We haven’t had regular internet service since we got here so that’s why it’s been delayed. For now, we aren’t going to make it private but we may in the future so if you can’t get on in the future just shoot us an email and we’ll send you an invite.
Be sure to go back and start at the beginning of the blog—we’ve attempted to post it in chronological order. The first few posts about Singapore have a lot of detail so feel free to skim over it. We started writing and it sort of turned into our record/journal of the first little while here. I guess we’re not really good bloggers. I am more of a blog-stalker than a blogger and Ben is a boy so it’s not exactly acceptable for him to do it. We’ll add more pictures in the future. Our camera has been having issues for months and won’t focus properly so the foreground is often blurred and we haven’t taken too many.
Also, since we are just posting these to get them up and sitting on a very uncomfortable bench, the blog is a little rough so bear with us until we learn the ins and outs of the blogger. I already have a few questions for you experienced bloggers. Can you add more than five pictures to a post? Can you rearrange the order of posts after you’ve posted them?
Monday, February 16, 2009
Happy Valentines Day!
We hope you all had a wonderful day. This past week Samara and I watched the Charlie Brown Valentines’ DVD and it has the “It’s Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown” episode on it. In it, everybody blames Charlie Brown for losing the homecoming football game because he missed a kick. Of course, no one seems to be aware of the fact that Lucy, the scuz, moves the ball away from Charlie Brown at the last minute—he didn’t even get to kick the ball. I really can’t stand Lucy! It drives me crazy that no one notices that it’s her fault. However, he does get to kiss the little red-haired girl in the end (and anyone who’s lucky enough to kiss a redhead knows what a privilege that is!). Anyway, I hope you had a Lucy-less Valentine’s Day (and got to kiss a redhead!).
Chinese & Japanese Gardens
This is one of many beautiful and manicured nature areas on the island. Ben commented on several occasions how it felt like sacred grounds—it’s very quiet and there is indeed a reverence about the place. They had statues of prominent figures in Chinese history. Mulan was our favorite. Ben is standing by Confucius. At the gardens is the have a museum with the world's largest turtle & tortoise collection, which we didn't go to yet.
Downtown
These were supposed to go with Chinatown post, except this first one, which was taken at a park system near our house. There is a really cool sky bridge and tree-top walk too that we'll post pictures of later.
Sentosa Island
Just off the Southern tip of Singapore is a resort island called “Sentosa”. In fact, it’s apparently the southern-most tip of Asia (another feather in the cap). It’s a great place that has been designed for easy access and easy fun. It’s a cheap S$3.00 monorail ride over the strait and you’re there. Once there, you have several beaches to choose from and a host of neat fountains and lazy walks. They aren’t the most spectacular beaches in the world but are still quite pretty. We are only a 45-minute ferry ride away from poster-card perfect tropical beaches and resorts in Indonesia and Malaysia. Come check them out for yourselves...
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Chinatown and Chinese New Year
Christmas is celebrated here, but seeing as how the majority of people aren’t Christians (they’re Buddhist), Chinese New Year is the biggest holiday of the year. This is the year of the Ox. It’s a pretty big deal here. Church was shortened on the eve of the holiday. Wards were combined so everyone could be done by noon. Ben got two days off. Most stores are closed for a couple days and some are closed for a week or more. One of the days, we went and visited Chinatown and had a great time. The other day we make our first trip into the downtown core—it really is a beautiful city.
