I've been wanting one of these ever since I first moved to Spain; I wish I had known their existence when I lived in Boston: it's the perfect solution for grocery shopping in a city. I could have saved hundreds of dollars not having groceries delivered to my apartment, and just pulled one of these around town instead. The reason why I didn't get one until now is because N absolutely refused to have anything to do with it. I learned the word 'maruja' from inquiring after these pully-carts. I can attempt to describe it to my English speaking friends, but I hope I won't offend anyone in the process: generally a woman between 40 to 60, often gather with other marujas at the market, chatting loudly about nothing and everything, gossip is very big with all marujas, you can spot one leaning out the window yelling at a neighboring maruja while dusting the carpet, or one with an apron out at the front door sweeping, while chatting with another maruja walking by. Often one can be heard before seen.
You may ask what changed N's mind after all these years, but even if you don't, I plan to tell you now :) Incidentally, Tiana has a market!!! It's more like 4 sucky stands of crap and an excellent 'green grocer'. And, I found this cool orange one from IKEA, and N caved. I like this green grocer because they let you pick the fruits, and even though there aren't prices, you come out happy with whatever price they tell you.
The procedure of buying among marujas is actually rather tricky, in order to buy, you must integrate!
Here's how: first, you must arrive very early (we get there around 8:30, and generally a line has already formed by then), and you have to shout (so EVERYONE can hear you), 'qui és l´útim?´ (who is last in line?) In this case, always ´qui és l´última?´ because by definition, marujas can only be women, although...I often tease N to be one, too :)
then you make eye contact with that person, and look out for when she´s being helped, so you know you´re next. This is tricky because everyone knows everyone, and if you´re behind someone, and they see someone they know who comes after you, they greet each other and start talking, by the time the first m´s turn is up, she may feel so generous as to let her friend enter before her, thus before you. If enough of them do this, you´re bound to be the last in line...always, which in our case, happened more than once.
While you´re waiting for your turn, you chat loudly with ALL women in line about nothing and everything, and you all stare at the weird looking foreigner in line (enters me). Then you touch ALL the fruit, bag some and lean them on the ones you didn´t pick, and wait for your turn to ask (scream) for the ´untouchables´ behind the sellers: ¨HALF A PUMPKIN! TWO AVOCADOS, FOUR PERSIMMONS!! PLEASE!!!! THANK YOU!!!! last two optional.
then you´re pretty much done when they tell you a random price which makes you happy.
I do love this ritual every Tuesday now that I´ve been certified by my cool orange carrito as a maruja.
You may ask what changed N's mind after all these years, but even if you don't, I plan to tell you now :) Incidentally, Tiana has a market!!! It's more like 4 sucky stands of crap and an excellent 'green grocer'. And, I found this cool orange one from IKEA, and N caved. I like this green grocer because they let you pick the fruits, and even though there aren't prices, you come out happy with whatever price they tell you.
The procedure of buying among marujas is actually rather tricky, in order to buy, you must integrate!Here's how: first, you must arrive very early (we get there around 8:30, and generally a line has already formed by then), and you have to shout (so EVERYONE can hear you), 'qui és l´útim?´ (who is last in line?) In this case, always ´qui és l´última?´ because by definition, marujas can only be women, although...I often tease N to be one, too :)
then you make eye contact with that person, and look out for when she´s being helped, so you know you´re next. This is tricky because everyone knows everyone, and if you´re behind someone, and they see someone they know who comes after you, they greet each other and start talking, by the time the first m´s turn is up, she may feel so generous as to let her friend enter before her, thus before you. If enough of them do this, you´re bound to be the last in line...always, which in our case, happened more than once.
While you´re waiting for your turn, you chat loudly with ALL women in line about nothing and everything, and you all stare at the weird looking foreigner in line (enters me). Then you touch ALL the fruit, bag some and lean them on the ones you didn´t pick, and wait for your turn to ask (scream) for the ´untouchables´ behind the sellers: ¨HALF A PUMPKIN! TWO AVOCADOS, FOUR PERSIMMONS!! PLEASE!!!! THANK YOU!!!! last two optional.
then you´re pretty much done when they tell you a random price which makes you happy.
I do love this ritual every Tuesday now that I´ve been certified by my cool orange carrito as a maruja.
No comments:
Post a Comment