Ah Spain!

AI generated, please excuse any errors!

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[Music]
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Welcome to a Spain. What else do you Tanya? Hola. How's it going? It's great
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bienu. [Laughter] Well, I think um we'll just jump into my
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spain because that'll kind of tell you how I'm going, how it's going here. Okay. Um it's kind of a it's kind of in
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the middle. It's like a It's like a good Ospane, but initially it was a bad Ospain and now it's kind of a quaint
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Ospain. So, it's going to cover all the bases, I think, here. Okay. Of emotions when shopping for things. So, well, let
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tell us tell us on the edge of your seat. So, this has been kind of ongoing.
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And it was funny because I when I very first moved to this area and I was
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looking for stamps. Okay. Um, I know this is going to be shocking to everybody. I went to the post office,
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okay, for stamps, which is where one would go for stamps. One would think.
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Um, and as we've mentioned before, we don't live in the city. And I do think
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that, you know, it's something that initially they just said we don't have them. I mean, you know, I was looking
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for international stamps. So, okay, from all the places I've lived, you know, there's there's kind of stamps that go
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around the country and then there's stamps that go internationally. And that does often depend on the weight of the letter and all this kind of stuff. So
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they were like, "Well, we don't have stamps." Cuz I wanted to get like a book of stamps that I could take home and
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then mail my own letters as I wanted to send them, which seemed like a normal thing to do as one does. Yeah. It didn't
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seem possible. So she was like, "We don't do it." And then I was like, "Okay, so I got to bring letters in and then they they print the whole thing."
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And and that is one of the things that's nice here is they type everything into the computer for you. There's no filling
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out of any forms, which is awesome, and I love it. Um, and then they just print
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the like the the stamp kind of and stick it on the letter and there there it goes. And then after I'd been here for a
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while, I'm like, I'm going to go down here again. I'm going to try this again and see if they have stamps. And eventually I found out they do have
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stamps, but they're like in the back in a filing cabinet in a folder that she has to go back and get. So yesterday I
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went down and I was returning an Amazon thing, which was awesome. That was that super easy. And you don't have to print
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the the thing for that either cuz they'll print it. And then I asked for some stamps and again it was like, oh
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yeah, okay. So she went back, got some stamps, brought them back to the front. It was the wrong stamps. It was the wrong folder of stamps. Went back, got
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another folder of stamps, brought it in. Eventually I got a stamp and I was like, this seems very difficult.
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Seems a little inefficient. Yes, it should be easier. Like aren't other people using stamps? And then as it
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happens, I bumped into a friend at the post office and she was like, "You get your stamps from the tobacco store." And
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well, duh. I mean, doesn't that seem obvious to you? I mean, you get your cigarettes at the post office and your
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stamps at the tobacco store. Seems absolutely it seems perfectly normal.
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Um, do not try and get cigarettes at the post office. That is not true. That was a joke, ladies and gentlemen. That was a
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joke. very dry humor. Um, so anyway, so I thought it was really funny because I was like, this is why I've been having
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such a hard time because they do have stamps at the post office, but it's not really up here anyway how they're kind
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of set up to manage it. And maybe if you're just getting some stamps from to go around Spain, possibly they might
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have the folder right there, but if you're getting international stamps, it's in the back and it's a hassle, right? So that was my now that I know to
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go to the tobacco store, it's probably a small town thing, right? because you're in a small town and it's a more of a
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vacation weekend hometown as you've said before. So they're probably like this isn't this isn't what we're doing that
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much of here. Um but in the city I've gotten stamps at the post office and it
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they were right there on the counter. They just pulled them out of their little cubby in front of them and said this is what you need. So in the city I
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can get them. I have yet to buy stamps at the tobacco store but I have heard that. Yeah. And I and I think also so I
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think also it's one of those things where it's one of those Spanish things we talked about before where everybody
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knows something but it's not marketed like it doesn't say anywhere on the tobacco store that you can buy stamps
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there that I've seen. So it's not something that you know like it's just
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something that everybody else knows that unless you know you don't know. Right. Right. And the tobacco stores also sell
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the metro cards the bus passes which is um Okay. I wouldn't have guessed that either.
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I'm now wondering what else do they sell that I don't know about. Some of them have magazines and they have bottles of
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water and they even sell beer and in the can. I mean depending on the store. I I think the convenience thing about it is
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because everything's closed here Saturday and Sunday. So I mean it's kind of a aha like what a brilliant idea
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because now you can get stamps on Saturday and Sunday. You can get your metro card without having to go to the train. So you're like, I have time to
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get refill my metro card so I'm not running in a line or waiting to use the machine. So it's a very convenient
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thing. And and some tobacco stores are open on Sundays. So it is a very it is a it's a brilliant idea. So it's a
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brilliant idea. I just think it's funny like the magazines, the drinks, the things that you can buy. Obviously visually you can see that. Um but for
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the other things, they're obviously doing a lot of other things that everybody knows that they do. So there's
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it's not something they need to put up on a door. And I think because of where we live, obviously there's not a lot of
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foreigners up here, so they're not used to having to deal with foreign stamps and they would much rather just put the
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address in and print the thing and stick it on the envelope. But obviously, some of us want to actually, you know, just
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mail them ourselves as we as we write letters and just mail them. And in the city, I have just bought I bought
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postcards and and that and that shop, wherever it was, you know, sold the stamp at the same time. So obviously,
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there's a much bigger sort of need for it in the city. So, you haven't come across this, but it was quite funny. So,
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now that I know how it works, it's going to be much smoother, right? And that kind of leads us into the what
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this episode is about, which is, you know, u where we get things that we need. And it's not always, as you can
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tell, it's not always that logical, but it's all there. It's all there. Yes. It's not as obvious as one would think.
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And then after you live here a while, it becomes you start training yourself to make it more obvious, right? Or be Yes.
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And I and I will say in relation just since we were talking about stamps, I do want to talk quickly about um like
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birthday cards, thank you cards, you know, any of these types of very hard to find. It's not a thing here. They do.
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It's it's not a thing. It's not a thing here. It's not a thing. You know what's also not a thing? Just just Well, gift
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giving to the the extent that we're used to is not a thing here. And gift
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wrapping isn't a thing, right? We've talked about, I think, in the past about going into the Chinese stores will have
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gift wrapping paper. But like what I mean is the art of gift wrapping isn't a thing here. There aren't boxes. You're
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not going to buy shirt boxes. I And I asked this. I'm like, and she looked at me like I was crazy. I'm like, "Where do
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I get shirt boxes?" This was our first Christmas. I'm like, "I need boxes to wrap my girls things in." And she's like, "No, you wrap the paper around it,
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stick a bow on it, and you're done." And I was like, "Well, then I thought, well, that is very environmentally friendly.
