The "super" just isn't the same in CdE

A few things are really really different in Ciudad del Este than in Asunción. I'm still trying to get used to the all-cash economy--which isn't really surprising given my neck of the woods, but definitely changes some daily routines. And makes me cringe every time I face down a $USD 5 ATM fee! When I rented my apartment the real-estate agent very kindly wrote down on a notepad what I would have to pay upfront: a month's rent + a month's rent as security deposit + 50% month's rent real estate tax (one time payment)= about $900. Which would be fine if I could whip out my debit card within the relative safety of the real-estate office (although from their office I could still hear the carousing of a group of guys who were drunkenly exposing their genitals...to one another...just outside the building. Didn't make me feel entirely comfortable about the prudence of making a large financial transaction right then and there, but at least it would be in the office, sans genitals, at least one would hope). No such luck--would definitely involve walking to the gas station about 6 blocks away, using their ATM machine, and withdrawing *gulp* whatever my daily ATM withdrawal limit is. And then conspicuously walking out of the ATM with a bulging wallet full of USD, back through the drunken throng, and to the real-estate office. Yikes! Luckily the real estate folks were pretty sympathetic to my anxieties/neuroses/common sense! (or just really wanted to get paid, whatever it took), so I made several trips with slightly smaller amounts. Which might have been an even worse idea, for all I know. But in any event, it makes me value the magic of plastic more than ever!

Money is pretty kooky in this city in any event--keeping exchange rates straight in my head has been rather a challenge. For example, today I paid for a Diet Coke (hadn't had any coffee and left my tereré at home...mayday!) with 2 reales + 500 guaranis. And when I bought a junky french press that cost $11.10, I of course didn't have a nickel on me, so ended up paying $11 and .25 reales. It's super-interesting to track what sorts of things get priced in what currencies (and what assumptions sellers are making about buyers when they quote one currency rather than another...and the way in which negotiating exchange rates becomes part of negotiating a good price). When I grabbed lunch at this awesome Chinese "copetín" (Paraguayan dive restaurants where you eat whatever the daily special is...or you don't eat at all) in the mini-chinatown downtown, the price was quoted in Guaranis, which seemed to suggest a local crowd, because it's usually only local residents that use the local currency. But it mostly gives me a migraine. It always astonishes me that folks with a 4th grade education can manage these pretty complex figures with such facility. Makes me feel like a fool.

But the long and the short of it was that I had a long day of moving/meeting the CdE Fundación Paraguaya office (lovely people! I'm so excited to be out of the super-stressful head office in Asuncion). By the time 5:30 rolled around and I finally finished making polite conversation with the guy who came to install my internet (for 3 hours!), I was pretty beat...and headed to the grocery store to russle up some food. Sadly, the "super"(market) in CdE is a very very sad establishment compared to "supers" in Asunción. The big box supermarket chain hit Paraguay in a similar way to the US--and Paraguayans LOVE their supermarkets. The three big chains in Asunción--Super6, España, and Stock--are laid out pretty much just like a Safeway...and often have elaborate foodcourt/restaurants/hair salons/&c attached to them. Plus, you find one pretty much every 10 blocks in the city. And weird foods like brown rice and granola are available, albeit expensive. Not so much with "super rainbow" (well, arco iris in spanish). Super rainbow is pretty sad and dingy...and definitely leans heavily towards what most people here consider 'poor people food': inexpensive pasta, white rice, and tomato paste. I found the makings for a rudimentary lentil and rice pilaf, coffee (yes!) and a $4 bottle of Argentine Malbec. Life was totally looking up. I felt like the $4 splurge was a bit decadent, but have learned from experience that anything much under Gs. 20,000 is generally labeled "red wine"...and has a rather questionable relationship to its namesake. And then I felt even more clever because I totally managed to remember to look for a corkscrew (it would be just like me to get home without one and forelornly chip away at the cork with my swiss army knife until giving up in despair). Ok, corkscrew. Usually you can find a cheap version of the ones with arms that you pull down to get the cork out. No such luck. The only thing they had looked a lot like a coat-hanger that had been bent into a vaguely corkscrew-like shape. Really, a coat-hanger? So I ponied up my twenty cents and took it home. It actually worked remarkably well (the technique involved clutching the bottle of wine between my knees and wrenched the cork out). So happy!