Adjustments
All in all the culture shock has not been that bad and I think Singapore has to be one of the easier foreign countries to live in unless you count that great northern “providence”, or did that place Ben’s always referring to already get ratified as another state? (I don’t think there is a new star on the flag.) With the exception of her sleep being really off, Samara’s adjusted really well. She hadn’t been getting cheese like she normally does when we first got here and one day she announced to us, “I need cheese!” She is obsessed with Thomas, so riding the metro trains is a dream come true for her. I’m sure she hopes we never have a car or car seat again. She’s convinced we live on the island of Sodor (“Sodor”, “Singapore”…close enough). She loves swimming and is thrilled we get to go so often. The biggest challenges so far are how expensive it is (who knew you could have less disposable income than as a student?) and getting around. The hardest thing is not having a car and trying to grocery shop. They want to limit the number of cars on the road so it costs about $1,200/month to have a car. You have to get a 10-year permit and it’s a lot more if you renew it with the same car so there are hardly any cars older than 10 years old here. It's so weird having cars drive be on the other side of the road. We now understand why they say, "look both ways before crossing the street". We've both gone the wrong direction on a bus and it feels so odd sitting in the driver's seat when your not driving and have no steering wheel. A couple times I've seen a child sitting there and thought, 'oh dear that kid stole his parent's car. '
Grocery shopping is particularly bad where we are now because it’s a ten-minute hike to get out of the complex, usually involving stairs, which are no fun with a stroller and a weeks-worth of groceries. It’s a catch 22, the more groceries I buy the hungrier I am because it takes so much effort to get them home so I have to turn around and buy more. It’s usually after this that I have a meltdown and announce to Ben that I’ve had enough of this little adventure and that I am going home to live in my mom’s basement.
However, the condo we’re moving into is right across from the MRT & Bus depot, a mall with a grocery store, and library so it’s in a fantastic location for everyday stuff. The facilities are unbeatable and we have a beautiful view of the mountains in Malaysia (which celebrates a national “Derek Zoolander Day” to acknowledge the day the Prime Minister of Malaysia was saved from an assassination attempt). It will be about a 45-minute commute for Ben and about the same for us to get to church. Church would only be like 15 minutes on a taxi. The transportation is great—it just takes so much longer than a car/taxi. You have to leave an hour early to get somewhere that would take 10 minutes in the car.
We were quite surprised at the open discrimination here. When we were calling around looking for apartments they’d say things like, “You’re not Indian are you? We don’t rent to Indians” or the listing would advertise no “Chinese Agents”. It was very surprising. Some things may get carried too far in the states, but my goodness, we sure would have felt bad if someone would have told us they wouldn’t rent to Canadians or Americans.
Grocery shopping is particularly bad where we are now because it’s a ten-minute hike to get out of the complex, usually involving stairs, which are no fun with a stroller and a weeks-worth of groceries. It’s a catch 22, the more groceries I buy the hungrier I am because it takes so much effort to get them home so I have to turn around and buy more. It’s usually after this that I have a meltdown and announce to Ben that I’ve had enough of this little adventure and that I am going home to live in my mom’s basement. However, the condo we’re moving into is right across from the MRT & Bus depot, a mall with a grocery store, and library so it’s in a fantastic location for everyday stuff. The facilities are unbeatable and we have a beautiful view of the mountains in Malaysia (which celebrates a national “Derek Zoolander Day” to acknowledge the day the Prime Minister of Malaysia was saved from an assassination attempt). It will be about a 45-minute commute for Ben and about the same for us to get to church. Church would only be like 15 minutes on a taxi. The transportation is great—it just takes so much longer than a car/taxi. You have to leave an hour early to get somewhere that would take 10 minutes in the car.
We were quite surprised at the open discrimination here. When we were calling around looking for apartments they’d say things like, “You’re not Indian are you? We don’t rent to Indians” or the listing would advertise no “Chinese Agents”. It was very surprising. Some things may get carried too far in the states, but my goodness, we sure would have felt bad if someone would have told us they wouldn’t rent to Canadians or Americans.
7-11
There are 419 7-11 stores here. They aren’t associated with gas stations—they’re just little convenience stores. It’s weird to come to a foreign country and see more 7-11s than we’ve seen back home our whole lives.
Insects
There are no bugs in Singapore. That’s right. No bugs…almost. Despite being a tropical rainforest, I have only seen a handful of mosquitoes. The mosquitoes carry a virus called dengue so they are very strict about anything that attracts mosquitoes such as standing water. I, Cheryl, somewhat disagree. I get bitten all the time by mosquitoes but there is surprisingly few bugs. We had so many in Greenville and we expected it to be the same here.