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It is. All that stuff ends up in the trash, but it doesn't look so pretty under the tree Christmas morning with
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all the gorgeous, you know, boxes seamed perfectly because I'm one of those, you know, I'm one of those OCD people when
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it comes to um wrapping presents where I don't want to see the seams and I line it up and the tape matches perfectly
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with the edge of the box, you know. Yeah. But I do I do think that like to
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be clear, wrapping gifts is a thing and giving gifts is a thing. Um just not with the boxes and the prettiness that
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you're talking about. You can buy wrapping paper anywhere pretty much. Um, but the birthday cards you there is I
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have not come across that. I think I saw one shop in Valencia that was very kind of artsy and had some very cute little
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cards and things. But outside of the city, I mean, I'm not I'm not buying a cute birthday card. I'm not like I went
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to find a card like a like a bereavement card, which I was like I would have been happy just with a card with nothing
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written in it. It didn't have to be beautiful. I mean, that would have been nice, but I wasn't expecting that anymore. And it was annoying. They
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literally they just had the the only place that had any cards had like 20
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really awful birthday cards and that was it. And I was like, so what I do now is I do actually I I buy them in England
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when I'm there and I bring them back. And now I have to be I was bringing back cute stuff. I need to be a bit more I
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need to be a bit more like variable in the cards that I'm bringing back cuz it's very if if you're somebody that likes to give cards, it's it's very
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annoying. It's and it's not a thing here. Gift cards are not a thing. It's not a thing. And here the Chinese store
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has them, but they're they're all they are horrible. They're just like, eh, and now they are horrible. And usually
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birthday cards, they usually they don't have an array of different things cuz I would have been happy with just a card with a really hideous flower on the
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front at this point. And wrote your message happening. I will say that um
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not a gift card person because what I because they've gotten so expensive in America. So years ago, I stopped that
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and and then this year I was like, I've never realized I' I realized I've never given my my daughters a birthday card
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cuz I'm like, it's five bucks. That's that's another toy. Like like that's and it just That's true. It is. It is. If
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you can find them, they're still expensive even though they're hideous here. So, as we talk about different
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places to find things, I think one of the we've talked a lot about transition
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in and other episodes and and sort of finding new things here. And I think it's might just be useful for people to
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kind of have a bit of an idea of where you find your basic stuff. I mean, everyone can go to local stores, find
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where you are, walk around, find your cute little local places to find things, but for the we're just going to talk about sort of kind of the main big
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things where the week you arrive things. You've got off the plane and you've gone to bed and the next morning you don't
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have a coffee machine in your house. And where where do you find that immediately? Right. Media market. Media
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market. Um and we're talking like Yeah. Like in in the city, out of the city. I think
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you know we have a slightly different an array of things, right? Because you have probably way more smaller shops that
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might be selling things. So we'll kind of stay away from that. But yeah, I think Leroy Merlin is kind of like a
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Home Depot, like a big it's like a big hardware store. There are a few of them. That's one if you need if you're fixing
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anything, that's a good place to start. Um there's a couple of others and to and to to for our audience if you're moving
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to the city. They're not in the city. So this is one of those you have to travel out of town. There is one in Burus. So,
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it is a smaller one, but it has a lot of the stuff. Like, it doesn't have the huge pile, you know, the big wood and all that kind of stuff there, but it has
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a lot of the home improvement things that you need, and you can take the train there, but it isn't like in the
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city. Like, I if I have to go to that one, I it's I'm I'm I'm, you know, um
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you're getting deliveries back from there. You're not you're not deliveries or if I'm just even going there, I'm like, let's have a six month list of the
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things we need to get from there, right? And then we just make it a thing, right? Did we make it that day? Or I'm like,
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oh, we have a doctor's appointment near there. So, we'll do we'll do it. And those and that and Leroy Leroy Merlin,
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which is not how you pronounce it in Spanish, but that's how I pronounce it. I think it's something like Loy Marlon. Something like that. It's a French. It's
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actually a French um I think it's French. Oh, I don't know. Oh my god. I'm going to Well, it may not be, but I do
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believe it is. Um and it's probably not. Probably not. Probably not at all. Um,
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but they have, you know, they have like the garden center, like you said, in the that one that you're talking about is quite small and it's also a nightmare to
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park. So, if you do have a car, go further out to one of the other places cuz that one is a complete nightmare, but closer for people in the city if
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you're going to take the metro, but usually they'll have like a garden center. They also have a big outdoor
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massive construction stuff if you need like concrete. I mean, they have everything. Um, and they also have light
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bulbs and you know, a they have a hard it's a regular little hardware store and they have pool stuff. So, it's like
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literally everything and it's a good place to start. And they do obviously online. You can buy online and get it
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delivered too. Um, so you can just search their website and get stuff delivered if that's if that's easier as
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well, right? Um, I have not ordered anything from Leroy Merlin, but this hearkens back to the what we were
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talking about the tobacco store. What it does, it also receives deliveries for you. I don't know if Leroy Merlin uses
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that as a pickup place, but Amazon does, Teimu, AliExpress, you can have them
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delivered on their websites as a pickup location. Like, you can't give them your ad. You can't put that as an address
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because they won't receive it. But you like what I mean is you can't type it in. So, wait, I don't understand how that works. You'll pick up your Amazon
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package from Leroy Morland. No, from the tobacco store. I'm saying this hearkens back. So, I don't know if Leroy Ruin
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uses that as a pickup place, but like Amazon, Teimu, AliExpress. Um, there's a
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couple other places I've ordered from and they're like, "Do you want to use this pickup location?" And they've put down the tobacco store. Some places will
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use the the real post office like IKEA uses the real post office as a pickup
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place. Um, yeah, I think that has increased a lot since I got here. I would say also depending on where you
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live, um you might find that you might be able to use an address of somebody
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that lives downstairs, some one of the businesses downstairs, they might be happy to even if it's not an actual legitimate place. Um but now I've
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noticed that there are a lot of legitimate places even in the town that we live in. Like we can get we can also get stuff delivered to places whereas
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before it was delivered to our house and randomly sent randomly dropped off at some place that I'd never heard of.
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Okay. to go pick up that was actually probably an Amazon drop off, but it wasn't that I knew because it's a it's
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it's a it's a bar and I'm like, why does a bar have my Amazon package? I don't understand.
