somebody please cut me off

There is a huge school supply store near Estación Central that Allyson and Rad took our group to to stock up on supplies for class.  This place is like a Staples on Latin American crack with several floors lined with shelves full of every kind of stationery and art supply possible.  Santiago has a little klepto problem and so they have to take extra precautions to prevent theft, especially in a store aimed towards kids in need of the coolest pencil case.  All the guys in our group had to put their backpacks in plastic bags and getting dry erase markers was a process that involved ordering it from behind the counter, having it placed in a numbered box, and then getting the locked box back at checkout.  Had I'd known dry erase markers were so valuable, I would have brought down a box in bulk and made a few extra bucks on the school supply black market.  After the big 8.8 earthquake in February, all the stocks fell off the shelves and the store was closed for about a week; this happened to also be the week before the Chilean school year started and so when they finally re-opened, there had been a frenzy inside and families lined up around the block just to go in.  


If you know me at all, you would know that these kind of stores are my version of a candy store.  I cannot control myself with so many kinds of paint, colored paper, and glue sticks available.    It was much less frenzied when our group went, but I probably would have fought a 9-year old for the last box of crayons.  I ended up spending about $40 for two big shopping bags of treasure.  No big deal though, I am now the kid with the coolest pencil case.

All shopping baskets should have a rolling option.