It’s a Small (Mormon) World After All
One of the nice things about being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the social network. Before we even hit the ground we knew we had a group of people we could turn to. In fact, before we arrived we’d been able to correspond with several families who gave us great advice. The members of our ward (church group) were friendly from the first day we were at church and they have plenty of activities (far more than we’re used to) and the congregation is one of the biggest we’ve been in since we were married. Moreover, the primary & nursery(the classes for children) is huge—they have over 100 kids in it!
As many members of the church know, the Mormon world is small. Within only a couple weeks of being at church we’d made a handful of “connections”. We met a family who was in a ward with one of Ben’s sisters, a cousin of my sister’s best-friend, and a family who is good friends with our friends (if you followed all that). The ward we are in is an ex-pat ward. They automatically put you in it if you are from another country and will be living here short-term. It’s been really fun to meet people from all over the world. We do really miss everyone from our Greenville ward, though!!
The person we bought our bed from is from Greenville, SC. When I went over to look at it she asked where we moved from and I said, "North Carolina". Then she said they'd moved from SC and I asked, "which city?" She said Greenville and I said, "Oh, we moved from Greenville too." I had my ECU shirt on the other day and met another person from Greenville, SC. It is a small world!
As many members of the church know, the Mormon world is small. Within only a couple weeks of being at church we’d made a handful of “connections”. We met a family who was in a ward with one of Ben’s sisters, a cousin of my sister’s best-friend, and a family who is good friends with our friends (if you followed all that). The ward we are in is an ex-pat ward. They automatically put you in it if you are from another country and will be living here short-term. It’s been really fun to meet people from all over the world. We do really miss everyone from our Greenville ward, though!!
The person we bought our bed from is from Greenville, SC. When I went over to look at it she asked where we moved from and I said, "North Carolina". Then she said they'd moved from SC and I asked, "which city?" She said Greenville and I said, "Oh, we moved from Greenville too." I had my ECU shirt on the other day and met another person from Greenville, SC. It is a small world!
Foreigners, but Not So Foreign
I (Ben) was used to being stared at while on my mission in Russia—a redhead with a face full of freckles stands out in a sea of Slavic complexions—but it didn’t irk me as much then as it does now. People will simply stare at you…and stare at you…and stare at you. I’ll sometimes get bold and stare right back at them, but they don’t budge—they win every time. I’m not sure whether they’re just so tired (half the people on the buses and trains are struggling to stay awake) that it seems like they’re staring while they begin to fall asleep with their eyes and mouths wide open, but you think they’d snap out of it when their subject begins to return the stare. If I think I get it bad, Samara could complain far more than me. She is a celebrity. People have actually stopped us (several times!) and asked to take a picture of her. This has happened on the bus, the train, in the park, in the store, the beach—everywhere. Samara is a happy subject though. She will say “cheese” for them (far more readily than for us) and bid them a cute farewell (“see ya!”) when they leave. I have the anti-bacterial wipes ready for her cheeks and hands the moment they leave.
I feel like we’re in a distinctly foreign country. Almost everyone speaks with a thick accent, products are different, Chinese writing is everywhere, etc. However, Cheryl doesn’t agree—she thinks this place is rather pedestrian mainly because most people speak some English and you can find a lot of American products & stores. We’ll let you be the judge when you come visit.
(Addendum)
I (Cheryl) realized yesterday why people stare at us so much on public transportation. Yesterday, while Samara and I were on the metro, the announcement came over the speaker, “No eating or drinking on the train” just as Samara was taking an enormous swig of water from her sippy cup. Samara, being a clever and observant girl, loudly slopped the sippy cup from her mouth right after this and said, “Mommy, baby’s drinking sippy watty!” She said this several times until I acknowledged that she was indeed drinking on the train.
More on this, Samara’s still refers to herself as baby. Today for the first time, when asked what her name was she said ‘Samara’ instead of ‘baby.’ We wondered for a while if we’d have to change her birth certificate. Baby’s not such a bad name and after all everyone knows that “no one puts baby in a corner.”
