Wow! What a Saturday! If you think we keep busy during the week, trying having Ryan with us on a Saturday when he's feeling up to running around.

The day started off, as most days should, with a nice cold shower with bits of warm/hot water when I wanted to fill my little pouring bucket. Typically at some point in the day when I go into my bathroom, I can see a light on in the bathroom across from us. Periodically I hear the gal scrubbing, maybe the shower running, but today I had a treat! Music. Yep, she was rockin' out to whatever her favorite tune of the moment was, and before I jumped in the shower I made a comment to Ryan about waiting a bit because someone was obviously there. Weird. I'm sure she knows I'm there and I know she's there, but I didn't want to actually see anyone! Anyway, he convinced me to just get in. So. I. Did. About 30 seconds into the shower (just enough time to get my hair wet), I happen to glance towards the window, through the slits, and I see these big brown eyes...staring...at...me. Immediately I ducked down so I couldn't be seen anymore. Not sure at this point what to do, I showered in the squat position. (Let me tell you, my boot camp instructor I had before I left would have been pretty pleased). Have you ever tried taking a shower squatting? Yeah, didn't think so. Next time I will wait for the light to be turned off!!!

We left our apartment this morning about 9:30 and decided to head to a hotel for a buffet breakfast. Ohhh, we ate so much, and walked away soo full, we didn't need to eat lunch and we had toast for dinner. I've always known food tastes better when someone else fixes it. But, when someone else fixes comfort foods in another country for breakfast, it has to be at least 100x's better. So, here are a few of the things we had:

French toast with maple syrup...the bread was super soft and yummy.

toast and BACON!

poached eggs, Davis' favorite (photo compliments of Davis)

French waffles, not sure what made them french (photo compliments of Davis)

Conor ordered a bacon and cheese omelet...evidently they didn't hear the "omelet" part because they brought him about a pound of bacon and a few slices of cheese.  haha...we just laughed

After rolling us out of the hotel, we stopped for a moment to take a picture with the bellhop....he was so nice to take a picture with 4 rowdy boys!

Cool Indian bellhop. When we first pulled up, the kids thought he was the king of India...haha

When we finally left the hotel, we went on yet another wild goose chase to find a music store for Ryan to look at a couple of things. Funny thing about Ryan, for some reason he can be so obnoxious and then laugh about it and suddenly it's all fine because he's laughing about his obnoxiousness! I cannot quite tell if the driver hates him or loves him...but, really, who could possibly hate him?

After the wild goose chase, we ended up at the mall (again, I know) to hang out for a bit and then watch Spiderman. It was opening day here. Here's an interesting tid bit of information about movies here, they have an intermission. Yep, that's right. Movie stops, "Intermission" comes up on the screen, everybody gets up, goes the bathroom, gets popcorn refills, etc. We knew this time to wait for the intermission, but when we saw Madagascar 3, we had no idea. Since they don't have the mega size popcorn bucket that is continually refillable, we actually have to go and get more popcorn...well, we probably don't have to, but we do. So, the first movie we saw, Ryan got up during the intermission to come back and sit down right when intermission started.

After the movie we went grocery shopping and then were heading back to the apartment when we got a call from the elders. There was a ward activity going on and they were wondering if we wanted to go to the church. Of course we did and there was a great lesson on getting to know each other and learning about the per-existence. I will post a few pictures of the ward members tomorrow, just so you could see they look like everyone else around here. They are just like you and me.

Grocery Store: Part 1
I have had some questions regarding grocery shopping. There are a few grocery stores around the city. The biggest one I've been to is called "Spencer's" They carry a small variety of everything you'd find at the store, and when I say small variety, that is exactly what I mean. I think the grocery store concept isn't the same here as it is in the US. Here, locals have their "specialty" and for a consumer no to go straight to the source seems a little silly. At home, if I can't get it all in one place, I don't go there. For instance; when we go to market and get fruits and vegetables, that is the freshest place you'll pick those items up. You could buy it from a vendor on the streets, but they've purchased from the same market I would go to and then they charge me more. Eggs are probably the biggest thing for me. There is a vendor for eggs at market. Probably the freshest eggs, other than having your own chicken (which I could get if I wanted...no thanks!). I could also get eggs at the grocery store, but because they don't refrigerate the eggs here like we do in the US, I'm trusting the lady at market has the freshest so I'm going to purchase from her.  Of course, we go to the store because that's what we know, but we are purchasing less and less at the grocery store because we can find fresher items elsewhere. Also understand, this store is not within walking distance, so this has to be a planned visit.

Spencer's Grocery Store

Part of the produce section

Frozen foods section...the whole frozen foods section

Another exception is this little store called 'Karachiwala'. We've been there a few times because we've been told it's an import store. The first couple of times were ok, I found wheat bread, balsamic vinegar, a few other things we use in cooking, but today we went with a plan. The plan was to ask...ask for specific things. We wrote a list out of items like, baking soda, vanilla, brown sugar, cinnamon, chocolate chips (I'm determined to make cookies somehow here) and tortillas. Well, guess what? We met the owner and he found EVERYTHING for us! Ryan and I were so excited to find everything we wanted. It's kinda hit and miss, but if you ask the right person, he'll pull magic out of his back pocket! Here is what 'Karachiwala' looks like:

Lots of things, not a lot of space

The owner told Ryan to ask, because everything is hidden

More of Karachiwala, not a place for my kids to go with me!

Karachiwala is also not within my walking distance. And since our driver knows what I'm saying when I want to go there, I'll stick with him.

Stay tuned for the grocery store within walking distance. We always have to muster up enough courage to go there...