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And if we want to talk about deliveries, um let's talk about deliveries quickly because how you get stuff and then we'll
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go back to some of the other stores to get things. Um, how you get things in Spain is an ever evolving um, story from
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from a point of view of being outside the city. Okay. I will say and I don't know if it's different from Well, we'll
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compare cuz my story hasn't evolved. It hasn't evolved. So when we lived in a
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little town outside the city, what I we lived in an apartment and we were on like the third floor and what would
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continuously happen there there was you had to let somebody into the building and what would happen the first time this happened to me I was like I this is
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hilarious but I guess it works is I let the person into the building and they put the package and they they put the
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package in the elevator and sent the elevator up. So when the elevator got to me there was just a little package sitting there no person and I'm thinking
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don't I have to sign or something like social security number or whatever they ask for. No, it's something, right? And
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I thought that was actually clever. I was like, he doesn't need to come up if he doesn't need anything signed, right? So, I just so the package just appear in
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the elevator, which was like really fun. And then when we moved out into the into
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the mountains, um initially it took some time for the delivery people. There's su
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um s they do delivery for a lot of different companies. Um, I've seen
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Amazon trucks like around and about, little vans round and about, but they've never come up here. So, it's usually a
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courier company that will be delivering your packages from wherever they come from, whether I mean certain stores
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might be delivering their own stuff, but definitely Amazon and some of these online places are delivering using a
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corer service. And these corer services only kind of want to come to your house, right? They don't really want to come up
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there. So, initially I would get these text messages and and alerts saying you weren't home. So, it's now over here in
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this place. This is how my package ended up in a bar, right? And I'm like, I live at home. I work from home. I'm home. So,
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and then I would get calls where they hung up. Like, they just needed, I think, to show that they had called, but
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they didn't actually want to talk to me because they didn't actually want to come up here, right? Okay. And then once they had been up here a few times and
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realized that I had a spot they could leave packages, suddenly my stuff started getting delivered and that was
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awesome. So it took a while for the corer service to get used to where we were and that they knew where we were
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and we knew we were home and they knew that we had a place to drop it and then suddenly stuff getting now is now has is
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getting delivered directly to the house. But it was a process for sure. Um on that note, I mean in the city like I
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said I used to store in the post office. Um, but for stuff that gets delivered at home
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because you know if it's large items and stuff like that, it has to get home or if there's liquids, they won't deliver to these places. But I will say they
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give you most of the uh stores when you're doing your order, they give you a a window of 3 hours, which makes life a
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lot easier. So you get this, do you want your delivery between 9:00 and noon? Noon to noon to 3, you know, that kind
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of thing. And and there they do come during that time. I haven't had one that didn't show up in that time frame, which
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is really nice. And they also call you um about 15 minutes before. And this
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happened to me one time. I was coming back from the school and the delivery guy was like, "I'm going to be at your
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house in 10 minutes, and the train was just arriving at the North Station." And that's a that's a 15minute very brisk
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walk to begin with. And and he's like, "I 10 minutes." I'm like, "Can you wait like an extra like five cuz I'm at the
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station." I had shin splints. I was sweating. I was like I was crawling my way to get there and he was so sweet and
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he was like here's your package. And what is about these courier services in the city um if you're getting delivered
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to your house these smaller packages they'll use Glo which was so weird to me because Oh really? Yeah. Which if people
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don't know Glo is your food delivery. It's like your Uber Eats your what are we Instacart type thing in America where
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you ordering food. So how do they get a hold of how do they get a hold of you? Because if you've ordered through Glover, obviously they have all your
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information in the app. So Glovo just must be a third party thing. The the and Teeu gives them all the information that
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they need and the delivery guy is calling you and they come with their little yellow backpack with their with my package in it. It's very strange, but
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they do it. Well, that's quite that's quite clever. Yeah. And I will say I agree with you and we've had things delivered from a store like we've had
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like a dishwasher and stuff delivered. That type of stuff has been very efficient. It's come at you in a
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three-hour window and then they'll usually tell you exactly what time within an hour or so of that window and
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then we've it's always it's always been incredibly efficient. Yeah. So, I've definitely had that same experience with
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things that I've ordered directly from a from a store. Well, now let's talk about what you have to pick up the day of.
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You've arrived and where are we going to go to the stores? We talked about Leroy Merlin, but I want a coffee maker. We've
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brought up media markets. So, we should probably tell them a little bit about what media market has besides
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um coffee media market. Well, so when we first moved it was it was funny because like I didn't know where anything was,
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you know, and we didn't know anybody to ask and it was, you know, it was and we I don't think we were really part of any
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of these groups yet and online. So, it was it was very interesting to find
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these places. And media market I was like one of these oh my god places because it literally had everything from
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a haird dryer to your coffee machine which was the first thing we purchased. So when we went when we went into co we
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had a printer and a coffee machine which was we felt like pretty much all we needed to be on lockown for for three
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months and it worked. But media market does have everything washing machines. I
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mean it's electronics technically, right? It it's a um it's your like Best Buy in America or the old circuit
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cities. That's the best way to describe it. It's like everything electronic it has there. But they even do sell coffee
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to go with your coffee machines which I thought was very interesting. They have the big bags of coffee beans. Yes,
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absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. They do have some accessories things and you can buy your you can buy
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your batteries and your headphones and all those sorts of things too, right? And uh we had when we first arrived, we
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needed a TV like the second day we arrived, right? Because we were just like the first night watching things or the first two nights watching things on
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the computer. And um there was the there's a media market about seven eight blocks from our house. And the kids and
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I were walking down the street with this 50-in screen TV at 10:00 at night down
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the streets. They were not appreciating the size of the TV choice at that point. They're like, "Could they have a smaller
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TV?" And they weren't heavy. It was just cumbersome. And it goes and it goes back to the the Spanish people were not
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moving out of the way on the sidewalk for us as we're carrying this TV. You could have taken them out. So they
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really should have moved. But another place to get those kinds of things would be your carors um which is
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kind of like a Walmarty Target kind of thing. So they have clothing and food and electronic section and there is one
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of those in the city at by the city of arts and sciences which is is very large and they are in many of the smaller
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towns outside the city or in strip mall type places. They're out Yeah, they're out they're outside in the in the bigger
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cities. um I mean in the bigger towns um and what we found and this was purely
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just our experience and these things change a lot but we found that it was cheaper to buy our um dishwasher and
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these kind of appliances from Care for because what they offered they had they offered back like a a card with money on
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it to shop in the store. So, you know, you might get like €100 or something that you can then go buy groceries or
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like you said, clothes, batteries, whatever, utensils, whatever. They have sort of everything. So, that was kind of an
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added bonus when we were kind of shopping around. And this was several years ago, but when we were shopping around, we found that to be like, oh,
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this is nice, you know, right? Um, it's not on everything, but then you have a careful card and, you know, and that
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they have also printers, coffee machines, you know, all the little things as well. That's where we got our
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coffee machine. Like that was our next morning. I was like, "Let's go down to car for we had our little the the the shopping cart that the city people have
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to for our groceries." Oh, there you go. Yeah. And we took that downer. We got smarter. Well, I was in a group and our
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ladies from upstairs had given me a bunch of tips before we moved. They told us about the stores. They're like, "Mia
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Market, here's where you want your phone. You can get things at Elc Court. Here's where you go." and then the cardboard. So, we went down there and it
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was like loading it up with coffee makers and tea kettles and and all of
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that kind of stuff, right? Um, so we got that all plus you're not going to you're not going to fit you're not going to fit a TV in a in a in a trolley car, I
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guess. So, that that that situation wasn't going to be improved by any information you had at that point. And
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then get it delivered. Yeah. Take Yeah. Well, we didn't think about We had just arrived now. Come on. I had no Spanish when we stepped foot. So there was I
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wouldn't even have thought about having can get this get delivered, right? And
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that is the other thing. Yeah. I mean sometimes it's it's easier to do things online because you can translate the the
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whole website on on Chrome or whatever and maybe get get things done a little more efficiently if your Spanish is like
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zero, right? Um but I would imagine too in the city you could maybe find somebody that speaks English to talk to
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you and that wasn't the case for us. No one was going to speak to us in English anywhere. So, a little different
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experience. And there is the Elcourt Ingles, which is the big department store which you can get all these things. But it's, you know, it can be
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pricey, but it is we've we I've said it my whole life, you've got to shop around because sometimes Elcort can be sharper
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cheaper than the um than the car 4 because they might be having a big bonus
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sale this this week on TVs or something. They do have good sales, right? So, I think maybe in January or something, and
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you can correct me if I'm wrong because I don't shop there like hardly at all, but I have on occasion found really
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cheap nice like shoes and and things for Zena at certain times of years when they
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have their when they have their sales, but out of the sale time, I would say much more expensive than anywhere else.