(Addendum Two)
Ben has had a huge success. No, the triumphant event was not at work, but on the bus last week on the way to church. There was a little Muslim family sitting across from us and one of the little girls (around 10 or 11) was staring openly at Ben. Ben refused to give up. He stared right back. She was a tough little opponent, but she looked away first. Success!
I feel like we’re in a distinctly foreign country. Almost everyone speaks with a thick accent, products are different, Chinese writing is everywhere, etc. However, Cheryl doesn’t agree—she thinks this place is rather pedestrian mainly because most people speak some English and you can find a lot of American products & stores. We’ll let you be the judge when you come visit.
(Addendum)
I (Cheryl) realized yesterday why people stare at us so much on public transportation. Yesterday, while Samara and I were on the metro, the announcement came over the speaker, “No eating or drinking on the train” just as Samara was taking an enormous swig of water from her sippy cup. Samara, being a clever and observant girl, loudly slopped the sippy cup from her mouth right after this and said, “Mommy, baby’s drinking sippy watty!” She said this several times until I acknowledged that she was indeed drinking on the train.
More on this, Samara’s still refers to herself as baby. Today for the first time, when asked what her name was she said ‘Samara’ instead of ‘baby.’ We wondered for a while if we’d have to change her birth certificate. Baby’s not such a bad name and after all everyone knows that “no one puts baby in a corner.”
(Addendum Two)
Ben has had a huge success. No, the triumphant event was not at work, but on the bus last week on the way to church. There was a little Muslim family sitting across from us and one of the little girls (around 10 or 11) was staring openly at Ben. Ben refused to give up. He stared right back. She was a tough little opponent, but she looked away first. Success!
Mythbusters!
Smoking: Ben was operating under some bizarre information that smoking was illegal (or at least VERY rare). Not true—Singaporeans smoke. I’m not sure whether they smoke more or less than other countries. Ben thought that maybe it just seems like it’s more than back home because in Singapore, unlike in the US, the vast majority of people are out walking, or taking public transportation, whereas in the US, everyone is smoking in their homes or in their cars. Whatever the reason, people here smoke and they do so legally.
Clean: We heard a lot about how clean Singapore is—I mean we heard this from everyone. Because we heard this so often we expected this place to be as clean as Monte Carlo (unbelievably clean), but this is not true. While it’s true that the downtown area (where most tourists undoubtedly visit) is much cleaner than normal cities, there are definitely dirty areas that are similar to bigger cities. However, by and large, this place is cleaner than other big cities we’ve been to.
Chewing gum: It’s true—chewing gum is not sold anywhere. Thank heavens neither of us needs to chew gum as some addiction, but sometimes it’s nice just having something to chomp on. I don’t think it’s illegal—I’ve seen people chewing it, especially at church, but they must either buy it Malaysia or have it sent in from abroad. Whether you are caned for spitting it out on the street has yet to be verified. If you see me hobbling, I tested this and it was true.
Safety: This really is probably the safest place we’ve ever lived. What we’ve heard often is “It’s as safe on the streets at 3:00AM as it is at 3:00PM.” We haven’t pushed this to see just how safe it is (for example, Ben hasn’t yet decided to walk down Alexandra Road in skimpy clothing at 3:00AM), but we’re optimistic this one will stay true. I’ve been out several times by myself at night and feel totally safe.
Noise: Another myth that I heard (or made up to help “sell” Cheryl on moving to Singapore) is that Singapore has strict noise regulations on vehicles and motorbikes. Not true at all. The temporary housing we’re in now is located near a busy intersection and it is unbelievably noisy all the time. In particular, the cruddy little mopeds and dinky motorbikes are the worst—they’re maybe not as bad as a Harley, but they have surprisingly loud engines.
Internet: We’d heard that Internet was available for free throughout the island—this is almost true. While there are considerable sections of the island covered with free wireless signals, this is mostly limited to commercial areas and the residential areas around them.
