Getting Established

We've been grocery shopping in Chile before. At our first outing, back in May, we were accompanied by Christan. He and his wife 'showed us the ropes'. There are a few things you must know. First, there is a station in the middle of the produce and bread areas where store employees weigh and sticker your items before you get to the checkout. You also must soak produce in a soapy substance before eating. Important to know. It is also customary to buy fresh bread. You can find the bagged kind, but the selection is very limited.

Chileans shop every day or so and store very limited number of things. Therefore the kitchens are quite small and the storage is even smaller. Most homes didn't even have full sized refrigerators. Luckily, ours does.

The second shopping trip occurred on Sunday after our arrival. We met Jose Raul for lunch around 2pm and he then took us to the grocery. We just bought necessities. I felt like we needed to rush through the store as both times, people were waiting on us. Cereal, lunchmeat - TOILET PAPER - if you've read my previous post, you'll laugh to know that upon arrival to the new house, I had to - you know - use the facilities. Apparently all 3 other members of my family had also 'used the facilities' but because they are boys, didn't notice that there was not one single piece of toilet paper in the house. So here I sit AGAIN without anything. You'd think I'd learn. So I have to holler at Greg - with all these people in the house. TOTALLY humiliating. I had him bring my purse where I just happened to (thankfully) have 1 single tissue left after the trip... Needless to say, I bought a jumbo pack of TP.

We purchased cereal, lunch meat, fresh (yummy) bread and milk to get us by until the next day. The thing is around here, milk isn't refrigerated. At all. I was a little taken aback by the eggs just stacked in an aisle, but when you buy it from a farmer it's not cold, so I could wrap my head around that. But when I asked for milk and Jose Raul took us down an aisle and I saw boxes, I thought no, I want COW'S milk. This IS cow's milk. In a box. On the self. Not cold. I'm not a fan of milk to begin with, so this warm looking milk made me gag just a little. Greg assured me that it was ok to drink. Here is a carton of milk (yum!):

We also needed some jam for toast (notice the Walmart branded jam?), mayo for sandwiches (which comes in a pouch) and of course pineapple juice:

Shopping is hard. I don't speak/read Spanish - or Metric for that matter. I needed a large amount of time to go up and down the aisles to wrap my head around what it was we'd need. That trip would happen on Tuesday, or so I'd hoped...