Tuesday, August 22, 2006

No ProblemA for groceries

"No problemo!"
How many times have you heard that one?? More than you can count on one hand, or both, or maybe even using feet, too, I would imagine. BUT...it's wrong! The word for a problem in Spanish is problema, with an A, not an O. I would hazard a guess that since so many words in Spanish end in O, someone just created this to be funny, and it stuck, but you can do the world a favor by starting to say, "No problema!" Or, not.
Anyhow, I just grocery shopped, and it always makes me happy to see that, if I don't buy stupid American products (and even if I buy one or two), my grocery bill is never much more than what would be $10 USD. To give you an idea of what food shopping costs here in Tuxtla (and at the Bodega Gigante, to be more specific), here is my receipt.

Cheese, 2 packages $3.00 USD
Popcorn, 2 packages $1.20 USD
Quaker granola cereal $1.50 USD
Oranges for juicing (5) $1.00 USD
Pasta $0.30 USD
Hot sauce $0.50 USD
Cilantro (1 big bunch) $0.30 USD
Jar of Jalapenos $0.35 USD
Three fancy cookies $0.80 USD
Tortilla chips (Tostitos) $1.40 USD
Apple Soda $0.50 USD
Bananas (2) $0.15 USD
Tomatoes (2) $0. 62 USD
Serrano pepper (1) $0.03 USD

Grand total: 116.14 pesos, or about $10-11 USD.

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