Today I went to Sam's Club again. We didn't really need anything, but I wanted to try the experiment again and see if our date night was a fluke or not. Abi came with me. The first item of business was the commute there ~ Google maps gave me 3 routes. One route took me through the city by going east - 11 minutes. Another one, the longest route distance wise, had me go up north then around via the freeway, about twice the distance but it said that way was also 11 minutes. Hmm, why is that? A third option was kinda up and at a diagonal and then down. Well, I thought I'd try my luck and go east. But when I got in the car, the gps lady told me the north and around way. I wanted to try east, so I went east anyway. Every "recalculation" told me to make a u-turn or turn north. But I kept going and we were driving around somewhere in the city kinda lost. Abi said I should probably listen to the lady. I told her I will next time. We eventually ended up getting to the freeway and then went down, so we might have kinda driven the 3rd option google gave us. It's okay, I was just experimenting anyway. On the way home, it took me the way I wanted to go there by, but it's a little tricky cause there are a few one way roads, but I think next time I got it... I just need to get over one of the bridge passes before the little river cuts off my access south.
So, anyway, we made it there and got into the store again with no problem. It wasn't busy which surprised me a little. Like really quiet. It will be interesting to go again and see if it's the same amount of not-busy. Sometime I'll go during an evening and we'll see what that is like. I don't want to go on a Saturday though. One trip to the mall on a Saturday taught me that - to avoid crowds, don't go on the weekend. Abi and I took our time seeing what there was to buy. When I was walking down the kitchen isle where knives, bowls, and other kitchen appliances were for sale, it was easy to imagine I was in the US. That was nice. I think I'll be going to Sam's a lot, cause it's nice to play pretend. My life just got 10 times easier. We bought a box of happiness, just for fun (it's chocolates from Germany). And then we loaded up on too much junk food, including some Cheetos, Pringles, cookies, sugar cereal, and more chocolates. Then I thought we should try to be a little healthy, so we headed to the produce section. Got some cherry tomatoes - not the same bulk size, but we can live with that. And we also got (drum roll...) avocados! The big ones that Brazil sells! I've been looking for them but they weren't at Walmart, so I'm excited for those to ripen up, it's gonna be good. We also found the frozen section and got some frozen broccoli, just like we always bought at Costco. Plus a big double liter thing of strawberry ice cream. We checked out without a problem, even though I'm not totally sure on over half of the things the cashier said to me. Pay with debit visa, check, and tada! We're done! Yay!!! Good job Abi!
We got home and ate Pringles and the Cheetos, the kids said they looked like "Cheesy Dibbles" that the Penguins of Madagascar like.
What else - other than the trip to Sam's, it was a normal day for us here. The kids did music and read, I did laundry and swept. Here is where my washing machine is. It's outside. Outside in the maid alley, I can see it from the kitchen sink and door.
It's a good thing it's outside, cause the sink it drains into has clogged and flooded over a few times, At home in the US, that would be a big deal, but no worries here, cause it's outside and it all just trickles to the rain drain. It gets clogged cause of lint, cause it's a washer and dryer in one machine. Do they even sell machines like that in the US? We had one like this in Chile, but someone told me to not use the dryer cause it uses too much power and it will cost too much. I couldn't figure it out when we were there anyway, but I did figure out how to wash. So I
hung the clothes out to dry in Chile, but am trying the dryer this time. Works pretty well. It makes cute little musical sounds, which I think is a nice touch.
It took me a few times doing it before I figured out the right buttons to push. I don't think I rinsed the clothes on the first two loads I did. If I do the heated water, wash, rinse, spin, and dry, it's about a 5 hour process. If I take off the heated water, it takes it down to 4 hours. And I think it dries it for a bit longer than it needs to, Sometimes I'll come check it when it still has an hour and they are already dry (and scalding hot).
And this is our little Natalie going out the front (south) door to explore the yard. She likes to walk around barefoot.
The kids try to warn her "That's not American grass!" but to no avail. She's a brave soul.
Luckily the fire ants have only gotten her once. Wesley was our toddler here in 2007 and the fire ants had it out for him. So far, Hyrum and Wesley have both gotten bit once, and Lily got bit yesterday as she was warming up on the deck by the pool. There are lots of different kinds of ants here, but the little black ones that look like normal US ants... those are the ones to look out for. On Lily's bite, you couldn't see anything but they burn like a bee sting. Lily asked me why Jesus made fire ants. I didn't have an answer. I put some lavender oil on it and it stung for a little while. And then Abi got a cut on her knee from Hyrum pushing her in the pool, and that injury had blood, so it was worse according to the kids standard (just a little scratch). Lily was able to sympathize with Abi's scratch blood more than her bite, cause it looked normal. So didn't hear any more about it. And thus we come to the end of a pretty typical day here in Campinas.
