Oh Spain, if there's one thing your terrible at, it's service...of any kind. You go shopping at Eroski (or any grocery store in Spain) and you'll probably get the same service at the cash register. "Bolsa quieres?" (Do you want a bag?) and then they'll toss the bag at you, you'll spend the entire checkout trying to open the bag and then they'll give you the total while you're fumbling with bagging the groceries and paying the cashier all while moving on with the next costumer. They never ask if they can help you find anything and only move if someone is stealing an item from them.
The latter I have nothing wrong with and I would say that it's only Spanish people who do this, but my worst experiences come from the "chino" stores (terribly politically incorrect, but I can't think of another way to describe the stores run by people of Asian descent, and the Spanish always call these stores "chinos"). As soon as you walk though the door someone is locked onto you like a tracking device. Now I used tracking device instead of heat seeking missile because they don't actually come into contact with you. They keep at a distance of anywhere from 4 to 10 feet and never take their eyes off of you. I was doing some shopping today at "Euro", just your run of the mill "chino" stores, and almost immediately this woman in her 20's locked onto me.
The store consists of about 2 row groups of 5 rows each, so I tried an experiment, and began to circle the store at a rather rapid pace. Sure enough, the woman was on me like a tracking device. I just couldn't seem to shake her. First we did a lap around the store and then I dodged in and out of aisles like we were playing a game of hide and seek. I would walk 3 aisles really quickly, then back 2, then forward 1, and finally back 1 again. The whole time I could see her frantically trying to find me, looking down every aisle until she saw me and our eyes met. I very politely gave her a little smile and a wave. It was more or less a Phil Dunphy moment when he first meets Dylan, my wave and smile were saying we're cool, but my eyes were telling her to F-off. She fled, I thought that she got the hint, but then I went down on aisle to look at folders, and she appeared on the other side of the store right behind me. Mind you there were 5 other people in the store at this time and she had not once asked me if I needed help finding anything. It was at that point that I thought to myself, "I might drop kick this woman if I stay any longer", so I left, but was half expecting her to follow me out of the store. A truly traumatizing experience. Stay tuned.
Spanish Basic:
Huelga : Strike
Spanish Advanced:
No se gano zamora en una hora : Rome wasn't built in a day
British English:
Spanner: Wrench
Basque:
Giltza : Key
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