Shopping

My madre has been bugging me all the time to go and buy shoes for ‘winter’ since I only brought sandals and one pair of tennis shoes. There isn’t a huge selection to choose from, so I have been going into the same stores just about every week and I’m pretty sure that all of the workers have recognized that I’m a regular. Finally today I decided I wasn’t going to go home without new shoes. The first thing I almost bought was a swimsuit, but it’d didn’t fit well. I kept looking and later bought some pajamas pants (which I also needed since I only brought summery pajamas). It was weird seeing sweaters and jackets and corduroy pants in a place where the weather never gets below 50, but 50 degrees for people here is what 30 degrees is for me. After walking around for over an hour, I went into a store that is full of nice clothes and fancy jewelry, and I saw some leather boots. So I went in hoping to see if there were any other shoes, and sure enough-I ended up buying a pair of corduroy, converses lined with flannel (awesome!!) they were 25 euros (under $30). I was sooo pleased with my purchase even though I thought my mom was going to hate them, but I didn’t care. My mom here is very up to date with fashion and rarely wears the same outfit twice. She wears lots of make up, has tons of shoes and huge clunky rings and earrings and necklaces. When I showed her my new shoes she said ahh how pretty! But what about the rain? And I thought, crap, now I have to go out and buy some rubber boots…which I’m not gonna do.

She then gave me 20 euros and told me to go buy some frozen pizza since she wasn’t going to be home for dinner. I went to one little grocery store, and they didn’t have any. Went to another, and they didn’t have any either. I’ve never been to 2 grocery stores in a row that didn’t have frozen pizza.

It’s really nice being able to buy whatever you need and have it be only walking distance away. There is a little of everything here (besides frozen pizza, at least for today) and it’s all really close. I’m especially glad that my house is right in the downtown because a lot of my classmates live up in the mountain and have to take a bus or car to get to the stores. One of my friends from Atletismo lives in the countryside (which is nothing like the country in Wisconsin) came to practice one day with a huge bruise on her leg. It was from herding sheep! I hope one day I get to go to her house and get bruises on my legs from sheep.

Finally, I befriended Andrea who I’ve seen a couple times since I’ve been here and have been meaning to speak up to. He’s very noticeable since he always walks around with a boom box on his shoulders blasting reggae music. He told me he only has a few other rasta man friends like him on the island, so I told him I’d be a new one…haha

Well I’m gonna go try and come up with something creative for dinner.