silly americans

Today was momentous.  We got brave!

We took the bus AND the tram!

The tram here runs on a track on the road.  We have to take the tram to get to the grocery store.  We have been intimidated to do this.  Wondering what in the world we were going to do with all of our groceries and hanging on to our two kidlets....this could be interesting.

So, off we go.....bus was easy and it dropped us off at the tram.  We got out tickets and hopped on. Friends here had told us to get off at the third or fourth stop...we should recognize the mall (grocery store is inside the mall). Well, we get to the third stop....didn't recognize it. Got to the fourth stop and so excited that we are on the tram, we weren't pay attention to well....and still didn't recognize the mall.  So we continue to ride with giant smiles! :D

So we get to the 7th and 8th stop and realize we are way passed our stop.  Slightly panicked, but continue to ride hoping we will recognize something we have seen before.

Nope. Nada. Nothin'.

However, the ride was great! We saw so many things we would love to take our kids to on weekends this summer.  There are so many great parks and sights to see (to us).  We soon realize we have NO idea where we are and it is safer for us to stay on the tram and ride then get off and be completely lost!  So we just enjoy the ride and everything we see.  We wouldn't have seen it otherwise.

All of a sudden we are passed the center of the city and the tram just dead ends and curves around to head back to where we started.  Now we are relieved.  We rode this tram for at least 30 minutes....we rode so long that at one point we were the ONLY people on the tram....everyone had come and gone!

We get closer into the city again and know we need to get off soon, but we have no clue where.  Steve and I are talking out loud to each other about how lost we are and wondering where to get off. We were talking out loud....not being mindful about what we are talking about because we think we are the only ones who speak English.  There is a girl beside Steve who keeps staring at us.  I tell Steve to ask her where we need to get off.  Not thinking she can speak English Steve says, (in a loud voice), "LOTUS?" (lotus is the name of the mall where the grocery store is located).  She looks at us funny, so Steve says even louder and leaning into her, "LOTUS!?!"  

To which she says in perfect English, "next stop"

We about died!  We were somewhat embarrassed, but more just wanted to bust out laughing! This girl had understood everything we were saying the whole time and we talked to her like she couldn't understand what we were saying.

Next stop...of to the store we go.  We had to run to catch the tram and bus on the way back with our grocery bags and kiddos, but we made it!

It was quite an experience and we had fun!!