One of the things I have a really hard time getting used to is the lack of shopping malls here. 'Instant Gratification' would be my middle name, if it wasn't already taken up by 'Madison'. I'm the kind of person (or, spoilt brat) that likes to have what I want when I want it, and the easily accessible malls in Singapore have allowed me to do that. (They're probably the ones that made me this impatient to begin with.) But over here, the nearest real mall is 8km away, and you can either drive there, cab there, take the bus there, or fly there. Seeing how I didn't drive, doesn't have a friend who drives, and the mechanical wings are in maintenance, I'm left with the options of cabbing or taking a bus.
I did try to be thrifty, I really did. But the public transport system here is so backwards and undeveloped, that I was really scared of attempting to board a bus. For an 8km journey, it would take me at least half an hour by bus, including transfers. What kind of city boy knows how to do transfers? We don't transfer - one reliable bus takes us straight to where we wanna go! It became a really distressing sitatuation for me. Also, I had seen buses pass by me on the road, with only one or two passengers on it at a time. I can't possibly submit myself willingly to the psycho-rapist-murderers waiting for me there. They gotta work for it if they want a piece of this. I was left with only one option - calling for a cab.
There are zero cabs on the streets here - the way you call for a cab is to literally call for one on the phone, and they'll dispatch a cab to you within 15 minutes. Seeing how I'm treating my blogging now like investigative journalism, I figured calling a cab would just be me being professional, not extravagant. So I rang for one, went down to the lobby to wait, and got a call within 10 minutes telling me that a cab was here. The guy calling to inform me wasn't the nicest guy around, I'll say. "The cab is waiting by Lake Street. Where is Lake Street? Just look for a sign that says Lake Street!" *Hangs up* Granted, Lake St was just 5 meters away, but he could have just said it was to the right of Lucky.
The cabbie was a really nice gentlemen, and so I was talking to him about how difficult it is to get around without a car. He asked if I drove, and I said, no, I hadn't learnt yet. He somehow took that as a confession of how terrified I am of cars, and spent the time convincing me of how it's all just common sense, and I could even be good enough to drive cabs in the future. I am a university undergrad. Surely he could be kinder and suggest a slightly higher paying job than a cab driver? He drops me off, $18 dollars later, with a 'don't be afraid, you can do it! You're very welcome." at the main door of West Towne Mall. There are two main malls in Madison, West Towne and East Towne (located, as you've gussed, on the east and west sides of town. Why there isn't a proper on in the middle of the city is beyond me.) , and I've just taken to calling it Westmall.
The whole mall is only one one very spread out level, and it's laid out like a cross. There are four extreme ends, with four major stores like Sears, JCPenny, so on, at the ends of it, and to get to another wing, you have to walk back up to the middle junction. I spent most of my time walking back up and down the same wing, trying to find what I wanted. I don't know what else there is to say about a mall, other than.. it's practically much the same as every other mall. There is definitely something very 'homecoming' about stepping into a mall, even one that I've never been to, perhaps because they're all the same. There are a couple of stores here not available in Singapore, ones that I've seen on TV (like the Pottery Barn that Rachel, and eventually Phoebe, was obsessed with, but that was about it. I did feel kind of disappointed, but then again, this was exactly what I knew it was going to be. Perhaps that's why it was so disappointing. I had realized that I'd come all this way, just for another duplicate mall that I could find practically anywhere. 
This trip did have it's plus side. I've realized that I don't need a mall to survive. It's not unique, it's not affordable, and there's really not much there that I can't get from the stores around me. It's that concept of 'housing them all together' that's appealing, but I wouldn't feel the need to go out of the way to find a mall again. I felt like this was what I had to do to get it all out of my system, and sure enough, it has. The truly signature quality of Madison lies in State Street, and I'm now glad that there isn't a mall to ruin the whole small city atmosphere here.
I'm just kidding. BUILD ME A FUCKING MALL, GOD DAMNIT!
I want to leave you with quite possibly the best song of Canada's pop history, Let's Go To The Mall by Robin Sparkles.
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