On Friday, my sister and I were so full from lunch that we didn't feel like eating when she got home from work. So after I watched her do her workout video in the living room, we went shopping on the 3rd St. Promenade in Santa Monica.
It was a nice night on the promenade and there were street performers, but at about 10pm I started to get hungry. First we went to a really cool mini mart that had such a random assortment my favorite Japanese snacks along with an amazing variety of American foods. We spent 10 minutes deciding what to eat and then we saw those delicious steamed buns that they serve at Dim Sum restaurants. I got a chicken teryaki bun and my sister got her own bun, and then we split a red bean bun. Mmmm buns.
Then we stopped at the supermarket and I bought fruit salad and broccoli and cheddar Lean Pockets. While I was heating my lean pocket, my sister told me that she didn't know they had any vegetarian Lean Pockets. I told her, of course they do.
I have no interest in eating any meat in a pocket. That is frozen.
Later we were sitting around on two of my sister's three couches, which her roommate bought for $105, all of which she hates because they are old, ratty, and smelly. I asked her if the pillows came with the couches. She told me she bought them at Bed, Bath, & Beyond and shuddered as she described the original pillows.
I told her how disappointed I was that instead of giving it to me for my new apartment as promised, our dad had given away his living room couch to a Nigerian man who planned to send it back to Nigeria for his family. My sister burst out laughing over this revelation which made me laugh at the idea as well.
She told me that there was NO way that anyone would send a 15 year old couch to Africa. I told her that that's what the man said, but she insisted that there was just no way it would happen, wondering outloud how much it would even cost to send a couch to Africa.
So we looked it up online on the world wide web. We estimated that the couch was 70"x48"x33" and weighed approximately 60 lbs. UPS calculated that in 5 days, this couch could arrive in the capital of Nigeria for the low low cost of $1207.96.
We thought that this was a lot to pay to send a couch and decided to find out how much it would cost to buy a couch in Nigeria. Sadly for the Nigerians, the nearest country served by the mighty Craigslist is South Africa. But for the sake of estimation we decided this was fairly sufficient and searched for "couch" in Cape Town. There was only one available for sale, and it was ZAR950.
Now, I can convert a lot of things, actually I can't... but we did not happen to know the ZAR:USD conversion rate. Luckily my sister knew of a website on the internet that could convert these things automatically. We now know that ZAR950=93.63 USD.
In conclusion, my sister's smelly couches were the best deal, but see how we tried to help others by and sell couches:
From: Laina E.
Sent: Saturday, February 21, 2009 12:54 AM
To: sale-1000767768@craigslist.org
Subject: couch
** CRAIGSLIST ADVISORY --- AVOID SCAMS BY DEALING LOCALLY
** Avoid: wiring money, cross-border deals, work-at-home
** Beware: cashier checks, money orders, escrow, shipping
** More Info: http://www.craigslist.org/
- Hide quoted text -
Hi,
This is very strange, but I was doing some research online and saw your post seeking a couch. I also saw a post with a nice looking blue-ish couch for sale. Here is the link: http://capetown.craigslist.co.
By the way, I am in California. Also, it costs $1,207 to ship a couch from New Jersey to Nigeria. Like I said, strange.
Good luck with the couch.
Laina
From: Shelley M. Ottino
Sent: Saturday, February 21, 2009 9:12 AM
To: Laina E.
Subject: Re: couch
Thanks very much for the info, I was really looking for a couch in Durban, South Africa for my parents, I am actually in Texas.
Thanks again - Shelley
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