The first shop I visited in Puerto Rico in June last year – at 03 in the morning when we arrived to the hotel without our luggage (lost somewhere at JFK) and I needed new underwear and socks… was Walgreens!
It is where I buy all my toiletries and O buys his milk, plus you name it – birthday cards, Puerto Rican souvenirs (magnets, cds, postcards, even coffee), medicine, beach gear (toys, chairs etc), snacks, sunscreen… and for some reason the only place where we can find the Cascade Action pacs (for the dishwasher)! We usually go there in the evening (open 24 hours) and the same woman always attends to us – I actually saw her in the mall the other day and got utterly confused “I know her from somewhere, hm…” 
Nowadays, there are even two Walgreens* (and two three Starbucks) within walking distance! In the country where you usually have to drive everywhere…
On Monday evening O and I filled a basket full of Annas Pepparkakor (Ginger / cinnamon cookies), Royal Dansk cookies (after all, I am almost half Danish, ha ha) and Swedish Red Fish (even though I don’t think it tastes like the Swedish red fish) for our Julfika (Christmas fika) on Sunday! What would we do without Walgreens [as we have no Ikea]?
I walked past this Xmas decoration today, wondering if they have fixed the figure that was not lit last year (photo from December 2007) – I couldn’t tell as it was still day-light and it hadn’t been switched on yet (last year my mother, sister and I had to go to Starbucks for a coffee while waiting for the sun to set before we could take the photo!)
I brought a package of pepparkakor to l’Alliance Francaise this afternoon and they were a huge success among the Europeans! “Not too sweet, the American cookies are just too sweet”, “Did you receive them by mail from Sweden?”, “You have to hold a Swedish cooking course here in the Alliance!”, “Sweden – that’s Europe [which is almost France??]“ were some of the comments… So now I am going to plan a cooking session for January to teach the Puerto Ricans of the Alliance Francaise to cook Swedish cuisine in French, why not!?
Anyway, here is a Wednesday recipe for a vitamin injection for those of you with colds and low energy, I think that I will make it tomorrow for breakfast:
Banana & pear smoothie
- ½ litre milk
- 2 bananas
- 1 pear
- ½ decilitre oats
- 1 tablespoon honey
- ice cubes
Mix the ingredients together in a blender and pour into high glasses. Enjoy!
*) I acknowledge that it is not just positive that Walgreens is ever-present in Puerto Rico, pushing out the smaller, local and independent pharmacies but coming from a country (in this case Belgium, not Sweden) where all shops close really early in the evening and remain closed on Sundays I love being able to shop the essentials at any time and within walking distance from home!!
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