Cilantro and Jalapenos

About this time tomorrow night my lovely husband will be home! I thought the day would never come. Not really, that is being pretty dramatic, but I have been anxious for him to get home before he even left. I've been hitting the gym. finishing my phone cover, making meals for one, and wearing out our free trial of Hulu.

 

After I posted last time I hit a funk and then had to eat my own words and forced myself to the gym.

 

Complete. I'm loving it.

 

My go to chicken teriyaki

 

Tomorrow I am making cookies to welcome him home. It's taken me several trips to gather all that I need for them but I finally did. But that is for tomorrow.

 

Today, I had a plan. It was to wake up, get groceries for cookies, dinner, and homemade cinnamon rolls (hubby's request nothing easy), an aerobics class at three, then cook dinner for myself. I was so bored yesterday that I had time to write out the recipes and the groceries and then organize them in a list by section at the grocery store(s).

 

At two I decide to make a quick sweep through and get whatever I could find on my list then and then save the rest for either the evening or tomorrow. I figured I probably couldn't carry all the groceries at once so I wasn't to worried about it getting everything the first time. 

 

I made it to the gym at ten until three to see that the class was cancelled for today. Bummer. I decided to stay and workout. I noticed the empty studio space with a ballet bar and took advantage of it for my cool down and stretch. It was nostalgic and made me miss Wednesday night dance class growing up.

 

 

After that I went to another store to get the cookies supplies that I couldn't find at the other two and then headed back to the grocery store to try and find cilantro and jalapenos for dinner. I have never bought either of these items so all I know is they are green. I assumed the cilantro would be by the basil and parsley but no luck. I decided what the hay, lets ask someone who works here.

.

Big mistake, every time I said something in English he repeated back to me in Japanese. He eventually led me to some green peppers, if they are jalapenos I don't know, but I figured the five minutes of us never getting anywhere except repeating back and forth and not understanding was a waste of time, I gave up.

 

But I didn't. I found another worker who happened to come out and start stocking produce right where I was hunting. I asked him, he looked at me with his hands in the air and walked off. He brought back another different guy and I asked him. He started laughing, immediately knowing it was a lost cause.  Then he busts out his handy iphone hands it over to me and I type in cilantro.

 

FINALLY we are getting somewhere. He turns to ask the other guy and the very first guy (yes there are now three people attempting to help me) and says cilantro in Japanese and the first guy I talked to throws his arms up in an X. Okay cool! You don't carry cilantro and I'm not that big of a dummy for not being able to find it.

 

By the way, to the few Americans that DID walk right past me, thanks for leaving me hanging. Next time maybe you can help me out a little.

 

Then we go through the same thing with the jalapeno only it didn't go as smoothly. He led me to a bag of green peppers but like I said I'm not sure they are actually jalapenos. When he showed me in his phone it only said pepper. I would guess by the pepper photo that is turned into a dragon that they just might be hot peppers. I'll let you know on that one.

 

Long story short. I should have went prepared by looking up the Japanese words first OR find a handy app, like the man at the store, on my phone. And I didn't even use the stupid peppers I did buy.

 

Knock off Chipotle burrito bowl

 

Now that this story is dragging on way longer than it needed to be I'll let you get back to your day. I just felt like EVERYONE in the store was watching this all go down and maybe laughing but oh well I don't care. I got over my fear of asking for help and will probably ask again another day. Just with my translator app handy.

 

I did find a second hand shop in our building that carries some pretty nice stuff. I plan on going there tomorrow to dig through the goods and I'll be sure to share that experience soon. The lady working there is so nice and I can see myself stopping by just to chat with her and she can maybe teach me some Japanese.