Going to the market

Thursday I dropped Ken off at work and headed up the hill to find Pria's house. I needed to ride the subway downtown and go to the phone company to get a CD for our computer. After quite a bit of circling the neighborhood I finally found house #65. We got in the car and headed off to the subway station. Actually I don't think you can really call it a subway. There are only 5 stops and it just goes up and down the mountain. Anyway, we were able to get our tickets and get through the gate with relative ease. We got off at the 4th stop and went to the "Besiq" store. Inside we had to take a number and wait for them to call it out(similar to the post office the other day. Did I tell you about the post office line? It was on our 4 hour tour of the city with the relo consultant. I had mentioned I had a couple of postcards to mail but needed international postage so we made a stop during our tour. The number they were serving was 48 and the number of our ticket was 159!!!! I thought we should just can it, but she insisted the line would go quickly. Well an hour and half later our number was finally called. At least it was airconditioned in there). We were pleased that this line at the phone company only took about 20 minutes. Mission accomplished. Then we were off to the market. I wanted to get a couple of things and it looked like Pria had a big shopping list. We walked through about 3 blocks of vendors. All selling basically the same thing (from fresh fish to laundry detergent) with a little bit of price variance. I went through and just looked at everything before I started buying. I got some juice, peanuts, carrots, apples, and dried apricots. I took my backpack with me so I put everything in there instead of having to carry it in the plastic sacks they provided. One vendor asked us if we were visiting and then showed us what counterfit money looks like and told us to be careful. While we were down there we bumped into the relo consultant who apparently was showing a Philipino lady the city who just moved here with her husbands company. I think the relo lady does the same walk every single day. Interesting job. After enjoying the market for a few hours we decided to head back home. But not before trying to find some falafel. I've heard lots about it, and haven't tried it yet. Oh WOW. It was quite tasty. I don't really know what it is, kind of looks like a small brown donut hole. I'm sure it was deep fried and thats why it tasted good. They put a few of those in the pita pocket, then veggies, then a few more on top. You can put sauces on it to, I wasn't that brave. It was a very tasty meal. We found the subway and headed back up the hill. Finding Pria's house was our next challenge (even though she was with me). I kept turning into these dead ends. Eventually we found it and I went inside just to chat for a bit. We had fun together. In the evening I went and picked Ken up from work and we went for a walk on the beach before coming home for dinner. Ken worked for most of the evening. I went to the neighbors to see if they could read the directions to me for the stain remover I bought. I couldnt tell if it was concentrate and needed to add water or not. The mom (who helped me at the meat counter on my first shopping experience) wasn't home from work yet. But the 3 children were very excited to practice their English and invited me in saying there mom would be home in just a couple minutes. They were a lively group and it was fun listening to them chatter. I think it was a good day.