Weather: In addition to its safety and cleanliness, the thing we heard the most about Singapore was how hot and humid it is and that it rained sporadically almost every day. We have been pleasantly surprised at how mild the weather has been. Granted, being a bit above the equator may mean that we’re in winter right now, but if the weather doesn’t change too much from now till summer, this climate is very tolerable. We’ve heard it will get much more hot and humid and we’ve had several big rain showers the last few days. They don’t last long though only 10-15 minutes.
Modern: It is modern except that more places than you'd think only take cash. We are banking with HSBC and since they along with four other banks aren't considered local banks some places don't even take their debit card. You do, however, get this nifty security device to sign into your account online. You push it and it gives you a number, which you need to log-in. It feels pretty James Bondish.
Clean: We heard a lot about how clean Singapore is—I mean we heard this from everyone. Because we heard this so often we expected this place to be as clean as Monte Carlo (unbelievably clean), but this is not true. While it’s true that the downtown area (where most tourists undoubtedly visit) is much cleaner than normal cities, there are definitely dirty areas that are similar to bigger cities. However, by and large, this place is cleaner than other big cities we’ve been to.
Chewing gum: It’s true—chewing gum is not sold anywhere. Thank heavens neither of us needs to chew gum as some addiction, but sometimes it’s nice just having something to chomp on. I don’t think it’s illegal—I’ve seen people chewing it, especially at church, but they must either buy it Malaysia or have it sent in from abroad. Whether you are caned for spitting it out on the street has yet to be verified. If you see me hobbling, I tested this and it was true.
Safety: This really is probably the safest place we’ve ever lived. What we’ve heard often is “It’s as safe on the streets at 3:00AM as it is at 3:00PM.” We haven’t pushed this to see just how safe it is (for example, Ben hasn’t yet decided to walk down Alexandra Road in skimpy clothing at 3:00AM), but we’re optimistic this one will stay true. I’ve been out several times by myself at night and feel totally safe.
Noise: Another myth that I heard (or made up to help “sell” Cheryl on moving to Singapore) is that Singapore has strict noise regulations on vehicles and motorbikes. Not true at all. The temporary housing we’re in now is located near a busy intersection and it is unbelievably noisy all the time. In particular, the cruddy little mopeds and dinky motorbikes are the worst—they’re maybe not as bad as a Harley, but they have surprisingly loud engines.
Internet: We’d heard that Internet was available for free throughout the island—this is almost true. While there are considerable sections of the island covered with free wireless signals, this is mostly limited to commercial areas and the residential areas around them.
Weather: In addition to its safety and cleanliness, the thing we heard the most about Singapore was how hot and humid it is and that it rained sporadically almost every day. We have been pleasantly surprised at how mild the weather has been. Granted, being a bit above the equator may mean that we’re in winter right now, but if the weather doesn’t change too much from now till summer, this climate is very tolerable. We’ve heard it will get much more hot and humid and we’ve had several big rain showers the last few days. They don’t last long though only 10-15 minutes.
Modern: It is modern except that more places than you'd think only take cash. We are banking with HSBC and since they along with four other banks aren't considered local banks some places don't even take their debit card. You do, however, get this nifty security device to sign into your account online. You push it and it gives you a number, which you need to log-in. It feels pretty James Bondish.
Hell Week
Here is a picture of our luxurious hotel room. Every morning we enjoyed a tasty breakfast of chicken nuggets, scrambled eggs, noodles, and hotdogs. The air conditioner had three settings: off, leaking, & freezing. The TV remote controlled the a/c. We were billed for internet usage by the hour and got a bill for $85 at the end of the week. Every time we’d return home, Samara would pound her fists on the door and scream, “Door. Out. Please!!” She expressed our thoughts so well. Ben got salmonella from eating tainted peanut butter cliff bars…so much for bringing safe and portable food from home.
