Tues, July 5th, we hid in our room all day-playing games, coloring and playing with stickers (thanks to our friend Miss Amy) and playing card games and doing things to get out energy like jumping jacks and hoping on one foot, mother may I, etc.
Wed, July 6th, we went to Starbucks (no I didn't have any coffee) to the American Women's Club newcomer meeting. The ladies were really nice and I got hooked up with their website to find house helpers and furniture. By the way, Grammy (Greg's mom) is going to have a great time when she comes to visit us because there are Starbucks everywhere. We also went to see an American military cemetery that was near the Starbucks and was a really neat place-rather quiet and solemn-reminded me of Arlington with all the white crosses and lists of names of soldiers and their hometowns.
Thurs, July 7th, we went to the Manila Children's Museum that is a drive from our house but near the American Embassy. It was a neat place-had some exhibits about the history of Manila-a pirate ship that the boys really liked and a castle with a little door that Ashley liked. There was also a room about the human body that the entrance looked like you were walking into a person's mouth. A room about energy conservation. A room with a few tanks of fish in it. and apparently popular with children worldwide, a place like a city street with a firetruck to climb on, boots, hats, and coats to wear and stores-sold bread, fish, and fruit, a little native house, and a barbershop. It was a fun way to spend a morning-not as large as the Greenville one but also not nearly as pricey. Our driver brought us back to the hotel and we decided to walk next door to a little shopping area that had a McDonalds and eat our lunch there. The food we ordered tastes just like what we would have had from McDonalds in the US but there are also side orders of rice available and hamburgers with fish sauce. I had noticed a 7 Eleven store in the shopping area and thought we would check it out, looking for more familiar food. Scott asked me "why don't they just call the store 4?" We didn't find apple juice but found something called white grape juice with aloe-tasted a little weird.
Friday, July 8th-we braved the pool again-no one laughed at us to our faces and we were very careful and no one fell this time
Saturday, July 9th-Our 17th anniversary!
We spent the day out furniture buying after deciding what we wanted. We got Ashley her first big girl bed, got bunk beds for Scott's room that he and Ryan are both sleeping on until our container comes, we bought 2 sofas and a chair for the den, a sofa/futon for the lobby (room that we can't think of anything else to call it) that's outside all of our downstairs bedrooms. We went to a place sort of like Home Depot and it was funny to discover that they want to prove to you everything you are buying works before you actually purchase it-ie someone went to get a cup of water to put in the microwave we were buying before running it. So actually making a purchase takes quite a while and even longer if there is something to arrange delivery for.
We also went to the mall looking for cd players and clocks for the kids rooms-we didn't bring many of our small things with plugs because of the voltage being different here. Greg found them-had to buy 2 separate devices and all 6 had to be plugged in to prove they work before he could pay for them. I told him when he finally came out of the store that any other time I would have been very upset having to wait for him with the kids outside an electronics store when he was shopping that long. It was funny-this store also sold tvs and had a loop of animated short films running so all 3 kids were sitting flat on the floor in the mall (while I was trying not to thing about the germs they were touching) watching tv for what seemed like the hours Greg was in the store. We ate lunch at Burger King today in the mall and then the kids rode the carousel and played air hockey.
This mall had a grocery store attached (which is common over here) so we went for our first walk through a grocery store. None of the meat is pre-wrapped so I told Greg that I was REALLY glad that I wouldn't be pregnant while we were over here-even the kids commented on the smells. We bought some basic things for the house like soap, paper towels and toilet paper and were VERY excited to see peanut butter and raisins. I also bought some plastic cups and earlier today had bought a skillet and a pot and a small set of cheap silverware because it dawned on me that I had sent ALL the kitchen stuff on the ocean container and would have NOTHING to cook with when I got to the house with the kitchen in it. It was nice to see several familiar things in the grocery store.
That night after dinner and putting some very tired kids to bed, Greg gave me my anniversary present-a trip to the hotel's spa for a massage and body scrub-it was wonderful! So glad that we've been married 17 years!
Sunday, July 10th-we spent the day relaxing in the hotel room-we decided to teach the boys how to play hearts because we were getting tired of "Go Fish". Playing cards with a 3 year old around who wants to be part of the action is quite humorous. She always wants to hold some of the cards and is very bad about blabbing to others about what cards you have.
No comments:
Post a Comment