Maybe it's all good news...
I haven't been to a proper market yet, and I'd really like to go to one, buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut... we went to the "mini-mart" where my BIL/SIL tend to shop, and I was SUPER impressed.
I'm not sure why everyone calls them mini-marts. When I heard that there were no grocery stores but only mini-marts, I'll admit, I had a little bit of fear about doing all my shopping at what I thought was going to be a 7-11. I was afraid that the selection would be similar to a 7-11 or a gas station or something. Nope. Not so. Yes, the store is smaller than your average grocery store and doesn't have the massive displays of food a real grocery store might, but, what I saw today was plenty ok!
Just to list a few items that impressed me, they had... soy milk, almond milk, hazelnut milk, BLACK BEANS (canned and dry!!!! I may or may not have bought all 6 cans that they had today!), castor sugar, brown sugar, some local, brand of yogurt that has no extra anything, a big assortment of cheese including things like parm, cheddar and cream cheese, an assortment of healthy cereal, fresh really nice bread, lovely veggies (including broccoli and mushrooms which are so nice to see after the drought we had of those in Angola!), tahini, all kinds of coffee, including several organic ones, some Tex-Mex imports (salsa, tortillas, etc), a lovely range of pasta sauces, chocolate chips, Vegemite, Mint Slice and Tim Tams (Australian cookies) and more. Honestly, I would have to say that this one store probably had better variety and range of product to impress me than any store I saw in Angola or Latvia. And the best part is that although some of the items were a bit pricey, nothing in there was as overpriced as a lot of the things in Angola were. Needless to say, I am happy. Very happy.
So that is the truly good news.
The bad news is, it looks like I might have to learn to drive a stick. I never had a need until now, but we've found a vehicle we like, that seems to be in good condition (we're going to take it in to a reputable mechanic before we buy it), but it's a stick. It's a Hyundai Santa Fe. The truly bad news is that it is an ugly color. :) It is a coppery bronze- a color very similar to one that seemed to have just gotten very popular in the States before we left there, and which made me shudder every time I saw it on the road. So, that sucks. But, like I said to Joel, at least I will be able to recognize our car easily when I've forgotten just where I parked! But obviously, finding a car we like, and will be able to afford, is actually good news, whether or not it is a stick or an ugly color. And learning a new skill- like driving a stick- is actually good too, isn't it. We'll see how that goes though... I'll keep ya updated!
In other good news, I got myself a new phone and a phone number and we should be starting our house search tomorrow. We were supposed to do that today, but, it was raining again and the agent only had a moped, not a car. So, we rescheduled for tomorrow. I think he's supposed to have the car tomorrow.
Oh, I remember the really bad news. The store that sold the phones also had an appliance section. So we wandered back to take a look at what they had. Good news- they had a dryer. Bad news- it cost somewhere around $1300!!!!!! Not cool! We're going to keep looking to see if we can find a cheaper one (we had about $400-$600 budgeted for a dryer), but if we can't, I'm SOL. Even I know it's not really worth it, to spend that much on a dryer, but, you better believe I'll be crying in my Cheerios if I don't end up getting one. And my laundry will keep taking 3-4 days to dry as it is now, and my jeans and tank tops will never fit again without a dryer to shrink them back down to size. :( Cross your fingers for us finding a cheap dryer!
More good news? I still love it here. :)
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