Something about Singapore that is hard for us to understand is way leasing an apartment works. You have to go through a realtor. They don’t have any kind of MLS system here or central place to find all the available apartments. Maybe this is similar to big cities in the US but to us it is insane. It was far far far easier and cost less money for us and the people who bought our townhouse in Greenville and we sold our place ourselves. We found a couple condo complexes we wanted right away but the problem was you can’t just tell your realtor (this is where the apartment management company should come in) and have them show you everything that is available in the complex. They can show you the one or maybe two that they know of another realtor listing but have no way of knowing all of them so you have to go through several (by several I mean like 9) realtors to find the place you want. All the while feeling guilty that this realtor was so nice to show you a place and walk you to the bus stop, and dote on your child, etc. but isn’t going to get compensated for their time with you because you don’t want the units they showed you. We found an ad in the paper for the condo we will be renting and still had to pay a realtor fee of a half months rent ($1,100—yes that’s only half for 1,100 sq ft 45 min outside the city) plus $177 of gst & $108 in stamping fees for the paperwork. We opted for only a one-year lease because we thought our situation will likely be different in a year and we can move somewhere a little bigger and closer to work/church and in part because the realtor fee for a two-year lease was a whole month’s rent. We thought there would be away around not paying the realtor fee upon renewing the lease but nope there isn’t. We’ll have to pay it again to renew the lease because the realtor we’ll have to negotiate the rent and do up the paperwork again. What’s crazy to us is that these landlords don’t just put an ad in the paper and do this themselves since they also have to pay the same commission we do. In most cases, the landlord was there too when we viewed the apartment. On the bright side, if you rent a place more than $2,500/month then the landlord pays the whole commission. Our realtor has been very helpful and resourceful...it's just expensive help!
The place we wanted wasn’t available until March 1st so we are in University owned housing at the moment, where we can pay by the day/week, etc. It was huge blessing to get into it. Another temporary place we had looked at didn’t have a kitchen, wanted a deposit and the two months rent, which including our deposit, advance rent, and realtor fee for our condo was gong to be like $10,000, which we just couldn’t cough up. Two nights before we were supposed to leave our hotel, we were so frustrated and worried. Ben went out to check another temporary option and ran into Jasmine, his HR contact, who when learning of our situation said she’d extend the hotel a couple more days and try to get us into the place we are at now. What a wonderful blessing and answer to prayers! So here we are at Gillman Heights for another 3 weeks. It’s a roomy apartment and nice enough but were excited to get into our condo. We opted for an unfurnished place because the furnished places didn’t come with much at all just some very basic stuff. We also figured in the end we’d be saving money. The rent because it’s unfurnished is $150-$200 cheaper a month and we’ll definitely get all the furnishings they would have provided for under $1,000 using Craigslist, etc.
Funny Story—Cheryl called a cell phone company to ask about setting up service. To set this up you need to have your work permit or letter from the Ministry of Manpower, which is the governing agency for both local and foreign employment. She was on the phone with someone and trying to understand what they were saying while I was prompting her to mention that we have our employment verification letter from the Ministry. You can imagine my delight when Cheryl blurted out, “We have our letter from the Ministry of Magic!” Needless to say, the person on the other end of the phone thought, “Useless Muggles…”
Here are a couple shots of the view from the place we are staying at right now. We are on the 18th floor. That's the ocean in the very back of the day picture.
First Day
We arrived in the beautiful garden city at 1AM local time on Friday the 2nd. Happily, all our luggage arrived safely including the computer. We made it through customs without getting anything confiscated and got on a Maxicab, which took us to our hotel. Samara fell asleep around 4:30 so we napped until she woke up right on time at 7:20. Time zones are no match for her internal waking clock. We ate breakfast then headed out to meet up with the HR contact at Duke to get paperwork started. We weren’t but 100 yards away from the hotel, when a bird pooped bright green poo on me. Is that good luck?
