Spanish Wal-Mart

13 Sept 2011

            Today, I was able to accomplish the second big thing on my list of things to do when I reached Alicante—open a Spanish bank account. Since we didn’t seem to be having any luck with Santander, we decided to try Banesto (another big name bank found throughout Spain). It took a while, but the lady who helped us was very nice! She explained all of the complicated legal language to us and showed us how to use the online banking system--which is kind of complicated. We were also able to do it all in Spanish! Just goes to show you that the time that we spent on banking skits in my Spanish TA session are actually useful… sort of.

            Later, we met up with the Fulbrighter who was here last year to head to this Chinese place that she knows. It’s pretty cheap and has decent food. It’s not as good as the Korean place in my hometown, but it’s probably one of the few places in Alicante where you can order out or take leftovers home. 

            Then, I desperately needed to go grocery shopping—so I met up with my roomies to go together to the Mercadona. It’s the main chain supermarket and most things are pretty cheap. I got some of the basics to get me through the rest of the week. I have to walk there and back so I didn’t want to get so much that I couldn’t carry it all. 

After grocery shopping, I needed to go buy some towels and sheets. Lauren took me to Al Campo—which is sort of the equivalent of Wal-Mart in Spain. It was kind of a surreal experience. We took the TRAM to the stop for the centro commercial (mall). When I entered the centro comercial, I felt like I was back in the States. Based on my experience, there just aren’t that many mall-like places in Spain. I know of one in Madrid near Principe Pio. Other than that, there aren’t really any malls—mostly because stores tend to be specialized. You might find a huevería (egg store and indeed there is such a place in Madrid!), lechería (milk product store), carnecería (meat shop), etc. But you don't usually have malls. This mall even had some American stores! I saw a Foot Locker! I was able to get some decent sheets and towels for a pretty cheap price and headed back to my apartment.