Today i made a truly remarkable discovery in this, the oldest town in Europe, with tiny streets, dilapidated buildings, and rustic charm: a gigantic uber-department store/movie theatre/discount retailer/grocery store rolled into one: el Corte Inglés. This place has everything: toys, electronics, clothes, furniture, 5 restaurants, a bookstore, a candy store, a magazine store, i mean everything. Then, attached to it is a gigantic retailer/grocery store (think a slightly higher class wal-mart) that's integrated with the other parts. Oh yeah - I forgot the movie theatre on the 2nd floor: with 10 screens, it shows about 80 movies a day. And it's all Americanized: I was giddy with excitement, feeling like I was in "ultimate consumer" paradise...
Although finding the store was a great accomplishment, the more remarkable thing about my experience at el corte ingles was that I actually didn't buy anything there. I went looking for three things: a charger for my cell phone, a program for my Palm that has all the maps of Europe on it, and a book that I need for my course teaching English. Sadly, I found none of them. I bought the charger on ebay, decided not to buy the maps, and (mom you can skip the rest of the sentence and move on to the next paragraph) am probably out of luck with the book, which was the only thing I really needed to start my course on Monday.
If anyone has ridden in a car with me, you know that I have not only a terrible sense of direction, but a penchant for not listening when directions are given to me, wanting to appear like I just needed a little steering in the right direction. In reality, I need someone to hold my hand through the process, probably draw me a map, and then give me a phone number to call when I get lost. So you can imagine what happens when I attempt to do this in a foreign language...
Spanish television strikes again: now i'm watching a reality-tv show where they just shot a lion with a tranquilizer and watched it vomit all over the cage. Sorry "Jackass"- I think this show's got you beat in the ridiculous quotient....
Tomorrow I wake up with the Cadistas (fútbol fans) to mill around outside the gates of the soccer game and eventually purchase a ticket to the game for €400, only to find out it's for next week's exhibition game against the minor league team. Next week, I'll find out that the ticket just gets me in the grounds, and doesn't even let me past the gates so I can actually see the game. But it'll be cool - I wore my Cádiz soccer jersey today and caught the approving eye of many elderly men around town, and that's gotta be worth something...
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