U Should Agree!

So I know I promised a photo post and that’s coming next, I promise. But we just had the funniest taxi ride yet! Our driver immediately started telling us jokes and spitting out accronyms with a Chinese accent for everything! We laughed the whole way back to our apartment.

First off, we got in and he told me it would take 3 hours to get to where we said we were going. Ha Ha!! We laughed and I told him we could drive around the whole island in 3 hours. He said we could fly to Hong Kong in three hours.

He asked us where we were from and we said America. He said, “Oh, USA!!” That stands for “U Should Agree”. So after just about every thing else he said, he followed it up with “U Should Agree”.  

Then I asked him how he was today and he said he’s not so good since he has congestion. Funny… The H1N1 is still a pretty big deal here. I told him I had hand santizer.

So the first accronym he gave us was for SINGAPORE. Seek Independence, Never Give-up, And Push On Repeatedly Everyday. His other one for Singapore ends with And Pray On Rain Everyday. He said that he prays to the Hindu rain goddess and showed us a picture on his hand phone (cell phone) because rain brings him business and he gets to go home early. He also said we should be praying to Michael Jackson but I’m not real sure what he could do for us at this point.

The second one was for SENTOSA. It’s an island here where I guess people of wealth go. He said he’s never been. I can’t remember what it stood for to him but it had to do with people like him not being able to afford to go.

Then he had an accronym for BUSH- Beat Up Sadaam Husain (sp). They love Obama here. According to our taxi driver, he has travelled alot over here and helped many people. He didn’t say anything negative about Bush, though. So don’t go commenting about politics. I’m just reporting. Plus, I like the BUSH accronym myself.

Another was ATOM. He asked Jakeb who the most important person in his life was besides his father. He said Jesus. I thought that was cool but according to the taxi driver that was the wrong answer. It is his mom. When he sends an email or letter to his mom (haha), he needs to sign his name and put ATOM beside it. It stands for Always Thinking Of Mom. That’s shwit! No, I’m not cussing. Mr. Taxi Man said “that’s sweet” with a Chinese accent.

I tell ya’, this guy had ‘em comin’. He spoke 90 to nothin’ the whole ride home.

There’s a new shopping mall on Orchard Road called ION. He asked each of us how we say it and we were all wrong. Okay so we said “I ON”. He said with passion, “NO, it’s “I ON ORCHARD!”. Get it? If we were being grammatically correct, we in the “U Should Agree” country would say I’m On Orchard. But a Chinese would say I On Orchard.

Oh, ASAP. You think it stands for As Soon As Possible, right?  Wrong!! Mr. Taxi Man says it stands for three (shree) things, rather three versions. Most all of his accronyms had “shree versions”. Always Say A Prayer or Always Stay Aware and Positive and one other that I don’t remember. I’m surprised I remembered this much actually!

Anyway, it was a super enjoyable taxi ride and will be one of my favorite memories of our beginnings here. I also didn’t mind paying him the S$7.60 at all! We left him and told him we’d pray for rain. Anna asked me if we really were going to pray for rain and I told her yes, but to our God. And now, it does actually look like it’s going to rain.

So much to tell!

So much has happened in the last three days that I’m not sure where to begin and I can’t possibly tell you everything or put every picture up but I’ll do my best. I’ll post the details here and a picture post next.

On Saturday, we went to Wild Wild Wet. It’s a water park here and we rode the MRT all the way there. We were shocked when the MRT came out of the tunnel and we were actually above ground and saw the world around us. I got some photos. We had a good time playing in the water and keeping cool. It was raining when we got there but it cleared up. It cost us about S$50 to all get in. This type of park would have cost us US$150 easy!

Then we came back, put on dry clothes and headed off the experience Little India. It’s a community here in Singapore and it really did feel like we stepped into another country. Almost no Asians to be seen. And a sprinkling of Westerners. We went to a crowded indoor market where you can find anything from vaseline and razors (cheaper than in the US I might add) to gold jewelry, to groceries, to tv’s and rhinestone-handled refrigerators. No joke!

We ate some great Indian food at a place called Amber’s and met Sam.  He is from India and has a brother who is a lawyer in Garland, TX. Small world, huh? Someday I’ll get brave enough to see if he’ll let us take his picture. We all left fat and happy and told him we’d definitely be back.

We then ventured to Mustafa’s where we wormed our way through the grocery store, that was a crazy experience!! We were looking mostly to see what they had but I also needed some basic seasonings. Salt, pepper, etc. We ended up getting a huge bag of salt because that’s all we saw and I think I had to yell over a hundred people to tell someone to grab it cause I couldn’t get to it. I wished I’d have taken a picture but I had no room to dig in my bag for the camera. It was really that crowded. We survived and decided we’d go back when it wasn’t a Saturday night. They had a great selection of items, many familiar to us and many more not, but the prices were the best we’ve seen so far. Everyone should experience Mustafa’s.

Sunday, we went to a church called Redemption Hill. A friend in Houston knows a family here and they said they go there so we went. We didn’t get to meet the family but we enjoyed church. We met Paul and Kathy from Florida and Alisa and Henning (she is from Oregon and he is from Germany). The church was small but there were alot of Asians, the pastor and his wife and a few other couples are from South Africa and a handful of Americans. Paul and Kathy and Wes took us to eat “Mexican” food for lunch. Yes, we walked there. It’s a place that is really close (close and far mean very different things here than in Texas) to where we’ll be living and it wasn’t bad food. Definitely not what we’re used to in Texas, but not bad. Paul and Kathy have been here for 6 months and had some good tips to share with us like where to get a coffee pot with a timer. We haven’t seen one of those yet.  Wes is a single guy who is leading a study abroad exchange program for students around Asia. They are here for about 5 more weeks, I think, as their trip to Beijing was cancelled due to H1N1. Complicated… Anyway, Wes (apparently enjoying the Stunz family chaos) came back to our apt. with us and we quickly changed and headed out to Little India again. Wes is fluent in Mandarin so it was cool to hear him have conversations with people and see their reaction to a white American guy speaking Mandarin so well. We spent the afternoon in Little India, sweated a ton, Anna got her henna tattoos on both hands and it’s beautiful! Tori and I are going to but decided to wait. We will go back this week sometime. It only cost S$10 for Anna’s which is about US$7or $8. Not bad and she was fast about it too. Took about 10 minutes for her to do both hands. We ate at Amber’s again and Sam was glad to see us come back. I actually think we’re going again tonight with the Willerton’s. Can’t get enough! It’s really good food!! It could easily take the place of my Mexican food cravings, I think.

We miss everyone at home. Skype is wonderful but it’s not the same as seeing you in person, enjoying a cup of coffee in the same room and sitting next to you in church.

We are doing well, we have our moments, but overall we really are doing okay. My feet, mostly the pneuroma in my right foot, is really bothering me but there’s not much to do about it but keep walking. I took a pain med the other night for the first time since we’ve been here and that helped alot but I only have so many of those so I’ll save them for when it’s really necessary.

We do hope you’ll come visit! If you dig around and plan ahead you can get pretty cheap rates on a ticket. You get yourself here and we’ll take care of the rest. Packing will be easy – it’s always warm. No bulky clothes, minimal makeup, a hat, and a couple pair of your most comfortable shoes.