So I FINALLY got to go to a bigger grocery store and a "dollar (Dirham) store" to get some things for my apartment. "My apartment" Still not sinking in. Katie the music teacher was kind enough to take me since I have NO idea where to go. She said cabs are tricky, they will try to rip you off. You must say in French that you live here and Not a tourist. I was like "Ummmm....I arrived 4 days ago, maybe you can say it for me"....lol (I'm learning quickly that I must try to use either French or Arabic....they really don't speak English around here...like at All!) Thats ok, I wanted to become bilingual anyway. I think. lol
(btw, that was Also mentioned in the Culture Shock book....good to know I read it and ignored it)
So we did our shopping. Everything in the dollar store had a thin coating of some kind of dust. The plastic smelled like the worst plastic in the world. The towels were like soft cardboard.
"Sooooo, is there like a Bed Bath and Beyond around here?".....I will pay for the ride for us both.
There is not.
So I pushed my cart and filled it up with dusty stuff and thought, my apartment will look "eclectic."
After that we went food shopping in the same strip mall. It was rather nice. Once I entered the supermarket I became lost all over again. Nothing is in English. And sometimes I didn't even know what the product was!!!!
Some of the dairy is not pasteurized therefore it is left out...eggs, milk, and other items are just on the shelf. There is NO way Im buying meat and Hellzzz no for the large fish staring me in the face.
What do I buy? What am I doing? I cant keep eating cookies and Laughing Cow Cheese on weird crackers. Ugh....
The fruit is fresh but doesn't look it. Because they don't use pesticides it goes bad rather quickly. When I see flies around fruit I'm grossed out.
Uh-oh....my OCD is in full throttle. Maybe some rice, pasta, and sauce? I think it was sauce?.....
Now its 9:30pm. We grab a cab and she tells me its 20 Dirham the same amount we paid coming.
Upon leaving the cab I gave the $ to the driver. He questions me and starts yelling.
Our security guard for our apartment walks over (knows no English) and clearly something is wrong.
I explained in my slowly spoken English (as if that makes a difference) that we paid that coming to the market.
He Threw the money back at me and walked away. We hustled into the gates and security shut the door...However now we hear him Yelling!!! Jesus, what did we do????
We stayed behind the gate to listen....he was Not going anywhere!
We see a girl from our school and ask if she knows Arabic....she said a little bit.
We told her the story and asked her to find out the deal.
She came back and said, "It costs more $ at night time"...(we're talking 4 more dollars he wanted)
I immediately grabbed the correct amount and told her to tell him we are sorry we didn't know.
All ended well.....but I was sure that if not corrected....it would be My luck to run into him again.
Lesson learned. Everything costs more when the sun goes down.
And I need to learn the language.
(btw, that was Also mentioned in the Culture Shock book....good to know I read it and ignored it)
So we did our shopping. Everything in the dollar store had a thin coating of some kind of dust. The plastic smelled like the worst plastic in the world. The towels were like soft cardboard.
"Sooooo, is there like a Bed Bath and Beyond around here?".....I will pay for the ride for us both.
There is not.
So I pushed my cart and filled it up with dusty stuff and thought, my apartment will look "eclectic."
After that we went food shopping in the same strip mall. It was rather nice. Once I entered the supermarket I became lost all over again. Nothing is in English. And sometimes I didn't even know what the product was!!!!
Some of the dairy is not pasteurized therefore it is left out...eggs, milk, and other items are just on the shelf. There is NO way Im buying meat and Hellzzz no for the large fish staring me in the face.
What do I buy? What am I doing? I cant keep eating cookies and Laughing Cow Cheese on weird crackers. Ugh....
The fruit is fresh but doesn't look it. Because they don't use pesticides it goes bad rather quickly. When I see flies around fruit I'm grossed out.
Uh-oh....my OCD is in full throttle. Maybe some rice, pasta, and sauce? I think it was sauce?.....
Now its 9:30pm. We grab a cab and she tells me its 20 Dirham the same amount we paid coming.
Upon leaving the cab I gave the $ to the driver. He questions me and starts yelling.
Our security guard for our apartment walks over (knows no English) and clearly something is wrong.
I explained in my slowly spoken English (as if that makes a difference) that we paid that coming to the market.
He Threw the money back at me and walked away. We hustled into the gates and security shut the door...However now we hear him Yelling!!! Jesus, what did we do????
We stayed behind the gate to listen....he was Not going anywhere!
We see a girl from our school and ask if she knows Arabic....she said a little bit.
We told her the story and asked her to find out the deal.
She came back and said, "It costs more $ at night time"...(we're talking 4 more dollars he wanted)
I immediately grabbed the correct amount and told her to tell him we are sorry we didn't know.
All ended well.....but I was sure that if not corrected....it would be My luck to run into him again.
Lesson learned. Everything costs more when the sun goes down.
And I need to learn the language.
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