We have coffee!

Well day 2 and 3 were spent trying to line up the essentials for our apartment. And one of those essentials was the coffee maker! I went to a place called Carrefour (pronounced Car4). Imagine Walmart on steroids! They have a grocery side (which I didn't know at the time since earlier in the day I went to a separate grocery store) and the other side. On one side they are constantly baking fresh bread, which you can imagine smells so good and by the fruit section they have a huge section of fresh spices in large barrells along with huge barrells of olives from all over the world. There are a few guys in the middle taking orders and bagging. That aisle smells like you've just arrived in India. The hard thing about a new place and especially one that big is just finding what is on your list! And if you can believe from the above couple of sentences I couldn't find black table pepper, I ended up leaving without it! I figured most of the locals probably thought it was such a boring spice compared to all the others that they just didn't carry it! Those gringos they probably thought! (I did find it eventually at another store) At the end of my shopping spree, trash cans, clocks, broom, laundry baskets, diapers, etc...I can barely pull the cart up to the check out stand. And did I mention I had Ava with me? The other 2 were with Jacinta (an Australian girlfriend of one of Rich's co-workers), I figured it would be 2 much of an overload for her to take all 3 of the girls to the pool on her first time meeting us, so I took Ava and left the older 2 with her. Anyway no sooner had a pulled the cart up to the checkout stand then out of nowhere a man with a bright yellow Carrefour jumpsuit appears. He immediately starts putting my stuff on the belt while the lady is ringing me up. I tried to help but he just waved me off and told me no. Once I paid he had everthing loaded up in the cart and away we went. He walked me all the way to my car, loaded all my stuff and waved goodbye! Mind you our walk to my car was like walking from out of Dillards at Oak Park mall, through the mall over to Nordstrom, out of Nordstrom into the parking lot and to your car! But even with all the craziness my goal of being able to brew coffee the next morning was accomplished, even though I did forget the coffee filters! But that's where my good friend the paper towel came in handy, I had remembered those!

Jennifer