Quirks

On Friday night, we had our first visitors to our apartment. It was the first night of Rosh Hashanah, so I made dinner to celebrate, and we invited Scott's coworkers Sarah and Brian to join us.

Dinner was a bit of a challenge, with this oven that I'm still trying to figure out. It's a convection oven, with 3/4 of the temperature/function labels rubbed off; so not only do I have to get used to the difference in baking time, but I have to guess where the correct temperature falls on the dial. I had to attempt the brisket twice after the first one turned out hard as a rock, and the challah was a little under-baked in the thickest part. But overall, dinner turned out really well, and we had a good time talking and drinking wine with our guests, and eating too much of the rugelach that Sarah baked!

Something occurred the other day that made me want to share some of the quirks about Singapore with you all.

Grocery Carts: When we first got here, I went to the grocery store and went to get a cart, when I realized that they were all chained together. Being one who hates looking around feeling like a moron because I can't figure something out, I just grabbed a hand basket instead. After a couple of weeks of this, my fellow American preschooler mom Jennifer gave me the scoop. There's actually a little slot where you have to put in a dollar coin as a deposit to get the cart, push the dollar in, then the chain detatches. I guess they use this as incentive to put your cart back in the coral. Quite genius, I must say, however I always have to make sure I have a dollar coin when I go grocery shopping. Yesterday we went to Tanglin Mall to hit the drug store. When we pulled into our space in the parking garage, we noticed a grocery cart sitting by itself in the space across from us. We got so excited. Ooh goody! Free dollar!! We acted quickly, so no one else could get it before us (how sad is this??), and we felt a sense of triumph as Scott came back from returning it to the coral, arms up in the air a'la Rocky Balboa. He then told us that the other day he'd gone grocery shopping with Hannah and loaded her in the car while he was loading up the trunk. Then he realized that he'd have to leave her in the car to go return the cart, so he had to leave it there. So apparently the karma bus did a little u-turn to bring his dollar back to him. :)

Automatic Parking Fee Deduction: Similar to the EZ-Tag in Houston, Singapore has an automatic card reader that each car is required to have. You take the card into 7-11's or similar places to load it with a certain amount of money, and when you pass through a toll booth it automatically deducts. Well, they also use this system to pay for parking garage fees. Every parking garage and parking lot in Singapore has a reader at the entrance and exit, and it automatically deducts your parking fee as you exit. Again--genius!

Parking spot counters: Many, but not all parking garages have an automatic counter of parking spots. There are displays that tell you how many spaces are available on each floor, so you know not to waste your time one one floor and to just go to the next. I think Intercontinental Airport in Houston has one of these, but they have them all over the place here. What's more, in the big shopping district, Orchard Road, they have digital signs on the main thoroughfaires that show the number of spots available for the different malls around. So you don't even have to go and try to find a spot and find out that there's nothing available! Very cool.

Line cutting: All of these little things have been positive so far, but this one is a negative. People have no qualms about cutting in front of you in line. The first time this happened to us was coming through immigration at the airport when we first landed. It's happened several times since then, and I'm finally getting the courage to tell people, "Hey! I was here first." The most blatant occasion was when we were all at McDonald's having lunch, and I was in line with Hannah next to me. Just as it was my turn, Hannah took off and I had to take a few steps to grab her arm. When I turned around maybe 3 second later to approach the counter, the chick behind me had stepped up and taken my place! Unbelievable. I was too shocked to even say anything, but my anger from that led me to yell at someone the next time it happened. I probably overreacted, but oh well. No more pushing this American around! :)

Parking: People back into parking spaces here. Everyone. I'm not quite sure why. Scott is finally getting better at this, but he still struggles. I have yet to drive, so I will not make fun. :)

Windshield wipers: People take their windshield wipers and put them in the up position. You know how when you're cleaning your windshield and you lift the wipers up to clean underneath? Well, people leave them like that. I had to ask what the deal was, and apparently they leave them that way because the heat and humidity can cause them to stick to the windshield and mess up the wipers. News to me! The only reason I can think of that we're unaware of this in Houston is because people drive their cars enough so that the wipers aren't in one position for very long.

Ice cream sandwiches: On Orchard Road and other heavily traveled areas, there are ice cream vendors set up on the sidewalks. They all sell ice cream sandwiches. What's strange about that? Well, they take a block of ice cream, and sandwich it...between two slices of white bread. Literally an ice cream sandwich.

There are many more, I'm sure, but those are the ones I can think of for now. Do you feel like you know Singapore just a little better now?