Shopping - A community event

 

Today's project was to do some shopping for furniture for around the house and surprise Ana and Brian when they return.Since I don't have a car, I would need to transport any furniture I bought with my motorcycle. Now that I think about it, the word furniture may be a little strong, plastic chairs and table might be a better description, but that's still furniture, no, yes?

 

I walked downtown and found a store that sold various items. One of the more amusing things about Turriabla is the collection of things in a store. You would be hard pressed to put a label on many of the stores. Here's one, religious icons, bibles, beautiful plastic (?) crucifixes, okay, it's a religious store, but look a little further, and there's a Sponge Bob square pants doll, glow in the dark stars, office supplies, some backpacks (okay, relgious supplies, supplies for students, and a few gifts), keep looking....two toasters, a guitar, I can't get closer than miscellaneous.

 

Anyway, when I shop in the United States I am somewhat invisible. I arrive in a car, park in the parking lot, I am tall and white like a lot of Minnesotans, a lot of the workers in the huge stores are teenagers who really don't care about being at work as much as earning a paycheck. I find shopping in the US many times to be a sterile experience.

 

It's a little different in Costa Rica. I arrive at the store and park in front on my motorcycle. El gringo from outerspace is coming into our store. I fumble with expnantions of what I am looking for with my limited spanish vocabulary, using 1/3 real spanish words, 1/3 real english words, and 1/3 made up words that are combinations of fragments of spanish and english words. A conversation with me in Spanish also contains many long pauses, I might be breezing along in Spanish and then I hit the one word, the land mine, that I have no clue what the correct word is. For some sentences you can point and act out the word, but many times the conversation stops cold while I rack my brain looking for a word, any word, in Spanish that comes close to the description.

 

So I am in the store that sells furniture, school supplies, toys and within 5 minutes I have the entire staff helping me, or trying to help me, I try to point and ask if they have more chairs in this color. Si. No more chairs in this color in this style for this price. I am looking for tape, I ask in perfect Spanish for tape. The guy behind the counter stares blankly, I go over the words I used in my head, did I make a faux pax. When all else fails, when panic starts to set in, I see tape on the counter and point, the clerk is as relieved as I am that we have gotten past this very uncomfortable moment,  so much for immersion learning.

 

I buy the chairs, get over the continual confusion about the amount of money they cost (the currency in Costa Rica are colonies. 460 colonies are equal to $1 US. That means everything costs thousands or tens of thousands of colonies. I was okay counting in Spanish before Costa Rica, I could count to one hundred and in a pinch a thousand. But in Costa Rica, EVERYTHING costs ga-thousands of colonies, I didn't learn my thousands as thoroughly as I should have.

 

So I finish my purchase, struggle through understanding the inevitable dreaded followup question (you can control the I WOULD LIKE A PENCIL with the few words you know, then there is an evitable followup question, what type, what color, what...., in spanish, very rapid and you don't undderstand a single word - i DREAD the followup question), pay for my new things and head out.

 

I have 4 of the 5 people working in the store, helping me in some way, bringing the chairs out, bringing the table out, bringing some rope. This has now become a class project, and the last task is securing the furniture to my motorcycle for the ride home. I am trying to concentrate on the task, but then there is always someone who comes up when you are in the middle of doing something and asks you about your motorcycle, where are you from, in Spanish, which requires complete 100% attention for me to answer. In this case, there is a guy who is looking at my GPS. I go through my routine and say IT IS A MAPA ELECTRONICA, etc like I do for every small child and man that has come to see my GPS in the whole of Mexico and Central America. He looks at me like I am an idiot (he is correct) and says, "I KNOW a GARMIN 2600 with 512 MB RAM,....".

 

So I am trying to carry on a conversation with him in Spanish and broken English, the store clerks are trying to tie the furniture to the back of the motorcycle, I am also trying to figure out the best way to strap and tie down the purchases, He has found some maps for Costa Rica for the GPS and offers to share them with me, which I am very interested in, so I will stop by his shop tomorrow and we will work on it. Meanwhile his girlfriend is looking on patiently, and when they leave, looks at me and says "THATS THE PROBLEM, HE LOVES HIS GPS MORE THAN ME"

 

We finish tying the furniture down and I drive through town. I was already a spectacle "LOOK AT THE TALL GRINGO FROM THE UNITED STATES ON THAT BMW MOTORCYCLE". Now it's more like "WOW, THE TALL GRINGO FROM THE UNITED STATES ON THE BMW MOTORCYCLE IS CARRYING PLASTIC FURNITURE" In Minnesota we have a saying for things like that, it's  "THAT"S DIFFERENT"

 

So I will remember this experience  the next time I drive my car to BED, BATH and BEYOND and buy 3 plastic chairs and a table with the only interaction being the cashier saying to you "DID YOU FIND EVERYTHING YOU NEED" (that's clerk talk for "WHAT"S HAPPENING" no one expects an answer, and if you say no, it becomes a major disruption.).

Comments

[Ray Kulek]

Here's a site to help you with your character sets http://www.alanwood.net/demos/ansi.html

Anyway, good to see you're still actively pursuing your dreams.

[Xango Juice]

help xanthones

Xango Juice

Healthy

http://xengo.net/xango/7468.cfm?