146 Hours.....but who's counting?

Tomorrow evening marks a week since we landed in Singapore. It honestly feels like a lifetime ago!

Our container arrived on Monday and the next 2 days were filled with the craziness of unpacking our stuff we hadn't seen since the end of May and trying to figure out how to make our house in Texas fit into our apartment in Singapore. The short story? It doesn't. One throwdown later between Scot and I in front of the poor movers and our kids........a bunch of tears, raised voices and some compromises and we were back to being ok. Our children were mildly tramatized and the movers got nowhere near me for a long time after that, but it was an air clearing we desperately needed to have.

A clingy and dependent girl had taken over my body somewhere between Houston and Singapore and it wasn't sitting well with me or my family. This morning I decided that it was time I got on my own. I put on my big girl pants and decided to just go for it. I needed to get out and figure out the bus system and stop apologizing to Wal Mart for all the nasty things I've said about it........I am goint to have to fall in love with the concept of going to 149 places to find what I need.

Today, I decided to venture out with the boys to a grocery store that promised to have cheaper prices than what I'd encountered thus far. Scot told me the bus number and gave me general directions and off we went to Fair Price Foods. I'm assuming by "fair" they meant I wouldn't audibly gasp every time I looked at the prices. We got to the bus stop and I had to chuckle remembering our first bus experience here in Singapore.

This past weekend we were on the hunt for a shower curtain rod, an item that continues to allude us. We had ridden multiple buses in Europe and typically you jump on the bus through whatever door you can when it stops or it will leave without you. This past weekend we carefully mapped out our route, bought our bus passes, and tried to keep the boys from getting run over in their anticipation of riding their first Singapore bus. Our bus finally arrived at the stop and the doors midway down the bus were closest to us. We politely waited for people to get off and then jumped on the bus. Somewhere between me and a kid, the doors started to close and I was frantically yelling at him:

"GET ON THE BUS NOW!!"

I was forcibly holding the doors open while a frantic child scrambled on. It was at this time that I notice the entire bus is silent except for a few stiffled giggles here and there and we heard the bus driver say:

"You must get on front of bus"

Oh! Ok, right. Guess that would explain why everyone else was lined up there instead of shoving themselves through closing doors........good times.

Needless to say, we followed all the rules today and got on the bus like civilized people who knew what they were doing. We made it to our stop and after walking all over the place looking for Fair Prices, we ended up asking a nice lady to directed us to the right spot. I was nervous walking up to the store remembering the experience I had 2 days ago when trying to shop.

Garrett and I were at the grocery store on the bottom floor of a local mall (that's a popular concept here). We walked up to the line of grocery carts and started pulling on one just to realize that they were all chained together. Ok, no big deal......this must be the line of extra carts. We'll just find the right ones and we'll be on our way. We walked over to the main entrance of the store and saw the carts. I was determined to not let this experience beat me so I triumphantly grabbed a cart and pulled. Nothing. Upon further examination I realized that it too was chained up. It was then that Garrett and I saw that it required a $1 deposit to unlock the cart so it could be used. We weren't going to let that stop us, though, so we just kept tugging for awhile. You know, just in case they were kidding or something.

I was so completely exasperated by the fact that they actually charge you money to use a cart in the store that I told Garrett to grab a hand held basket and follow me. We'd do what we could with that. Spaghetti and taco fixings, 4 apples, laundry detergent, and a sponge for the bargain price of $150 and we were out of there!

I was happy to see that using a cart was free at Fair Prices. Maybe that's what they mean by "fair"? It was a very authentic shopping experience, not a Cheezit or Oreo to be found anywhere. I did manage more than my past shopping experiences and found my way home with both children to I would call it a huge success!

There is no telling what is in store for us. I have to carefully go through my day not thinking too much about what we have left behind knowing it will paralyze me......it's still just too fresh.

I love adventure, I love adventure, I love adventure.

Now, if only I could find a darn curtain rod!