Sunday Shopper

Yesterday morning, I went down to Madrid with Ciri to meet her friend for some shopping. We had some time before her friend's bus came, so we went to this outdoor shopping market. It reminded me a lot of the silk markets in China as you could have bought virtually anything there: clothes, housewares, shoes, jewelry, bags, pottery, underwear, flowers, food, furniture, blankets, and more! While you couldn't play around with the prices like China, everything was super cheap with many stands having signs saying "1 Euro!!! 2 Euro" "Todo 5 Euro!" and other phrases meaning, "Big Sale!" "Great Discounts" and "Bargains!"

It was fun to walk up and down the street and see everything that people had to offer. While it wasn't the most high end, it was certainly fun. People would shout at you to get you to come in and browse, and say thing like "Ooo Beautiful lady! For you I give special prices". Once you realize they said that to everyone, you stopped paying as much attention.

Sunday is Ciri's day off, and so she always goes into Madrid to shop, get errands done, and see her friends. During this trip she was looking for some things to buy for her sons, as well as some new stuff for herself. We had fun trying on some cute sandals that were super cheap too. This was also a great place for people watching, as it's fun to observe how people go about their shopping experience.

At the end of the shopping part, was a huge food market that offered any type of fresh produce, fruit, vegetable, you could want. Ciri said some people go there to do their food shopping if they live nearby. I love the concept of buying things from a market . . . too bad it doesn't really fit in with the American lifestyle of buying in bulk.

When we reached the end we turned around, headed back on the other side of the road, as both sides were filled with various shopping stands. Toy shops, electronic products, pajamas, jerseys, Espana gear and more. I knew that I wanted to get a bag, but there were so many choice at times it go to be quite overwhelming! In the end, I found a bag that worked, and some sandals as well. All of the shopping vocabulary reminded me of the Spanish 1 days back in high school.

My new bag! So many colors!

I succumbed to the fad of gladiator sandals.

After our time at the shopping market, we met up with her friend and had lunch. Then we went to a huge shopping mall full of all sorts of stores. Here, I was on a mission to find an outfit for my first day of work. Zara, Mango, H&M, and more . . . then I found something that sparked the rest of my outfit. It's a chancla/vest from Zara, Sort of silver/grey in color. I plan on wearing it w/ a dark skirt and a light shirt. I think its funny how much effort is put on the first day of things, but what about the second day? Does it just not matter anymore? Or are we already in the flow and stop thinking about it. Remember what you wore the on first day of high school? If so, I doubt you know what you wore on the second ;)

Ciri's friend Lucy was hilarious, and so much fun to go shopping with. She has an incredibly bubbly personality, and loved using her few English words with me (water, hi!, thank you! Beautiful!). It was great. As they helped me find something to wear for work we had tons of fun talking about designs, and outfits, as well as making fun of some of the less flattering ones. If a skirt was cute, we'd say we like it, yet how unpractical it would be on a windy day. . . things like that.

After mall #1 it was off to mall #2. We hopped on the metro, then ran to a bus stop and rode 15mins to yet another mega mall. Here, I was on a shoe kick as every few stores was a shoe shop. It was great! I didn't buy anything, but it was fun to try on crazy high heels and strappy sandals that we had no intention of buying. I'm also much taller than both of them, so Lucy would try to find shoes to make her taller than me, to no avail.

All that shopping worked up an appetite, and Lucy wanted a happy meal so we stopped at McDonalds.

(I don't know why this picture is sideways . . . It's normal in the "my pictures" folder)

I had a craving for fries so it worked out well, then I got something called a "Chicken Move it!" out of curiosity as to what it could be. It was on the 1Euro menu. Turned out, its basically a single chicken strip. Tasty, but left me wanting more. Also, it came with BBQ flavoring, that was powdered, instead of BBQ sauce. I was confused yet intrigued by this, so I poured it out and rolled a fry in it. It basically tasted like the flavoring of BBQ Lays. Good, yet no substitute for BBQ Sauce.

The fries were delicious, but I swear that this large was the same size as a medium back in the states. Or maybe I've just really wanted more fries. One thing for sure though, soda sizes are much smaller everywhere else. You don't see people toting around those XL cups that are adjusted to hold more yet still fit in your cup holder.

They went off to church while I returned back to the house. The cousins came over for dinner, and I found out that earlier that morning everyone watched the Exorcist. The movie had everyone spooked for the rest of the night and I had to 'escort' the kids into the house as they didn't want to go themselves. Of course taking advantage of this I'd do little things to make it spooky like close the door really fast, or say "what's that?!" even if there was no noise. I know, I'm mean, but it was all in fun.

Only 4 days left in Spain! Then what am I gonna blog about?

Oh yeah, my awesome advertising job that starts a week from today :D
Get ready for talk about fast food and TV commercials.

~Jenna