Finding Stuff

I would say the hardest part of the transition has been finding stuff.  You totally take for granted all the normal things you buy/use in your daily routine.  Like me, you probably buy the same peanut butter and laundry detergent as your mother.  Now imagine that you have to research all your daily products and find new ones.  Trash bags for instance.  They took about a week to find because they are not with the other ziploc bags and are in rolls not boxes.  Your eyes are used to scanning for boxes so we didn't even see them.  Couple that with not knowing where to go and you can see my predicament.  So finding stuff has been my life for 5 weeks and I am happy to report, I have conquered most things.  

Food has been pretty easy because they have most all American brands or comparable stuff.  At the store today there was an end cap display of Old El Paso items (taco shells, tortillas, etc).  We even buy Pace Picante Sauce and Ranch Style beans here.  But milk for instance, we are on our third brand and I think we got one.  Different grocery stores have different stuff too.  So the other day I needed black beans and they were not at my normal store.  So we went to a different market and they had them, stock up.  Some other challenging food items - sweetened condensed milk, that took a week and about 4 stores to figure out.  It is in the coffee section here and labeled as sweet cream.  Chicken broth is another that took a while.  I finally found that too.  So now I have my normal store where I get most everything but then there are two other stores I keep in the rotation for the challenges.

The other issue is we did not bring hardly anything that plugs in.  So we had to start from scratch with cordless phone, printer, dvd player, lamps, hairdryers, etc.  Again you forget how long it took you to acquire your basic necessities.  Furniture has been our other investment.  I am just about done getting the essentials and now I am working on making it a "home".  I have our little downstairs bath done.  Big whoop, only the living room, kitchen and two other floors to go.  I am not talking major decor or anything just a few personal touches.

Current challenge is a calendar.  Sounds simple right?  I have checked grocery stores, hardware stores, book stores, "walmart" type stores, to no avail.  Someone told me yesterday about a stationary shop.  I will keep you posted.