Monday, May 19, 2008

...for just one hour on Newbury Street

This city just lulls you to sleep. What people say is true. It's Asia light. This country is so westernized, sometimes it's easy to forget that you're living in the center of southeast Asia. Starbucks is everywhere. I've never seen so many McDonald's and KFC. The grocery store sells Ben and Jerry's. You get to a point where you just assume it's just like home. Sure, everybody has a funny accent and really likes eating rice for some reason, but after a while you just become numb to stuff like that. Then something simple but unexpected happens to remind you that you're not in Kansas any more.

Ask yourself, "How long would it take me to find a few Star Wars posters and kids bedding in an American mall?" If it took over an hour, I'd be surprised.

A month from now, my 6 year old son will walk into his new home after 24 hours of airports and uncomfortable airplane seats. The one thing I wanted to do for him was to make his new bedroom something he'd enjoy. I wanted him to walk into his new bedroom for the first time and say, "Awesome...a Star Wars room!" Star Wars is pretty much his favorite thing in the world right now. Lightsabers and Jedi's are what it's all about. It wouldn't take much for me to make something he'd like. A few posters of Luke Skywalker and Yoda. Maybe some Star Wars sheets or a blanket. Shouldn't be that hard, right?

I went to four malls in 2 days. Nothing. A few action figures at Toys r Us, that's it. How can there be no Star Wars merchandise in a mall? I'll tell you how...this isn't America. It just isn't very popular here I guess. Most of the "kid" stuff I was able to find is really "babyish" as Jack would call it. Most items designed for kids are either themed with teddy bears and purple giraffes or they're Hello Kitty. Not the kind of thing a 6 year old boy wants in his room. While he's still our little boy, he desperately wants to be a 'big kid'. He wants nothing to do with anything that he thinks is too young or for the love of God, GIRLY. That also means I had to replace the pink curtains that came with his room.

I'm just going to have to settle for some blue sheets and try to pick up some posters and things when I'm back in Houston in a few weeks. It's not the end of the world, I'd just hoped that I'd have it all set up before he got here.

I wonder what else we're going to run into like this. I know shoes are a problem. I'm a size 11 and apparently the only person is Asia with feet this big is the Yeti.

If only Yoda were here. He'd know what to do.


Do or do not, there is no try.

3 comments:

Julie Tracey said...

Great post! I love that Jack is into Star Wars! I wanted Star Wars sheets for our bed, but for some reason Gerry wouldn't go for it. hmmm...

Anonymous said...

Singapore has a lot of specialty fantasy shops selling collectibles from Star Wars, X-Files, X-Men, Star Trek etc. I know there are about 3-4 in Suntec City, by the movie theatre, if you're interested. Gets pricey though. Cheers!

Anonymous said...

All I can say is that this post made me cry for many differant reasons!!