After the café I walked down who-knows-what road to find a supermarket. Christine (the woman who is housing me) told me there was a market in either direction on their street. Well, I guess I missed the place because I kept walking and walking… and as usual, I ended up in Plaza Cataluña. I knew I couldn’t get what I wanted at the store there – el Corte Inglés – so I went to Movistar, a cell phone service provider and asked them if I could buy a SIM card to put in this little phone I had last time I was there. They told me to go to Corte Inglés! So I ended up there anyway, and I got my SIM card, so I now have a Spanish phone number. I tried texting my friend Sophia, but it gave me an error. I’ll have to figure this out as soon as I finish writing.
I ended up browsing school supplies and got myself a notebook, a cheap pen (fountain pen tip, bonus). I don’t think Spain has discovered what is known as “college ruled” notebooks. All of the notebooks in the store were lab notebooks (the ones with squares for graphing) or if they had lined paper, the lines were quite far apart (much like the notebooks kids use in elementary school). I gave up looking and got the squared kind. I’ll get over it.
Of course, I had to browse their book store as well. As usual when I go to book stores, I left with a new book. I bought the third book in the Millennium series by Stieg Larsson. The titles change a lot from English to Spanish, so I won’t bother remembering what it was called. It’s not out in the USA for another year, and although reading the Spanish version might go slower than in English, I really want to read it and I’ll deal with it. Maybe by the time I finish I will have improved some, too. Once I walked out, I saw a newsstand and bought a copy of El País, the more worldly of Spanish papers.
Tired of walking and sweating from wearing my jacket (hey, it was chilly this morning), I walked to the subway and got off at Girona where I live. I’m getting a bit confused by the ambiguity between Gerona and Girona. I’ve seen both printed. I prefer Girona but I can’t tell you why. Anyway, off topic… not that the previous topic was of much interest… I decided to look once more for the supermarket. I walked around the block and voila! I purchased razors, soap, some orange juice and mussels for a lack of inspiration as far as foodstuffs goes. Now I realize I should get some bread and cheese and ham, but I’ll do that later. After the supermarket I came home and now I’m typing this up and relaxing. I think I’ll take a nap before I venture out again. I’m still worn out from the traveling and my arms are actually sore from those suitcases yesterday. I’m out of shape. I’ll fix that later.
For now, siesta.
PS
I met the older son (I think he’s 27 or something around there, I don’t remember) and he was nice, but quiet. He spoke to me in English first, and it sounded like there is a market for me in Spain. I can’t say my Spanish is much better than his English, but once I start actually using it we shall see.
The following picture is for Ryan:
Eating some Mejillones for my afternoon snack.
Tags: barcelona, mejillones, movistar, Sophia