RT Mart
RT Mart is the giant supermarket about 20 minutes walk from us. It has everything; clothes, washing machines, fish, pots and pans... We decided to go for a walk this morning and look for somewhere to have breakfast and then hit the RT Mart on the way home for some supplies. The pollution seemed worse today. The sky is kind of gray and gritty and the streets are very dirty. There are a lot of people who have homemade brooms are sweep up clouuds of dust and garbage all over the place.
I don't know what we were expecting to find for breakfast, but we just kept on walking past stalls of hot food thinking we would find something we liked more. You know how that goes, nobody wants to commit to a decision in case something better is up ahead. I think we must have been holding out for a Waffle House or something because we never found a breakfast spot that tickled our fancy.
We decided we would get something in RT Mart to eat on the way home. RT Mart was packed, even at 7am on a Sunday morning. Thankfully, Josh offers to push the cart. I can barely push myself through the crowds. You really have to be assertive when walking here. There will always be crowds of people in front of you and you can't sort of wait for an opening like you do when you are getting off an airplane. Nobody will notice you and let you ahead of them. We all kind of cram together in one direction and push your way to the sides if you see items you want to put into your basket. Lines (queues to NZers) don't exist, I kind of picked that up at the Chinese Embassy in D.C. "Take a number" was not all that effective. I pussyfoot around too much (am I allowed to use that word? It's really the best way to describe me). I need to believe I have just as much right to push my way through to the bananas as the next guy. I need to dedicate the rest of today to learning some Chinese, starting with numbers. There were many occasions in the RT Mart that we were doing something wrong (i.e. not having our produce weighed at the right scale, or trying to buy one bread roll when you had to buy three) and it would have been nice to know how to say a few things. There are also different hand signals for numbers. You'd think that 8 fingers to mean 8 would be universal, but here it is a sign that you make with your thumb and index finger....I think. :)
RT Mart is a challenge, it is very hot and crowded and I won't go on an empty stomach again. But we did come out with some great stuff, so we can cook for ourselves tonight. We also learned of a foriegn market that sells mustard and pancake mix. I'm not going to lie, a little mustard won't be unwelcome around here.
I don't know what we were expecting to find for breakfast, but we just kept on walking past stalls of hot food thinking we would find something we liked more. You know how that goes, nobody wants to commit to a decision in case something better is up ahead. I think we must have been holding out for a Waffle House or something because we never found a breakfast spot that tickled our fancy.
We decided we would get something in RT Mart to eat on the way home. RT Mart was packed, even at 7am on a Sunday morning. Thankfully, Josh offers to push the cart. I can barely push myself through the crowds. You really have to be assertive when walking here. There will always be crowds of people in front of you and you can't sort of wait for an opening like you do when you are getting off an airplane. Nobody will notice you and let you ahead of them. We all kind of cram together in one direction and push your way to the sides if you see items you want to put into your basket. Lines (queues to NZers) don't exist, I kind of picked that up at the Chinese Embassy in D.C. "Take a number" was not all that effective. I pussyfoot around too much (am I allowed to use that word? It's really the best way to describe me). I need to believe I have just as much right to push my way through to the bananas as the next guy. I need to dedicate the rest of today to learning some Chinese, starting with numbers. There were many occasions in the RT Mart that we were doing something wrong (i.e. not having our produce weighed at the right scale, or trying to buy one bread roll when you had to buy three) and it would have been nice to know how to say a few things. There are also different hand signals for numbers. You'd think that 8 fingers to mean 8 would be universal, but here it is a sign that you make with your thumb and index finger....I think. :)
RT Mart is a challenge, it is very hot and crowded and I won't go on an empty stomach again. But we did come out with some great stuff, so we can cook for ourselves tonight. We also learned of a foriegn market that sells mustard and pancake mix. I'm not going to lie, a little mustard won't be unwelcome around here.
posted by B | 7:04 PM
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