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It is different. And they have brands and you know, they have brands, but you can they and they have their store brands. We do go shopping there for kids
24:07
clothes because they do have some store brands that are just on par price-wise with the Primark Lefties kind of H&M
24:14
price point as well as having your Gucci type stuff, you know. Um, right. And it
24:19
might be where you end up if you have a child that needs a uniform anyway. Yes, they do because that's probably where
24:25
the uniforms are coming from. There's a lot of uniforms that are coming through that place if the school allows you. Like some schools you have to buy them
24:30
from their stores only. Um, but the the what you're talking about in January, the Rabbehas is January um after three
24:38
kings day until like the beginning of February and then in the months of July and some will carry over into August.
24:44
But those are like the the legally sanctioned um sale times through legally
24:51
sanctioned. No, they are it is it's a Spanish thing. It's a Spanish law thing that this is when you have your big
24:57
sales and they're it's like every store in the nation has their sales during January and in July. It's a it's a crazy
25:04
thing. I I could research it next time, but I did read that that it was a it's a it's a like it's a thing on paper. And I
25:12
will and I will say I'm not I like I said it's quite far for us to go and and
25:17
they have an array which is an issue when you're shopping with kids but they have a massive back to school section.
25:24
Um so you can get everything there. But if you're shopping with your kids you can buy an eraser for €1 and buy one for
25:31
€15 probably. So it's like you know the fancy one with this. So if you're going to go with your kid and you have the kind of kid that's like mine that's
25:37
going to pick always the most expensive one. It's like we kind of stay away from Elcourt for back to school shopping
25:44
because it's a bit of a a landmine everywhere, but they do have it and it's
25:49
great and it's huge. Yes. Um but also you'll find back to school shopping. Um uh Alcampo does a really big one as
25:57
well. Um obviously the Chinese stores tend to expand that section as well.
26:03
[Music]
26:09
I was gonna say we haven't talked about Alcampo, which for our listeners who don't know what that is, it is it is like a carour type store. It's another
26:15
it's another same similar thing just different prices, but they have everything. I think Kaphor is a little
26:22
nicer. Okay, but Alcampo I think may but maybe their pricing is I think Kaphor
26:29
has a more again has more of a variety of pricing and ranges of things and I think Alcampo is more like I would say
26:35
more like a Walmart. I don't know. And then maybe Um, and this is just my opinion. And then Care for maybe has a
26:42
bit more of a variety, so it might be a bit nicer. Like you could buy an expensive thing or you can buy a cheap
26:47
thing, you know. I've only been to the Alo once cuz it is not convenient for me in any way um to get to one. No, I
26:54
wouldn't think so. Yeah, there's one in Port Supply, but I I've only been there once when I had to pick up my daughter from a sleepover and I took a cab there
27:00
and I was like, I'll go a little early because there's a Leroy Merl there and there is a an Alas. They do have the two
27:08
basic things. They have the two basic things. I'm like, I needed something from Leroy Merlin and I needed something and I was like, I'll go into this
27:13
Alcampo that I've heard things about and but yeah, and they have an Alcampo in Bonire Bonare as well. Um, and that's
27:20
the grocery store that's there. Uh, so I I mean I like Alcampo and they they have they I have found some food things
27:26
there. Again, because of where we live, our grocery stores are more restrictive and some of these bigger grocery stores
27:32
like that that are closer to the city will have a more variety of things like
27:38
um something that we just cannot buy in our grocery store is a is a frozen bag of mixed fruit for instance for
27:44
smoothies and things. Strange. No, because doesn't exist. It's not Yeah. Not something they're doing. So, we have
27:50
to get closer to the city or go to Care for or somewhere to buy those types of things. you have to go to a bigger more
27:56
sort of international place I guess one could say and the good thing about the car it car is that one I do know is a
28:03
French company and so if you want French cheeses they have a lot of French cheeses there so you'll go to there and
28:08
you'll find they have some more international things that you couldn't find um and I think we may have since
28:15
you bought up wait since you brought up cheeses I'm going to interrupt you here because I know you're going to move on to something and you bought up cheeses
28:21
the cheese is insane And no, no, no, I love it. I mean, it's I mean, sometimes
28:27
there's not quite the variety that you might get in an American shop, I think, or a British shop as far as the types of
28:33
cheeses, but I do love that you can get sheep's cheese and goats cheese and mixes of sheep and goats and all these
28:40
kinds of varieties, which like if you're a little lactose intolerant or something, the variety here and then
28:46
also just even if you're not, it's different flavors and different types of cheeses. And I just love it. It's a
28:53
variety in Spain that even though like in England there's a big variety in the grocery stores, but it's still mostly
28:59
cow cheese or a soft goats cheese, right? But this you got hard goats
29:05
cheeses, hard like sheep's cheeses. And I do love that. It is a variety that I love. And they have the pictures of the
29:10
animals on the cheeses too. So you don't have to translate. So you know useful. I'm not going to lie. It's really handy
29:17
cuz it's because they will mix them a lot. So you kind of need that, right? And the fact that they do it is great.
