Expat Life: The Confusing Search for Tarjetes de Animales…

There’s a lot I expected about life as an expat in a country where I didn’t speak the language. Moving to Spain, I knew I would have to adjust to new foods, new cultures, new words, all of that. But there’s one thing that I wasn’t expecting, and that’s just how out of sorts I always feel because nothing is exactly where I think it should be. Everyday things suddenly become huge challenges.

Case In Point: The Search for Animales Cards.

Last January, my kiddo started bringing home these animal stickers from school. She called them tarjetas de animales – animal cards. They had little facts about them, and each one was numbered. I figured they were collectible things, and there was probably an album or something. After a week or so of people giving her their extras, she said she’d like to get some cards, and an album.

So the Quest for Animales Cards began.

I wasn’t sure where in our town one could find these cards. I asked her to ask her friends where they got them. The first thing she heard was that they came from the comic book store.

Okay, cool. That makes sense. So after her karate one day, clutching her allowance money in her hand, we walked into the comic book store. Do they have animales cards? The guy gave us a weird look. No, they sure don’t. Maybe try a papeleria (stationary store)?

So my little daughter persevered, and we went to the closest papaleria. They had lots of notebooks and pens, but no Animales cards. Try a toy store, they said.

On we go, to the toy store. The big one in the industrial area that is two stories. Surely they would have these cards.

Nope, they looked at us like we were insane. Why would we go to a toy store for animal cards? (I don’t know! Because the papeleria told us to try?) Go to a kiosk.

There are lots of kiosks around on the street – little stands where one can buy cigarettes, magazines, candy, and soda. So we stopped at the big one at the top of the pedestrian street. Did they sell animales cards?

Nope. Try a tobacco shop.

Exhausted by this point, we made one final stop at a big tobacco shop, and they looked at us like we were positively insane.

That night I scoured Amazon.es and ordered the collectible book, but we were still no closer to the cards.

I asked the teacher the next day – where, oh where, are people getting these cards? She said she’d ask and tell me that afternoon. We were given the name of a book shop in town where one of the boys was buying them.

The next afternoon when my girl was at karate, I walked to the bookstore. I didn’t want to get her hopes up, and potentially go on a wild goose chase again, so I just walked over myself. And lo and behold… there were the cards. Like the Holy Grail. In a big box behind the counter.

I bought ten packs, and she was so incredibly excited and happy, and all the frustration was worth it. Later that month we were down at the coast where there are large Target-equivalent department stores, and we saw large displays (and bought many more packs of animales cards).

But I don’t think I’ll ever forget the pure frustration of those couple of days trying to find the cards, having them not be anywhere we thought they might be, and everyone giving us crazy looks when we asked about them. It was such a bizarre feeling, to have everyone looking at you like you’re insane for the most basic question. And this happens to me a lot. Not *every* time I go out, but more often than I’m comfortable with.

Epilogue: We now have a nearly-complete Animales 2019 book, and are ordering the cards we’re missing from the Panini website directly, and in September we got the 2020 album which is much smaller than 2019 (thanks, pandemic) and so we are only missing 3 cards from that, total. It all worked out.