Pathways

Last week I felt like I hadn’t had much chance to lift my head and look beyond the necessary pathways needed to build up a workable existence here. Now that I have had a chance, I see that it is not so usual to look beyond what becomes routine. I think that might be just because of the sheer size of everything.
Take the gym…at Saint Louis University, it is massive. There are at least three different areas set up with treadmills (I’d say a good 9-10 in each area), cross-trainers (7 or 8), stationary bikes (including those ones that look so comfortable, where you can sit back and read – I need to try one of those – probably a total of 7/8), free weights, and all sorts of weight machines. I believe each of these areas is somewhat different , but I can’t say for sure, because already I have chosen my area, and venturing into one of the others seems like a hike to a nearby county, so I haven’t bothered....but who knows what I might be missing?
And the supermarket…I can see where people at some point must stop being distracted by everything they see on the shelves and just home in on what they need to or usually buy, marking out familiar pathways around the supermarket. It takes me 2 hours to do my grocery shopping; just looking at all of the different spices takes me about 15 minutes! Not to mention the 1 ½ meter display of different kinds of lettuces (but then you have to remember that over on the other side are bags and bags of various sorts of lettuces, greens, spinach – all ready and washed for your salad - even mushrooms come washed, and carrots washed, peeled and cut – I guess it takes so long to shop that you have less time to prepare the food at home!). The problem is let’s say that you pick out a bag of lettuce, and then move on. All of a sudden you’re faced with this huge display of different kinds of fresh lettuce. So you turn around and trundle back (aisles are spacious, so people never have to bump into each other) leave off the bag, and then go back to the lettuce display, and have to try and decide the Romaine? Ruby? Iceberg? Butterhead? They all look so fresh and crisp (as they are frequently sprayed by an overhead water sprayer). You can also choose from several different kinds of dressings in this area (they look more homemade, less like the familiar brand names). But then later on you get to the aisle where the dressings are and you are faced with even more choice. The same goes for pickles, olives, wine (cabernet sauvignon, merlot, shiraz, pinot noir, Australian, Californian, Missourian, Italian, Spanish, French…), crackers, meat (I didn’t realize that there were so many different kinds of ground beef), yoghurt…just about everything except fish! I do miss the great array of fish choices we have in Madrid, and cheese, too (well, there are lots of cheese choices, but lots of them have the word "spread" or "whiz" in them, and are to be avoided)….Anyway, in the four months I’m here, I know that there is no way that I’m going to be able to sample more than just a small part of any of the different choices I have in any given food.
It’s the same when we go out to eat, especially breakfast. How do you want your eggs? Bacon or sausage? Rye, white, whole wheat toast? Hash browns or fries? Hash browns with onions or with none?
So much to choose from and explore! I’d better get back to it…