29:22
Yeah, that is a good point. Anyway, that's my little cheese tangent. I don't know if I had mentioned this in a
29:28
podcast before or just you and I have had had this ongoing conversation about
29:33
finding horseradish, which when we first moved here, I found horseradish and we
29:39
went with then we used it all up and and you forgot where you got it, which
29:44
mistake. Write this stuff down, people, if you find something unusual. I don't know if I forgot where I got it or where
29:50
I got it just doesn't carry it anymore because I've been to every place I've been to, right? Like I've retraced all
29:56
my stuff. Things do change. And well, I had to go to my daughter's school up in Pusoul and um there is a
30:04
Masi Mas, which is another like chain of grocery stores in Spain. And they had
30:09
horseradish from Germany on their shelves. And that Masimas has a lot more international stuff than you would find
30:15
in the city. They do because up in that area is a subdivision or urbanization that caters to a lot of expats and and
30:23
um and it's it's a wealthier suburb. So you find you find a lot of international things at this masima that that the
30:29
other masimas in the city do not carry. So I was like, let me just try this. This is my last hope for horseradish. I
30:36
want to I want to make a horseradish sauce for a for a prime rib this summer, you know. And there and there it was.
30:42
Yeah. It's also that area has a big u a big British school and a big American school. So there's just a lot of people
30:48
out there that will buy that stuff. So m that massy mass next to those schools there are like just has a lot more
30:55
British stuff and I think maybe the horseradish I mean that was kind of more of a British thing. So they have a lot more British things. That was the first
31:01
place that I found the squash um that I got you hooked on. You got me. Oh, when
31:06
I go to the when I go up to the school, I bring a backpack with me because I'm like I'm loading that sucker up with stuff from that store to bring back to
31:12
the city and I'm buying three or four of these things because I don't go up there often. Yeah. Little did you know it would be horseradish, right? And this
31:18
horseseradish was from Germany, so it has the Spanish label over the German label, but I was so excited. Then then I
31:24
was translating. I'm like, I have to make sure this is horseradish because I don't know the German word for horseradish.
31:31
Yeah. Well, that's true. You do need to make sure. Or the Spanish one probably, right? whatever they've stuck the label on, you're like, I don't know what that
31:37
is either. I don't know what any of this is. Um, so we got that.
31:42
Mhm. It's a good shop. It's a good shop, but I don't think that the other We have a Massie Mass over in Beta. It does not
31:48
have any international stuff in it. So, this is not a This is not a store-wide situation. It is a localized situation
31:55
for sure. Because I gone to the Massie Mass here looking for other things that the other one had and nowhere to be
32:01
found the stuff that I was looking for. No. But it's but it's fun. You know, we
32:07
could talk a little bit about the Chinese stores which we were going to jump into which we have spoken about before, but they are super duper handy
32:12
and they are everywhere. Everywhere. Every block. We lived every block. Yeah.
32:18
And we lived in a little town first and that little town had two grocery stores
32:24
and three Chinese stores and each of and they were in different parts. I mean, you could walk to all three, right? But
32:31
each one had a bit of a like this one was more gardening, this one was more school and craftsy stuff and this one
32:37
was more kitcheny. So they had kind of expanded each version to be a little bit different, but it they are everywhere.
32:44
And they cover it's your variety store if you've lived in a location with a variety store. It is they will pack
32:50
those places up top to bottom, side to side with whatever they can fit in there, light bulbs, everything. Yeah. If
32:56
you you pens, pens, socks, underwear, t-shirts, pots and pans, uh shoes,
33:03
shoes, rugs, gifts, Tupperware, ice trays. They have it all. They have it all. Headphones,
33:10
batteries, plugs for your plugs to charge everything. I mean, just literally. And then things for your
33:16
garden if you need a pot or I mean, just literally everything. I will say our first year here, I think we were at the
33:23
Chinese store every other day, if not every day, because it was like, "Oh, we need this and we" and it's across the
33:28
street from the house. So, I'd pick up the kids from school. I'm like, "Let's go to the Chinese store." Now, I can say we go maybe once every six weeks. Now,
33:35
it's not so often. Yeah, I would totally agree with that assessment. Now, I, you know, once you've got all your little
33:40
things sorted out, it's just you, I go back there every now and again for a new charger if I don't want to wait for it to get delivered from somewhere or, you
33:48
know, maybe something for the craft, something for school, some kind of project that I need some paper for because they'll have the big sheets of
33:54
paper and they'll have like emergency paint like they don't have the best paints there, but if you like my daughter's an art, you know, she's in an
34:00
art program at her school, so we're often running out of paint and they'll have they'll have at least a white acrylic paint, whites acrylic paint, not
34:06
her favorite brand, but it'll get her through her project, you know what I mean? They have that, right? Yeah. Yeah. For sure. And I think so you will, if
34:14
you move to Spain, and I'm I mean this part of Spain, I'm assuming it's the same in other parts of Spain, you will have a Chinese store within two blocks
34:20
of you for sure. So that'll cover a lot of things. and and therefore that area of stuff um in
34:29
the grocery stores is quite a lot smaller than it is in the grocery stores that I've experienced in England and
34:34
America, which is that that whole section of homeware hardware stuff in
34:39
the grocery stores is kind of small because it just doesn't need to be you know and and you say it now that you're
34:45
saying that I'm like I've never looked but do they even have light bulbs at my grocery store? I don't think I've even
34:50
seen light bulbs like their homeares where the cleaning supply section is. I don't even think I've seen light bulbs.
34:55
And you're not going to find like school paper or anything like that that just it's it's foods and cleaning supplies
35:02
and maybe some random and pet stuff. And pet stuff. Yeah. Pet stuff. Pet food. Not pet stuff. And I mean, not like toys
35:08
or anything, but pet stuff. Oh, yeah. And in the Chinese store, too. Loads of pet, not food, but the other stuff. All
35:13
the toys and the bowls and the this and the that and all that stuff. Yeah. Um, so we we do like them. They're very
35:19
handy. Um, not the greatest quality. you're going when you're buying stuff there, you're going to be buying it again probably. Right. But that's that's
35:27
kind of the nature of that in any country like the place that's selling a lot of that stuff is probably not the highest quality. Right. Right. But, you
35:34
know, that's the nature of the beast, I think. Um, and I think the other the
35:39
other thing that was a surprise to me as far as needing to learn the system in Spain uh was the pharmacy. Yes. It's a
35:47
different experience here for sure, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I mean very different. I was surprised at how um
35:56
that there isn't a CVS type store, right, where there is the the you get your pharmaceuticals, your over-the-c
36:02
counter drugs and your school supplies and your wine and your light bulbs and
36:08
and 47 different kinds of and 47 different kinds of shampoo and conditioners. Like that store doesn't
36:14
exist as a whole unit. There's three different stores to get that accomplished, right?
