As a basketball player my go to bag has always been my basketball one. No matter if I’m attending a game, a graduation or a wedding, I just naturally grab that one. Since I’ve been in Ireland, my basketball bag seems to be the only important thing that I bought from home – besides my trusty umbrella and rain boots because everybody knows how much I love the rain.
Anyway, it was our first day moving into our new housing for the school year. My fellow Victory Scholar Alex and I decided to go shopping to get some of the things that we were in need of. I approached the cash register with my cart full of various items that I had picked up. The lady began to ring them up but I noticed that she wasn’t placing them in bags. I figured she would just do it after because maybe the bags were underneath the register or something. She eventually told me my total but as I swiped my card she just stared at me. I smiled awkwardly and said “May I have some bags for my items?” She chuckled as she responded back, “That will be 1 Euro please.”
Waittttttt…hold up…rewind…lol
I was shocked as I asked, “You have to pay for bags here?” She said simply, “Yes.” Of course by this time there’s an entire line of people waiting behind me and she can’t take the next customer because all of my stuff is still on the counter. At this point I’m a little panicked and feeling even more awkward than before when I remembered my favorite item. My Nike basketball bag. I slid my lovely book bag off of my back and began to stuff all of the items I had into it. See, where I’m from the supermarkets provide you with bags. Sometimes with so many bags that we can use them as trash bags, to put flour in when we fry chicken, and even as wrapping paper. After thanking the cashier, Alex and I exited the store with no supermarket bags but one very heavy Nike book bag.
Ever since that day, I haven’t gone anywhere without my bookbag. It has come in handy numerous times over my three week stay already – even more so than my favorite umbrella and rain boots!So my tip to you this week is that if you plan on coming to visit this lovely place bring a book bag, it will save you a Euro 🙃
Bless up
-TC3
