Stories of Spain 5 at 12:11

Minimart

On the second evening in Cordoba, I discovered this candy shop/minimart in a little nook near the Plaza de Saint Nicolas. The entrance was not a door but simply heavy strips of plastic. Initially I was put off by the lack of air-conditioning, but the refridgerator of frias bebidas made up for it.

The first time, I bought a two-liter of water, and at the counter the young man just counted in his head and said, "uno bente." I showed him a handful of coins to have him take whatever he wanted, since I didn't understand numbers. As he handed me my change, though, I held up a 20 euro cent coin and asked, "como se dice?" (That means, "how do you say...", which is wrong - I should have asked "como se llama" - "what is the name of this" )

"Bente," he said, and then took a few more coins. "Dias", he said, holding up a 10-euro cent.

He held up a 50-cent, and I interjected, "cinquenta," the only number I knew. He smiled and nodded. 

"dias, bente, cinquenta," I repeated slowly.

Pictured: Flamenquin. Which is not ice cream nor water nor related to the rest of this post at all except it's in the same city

"Bien," he said, nodding. I thanked him and turned to leave, but two kids running through the plastic threshold collided with my navel.

"Perdon," one of them squeaked before their attention was totally taken over by the shelves of candy. I laughed.

On a Domingo (Sunday) afternoon, I went by the shop again for some ice cream on my way to the mosque cathedral. This time, there were four yelling girls already in the shop, unchaperoned. They could have been sisters, since each were a different age, and the eldest in a cleanly pressed uniform was trying to chaperone the others by yelling over than the others. I also assumed she was in charge since she had a fistful of coins in her hand.

It was chaotic; the three younger sisters would randomly grab something from a shelf and put it on the counter (one had to jump), obviously grabbing whatever they wanted, each time messing up the eldest sister who was trying to add up the cost and judge if their haphazard selection would go over their parent's allowance. To add more stress, one little sister would add another piece of candy or bag of chips while the eldest's back was turned as she reprimanded another one.

 The clerk and I made eye contact and I grinned, he rolled his eyes and said, "ninas."

In the meantime I communicated that I wanted a scoop of vanilla ice cream in a cone, though he couldn't fulfill my order while the girls were still throwing and removing things from the counter. Eventually they shorted it all out and the younger three ran out of the shop as the eldest counted the coins in her hand and handed them over.

And then I got my ice cream.