36:20
Right. And I think, you know, if you want your shampoos and all this kind of like bathroom stuff, I mean, you could
36:26
get that at Care for, you can get that in a grocery store a little bit. There's places for that. There are also some
36:33
shops that just sell that type of thing. Like normal, which our girls have like normal torture us. We love normal. Oh
36:39
gosh. Yes. So, normal, just so anyone knows, is like a Danish I think it's Danish um company. Is it? I don't know.
36:46
And uh it is like the CVS without the without the without the drugs. So it's
36:52
all the shampoos and body things and the razors and all this stuff for self-care and beautiness and it's two floors. Huge
36:59
like peanut butter or candy or I think just random sweet things that are like
37:05
and then they do also they actually have a couple of cards. I did find they have like four cards there and I did find one
37:11
card that was sufficient and I maybe should have got more there but they were still it was like four cards. Well, because they do have an edge that is
37:17
like a little like gift stationary section like, "Oh, I have a birthday party. I bought them a bath bomb. Oh, there's a cute little journal with a pen
37:23
with a little pom pom at the end." Exactly. If you need to shop for girls birthdays
37:28
under the age of I don't know, you you've got a 45 still de 45. I was going
37:34
to say I'd be happy if you bought my birthday present there. Um it's but that's a city thing. Um Flying Tiger is
37:42
also Danish, I think, isn't it? I think. Yeah, it is. But that's not a cosmetic. That's and that's different. That's
37:47
definitely that's a So Flying Tiger, we're kind of going off a little bit from the pharmacy. We'll get back to that. But the Flying Tiger and the Ali
37:54
Hopper, like these stores, both of them are these stores of nothing that you need and everything that you want.
38:01
You know, little games, little sunglasses. But yes, Halloween supplies,
38:07
they have those. The Flying Tiger does. They have a big They do get big. Yeah. And and Christmas and Easter. Actually,
38:12
the Flying Tiger specifically does a nice little section for each of those holidays. Um, but those are kind of
38:18
gifts gift sort of shops or if you want to browse yourself and buy yourself some gifts, you will not go out of there
38:24
without you will not get out of there without buying at some. No, exactly. You will get stuff that you never even needed.
38:30
No. But back to the pharmacy. Um, I think what was interesting about the pharmacy is that the pharmacy looks like
38:36
um it's it looks like it's just a pharmacy, but they do also sell some sort of little things, maybe some
38:42
shampoos or whatever, but there's a lot of things that it's like having a second
38:47
doctor in a way. Like they are actually incredibly helpful. They you can go to them and say, "I've got this thing or my
38:53
daughter's got this thing and what what's the best thing for that?" And they will help you find the right thing.
38:58
And on top of it, a lot of the medicine that you're used to having a prescription for in another country, you
39:04
can get over the counter here from the pharmacist if they want to give it to you if it's something that you need. So,
39:11
basic medications. Basic medications. But as as a relief, it's that those things that you're used to paying
39:16
prescription for in the United States, when you get the bill here, you're shocked at how inexpensive it is. I
39:22
mean, I have not had I've never been I've never had sticker shock even with my prescription drugs from the doctor.
39:27
I'm just like, how is this like a tenth of the price or a fourth of the price or like nothing? On the opposite end, if
39:33
you're buying aspirin, ridiculously expensive compared to like you go to the 99 cent store in America and get a 500
39:40
bottle of aspirin. And here there's something like 30 aspirin for like €6. You're like, I'm Is that how you're
39:45
making up the cost differential? Is that just on aspirin? So, when I have friends coming, I'm like, can you bring me a
39:51
huge thing of aspirin, please? Aspirin and deodorant, I guess, are your the things that are coming over for you.
39:57
Yeah. But things like blood pressure medication, um, diabetes medication, like all these sorts of things, you
40:03
don't even need a prescription for. I mean, if you get into the Spanish Health System, you'll get that stuff basically
40:09
for free or for 30 cents or something a month. But it but you can come over and get some basic things. So if you know I
40:15
know a lot of people are concerned especially about the first few months um of coming over and how they're going to
40:22
manage their medication sometimes and I think it's worth asking you know even
40:27
calling asking someone here to ask a pharmacy or calling a pharmacy directly if you speak Spanish and just saying is
40:34
this medicine something I can get without a um a prescription and I think that happen that can happen a lot you'd
40:40
be surprised u so they're very very helpful I've heard stories so I'm going add into this because it's a little off
40:46
topic but on topic since people are listening about moving here. What we did and what many doctors will do and they
40:53
should do for you is you can get even medications that they can only prescribe for one month at a time back in the
40:58
states and so I don't know about in England if it's different they can prescribe it for three months with a
41:04
with a travel advisory saying this they need three months for travel and now you can't go back to your pharmacy in America next month they get another
41:10
prescription because now now you're out of medication or the ability to refill it for three months. So that's what we
41:17
did when we moved here is we got the I got all of our medications for three
41:23
months. So we were settled and that gave us time to find the doctors. But what I've heard from other people is they've
41:29
taken their empty prescription bottles to the pharmacy and the pharmacist has
41:34
been helpful and said, "You do need a doctor, but we can give you x amount to get you through next week or something."
41:40
I was going to ask, so to be clear, when you bring the prescription over, you're saying the pharmacist will will um fill
41:46
that prescription even though it's not from a Spanish doctor. No, I filled it in America. I had a 3 month supply when
41:51
we arrived. Oh, you had three months from there. Got it. Okay. So, you had three months from there and came. Okay, got it. That makes more sense. I'm glad
41:57
I clarified that because I was thinking it was you come here and then you have time to go to a doctor and most people coming here from another country if
42:04
they're on the non-lucrative visa or something, you have to have health insurance, private health insurance. So, if you're living here, you can go
42:09
straight to IMEAD, see a doctor, get the prescription sorted, and you're done. And you can get all that done within the
42:14
first week of being here. You really can. It's surprisingly uh shocking to me how efficient that system was for me
42:20
when I got doctors and they like they literally walk you walk in, they're like, "Well, first, what do you need? What are you on? What do you need? Let
42:26
me let me get you started with that and then we'll talk about how to make you better or what we need to manage you."
