Sunday, November 26, 2006
Gigante adventure
Yesterday, I took a microbus for the first time. I was headed to what passes for a mall outside town to buy a cell phone and go to Gigante, a supermarket, to get the ingredients for baked beans.
Why baked beans? The maintenance man at the school was asking me how to make the "frijoles dulces" he´d had when he was working in the US. Took me forever to figure out what frijoles dulces - sweet beans - were. I want to make some for him and his wife.
Anyway, I found the right bus, at a corner on Messones and the market street, not far from my school. The micros are just what they sound like - smaller versions of the bus. Mine had a large picture of the virgin of guadalupe surrounded by glitter hanging behind the driver´s head. There are also a couple guys on the bus who help the driver collect money. (You don´t pay when you get on.) I´m not sure they´re working or just hanging out, because some jump off and some jump on every few blocks (usually while the bus is still moving). My ride cost 30 cents, as compared to about 6 bucks for a cab.
So everything was going swell, but I have never been to Gigante, so I didn´t realize when we reached shopping center. Since I was the only gringa on the bus and since I had asked the driver if the bus went to Gigante, I think I was somehow expecting the driver or one of his many assistants would point it out. A princess move, but there you go.
I wound up going to the end of the line, a dirt road that ended at the edge of a very remote, very poor little neighborhood. The driver stopped the bus at the end of a dirt road and sort of acted surprised to see me (though I don´t think he was. I think he hoped I´d disappear befoe he had to deal with me.) I asked him if he was going back to town and he said no.
By this time, a couple other buses had stopped at the end of the road. So I asked which bus was returning. He kind of shrugged and pointed to four buses. I had to ask at each one. There were lots of neighborhood people standing around kinda staring at me. They weren´t bothering me. In fact, I think they were just a little amused but trying politely not to laugh.
At the third bus, the driver pointed to a bus that was driving past and said that one goes to Gigante. So I ran after it, which was unnecessary since this was the end of the line and he was going to stop anyway. He too, said he wasn´t going to Gigante, and at this point, I started to get a tiny bit nervous. I told him that every driver says the other was going, and he was very nice, got out of the bus and asked the other drivers. Turned out to be the first bus I was on!! And in fact, all of these guys were probably going by there on the way back to town. The driver sort of tried to apologize. He may have even tried originally to tell me he was going back and I just didn´t understand him. Quien sabe? (Who knows)
I made it to Gigante - the busdriver actually announced the stop by asking "Who´s going to Gigante?" and looking at me.
Gigante is kind of like a cross between a warehouse store and a supermarket, with a pharmacy, a bakery and a meat market thrown in. I bought everything for baked beans except brown sugar. And onion soup mix. They don´t have dried onion soup mix here. Tomato, chicken and shrimp, many rice based soups, dried beans, dried squash soup, dried cream of spinach. But no onion. Interesting.
After that I walked through the "mall" which is pretty rundown. There were some clothes stores, electronics stores, a jewelry store, a papeleria, some food stands, including I think, a curry restaurant. At the end of the mall, there are some unfinished concrete rooms that could be stores if you should choose to rent them. And behind that, a movie theater that shows English movies w-Spanish subtitles.
I bought a cell phone from one of about four stores for same in the mall. Pretty proud that I managed to do that in Spanish. The saleswoman was extremely patient. She helped me register the phone and put the SIM chip in it. It worked when I left the store, because I listened to a message on it saying how many minutes I have. I´ve charged it. But I can´t get it to turn on...
So, at the end of the day, I´m left with two cans of beans, some ketchup, mustard, a plastic bowl, some bacon and a cell phone that doesn´t work but has three hundred minutes on it. Not exactly productive. Pero, esta bien!
Why baked beans? The maintenance man at the school was asking me how to make the "frijoles dulces" he´d had when he was working in the US. Took me forever to figure out what frijoles dulces - sweet beans - were. I want to make some for him and his wife.
Anyway, I found the right bus, at a corner on Messones and the market street, not far from my school. The micros are just what they sound like - smaller versions of the bus. Mine had a large picture of the virgin of guadalupe surrounded by glitter hanging behind the driver´s head. There are also a couple guys on the bus who help the driver collect money. (You don´t pay when you get on.) I´m not sure they´re working or just hanging out, because some jump off and some jump on every few blocks (usually while the bus is still moving). My ride cost 30 cents, as compared to about 6 bucks for a cab.
So everything was going swell, but I have never been to Gigante, so I didn´t realize when we reached shopping center. Since I was the only gringa on the bus and since I had asked the driver if the bus went to Gigante, I think I was somehow expecting the driver or one of his many assistants would point it out. A princess move, but there you go.
I wound up going to the end of the line, a dirt road that ended at the edge of a very remote, very poor little neighborhood. The driver stopped the bus at the end of a dirt road and sort of acted surprised to see me (though I don´t think he was. I think he hoped I´d disappear befoe he had to deal with me.) I asked him if he was going back to town and he said no.
By this time, a couple other buses had stopped at the end of the road. So I asked which bus was returning. He kind of shrugged and pointed to four buses. I had to ask at each one. There were lots of neighborhood people standing around kinda staring at me. They weren´t bothering me. In fact, I think they were just a little amused but trying politely not to laugh.
At the third bus, the driver pointed to a bus that was driving past and said that one goes to Gigante. So I ran after it, which was unnecessary since this was the end of the line and he was going to stop anyway. He too, said he wasn´t going to Gigante, and at this point, I started to get a tiny bit nervous. I told him that every driver says the other was going, and he was very nice, got out of the bus and asked the other drivers. Turned out to be the first bus I was on!! And in fact, all of these guys were probably going by there on the way back to town. The driver sort of tried to apologize. He may have even tried originally to tell me he was going back and I just didn´t understand him. Quien sabe? (Who knows)
I made it to Gigante - the busdriver actually announced the stop by asking "Who´s going to Gigante?" and looking at me.
Gigante is kind of like a cross between a warehouse store and a supermarket, with a pharmacy, a bakery and a meat market thrown in. I bought everything for baked beans except brown sugar. And onion soup mix. They don´t have dried onion soup mix here. Tomato, chicken and shrimp, many rice based soups, dried beans, dried squash soup, dried cream of spinach. But no onion. Interesting.
After that I walked through the "mall" which is pretty rundown. There were some clothes stores, electronics stores, a jewelry store, a papeleria, some food stands, including I think, a curry restaurant. At the end of the mall, there are some unfinished concrete rooms that could be stores if you should choose to rent them. And behind that, a movie theater that shows English movies w-Spanish subtitles.
I bought a cell phone from one of about four stores for same in the mall. Pretty proud that I managed to do that in Spanish. The saleswoman was extremely patient. She helped me register the phone and put the SIM chip in it. It worked when I left the store, because I listened to a message on it saying how many minutes I have. I´ve charged it. But I can´t get it to turn on...
So, at the end of the day, I´m left with two cans of beans, some ketchup, mustard, a plastic bowl, some bacon and a cell phone that doesn´t work but has three hundred minutes on it. Not exactly productive. Pero, esta bien!
# posted by Anne @ 3:53 PM 
