shopping
My boss took me shopping today.
We first went to a bedding & clothing store. She decided last Friday night that I need new bedding, that the stuff they had already in the office isn't good enough. "You should live like a queen" were her words (but in Spanish). I don't think it's possible to live like royalty in a glorified storage room, but I held my tongue. She bought me a new pillow & a sheet/pillowcase/duvet cover set. She didn't want to get normal sheets, but insisted on a type that is a lot like seersucker, that has very complicated washing instructions (which again, she told me in Spanish, so I'm not sure I fully grasped them). They are green plaid with yellow daisies. She also spent some time looking at the underwear. I didn't know whether to offer suggestions or avert my eyes.
And we continued on to a series of stores & bought a variety of things: a blanket, some sweets, bread, grapes, fabric, beer. I spent the trip trying to keep up with her - she's a fast walker - & listening to her complain about menopause in three languages. I was also trying to figure out what was for me. The blanket was, as was some of the bread.
The fabric stores are quite interesting here - piles of bolts with no apparent order. One asks for fabric by the meter, but pays by the kilo. I didn't ask why.
We first went to a bedding & clothing store. She decided last Friday night that I need new bedding, that the stuff they had already in the office isn't good enough. "You should live like a queen" were her words (but in Spanish). I don't think it's possible to live like royalty in a glorified storage room, but I held my tongue. She bought me a new pillow & a sheet/pillowcase/duvet cover set. She didn't want to get normal sheets, but insisted on a type that is a lot like seersucker, that has very complicated washing instructions (which again, she told me in Spanish, so I'm not sure I fully grasped them). They are green plaid with yellow daisies. She also spent some time looking at the underwear. I didn't know whether to offer suggestions or avert my eyes.
And we continued on to a series of stores & bought a variety of things: a blanket, some sweets, bread, grapes, fabric, beer. I spent the trip trying to keep up with her - she's a fast walker - & listening to her complain about menopause in three languages. I was also trying to figure out what was for me. The blanket was, as was some of the bread.
The fabric stores are quite interesting here - piles of bolts with no apparent order. One asks for fabric by the meter, but pays by the kilo. I didn't ask why.
posted by rachel @ 6:47 PM
4 Comments:
At 1:35 AM,
Anonymous said…
So is Spanish the language in common at this point for you and your boss? How did she learn Spanish?
At 10:05 AM,
rachel said…
It is the common language for us. I have now started talking to her in my own Spanish-Serbian creole.
She learned Spanish by studying it in school & then started working at the Spanish embassy in Belgrade in the Yugoslav era & worked her way up to interpreting.
she's very excited that you might come & visit, by the way.
At 10:09 AM,
Anonymous said…
so did you pay for the stuff?
I had a free trip to the department store. Of course, being from an INDUSTRIALIZED country, it ended up looking like a Giant Target.
(I forget what Giant Targets are actually called, but I like that name. Target used to have a company magazine called Target: The Family.)
(Target also sponsors the arena for the Minnesota Timberwolves. So, the endangered-species-mascotted team plays at the Target Center.)
(that's all my Target material.)
At 2:03 PM,
rachel said…
I did not pay for it.
They're called SuperTargets.
More Target material:
Q: Why are they closing the K-Marts in Iraq?
A: They're turning them into targets.
Post a Comment
<< Home