Black cat, black cat! And, groceries.

So this is the famous (for Latvia) Black Cat building. There's a kind of funny story that goes with it. But not actually that funny. Maybe in terms of blog publication, it's approximately it's-winter-and- we're-trapped-inside-and- haven't-done-much- for-weeks funny.

But we did just buy food from NetGrocer. We refrained from having fish shipped to our door, but really, that is an option. Anyway, it's a bit odd how the shopping options here shake out versus Guatemala. Only now do we realize just how Americanized Guatemalan shopping was. Ok, we realized it then, but maybe after a couple years we took it for granted. They don't have black beans here. That is a staple food for right-thinking people everywhere. How do you make a good burrito without black beans? (They don't have pinto beans either, if that's what you were going to say. (And also, no tortillas, so we ordered those, too. (Oh, and salsa.))) Also, they sell Honey Nut Cheerios, but not normal, yellow-box Cheerios. There actually are a lot of ways that the Guatemalan mindset was more like the American than the Latvian is. We hope that through further experiences with Latvian gorcery shopping, we will be able to put our finger on them.

It's pretty crazy to think that a mere ten years ago, our valiant predecessors in the Foreign Service in Latvia had to live with post-Soviet grocery stores and no Internet Cheerios at all. Thank goodness we don't have to suffer through that horror.