take them downtown first thing in the morning with our relocation lady. We tried to get them in the states but the 3cmX2cm photos with our full name and passport numbers were something that Walgreens couldn't handle. So at the start of my major shopping excursion, Greg begins to panic. This HAS to be done today. I suggested grabbing a few needed items and coming back later and he was insistent we go through with this shopping experience.

Needless to say - it was a nightmare. I can't find half of the things that I am looking for. Greg has to translate every single thing because it all is packaged differently. Minute style rice - nope. Canned beans - nope. Paper plates - nada.

Greg was practically sprinting through the store as I tried to keep up with him and the cart. I tried to take the cart and push it myself, but he'd wedge his way back in and take it. I think he thought we'd move faster if he pushed the cart faster. It was a freakin' nightmare. I don't know why I didn't just insist that we go another time.

I need a trip where we can casually go through aisle by aisle and figure out what things are available here. I will be changing my cooking style and need to have a better idea about things. We'll have to do that at some point.

We got the necessities and headed back home in time to grab the kids and head back to the mall for photos. All was well in the end.

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