Plastic Bags
Every day that I take the school bus/coach home, I get dropped off next to one of my favorite bakeries.
I have been going to this bakery for a month I think and I always buy the same thing – a loaf of this awesome bread. Every time that she hands me the bread, she puts the loaf into a clear plastic bag – just big enough for the bread. Then she also put that bag into another plastic bag for me to carry it in. For the first 2-3 weeks that I went there, I just accepted the extra plastic bag. Lately, I have been telling her “sin bolsa!” because I can just put the loaf of bread in my man purse just fine. Every time that I say no bag to her she looks really strange at me because there are plastic bags everywhere here in Barcelona and everyone wants and expects one!!
People LOVE to give you plastic bags. Even at the pharmacy…if you buy a small box of some prescription drug, they have a little plastic bag for you to carry it in – it is quite ridiculous. I know that most people would like something to carry their purchase in, but honestly I do not need a little plastic bag to carry a very light and small box that is smaller than the palm of my hand.
Back to my story….so today as she was cutting my bread and getting it prepared for me, she automatically put the whole thing in a plastic bag again. I’m guessing that she just does that so automatic that she STILL puts my bread in a bag – even though for the past 2 weeks I have asked her NOT to put it in a bag, and I KNOW that she remembers me (I go there 2 times a week). So, when she handed me the bread and the plastic bags today, I almost said “sin bolsa,” but I just decided to let go and just accept it all – though I could see a twinkle in her eye like she knew that I didn’t want the extra bag. Oh well, now I WANT the extra bag, so there.
The problem is that Anne and I collect so many plastic bags from everywhere that we have to put them in recycling like once a week. Luckily we can recycle them and there are some bins like these just outside our building’s front door.
By the way paper bags are basically non-existent here. Carrying so many plastic bags in one hand hurts let me tell you. It just doesn’t seem like the most efficient way to carry a lot of things…in my opinion.
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