furniture shopping in a foreign land

Who knew preparing to move into an unfurnished villa when you own nothing was so much work? Instead of packing up our house, we’re having to buy all the things we need for a house.

There are a few reasons why this is particularly interesting here in Bali. The first is that shopping here isn’t nearly as straightforward as it is in America. There are no big box stores here. Each thing we need seems to be tucked into an obscure storefront somewhere that you can only find if you know a guy who knows a guy. The amount of research, inquiring, and window shopping we’ve done in the past week is absurd.

The next is that our current finances do not allow us to furnish an entire villa from scratch all at once. Not only are we shopping in a foreign land, but we’re having to be very strategic about what we buy, all while trying to figure out where to buy it.

Lastly, we travel by way of scooter here, so transporting our purchases home is quite the circus trick. This morning, M drove while I balanced on the back with the contents of our overflowing Ace Hardware cart in the biggest bag I’ve ever seen, strapped around my body.

This is more fun than I’ve had in a really long time. One more sleep until we get the keys.

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