mercadon

The most stressful thing I do here is accompany the mother, the cook, and the child to the grocery. I find it thrilling.

First, its produce heaven, ´vegetarian mecca, and we load a whole cart with fruit and vegetables, then I´m quizzed on all the spanish words as I struggle with the cart and try to follow the mother who is whizzing around speaking in Spanish and tossing this and that into the cart. As we meet the cook and the child at the check-out, with a cart full of meat- it all balances out- we have to simultaneously unload the cartS and bag the groceries, meanwhile the mother is rushing back and forth with another cart getting all the things we´ve forgotten and the check-out girl is sitting idly, yawning and slowly passing items through the scanner. the groceries barely fit in the car and im sure the bill is well over 300€ but im afraid its too rude to blatently look. At home everyone takes one load in and disperses while the help (that, unfortunately, includes me) gets the rest. Im only half-joking when I say I´ve never felt more in the minority, and I´m half Jewish, half southern baptist (hah).
Last week the filipino manservant, who barely speaks spanish and knows even less english said, in response to something his wife (the cook) said in filipino, ¨I only have two hands!¨ I´ve only ever heard him say before ¨sleep tight¨ and ¨sorry¨.
* a note on my impression of filipinos- they speak very, very loudly even when they´re next to each other. sometimes they walk outside my room and it´s so loud I have to close my windows in order to think clearly. It always sounds like they´re delivering bad news when they talk. They could be talking dirty or about the weather, but it´s going to sound like they´re discussing their recent diagnosis of incurable cancer or their dead dog. The cook loves country music and horror films and Im pretty sure the manservant has a killer sense of humor, if only we could speak more than a few words of the same language. Oh, they always nod and smile even if they have no idea what I´m talking about, and that´s more often than not. They´re very nice to me and to the children but little cas has them completely wrapped around their finger which spells trouble. having said this, I admit that my interaction with filipinos has been limited throughout the course of my life and in no way am I insinuating that this is the true nature of the people. well..

The boys got here yesterday and I was nervous, but I think we´re going to get along well and I´m so glad to have the company, even if it´s ten and thirteen. Im ready to do things other than watch alvin and the chipmunks every single day. sweet relief.

We went to the Pepe Jeans store last week and they bought me a dress, amazing right? they´re trying to buy the stores in the states. apparently in the states pepe jeans is really ghetto and I vaguely recall knowing what they mean by that. here its a hipper version of french connection, less stuffy but a similar style. a few days later the mother got a pair of flats as a gift but they were too big so she gave them to me, also amazing. they´re a size to small but I wear them anyway and even though my toes ache I cant help but smile because I dont know how else to properly thank them for the kindness that they bestow upon me. I really cant imagine a more ideal situation than one Im living in.

I get paid every tuesday, sort of, and I´m planning a huge shopping spree for my birthday. WOO

missme-