This week’s photo challenge from The Daily Post is titled “Dialogue.” The challenge is to show how pictures speak to each other, but I am taking it in a totally different direction!
This morning was Charlie’s first day at his science co-op. We packed his book bag and a picnic lunch and off we went to school, so today was basically the closest we’ll ever get to a first typical day of kindergarten! We went to his class and met everyone, then had a picnic with the entire co-op and played for awhile. It was really fun and nice for me to meet the other moms.
We were supposed to bring some sort of dish to share with everyone if we wanted to, and I didn’t have a thing at the house. I planned to go to the store after lunch, so not wanting to go to the grocery store twice in a day, decided to do something a little different.
We have a huge hispanic community in Siler City, and there are little tiendas around town. They are so colorful and honestly a little intimidating for someone like me who hasn’t spoken Spanish since college, so I have avoided them thus far. This morning, though, I threw my fears to the side, texted a friend who is really in touch with the great Mexican culture that is surrounding us, and dragged the kids to LaBonita.
LaBonita is in a small cinderblock building behind a popular seafood restaurant. It has no signs or any forms of advertisement, but is easily spotted when you know what to look for: the bottom half of the building is bright red and the top half is bright blue! Of course Charlie was immediately enthralled by a building that was painted in Superman’s colors!
I will tell you, walking into that store was intimidating! It was wonderful, with bins of fresh fruit and a meat counter and a little restaurant in the back that I am sure serves the best Mexican food around, but I felt like I had landed in a different country. It was an entirely different culture.
I didn’t really know what to do, because I could not see the pastry counter on the other side of the wall. After a failed dialogue with a woman who had no idea what I was saying and a realization that I can remember NOTHING of the eight years I spent studying Spanish, I finally found someone who spoke English who pointed to the other side of the store containing the baked goods.
Thankfully, he hovered nearby so I could ask him more questions, because I have never been to a bakery where you grab a pizza pan and tongs, open up the cases of delicious cookies and pastries and fill the pan up, then pay by the pound. It was so awesome.
Here’s a picture of some of our goodies that were thankfully left over from our picnic:
So, from a lack of dialogue came a wonderful new treasure for me. I’m not sure what most of the things I picked out are, but some things are the same in every language, and big giant cookie with sprinkles is one of them!
I love the Mexican store next to our office! Vanessa calls them Mexican donuts or something, but they are so good! I’m glad you and the kids went in there. Stores like that are so cool!
It was really neat. We’re definitely going to be regulars there.
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