We were busy taking in all the sites and sounds and missed the turn to the Duke-NUS building but eventually found his lab. Ben gets a work permit and Samara and I get a dependant’s pass, which allows us to get library cards, zoo memberships, etc. We had do a medical check-up before we could get our passes so we decided to get that of the way since results take several days. We were kind of worried about what it would entail. My friend, who is living in Taiwan, had to get buck-naked for a visual skin test and give a poo(yes, a poo not a urine) sample for their medical check-up so we were pretty worried. Fortunately, we only had to get a chest x-ray, blood drawn, and a mini-physical. Unfortunately, it took 5 hours. We then went to a government-run housing office where foreigners can apply for the local housing, which is cheaper. The pictures of the sample housing made prison look appealing and since you can’t see the unit before you rent it, we opted out of saving a few hundred bucks a month and went back to the hotel to call a realtor to set up appointments to look at condos. After setting up appointments for the following day and trying unsuccessfully to get Samara to take a nap, we decided to go out and get some food. We went to a nearby mall, which was very nice and had a grocery store in it. Poor tired Samara finally fell asleep in the stroller after being awake almost 12 hours and having slept only 8 in the previous 30. We found a grocery store called Cold Storage, which has a lot of American products. This particular one happened to be an organic market. We were amazed at all the obscure products and brands they carried and even more amazed at the prices--$16 for Samara’s quart of whole milk yogurt we paid about $4 for in the states. We wept and left the store opting for the non-organic loaf of bread wondering the whole way home how many parents were glaring at us saying to one another as we often do, “Those parents have it so easy—their kid will sleep anywhere.” It was a long, long day.
We were busy taking in all the sites and sounds and missed the turn to the Duke-NUS building but eventually found his lab. Ben gets a work permit and Samara and I get a dependant’s pass, which allows us to get library cards, zoo memberships, etc. We had do a medical check-up before we could get our passes so we decided to get that of the way since results take several days. We were kind of worried about what it would entail. My friend, who is living in Taiwan, had to get buck-naked for a visual skin test and give a poo(yes, a poo not a urine) sample for their medical check-up so we were pretty worried. Fortunately, we only had to get a chest x-ray, blood drawn, and a mini-physical. Unfortunately, it took 5 hours. We then went to a government-run housing office where foreigners can apply for the local housing, which is cheaper. The pictures of the sample housing made prison look appealing and since you can’t see the unit before you rent it, we opted out of saving a few hundred bucks a month and went back to the hotel to call a realtor to set up appointments to look at condos. After setting up appointments for the following day and trying unsuccessfully to get Samara to take a nap, we decided to go out and get some food. We went to a nearby mall, which was very nice and had a grocery store in it. Poor tired Samara finally fell asleep in the stroller after being awake almost 12 hours and having slept only 8 in the previous 30. We found a grocery store called Cold Storage, which has a lot of American products. This particular one happened to be an organic market. We were amazed at all the obscure products and brands they carried and even more amazed at the prices--$16 for Samara’s quart of whole milk yogurt we paid about $4 for in the states. We wept and left the store opting for the non-organic loaf of bread wondering the whole way home how many parents were glaring at us saying to one another as we often do, “Those parents have it so easy—their kid will sleep anywhere.” It was a long, long day.
The Flight
I was petrified of the trip here, so much so that it prevented me from getting excited at all about moving here. The total travel time from door to door was ~ 31 hours and I was dreading it. I imagined Samara being awake for all 31 hours and them landing the plane in the middle of the ocean to kick us off. Samara actually travels well—this was her 10th flight, I believe. But she's not able to fall asleep even when we travel all day long. She hasn’t napped on a plane since she was probably 4 months old. Thankfully, the trip over went much better than expected…I guess when you plan for the worst you are pleasantly surprised.
