I took a taxi to the Metrocentro shopping mall after a very busy day at work today in an attempt to get a dose of consumerism and pretty fabrics. I wanted to see the prices of stuff, buy something for myself, and finally eat that lunch I had skipped during the day due to lack of time.

Shopping malls look almost the same all over the world. From what I’ve seen, it doesn’t matter much if you’re in Sweden or in Mozambique, and Nicaragua didn’t surprise me either. Heels were high, music was loud, and shop assistants were kind and helpful. And as in many developing countries, I found H&M clothes hanging in no-brand shops, tagged with completely outrageous prices.

That’s seriously a luxury one doesn’t really realize that we have in Europe. H&M, Zara, the entire Inditex group in general, Gina Tricot etc. Where one can get well designed pieces of clothes of durable quality to a very low price. You don’t get that abroad, the budget brands are so bad they look washed out and break before you even get to wear them, and they are still more expensive!

So, obviously, I didn’t buy shoes or a nice bluse as I had planned (The one I liked was 60USD), instead, I got myself a cinnamon roll and a book packed with short stories by the most famous Nicaraguan writers. Because I’m nerdy like that, because it gives me a historical context to go through with taxi drivers, and because it boosts my vocabulary.

Then I had a quite miserable dinner as I had to pick one of the evil fast food chains and got some kind of Chinese mix of who-knows-what. At least the book kept me company and proved to be very entertaining.

And now I just got back home, just in time for shower, music and ironing. In that order precisely, according to strict Nicaraguan rules – I’m not kidding, one day I will have to write about this. Later on we’re hopefully going dancing, and tomorrow I’m going to a wedding! A surprise wedding, kind of – you’ll see.

Ciao!

P.s – ‘Graciosa’ leans more to funny than ‘gracious’ as we interpret it. I just had to use that word game, those heels!