Friday, October 17, 2008

Salvation Army Safari

My friend Danielle and I went on an adventure yesterday. We rode the 171 bus all the way down to our local Salvation Army to search for cheap/interesting goods. We both have never been big bargain bin hunters at home, but this country does that to you. It's sooooo expensive here. A small, uncomfortable couch will cost you no less than $1000. Thus, we resort to bargain hunting.

So here's the building. It's pretty fancy for a Salvation Army. I was impressed.


What does one find in a Singaporean Salvation Army, you ask? Well, you might find a sweet Chinaman hat and an old school exercise bike circa 1982.


I had to restrain myself from buying the hat. I did however, find some good reading. I got 8 books for S$10 (about 8 bucks U.S.) and some of them are even ones I've been wanting to read for a while.

The furniture was a little "Asian" for our taste. People in this part of the world love elaborate carvings and gold trimmed arm rests. Me, not so much. Aside from simple jewelry and an occasional clothing embellishment, I think gold is a bit Mister T meets Liberace.

All in all, it was a good time. We even came across a couple of Aussie girls searching for an ugly bridesmaid dress for an upcoming theme party. Genius!!! I'm totally stealing that idea. It's way better than "Ugly 80s Prom Dress" parties. Those things are itchy.

...and, that's all I got.

2 comments:

Travis said...

So do you not even think in American dollars any more? When you see something that is 8 bucks do you think, "Ok, 8 bucks." Or do you think, "This 8 bucks is equal to 10 bucks in America."? I think once you don't even bother translating things back into American terms is when you realize you have been there for quite awhile.

Megan said...

No, I still have to convert it in my head. We don't have a Singaporean bank account yet, so all of our money is still in US dollars. However, when we go to Indonesia or Malaysia, I convert their currency to Sing dollars in my head and somehow it makes sense to me. I'm sure in a few months, I won't need to convert anything back to US money in my head.