Another Installment of the Shopping Saga

Today I again attempted driving myself to the store. Yes, you may applaud if you desire; it was a monumental decision. If you don't know why, read "Success?" a couple posts down and you'll be all caught up...

Yep, I once more decided to borrow a school car and travel to the shopping center all by myself! The whole experience was approximately 683 times better than a week ago- I got the Suzuki again and started it on the first try. I'm actually starting to like the little truck! It only took me 10 minutes to get off campus, as opposed to an hour last time, and the guard didn't even have to jump out of my way as I passed the gate. I was able to turn on the lights as soon as the thunderstorm started, and I even knew where the windshield wipers were. (Mostly because I tend to accidentally turn them on when I'm trying to use the turn signal, but still, I knew where they were). Arrival was simple, and even parking went well. This time I didn't forget my list; I forgot my money. But I overcame the obstacle by successfully using the ATM machine- maybe I'm gaining a little resiliency and will be able to live here without trauma eventually. I navigated the extremely confusing set of staircases and ramps down to the food court, ordered my latte, and sat down to grade papers at a table just out of reach of the pouring rain.

Now, when I'm grading I tend to deal with frustration by changing location- if I'm becoming depressed by how kids are doing on a quiz, I'll move to a different setting and restart the grading. Actually, I decided to go grade at Village (the shopping center) because of a different kind of frustration: the power at the school was spiking and diving all day long. In theory we have a generator on campus which stabilizes our power; in reality there were at least 20 outages today. Sometimes the lights would start buzzing again quickly (ah, the wonders of florescence), sometimes they'd get enough juice to light up just as the power would quit again, and sometimes they'd just buzz and occasionally flicker. Holy distraction, Batman! It's especially challenging if you're playing a classwide game that requires the overhead projector, or putting grades into the ancient Dell that sometimes saves automatically and sometimes doesn't... All that to say, I was ready to grade somewhere else by 5:00.

After the latte was gone but there were still plenty of papers to grade, I got hungry for dinner and moved to a restaurant elsewhere in the mall. This was by far the best part of my evening. The restaurant turned out to be a wannabe sports bar; they had a couple of screens showing soccer games and they were pumping Ricky Martin loudly in the background. The waiters outnumbered the customers, no one was dancing nor drinking, and I was grading Algebra tests. I tell you, that's living La Vida Loca. ;) So I was giggling internally about the decade-old latin dance mix and the atmosphere that didn't quite match it when the music suddenly stopped. I was momentarily disappointed until they changed CDs and broke through to a whole new level of musical wonder: Kenny G. My giggling was not entirely internal at this point. But then it got even better! What could be better than pirated Kenny G in an African sports bar, you ask? Well, pirated Kenny G in an African sports bar playing Celine Dion, of course! I believe I laughed aloud when the bus boy started to earnestly whistle along to the soprano sax version of "My Heart Will Go On." I tried to pretend I was reading some really funny math tests, but I'm not sure I pulled it off.

Eventually the grading was done and it was time to brace myself for grocery shopping. I thought I'd imitate the culture around me and use a little tiny shopping cart- when I first moved here, I thought they were for children to push around like they are in the States. But according to my careful observations, they are to be used by anyone who doesn't have all that much to buy. That was me, so I gave it a shot. True, they're lighter, but I found I had trouble keeping it in front of me, and I had to hunch over to reach the bar to steer it. Today I got a B+ in shopping- I mostly found the things I was looking for, and when I came across something that wasn't on my list but hadn't been in stock for the last month, I bought 3 of them. I'm learning. I'm still not a master of the store's organizational layout; I searched high and low for a pencil sharpener in the school supplies section to no avail. Turns out it's in the hardware section (OK, I can see it being a tool), and they're kept locked up in a glass case along with cell phones and digital cameras. These are little plastic hand sharpeners which cost about a nickel. Never mind. I don't understand things here at all. But at least I've learned to ask for help finding what I need, and that's a worthwhile skill.

So all in all, a good Wednesday night: papers graded, groceries bought, and a little Ricky/Kenny/Celine. What more could I ask for?