Place: El Corte Ingles, Barcelona, Spain

Postcards about El Corte Ingles

• 

  10 April 2008
  From:
  Margo Orlando Littell

  Shortly after moving to Barcelona, I set out for El Corte Ingles--my first solo shopping expedition. I hadn't yet learned any Spanish aside from a few random vocabulary words, so I asked Andrew, my then-boyfriend, how to say "I'm just looking": Solo estoy buscando, he told me. Thus armed, I soon found myself browsing in the pharmacy, seeking sunscreen. A saleswoman approached. "Can I help you?" she asked in Spanish. "Solo estoy bufanda," I said. She smiled oddly, and quickly left me alone. No wonder: I'd told her I was a scarf.