42:34
And I was I've been surprised at not only the cost of medicine here, but the amount of medicine that you can get without a prescription. So obviously you
42:42
don't want to be carrying on getting medicine without a prescription. You need to get a doctor and and be, you know, have somebody, you know,
42:47
monitoring you. But it is it from a transition point of view, it's very easy. And the pharmacists are also just
42:53
incredibly helpful. I did say this already, but I want to reiterate that that they will help you with minor
42:58
things. They're almost like nurses, right? like they have this in they have a wealth of information and they're very
43:04
happy to help you with it. Right. Yeah. And that's especially helpful when you're in a new country and you don't
43:09
know even what the medicines are called that you need. So I've also taken medicines that I had not medicines but
43:14
like I had a mosquito bite cream that I had in in the states. I bought it here. They looked at the they looked at the
43:21
ingredients and gave me something that was similar and now I'm using the Spanish version of it, you know. So, you know, you can bring those things too and
43:27
just bring it to the pharmacist and say, "I need something that does this, you know, and and there's going to be something similar. It's just not going to be the same brand, right?" And that
43:34
was also helpful because they're just out very helpful. And some of them might even speak English in the city maybe. I don't know. I've there's there's plenty
43:40
that or there's at least one person that will speak enough English to get you through. So, we haven't had the problems. And I mean, there's one
43:46
pharmacy that we go to that we know them a lot. Uh, and we know them because
43:52
sometimes it's hard to get medications here and there's been times where there's worldwide shortages of stuff.
43:57
So, we've had to go through a lot ofarmacies to find certain medications because it was a worldwide thing. So, not a pharmacy issue and there was this
44:04
one pharmacy that must be with a larger group of like they're like they all look
44:11
the same when you walk in, but they are owned by different people. But, I think there's must be a thing. They all have to look the same. It's kind of like the
44:17
tobacco stores. They all kind of look the same. They all have the same sign even though they're owned by different people. Anyways, they were able to find
44:24
medication and have it to us like the next day and they don't speak any English. So, but a lot of Google
44:30
Translate. A lot of Google Translate. But they've been very Yeah. And super helpful and like this is what you need.
44:35
Yeah. I've used I've used a lot of Google Translate in theies for sure. And they'll h people here will be happy to
44:41
talk into the into the Google Translate for you and then you know you can go back and forth like that. And also um
44:47
even outside the city. So I'm assuming it happens inside the city everywhere. There is a 24-hour pharmacy that's open,
44:55
right? And at all times. So it may not be the one in your town, it may be the
45:00
one in the next town, but and then sometimes they rotate. So we were in a town before where there were two
45:06
pharmacists and twoarmacies and they would rotate back and forth on which one was open 24 hours. Like so you just have
45:14
to but there is going to be one that is open so you can always find a pharmacy open at any time which is also I've
45:21
heard that but I have yet to have experienced. Have you had to go to the pharmacy in the middle of the night? No thank god but I have gone and not in the
45:29
middle of the night but I have gone at times when I know it would have been closed like a Sunday you know like I don't know 3:30 in the afternoon. Okay.
45:36
When you siesta time yes yeah or maybe 9:00 at night 10 o'clock at night. So,
45:42
at times it's still we're up and out and doing things, but probably the other pharmacy is closed and this one's open
45:49
and um Google seems to be keeping pretty good track of that. But if the one that's closest to you isn't open, just
45:55
go to the next one. Um and they'll have, you know, they have the um the blue uh
46:04
lit sign that's on the side of the of the road, wherever that um is it blue or
46:09
green? It's green. Sorry. Blue. Okay. Um, the blue cross is a is a veterinarian and the green cross is the
46:17
pharmacist. So, the one that's open will have it lit up. So, they don't just keep them lit up all the time. So, if you're
46:22
driving around looking for one that's open, you'll see that sign. And sometimes it's not right next to the pharmacy. It might be on the main road
46:28
telling you that it's down that street and then they might have another one. So, yeah. So, you have that too. And then there's the parafarmaceia. Have you
46:36
seen those? Which is like No. What's that? Which I've only been to once. I was like looking on this like looking
46:41
for this medication scouring every block of the city and and I walked into him like do you have
46:47
this? had the green cross and he was like we're a paraph pharmacy which is like the holistic pharmacy so it has non
46:53
it has nonprescriptiony non chemical I mean it's all this more natury kind of
46:59
stuff right but it had the green cross so that goes after I'm not going to say it right but it's the herbalia
47:06
place and they have those in like every town and they're the herbalists so they do have like you said herbal medicine
47:12
they have the homeopathic things yeah and there's the they're in almost every town like every We we were in a very
47:17
small town and we had one and those places are great because you can if you don't have a really bad situation going
47:23
you can be like I have this issue and they'll if they don't have it they'll order it. Same with thearmacies if they don't have what you need they'll order
47:28
it and it'll be there the next day right or sometimes that afternoon do it in the morning because they just get it messengered from wherever their
47:34
warehouse or their other pharmacy that they own. Yeah. So theies have been a very good
47:40
experience. I will say it's a refreshing experience in my opinion. A refreshing experience. Yeah. Because I think in in
47:47
England we have Boots which is very much like the CVS, you know, Walgreens where it's like you get everything there. Um
47:54
and but the pharmacies the pharmacy part of it is not so helpful, I would say.
