A quick note to tell you that last night as we were headed home we noticed something new in the flower city park. It was a path of pointy rocks that the locals were attempting to walk across. We thought we'd give it a try, so we took off our sandals and hopped on. I lasted about 5 seconds, while good old RR#4 Amanda cruised down the path with great ease. She passed several locals as they gingerly walked along. As she strode by them they just stared at her like she was a crazy white girl! I will post a picture when our Internet is hooked up (see below).
So my day started very early-around 445 am. No, I didn't have an appointment, or a walk to take, or a phone call to make. For some reason I had the very urgent need to visit the washroom....again and again and again! And I wasn't puking! The different foods must have caught up with me. Those stinking baby octopi!!! Thank goodness Amanda spent a small fortune at Shopper's Drug Mart before we left. She hooked me up with some immodium and by lunch time I was good to go again! Of course I wasn't even considering leaving the house for our 6:30am hike, so Amanda ventured off on her own.
After she returned and showered, we headed to our coffee shop, then back home to meet the school's driver Muneer to sign our lease. Yaaaay!! On the way home from the coffee shop, there was a sudden rainstorm that dumped buckets for about 20 minutes. The sound of the rain hitting the metal awnings was like a thousand drums beating in the streets.
Muneer took us to the property agent's office to sign the lease. Thank goodness he was with us because the realtor and his wife didn't speak a bit of English! We signed the paperwork and headed to CTM (like Telus) to schedule our wireless internet installation. This is a must to get asap as we are so accustomed to having access all the time back home and we need it to stay in touch with all of you!! We got a really great package. Along with unlimited home access, we get 1200 minutes/month of hotspot access. Here in Macau, they have CTM wifi hotspots located all over the city, so with our package, we can access the internet vitually all over the place. The Macau government also provides free wifi in designated public areas so they pretty much have everywhere covered. Those free internet spots and the coffee shop have been lifesavers this past week. The Internet will be just over 30 dollars a month and our installation is Wednesday morning!!
After CTM, we stopped at Mcdonalds for me to get some good ole grease in my belly. I asked for it to go and they put it all in a paper bag then a plastic bag, including the drink. I was pleasantly surprised that my Big Mac was exactly like the ones back home!! And better yet...it didn't require a trip to the toilet. We stopped to get a picture frame for our family photo with pets, checked out a plant shop, grabbed some fruit for Amanda's lunch then she grabbed coconut buns from a local bakery. She absolutely loved them and I'm guessing we'll see many more in the future.
At 2 pm we went to the agent to pick up the keys for the place. But...as usual...another hold up. The keys weren't ready, the furniture wasn't all in yet....
So we waited. And waited. And waited. We watched some movies and read and took a nap. Then we waited some more. We had to stick close to the apartment so that as soon as our place was ready we could get the keys and move in. Sometime during the afternoon Muneer stopped by with some oil heaters another teacher was selling. A new heater sells for about 140 cad, but we bought 2 used ones for 130. The apartments apparently get quite cool in the winter and there are no furnaces, so we are definitely prepared!
We re-packed all the bags, cleaned the entire apartment we've been staying in, and waited some more. We watched another movie and waited.
By this time it was 8pm and we were beginning to lose hope. We decided to venture out for dinner and we ended up at a place called May Box. It was okay. They brought us hot water with our meal. Amanda ordered Singapore Style Udon Noodles and broccoli and I ordered African Chicken and fried rice. We've noticed that when you order food here it all comes to the table at different times. They don't wait until eveything is ready...they just cook it and bring it. Sometimes this means that Amanda is pretty much done eating before my food even arrives. Luckily she shares.
Finally at 945pm we got the call that our keys were ready to be picked up from our new apartment! We headed up to the 22nd floor, excited to get the keys and start moving our stuff in. Based on how the day was going we probably shouldn't have been so optimistic. The bed in the master bedroom was double!!! We had been promised a king and 2 queens! We were also assured that the mattresses would be soft (or at least not rock hard). This mattress was like a piece of plywood. It was HARD! There was no furniture anywhere else in the apartment and there were no curtains. The floors were also filthy and the whole apartment needed a good cleaning. It was disappointing, to say the least. But in retrospect, not very surprising. We communicated our concerns as best as possible and were assured that the apartment would be cleaned first thing in the morning, the double would become a king, and the mattresses would most definitely be of the softest variety they could find. Hmmmmmm..... I guess we wait (shocked??) and see. We headed back to the loaner apartment for what had better be our last night!!!
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