The Galleria

The mall where I used to go was called “The Galleria”. I spent several afternoons there after that first time I was telling you about on my last post. We used to go there for food when we were not visiting Vic’s family. Still living in the motel, we found that the food in The Galleria’s food court was better in quality, with more choices and cheaper than some of the original food we were eating on take out so that was our place to eat.  If there is one thing we remember dearly as a food choice that we have not eaten since we left New York is Bourbon Chicken from the Bourbon Café. They diced the chicken in very little pieces, marinated it with bourbon and grilled it. It was so delicious! And they were smart to attract the customers, they would have someone standing by on the aisle in front of the food court where people would walk by to see what was available to eat in the different places they had there and offered free samples of this wonderful chicken from a tray full of pieces on tooth picks. Once you tried one you were hooked and knew exactly what you would be having for dinner that night! In all the trips we have made across America, we have not found this chicken again, anywhere. It would be fun to go back one day just to try it again!

On another afternoon that I stayed in The Galleria, Vic and I were going to meet at a place called Auntie Anne’s, they made fresh pretzels right there in front of you. So we were going to have a pretzel there but since it was only a counter style store, there were no chairs available to sit and eat for a little while so Vic took me to the public benches they had at The Galleria for anyone who wanted to rest, so he could have his hands free when they gave him the order. He went back to the store to pick up the pretzels and I waited at these benches. All of a sudden, this man appeared out of nowhere and sat on one of the benches and asked me if he could help me. Now, this did not make a lot of sense because I was not doing anything to help me with! I was just sitting there waiting for Vic. So I said “no thank you”, not giving any importance to the situation. And I added “my husband is coming right now” and I looked on the direction that Vic was actually coming with the pretzels and a drink. The minute this man saw Vic coming he disappeared faster than he appeared. Vic was very agitated because he told me he perceived danger when he saw this man around me. And he was ready to get rid of him but did not have the chance because the man was not there anymore by the time Vic arrived. It was actually odd that Vic felt this way because he is very friendly and normally he would have said hi to a stranger if it was a normal situation, but he felt it was not.

At first, I sincerely thought that Vic was exaggerating, and that maybe he was a little jealous and I really thought there was no danger involved. But after giving it some thought, I realized that it was really suspicious that this man disappeared as soon as he knew my husband was coming. And I thought that if his intention were good, he would have stayed and say hi to my husband like other people would do. Americans, in general, are very friendly and if they can help you on the street in some way, they do.

Now, looking back, I have a deeper perspective on this. First of all, I remember that when I left Lima, we only had one big mall and it was fairly new, the Jockey Plaza. So being in a big store in Lima meant maybe a department store like Sears that changed its name to Saga when Sears left. And the environment is totally different than in a mall in America. You are not alone there even if you go by yourself because it is not that big as a mall is here. And there are always other shoppers around you besides the sales people. So in fact, this was also the first time I was faced with a situation like this and it never occurred to me that there was a potential danger there. Now, that I have lived here for years, I know that malls are some of the places where evil people look for their next victim of any crime they are planning to commit.  Either robbery or kidnapping of a minor or drug dealings, these things can occur in a regular mall in America. Please don’t get scared. Crime occurs everywhere and anywhere in the world inside stores or outside on the streets and that does not mean it will occur all the time and we should just get a good lock and stay home for the rest of our lives! No, malls are in general, very secure, they have guards that work for the mall and patrol the mall and the parking lot. Also, because there is a big amount of people that go to the malls, that helps to kind of look for each other too. But it is good to have the eyes wide open and be reasonably careful because, unfortunately, not everybody has good intentions. That was my lesson that night.

On my next post I will be sharing with you how we finally found our apartment and moved in. There was where a new phase of the story started!