48:00
You know, they're really there to fill the prescriptions and and get things out the door and not really interested in
48:05
helping you with your ailments, I would say. Right. Because I think it's like in America, right? They assume the doctors talk to you about all this. They're just
48:12
moving product and and I don't think they want the liability of talking to you and giving you something. And they probably can't even give you the thing
48:18
that you need because it's a prescription. So, they're kind of also their hands are tied to even really help. I don't even think about the
48:24
liability. They probably can't even tell you about what what bug spray to get across the aisle that's over the counter because if you get a rash, you could sue
48:30
them. So, who knows, right? Yeah. So, big problems. Um, what else do we needed
48:36
to shop for, do you think? I mean, we obviously have we have the IKEA, which they're everywhere, which is important
48:42
on the day you arrive. You want to go to the IKEA to get your, you know, emergency dishes or your regular dishes,
48:48
like whatever you find there you like. And there is one south of the city, you can order online. They will deliver for
48:54
a very reasonable fee. I mean, I think we had all these beds and we had a bunch of stuff coming. I think the delivery
49:00
was like 30 bucks or something ridiculously inexpensive. And you Oh, yeah. Yeah. And then you had you had a
49:07
nice experience that somebody did that for you before you even got here. So your stuff was there. So if that's something you can coordinate or you're
49:12
as lucky as Gaitano was, that is like a dream, right? And to be and to um
49:20
reiterate that experience of our real estate lady helping facilitate this IKEA delivery. She wasn't the only one that
49:26
offered because we had talked to several real estate people and I was like, "We want to move in the day." And they're
49:31
like, "We will help facilitate that." So if you are moving here, I would ask the real estate agent if they would be
49:37
willing to do that for you because it it was offered to me versus me asking. So that means it is a service many are
49:43
already providing. So it doesn't hurt to ask if someone will do that for you because it was very nice to move straight into our place with a mattress
49:49
on the floor and some plates. Yeah. And I will say if you have a car also um a
49:55
lot of these shops, a lot of these big box shops that we're talking about, they have click and collect which means you
50:01
can buy online and then go pick it up and get it the same day. And that's for clothes, that's for everything. Like
50:07
we've done that at Oh, I have to talk about Decathlon because that is one of the best stores that I have experienced
50:12
that we don't have in the States or in England, I don't think. Um and that's
50:17
like all your sports wear, all your sports stuff. If your kid's starting an a new sport, that's where you go and get
50:23
the stuff because they have like they have the basic level for sport starting
50:29
in every sport. And then they have the fancy stuff. So if you're starting paddle tennis, for instance, they have like a cheap it's not a cheap racket,
50:35
but it's a good racket. It does the job, but it's not very expensive. And then if you are a professional, you can go there
50:41
and really get like a really nice racket. And this applies for like all sports, including camping, right? Love
50:47
it. And clothes. And they also have like very like we've done a lot of things where we wanted to have we had a project
50:53
where we wanted to like tie-dye t-shirts. Well, they have like four euro t-shirts there, you know, your basic
50:58
white tea, your basic basic black tea, that type of thing you can get. So, I love that store. Yes, I I do like the
51:05
Decathlon, too. We we got a tennis racket very cheaper than I could have found on Amazon for for my for the
51:11
purposes that we needed it for, right? So, that was very Yeah, but they also do bicycles and I mean they have
51:17
everything. So, if you are really into something and you want to go get something that's very fancy and you know
51:22
you can do it, paddle boards, whatever it is, they have everything there as well as the clothing for all of those
51:28
sports. So, it's kind of you and swim stuff, swim great swim gear, like just
51:33
really, really good. And you can click and collect. You can go online, browse, buy something, and then have it sent
51:39
have it sent or picked up in a store and it's there for you to go get, which is a way of getting stuff a bit quicker if
51:45
you have a car, right? And even if you don't have a car, a lot of these like in the south of the city and Alphaar, there
51:50
is um uh a bunch of like strip mall type places. So all those big big box stores
51:57
are there. So you can take the train or a cab down there if you're from the city and kind of get all this stuff and have it delivered back or train or train it
52:03
back. But there's the IKEA, there's a bunch of furniture stores um of different uh styles and all that kind of
52:10
stuff. You've got the Leroy Merlin, you've got all this stuff down there. So, if you've just arrived, if you go
52:16
down there, you can get a lot of stuff done and maybe stuff won't be delivered for a few weeks depending on the kind of
52:21
furniture store if it's a semi-custom or one of these kinds of places, but they have like a Maison Duman down there.
52:26
They have all these things. So, get your butt down there. You can get and you
52:32
will you will be walking because it's a big box. So, if you if you need to walk from one store to another, that could be
52:38
a good 15 20 minutes, I would imagine. It's Yes. and we did it in July.
52:46
There you go. Yeah, I would say just Yeah, take a look on the map and make sure that all the stores you want to
52:51
visit are kind of within walking distance or you're willing to take a taxi if there are taxis that are down there willing to to move you. But yeah,
52:58
but like you said, it is all down there for sure, right? Yeah. And there might
53:03
be sort of molly places. I don't know what else is in that um the Leroy Merlin
53:08
that I don't want to go to in a car. The one that you go to in the city. I don't know that if there's other sort of decathlon places there, you know. I
53:16
don't know because I just go into there, but there's like an Aldi in that mall. There's there's a ginormous Chinese type
53:22
store, bizaar type store, and it's ginormous, but and it has it has stuff you wouldn't see normally in the city.
53:29
Um, and they have so that could be helpful. Yeah, there's a Yeah, it's got
53:35
it's got a lot of stuff there, but some of the stuff we can get in the city as well. Um, but I think there's also one
53:40
of those go-kart places in there as well, so you can take your kids to go go-karting. There is. And I don't
53:45
understand how that works because I can't see I I I thought that would be a really fun thing to do with Zena, but I
53:51
can't see where the go-kart is. Is it all just indoors, do you think? Have something in the back. No. So, it must
53:57
be indoor maybe in the basement. I haven't been inside of it, but I have seen the videos, you know. I have seen what it looks like. It's an indoor
54:04
go-kart track place, which I would go to. I mean, I'm a little kid still. Yeah, I think we might need to do like a
54:11
go-kart trip there. I think it looks really fun, but I'm always I always forget about it because it seems like
54:17
not the place for a go-kart place, right? So, it's one of those things that I keep seeing and thinking, "Oh, that's fun." And then I'm like, "Yeah, that
54:23
can't be right." They are usually in warehouse districts, and this is definitely not a warehouse district for sure. No, there's not a lot
54:30
of space there. So, I don't know if you're just going around like a one little tiny roundabout. I don't know what's going on inside. You get dizzy
54:36
when you're done, right? Exactly. Oh my gosh. Um, one thing we we did miss was Teddy, which is
54:44
a which is sort of somewhere between a Chinese store and a proper store in the sense that it is all the little things
54:49
that you want and it has a lot of craft stuff and it has a lot of things you can buy for birthday presents. You can get
54:55
socks and kitchen utensils and things for your dog there. But it's a little nicer. I think it's a German shop. I
55:02
think German. It's a It's just a little nicer. The you the utensils are a little nicer than you get in the Chinese store.
55:08
There's everything's just a little bit more designed. It's still not great super quality, but it is a just I it's a
55:14
nice place to browse and you can get almost everything there, including little garden things. And they have a
55:20
pretty good area for, you know, um holiday things like Halloween and Christmas and stuff too and arts and
55:25
crafts. And it's one of those places that changes all the time. So, you want to keep going in because you never know
55:30
what they're gonna have if you never know what you might find. So, I don't go in all the time because I don't need
55:35
more stuff. Yeah. But if you need more stuff, it's a good place to go. And they have a good
55:41
arts and crafts section to keep bored kids busy. So, they do have that as well. They do. Yeah, that is true. They
55:46
do. If you need to make anything, they have a great craft section. Yeah, probably what drives us. So, I think
55:51
that pretty much covers our basic shopping needs. Yeah, I think that we've covered what you need the first couple weeks you arrive and then you'll then
55:58
you'll figure out the rest and how to get it. Hopefully, it's not always it's not always easy,
56:05
but it does work. It does work. On that note, ciao. Thank you. I'll see you later.
56:12
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hear about. See you next time. Bye. [Music]