Venuring Outside the Gates...

Good Evening all,

I'm glad Caroline handled the taco fish story as I might have digressed endlessly on that adventure. Our waiter was a good sport throughout the whole ordeal, and we left a 15% tip which is apparently the norm. Our first outing to the grocery store was interesting, but perhaps a little anti-climactic. The only great difference noticed was that because the parkade is on the ground level and the grocery store proper on the second, there are large elaborate escalators that accommodate shopper and cart up and down. In fact, there is a man whose whole occupation is, it seems, to guide the shopping cart wheels onto the proper grids on the escalator. Prices are comparable to Canada, but odd little things tend to be cheaper, such as razors and fruit. As Caroline mentioned, we were invited to a barbecue last night, what she did not mention was my adventure into the procurement of kitchen appliances in Mexico.

After arriving home from the grocery store and having committed to making cookies for our friends at the impending barbecue, we realized we were short some essential tools; namely, measuring cups and spoons. Being the heat of the day at 2:00 p.m. I decided to demonstrate my husbandly chivalry by running down to our closer local grocery store (not the one we had just come from, more Mexican/less American brands) and buying our measuring implements. So with scrawled Spanish expressions in hand, I ran to the store. Nobody understood anything I tried to say! However, it also quickly became apparent that this store had neither measuring cups or spoons. So it became decision time: continue to search out the items in the ultra upscale adjoining mall, or try to take a cab to the nearest Walmart I had heard about, but had yet to visit. I decided to take the risky route, as it afforded greater chance for comical and epic failure and we were running out of time. My cabbie understood Walmart easily enough, but when it came to negotiating a price, we came to a linguistic impasse. To remedy this, we engaged in a bit of charades until shaking coins in my hand finally transmitted my inquiry as to how much this venture was going to cost (50 pesos / $5). So off we were to Walmart, where I was able to find measuring spoons. Then another cab, another game of charades, a brief period of being lost and trying to explain directions, and I was home just on time to save the cookies! The first batch didn't go very well due to the esoteric knobs on our oven, but we were able to figure it out in the end, and had a very pleasant barbecue.

Today was a quiet first Sunday with clothes ironing, blog updating, and a leaky pen :( Now as I sit at the table, I can feel the evening breeze drive off the mountains and into our valley bringing a peaceful dusk only interrupted by the flourish of swaying palm trees. This is paradise...sort of. Tomorrow we have a big day of administration, school tours, etc. etc.
I realize I have still forgotten to talk about the malls here- Mexicans take their malls SERIOUSLY- but I'll save the for another post. I'll only leave you with this little "lost in translation" tidbit: "Athlete's World" is "Athlete's Foot" in Mexico, literally.

vaya le bien!