Shopping for Glasses and Sneakers

When we were at Suzuki camp, right before we moved here, Abigail's glasses broke (one of the arms of the frames fell off).  I spent a good chunk of a morning when we were back in VA getting them repaired.  Her prescription was a little old so I didn't think we could go new glasses before we left the country.

Shortly after we arrived, the other arm of the frame bent in such a way that I was afraid to bend it back.  It was obvious that she needed a new pair.  So, one day she and I went over to the mall close to the hotel where we were staying to see what we could do.  My Spanish was even rustier then than it is now, but we were going to do our best.

We found out from the rather grumpy attendant at the information desk that there were two glasses stores at the mall.  So we found our way to the first one, where the salesperson showed us a few options.  Both of us were shocked to hear the price - around 2.5 million (Guarinies that is).  OK, so I had gotten used to big numbers for paying for things, but when we did the calculation it came out to roughly $500!  I also asked if there was any way to repair the glasses, and the answer was no.

Needless to say, we walked out of that store:).  I said to Abigail "I guess we should have gotten a new pair in the US!"  and suggested that maybe she'd have to switch to contacts (not a good suggestion in her opinion).  Anyway, we headed to the next store.

Thankfully, we were happy to find several options there that would be less than $100 - what a relief!  And on top of that, the salesperson was able to bend her frame back so that she could use it until the glasses were ready.  We took John back with us in the evening just to see if he liked the ones she picked out too (Arianna was sick that day and stayed in the hotel).  They were ready in less than a week and they're quite cute.  You can sort of see them in her first day of school photo below:

We did have another similar shopping experience when we were trying to get sneakers for Arianna before she started school.  At the mall they had quite a few options of imported brands: New Balance, Nike, Addidas, etc.  But Arianna wasn't thrilled with them and they all cost well over $50, some closer to $100 (I usually buy them sneakers at Target or Payless, so that's kind of high for me).  We went to a more local shop on the street right outside of the mall and found a really cute pair of sneakers for about $15.  Arianna hasn't worn sneakers in years and really doesn't like physical activities that require them (preferring gymnastics, dance, horse back riding, yoga, etc.), so I was pretty reluctant to invest in an expensive pair of sneakers.  Now, if her PE teacher talks her into joining the soccer team as he's trying to do, I'd be happy to reconsider:).