An Unexpected Reunion

My wife spent the afternoon with her mother, and I decided to venture out on my own.  Now, it has been 3 years since I last drove these roads, so I was a little anxious about navigating on my own.  Fortunately, I only got caught in one rotunda as I missed my exit and had to make another go around.  I visited a local mall to have lunch and see what new stores had opened.  I ended up in the local bookstore where I found a good book by Jose Saramago (the Portuguese Nobel Prize winner who passed away this past year).  I also found a book on the calao (slang) of Porto.  Perhaps now I can understand my wife better.  To finish the day, I wanted to go to the Continente super market, kind of like a Super Walmart here.  An odd thing they do here is lock all the shopping carts together and then you have to put a 50 cent coin in the lock to separate the cart from the others, but you get the coin back when you are finished shopping and put the cart back with the others.  While I was trying to figure out this complicated system, I suddenly heard someone calling my name from above.  I looked up to see a young woman with a little girl coming down the escalator.  She said, "Jeff, is that you?" and I said "Yes, it's me" while thinking to myself "who in the world is this".  It took few seconds, but I finally placed the face as that of my friend Catarina Morais, who I had last seen in Porto in 2003.  Since that time she had married and had a little girl.  What a surprise and a pleasure to see her again and make that small connection.

I continued on inside of the Continente where large signs proclaim it is illegal to take pictures or video.  I have never understood this signs here in many markets and malls.  What are they afraid of?  And this was even before 9/11, so I can't believe it is a terrorist thing.  Others have suggested it is so that someone can't copy the design of products or how they are displayed.  But I threw caution to the wind, and figured if anyone asked I could say I was making a phone call.  Besides, the layout of products and variety in these stores is a unique experience that you don't see in the states.  Open areas of the super market, full of salted fish, stand ready to assault your nostrils.  The choices of fresh cut meats, hams and cheeses seems endless.  And the bakery offers no less than small plethora of breads and pastries to which the States can hold no candle.