Exploring

I'm thankful that wandering around the neighborhood is an exciting adventure for Troy. I vastly prefer the "one-stop" shopping you can find in the States, but that is not the way things are done here. You want some meat? Go to the little meat shop (some must be avoided at all costs--the trick is learning which ones are the good ones and which ones will, er, not agree with our American bodies). While you're out, you can get some freshly baked bread at a bread shop (and oh, is it good!). Need some tools our housewares? Go to the hardware store. Is it some toiletries you need, or a bill that needs to be paid? Stop by the pharmacy. And then for general groceries, there are markets in various sizes to accommodate your needs. All of these things are conveniently located right on the same main boulevard (you might just need to do a bit of walking to reach them). Oh, and fruit and veggies! If you want really fresh produce, go to the "farmer's market" in one of the local parks each Saturday! Obviously, this is profoundly different than what we are used to.

This morning, Troy shared a taxi with Jonny, our Mexico City teammate (we are blessed to be going through language school together!), and the two of them shopped at Walmart. Once at least one of us is more comfortable with Spanish, Jonny's wife, Gemma, and I plan to leave the Daddies at home with their respective kids to have our turn shopping sans children.

After lunch, he and the kids all decided to do a bit of exploring. They wanted to go to some of these shops and visit others along the busy street a few blocks from our house. They had great fun avoiding the periodic rain showers, stopping for Cokes, and discovering a heavenly-smelling bakery. They managed to lug home a couple 2.5 liters of soda, a small watermelon (!), another pineapple, a carton of milk....and a new teapot for me! I never imagined that having a teapot so that I could make hot tea would be that important to me. But to my great surprise, it has been. It's been the one item (besides fans) that has made it onto every single one of our shopping lists over the last couple days. Go figure.

I did not join the expedition because of the horrific sunburn I acquired yesterday at the park. (It looks bad. And it doesn't feel all that great, either.) Troy believes it's faded somewhat, so we are planning on venturing out again tomorrow morning in the search for one particular store.

And of course we will be sure to apply the sunblock. In liberal quantities.