We visited the U.S. today :)

ok, so it wasn't really the states....but it may as well have been.

we've been looking for a yoga mat for golden lotus, and although we see yoga studios, our lack of local knowledge and a yellow pages has us looking everywhere for a yoga mat sold seperately so GL can do yoga at the house.

i'd heard of a place called "Geant" and could have sworn I saw it not to far from our home, so I jumped in a cab and told him "Geant" -- the cabbie understands me (i think) and begins driving off in a direction that doesn't seem quite right -- i ask him to drive along the water instead and he assures me that he will and starts heading in the opposite direction from where i thought it was (????)

so, now i start doubting that i know where this place is, but decide to just be patient and see -- it turns out this place is way-the-hell-and-gone TM into the suburbs. yeesh -- about 10 minutes into the ride i yell through the bullet proof glass to ask him where we are going and he explains

turns out it was a *beautiful* day -- 30-31 degrees C, or > 87 degrees for you americanos! strong breezes whipped in off the water to cool down your skin. so, the ride was pretty nice -- once i got over the anxiety of not knowing whether the cabbie had decided to drive us to Brazil and see if we could pay the fare.

Once we arrived it was like a little slice of americana (barf!) or should i say china, inc. low, low, low everyday prices!!! alas no yoga mat, but nearly everything else in the world. I guess this is like a Wal*Mart (the ones with the grocery stores attached -- except I've never been in one with a grocery).

I tried to get a "depth of field shot" of *some* of the width of the store, but the camera couldn't really do it justice.


This place was *really* big. The front of the store, which didn't even run the whole width, had 58 cash registers/check out aisles (?!?!)

The front had a parking lot more fit for a stadium.


I also found a little piece of home -- pretty rare here -- in the imported wine aisle...Wente 1998 - about 13 bucks. Damn, that's cheap....although i'm not a big fan of 1998 :)

At the end of this adventure GL is famished and there is nothing to eat except fast-food in the geant food court. We go to McChundlies and she gets a fry and coke. Don't know if this picture captures it, adn this isn't a big enough sample size, but even their McChundlies seems to have better portion control....these fries haven't been eaten out of. That is how they were served to us...about half empty.

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