About the Kitchen Canisters

Remember these? My cute caniseters I mentioned in the last post.... well, let me tell you how I got them. Here in our city is the most gigantic mall I have ever been to. Seriously, it's like half a mile long. I think it's the biggest mall in the country. Anyway, so I had been looking for little canisters to put flour and sugar in for a few weeks - we looked at the walmart-ish stores, at the flea market-ish section of town, the malls, everywhere. So one day we're walking around GigantaMall picking up essentials like a trash can and I see these awesome jars. We go in and check the price and it's not cheap, but definitely cheaper than others I'd seen... but we decided to walk around for a while and then decide. So we did, and we ended up back there to buy them.

Usually when you look interested in something, a sales clerk is attached to you to help you. This time, no one came. So I grab what I can, run up to the empty counter and say, "one minute" or something like that in my limited language and grab the rest. When I come back, there are 2 people in front of me. Person 1 is checking out but her credit card doesn't go through. She complains, they run it again. Doesn't work. Complain. Run again. Doesn't work... so they switch registers. Finally, it works. Person number 2 comes up and he's checking out and his wife runs up with something for their kid, there's a conversation, takes it back. She runs up with something else, conversation, nope, takes it back too. All the while the clerk is getting more and more annoyed. So finally it's my turn. And I don't speak the language. I'm sure she was having a great day. So she rings me up, I pay, then she says something and I look at her quizically (it's been established that I don't yet know the langauge). So she takes my jars, puts them in a basket, gives me the receipt and says something while motioning for me to go upstairs. So I go... and ask someone else - hand the receipt, somehow conveying that I have purchased these beauties downstairs, and just say, I want a bag? This guys speaks a few words of english. So he says, 3rd floor, left. Huh? Ok, I'll go there too. So I go up the the third floor and find the only register on the left side, go through charades again and she looks at me like I'm crazy. I just keep saying, I want a bag? So she points me to the corner, which somehow I figure out is customer service. I walk in and there's a few people sitting around, so I explain the whole charaades thing again and she starts asking me questions. Again, I don't know the language. So, in response to my totally confused look, she holds her hands up and says, "Happy Birthday?" in english, as a question. Totally threw me off and I have no idea what I said in response, but I ended up with a wrapped gift.... 20 minutes after I bought them. 3 floors later.

Totally worth it.