Jamon

In my year and a half here in Monterrey, I've never ordered meat at the deli. I've always wanted fresh turkey but have settled for the packaged kind, solely due to my lack of Spanish.

But tonight was different; I felt confident. I walked up to the attendee and simply said, "me gustaria jamon por favor" The conversation was going pretty well until the lady asked me how much I wanted.

"Cuanto kilos" she asked.

"Ummmmm....." My mind was thinking in pounds

"Entonces.......

"Cuantos kilos?" she asked again.

I don't know kilos. My mind raced, wishing she would at least use her hands to show me how much a kilo was.

Figuring one kilo couldn't be too much, I quickly asked for one with a smile.

Five minutes later, the lady handed me the biggest stack of ham I've ever seen. Pasted clearly on the top of it read 150 pesos. ( I didn't know it was possible to spend that much on ham)

Literally laughing out loud at this point, I barely could mutter out a "muchas gracias" before turing around to the check out counter.

So now, sitting in my fridge, in fine fashion, is my first order of Mexican deli ham, all 150 pesos of it. Taking up a good portion of "my side" of the fridge, its a good reminder that sometimes the best laughs are found in the small things.