One difference between here and the States -- something I noticed almost immediately upon arriving (3+ weeks ago now) -- the fragrances used here are not at all like the fragrances one encounters in the States. Or at least not to my nose. It's a difference I've noticed in the U.K. as well -- the scents used in bathroom and personal care products are completely different. And now that I think about it, with the surge of sensitivity to smells that's taken place stateside during the last however many years it's been, I've gotten used to a general lack of, er, scents -- must have something to do with the Vermont. Or the people I spend time with. Or something.
Where was I? Oh, right. Suddenly I'm faced with having to buy personal care products that stink a bit. Or they register with my senses in that way ‘cause of what I've grown used to.
One difference between the barrio I'm in now and the barrio in which I spent several years (before the last year and a half back in the States): there's an actual supermercado a block away from this building. I like the small shops and the centro comercialies, big buildings packed with small shops and stalls, but when it comes to heavy items, it's nice to have the bigass market right around the block. Not that they make certain aspects of the experience easy. The first big shopping expedition for this flat turned out to be big enough that I tried to arrange home delivery. Tried. The store has no management offices or customer service counter where one can bother store personnel with questions or requests. A sign advised that one should speak to personnel in a certain place to arrange a delivery time. Asking store workers produced bits information, until I finally got that one of the cashiers was the person who had to be spoken with (a cashier wearing nothing that would indicate that, whose post had no signs that would indicate that). A bunch of hooha followed, the upshot of which was that they had no delivery times available until the following day. At which time I gave up, bought piles of stuff and dragged it around the block myself.
I go back there for certain items, go to small shops along the main drag for bread, meats, produce. There is an arcade of shops along the main drag – a modest version of the big, crowded centro comercial in the old barrio. When I pass, it mostly looks empty and forlorn -- shiny, clean and in need of customers.
The supermercado, by the way, carries a line of paper goods called Bosque Verde -- Green Forest. Not recycled paper, any of it. So I'm assuming the name refers to the forest they're gradually mowing down to create the products I'm dragging home to use in kitchen and bathroom. Either that or some corporate marketing funcionario has a wicked sense of irony.
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Local shopworkers do the Halloween thing:
España, te amo
rws 12:30 PM [+]
Comments:
omg, wait.
have u always lived in spain? (as always meaning since I last visited your blog which would be probably a couple of months ago).
i really do need to take more time to blogging... :)
wait, i'll come back! :)
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have u always lived in spain? (as always meaning since I last visited your blog which would be probably a couple of months ago).
i really do need to take more time to blogging... :)
wait, i'll come back! :)
