Gummy vitamins fit squarely into the category of ‘The Little Things In Life’.
That doesn’t change the fact I’ve been obsessed with them for the past thirty days.
It all started at Christmas, when I made my semi-annual pilgrimage to CVS. There is simply no equivalent to a CVS/Target/WalMart in Spain, or really in Europe for that matter. Usually, I don’t mind. I do understand that CVS is full of moderately useless crap. There is no need for 17 different kinds of band-aids, or an aisle for toothbrushes or 32 shades of red lipstick.
However….
I find a meditative peace in wondering through the vitamin aisle. I enjoy considering what my life would look like if only I had a more devoted amino acid supplement practice.
Last year, I walked around the blue, knotted carpet tiles in the deodorant aisle for a full 10 minutes. My activities? First, hugging a large stuffed monkey. Second, thinking deeply about what type of antiperspirant was least likely to give me terrible cancer. It was a delight.
This past Christmas, I discovered gummy calcium supplements. (Truth be told, I wanted dark-chocolate-flavored Viactiv Chews, but annoyingly they only had caramel, milk-chocolate and cappuccino flavors. Sigh.) Turns out, gummy calcium supplements are amazing. Unfortunately, I only bought one box.
Hence, my aggressive tours of the Spanish farmacias. I have been harassing the lovely Madrilena workers about the chewable vitamin possibilities since the day I could count the number of gumdrop-shaped vitamin candies left in my sturdy plastic vial. So far I have encountered:
1) Orange-flavored chewable wafers with calcium and some unidentifiable Spanish mineral/form of carbonate rock
2) Small, rubbery gummy B-vitamins shaped like various fruits that come in a set with a Popeye-the-Sailor piggy bank
3) “AquaGummies!” shaped like various fish that may be some vague Spanish equivalent of Flinstones vitamins
Every store I go in has a different offering. So far my quest for gummy vitamins has taken upwards of 2 hours and cost approximately $40.
But you know what? It’s fun.
I’m learning all sorts of weird Spanish words, and I’m no longer terrified of entering a pharmacy and talking to the people that work there, a skill I have to believe will come in handy at some point during my tenure in Span.
It’s the little things in life that make your time here big, they say.
For more on life in Spain, click here.
Thanks to Angel Sinigersky on Unsplash for the banner photo!