The prospect of spending the afternoon shopping, lavishing myself with the birthday gifts I was instructed to buy myself sounded lovely. The reality was, it wasn’t really so much fun. I went to the mall instead of going downtown… likely a mistake. The mall is so small that I’d circled the entire place within 20 minutes of arriving. Even the stores that are also located in the shopping district downtown are smaller and don’t carry everything the others do. The department store in the mall is a serious let-down. It’s an H&M. I’ve only gone in once and I vowed never to return.
At the shop where I’d found one thing to buy, the clerk asked me if I want to be on their mailing list. Oh, sure, why not. I don’t get any junk mail or catalogs here. So she asked my address. Mine is 798… and I’ve been told that here you cannot say seven-nine-eight or seven-ninety eight. It’s seven hundred ninety eight. I find that just too hard to believe so I said seven-nine-eight. (in French) And that woman just stared at me like she had no idea what I’d just said. I guess it is true.
My real quest was to find a pair of shoes that can substitute for my glaring white sneakers. No luck. I’d worn loafers there, to try to blend. They hurt my feet and as soon as I got home I rushed to change into Keds.
Since you’re coming to the US of A shortly, you can select a gift from our vast array of selections here. You’ll be visiting us at two hundred twenty-two Monterey, I assume, unit six hundred and three. Our zip code is ninety-one thousand, two hundred and six, should you need to know.