Lessons Applied / Lessons Learned

Our lives here in Singapore are?  Well, they are different than our lives in rural Wisconsin.  Every time we leave our condo an adventure awaits, sometimes it is fun, exciting, new and fresh.  Other times our experiences are frustrating.  We try hard to learn from those frustrating days so that the next time we venture out we will not experience the same frustrations.

We have learned to stay clear of the malls on public holidays as they are packed with people.  One theory we have been told is that the malls are air conditioned and so people go to them to stay cool, and have something to do that is free.  It is interesting because we rarely see anyone carrying a bag with bought items.

Today we ventured out.  It is NOT a public holiday, just a very sunny and pleasant Sunday afternoon.

  There is a mall called Sim Lim Square.  Let me just start by saying this is Caleb's favorite place in all of Singapore it is six, yes, six levels of nothing but electronic stores.   Here is a picture I took looking down from the sixth level.

  It is expected that you will barter down the price at Sim Lim Square adding to the fun of buying.  I would advise you do your research before going, know what  you want, and how much you can get it for from amazon.com or some other place so you have a reference.  Today we were after a camera so up the escalators we went.  Escalator riding is part of everyday life in this city we have ridden on more escalators in just one month here than we had ridden in our entire lives in WI.

It is advisable to start at the top and work your way down as the rent for the upper stores is cheaper and most people walk in and go to the first store they see on the first floor, therefore the prices higher up in the mall are better.

We found our camera in a couple of different stores, the first guy would not bargain with us as much as we would like so we went on, however, the first man gave us a price that gave us bargaining power with the second shop owner.  It is funny how high they start in their price, then you offer a much lower price and so it goes. 

Now for a lesson we have learned and applied today:  It is really special to a Chinese person if you try to speak some Mandarin to them, a big smile comes across their face and they are much more willing to give you a good price if you are trying to talk money in their language.  After the shop owner gave us his "final" price I simply repeated it back to him in proper Mandarin.  This led to a good price on our camera, a decent deal on a better battery, a free case for the camera and a free 8GB SD card.  The best part about speaking Mandarin to these shop owners is it really does bring some joy into their day.

We also had to buy some pants for one of the boys, it is amazing how fast they are growing, and we needed some groceries.  We headed to a mall nearby that has some good prices to accomplish these tasks.

 OK now for a lesson learned today.... it is crazy busy at this mall on Sundays!  Parking was near impossible, we ended up doing what we saw other drivers doing that is simply stopping in the middle of the aisle and waiting for someone to come out of the mall and leave.  It took about 20 minutes but we did end up with a parking spot.

Lesson from the past applied:  it is important to not to try to shop if you are hungry, tired, or thirsty.  We were smart today and got everyone a bun for a snack before looking for pants or groceries.  Yay for us, everyone is in a much better mood and able to handle the crowd with some food in their stomach.  As you can see it is aisle after aisle after aisle of madness in the store today.

There are so many people in there that it affects your ability to think, you can not move the cart, the fish was smelling bad....

Lesson learned from past shopping trips:  know when you have had it and call it quits BEFORE you go over the edge.  So that is what we did, it was too crazy, we had stuff in the cart for spaghetti tonight and the rest will just simply have to wait, no way were we going to be able to fight the crazy crowd and remain civil.

Lesson learned today:
1.   Always, always, always have a grocery list with you, your brain will leave as soon as you enter the crowd as culture shock will take over.
2.  Do not go to a mall on Sunday afternoon.
3.  Malls with free parking are crazy busy on Sunday afternoon
4.  The IMM Mall in Jurong has free parking on Sundays, good luck finding a spot.

Lessons Applied:
1. Make sure you are well fed and watered before trying to shop.
2.  Do something to make someone else smile in the midst of the chaos, it will make you feel better!