FRIDAY AND SATURDAY ADVENTURES

Friday night Sandy and I went to Bugis Junction. We were searching for peanut butter chips so she could make a birthday treat for her friend. We weren't able to find them, but we did see some interesting things along the way. We stopped at a "bakery store"...basically it was like the baking aisle at a grocery store in the U.S. Then we were off to the Cold Storage (name of one of the grocery stores here). They did not have them either, but we found some Ritz Sticks, so we went ahead and "queued" (got in line) to make our purchase. Sandy pointed at the sign above and, of course, I had to take a picture. At Ankeny's HyVee I believe the sign says "12 items or less"...here's a different take on that concept!


We then went out to the open market area. We were walking around and this mannequin was on display....check out the face....and as I looked around, all the mannequin's had odd faces. I guess, really, they look much happier than the mannequin's in the U.S.!

In Bugis Junction I found a stand that was selling Hello Kitty stuff...my grand nieces LOVE Hello Kitty...I bought and bought and bought. I'll be sending that to the U.S. soon!!!

Saturday we were off to Little India. It was absolutely wonderful. I loved seeing all the people i their cultural dress. It was beautiful. We shopped at an open market where they sold clothes, along the street at various stores and then to Mustafa Center....a HUGE store with four storeys (not levels, or floors, but storeys ... spelled funny too). We probably covered 2.5 of the storeys, and not very thoroughly, but it was Saturday and a holiday weekend, so it was CROWDED!!!! This was the biggest crowd I've seen anywhere so far. Mustafa Center is open 24 hours a day....woo hoo!!! They have things you would find in a Walmart, Target, TJ Max, JC Penney and Younkers, plus a grocery area. You name it, they probably have it. I will definitely be going back again. Loved it!!!

They had an area where they sold jeans...and this was the brand name....my Mom's name...LOIS!!!! Had to take a picture!


Here is a picture looking down the street in Little India. the buildings are even brightly colored. You can see the woman in the lower left hand corner has cultural colored dress on. The decorations spanning across the street are in celebration of Deepavali, a national holiday for Hindus that is a celebration through lights that signifies the victory of good over evil within every human being.

They had a lighting ceremony last night...and originally we thought it would be neat to go and see...but we shopped ourselves to exhaustion and went home to have a pizza and watch a movie instead! Boy am I getting old!!!



This is a picture of an apartment building in Little India. What you can't see is all the clothes hung out to dry on the balconies. Most people do not use dryers here.



This gentleman was across the street from my apartment when I was leaving in the morning. He is a city worker and is out sweeping the sidewalks. The broom is very different than what we think of as brooms in the U.S. As you can see it is basically sticks (probably cane) and in a big circle. It is amazing to watch them use it as it really does gather the debris quickly and easily. I'm amazed that this is done daily. I rarely see litter here.