We were also really worried about our luggage. Singapore Air had repeatedly told us over the phone (we called several times for clarification) that we weren’t allowed to go a pound over 50 (what ever happened to the 70lb limit?) or we’d have to pay $309 so we packed and weighed and repacked and reweighed, went to marriage counseling, and repacked and reweighed. They also said there was a carry-on luggage weight limit of 15 pounds. Our biggest concern was a suitcase we’d packed with our iMac, as it had clothes packed around it and we knew couldn’t take anything out (for risk of our dear computer not being padded) if it was at all over weight. When we checked in, Ben put that suitcase on the scale and it was 51 pounds, so he turned up the charm (I don’t mind him flirting when it gets us stuff like extra candy in our blizzards) and, as he was leaning forward on the counter, asked the attendant in his sexiest voice, “This bag is a pound over, is that going to be OK?” (batting eyelashes). She said, “Oh, we don’t care about a few extra pounds.” She didn’t even weigh the other bags. AH!!!!!!!!!!! She also didn’t charge us for the extra bag. It was a blessing and we’re grateful but had we known we could have fit in so much more stuff. We had plenty of room in our bags but were already at the limit. Our carryon luggage(way over the 15 pound weight limit) was still in the car so we couldn’t move stuff over from those but who weighs carry-ons?
Samara got sick a few days before we left and we had to wake her up a couple hours early the day of the flight so she was already going into the trip sleep deprived and was ready for a nap on the way to San Francisco. Ben almost got her to sleep in the airport there but then the attendant came over and weighed our carryons. We then had to rearrange and check in two of our carryons, which, thankfully they didn’t charge us for. Since Samara didn’t nap she was tired pretty early on in the flight, which was great because we thought then she’d sleep all the way to Korea. We got her to sleep and laid her in this bassinet thing that hooked to the wall in front of us. It was quite small but some sort of a bed. Unfortunately, we didn’t know that anytime the fasten seat belt light came on we’d have to take her out. An hour later it came on and the flight attendant frantically came over, unzipped it, and told us we had to hold her and buckle her to one of us. She, of course, woke up and the fasten seat belt light, of course, went off 10 minutes later. We then experienced the only really bad part of the flight, where she couldn’t fall back asleep for 4.5 hours and was pretty miserable for about 2 hours. The flight attendants were all very helpful and nice. They offered us at least 27 times another little stuffed Bloo and to take her to give us a break. After collecting a pile of these little Bloos, we asked them if the Bloo was laced with some kind sleep aid. They replied that the Bloos were and usually after 3-4 bloos even the toughest child is out cold.
That’s our little girl--even the strongest sleeping meds don’t put her to sleep. We had asked when we booked our tickets and in SFO if we had to deboard the plane in Korea. We were always assured we didn’t as they were only refueling. After everyone deplaned and we were just hanging out, they told us we had to get off and reboard. Samara had stayed asleep up until we had to get off. We reboarded and each took turn sleeping a little bit until Samara fell asleep again for the last few hours of the flight.
We were also really worried about our luggage. Singapore Air had repeatedly told us over the phone (we called several times for clarification) that we weren’t allowed to go a pound over 50 (what ever happened to the 70lb limit?) or we’d have to pay $309 so we packed and weighed and repacked and reweighed, went to marriage counseling, and repacked and reweighed. They also said there was a carry-on luggage weight limit of 15 pounds. Our biggest concern was a suitcase we’d packed with our iMac, as it had clothes packed around it and we knew couldn’t take anything out (for risk of our dear computer not being padded) if it was at all over weight. When we checked in, Ben put that suitcase on the scale and it was 51 pounds, so he turned up the charm (I don’t mind him flirting when it gets us stuff like extra candy in our blizzards) and, as he was leaning forward on the counter, asked the attendant in his sexiest voice, “This bag is a pound over, is that going to be OK?” (batting eyelashes). She said, “Oh, we don’t care about a few extra pounds.” She didn’t even weigh the other bags. AH!!!!!!!!!!! She also didn’t charge us for the extra bag. It was a blessing and we’re grateful but had we known we could have fit in so much more stuff. We had plenty of room in our bags but were already at the limit. Our carryon luggage(way over the 15 pound weight limit) was still in the car so we couldn’t move stuff over from those but who weighs carry-ons?
Samara got sick a few days before we left and we had to wake her up a couple hours early the day of the flight so she was already going into the trip sleep deprived and was ready for a nap on the way to San Francisco. Ben almost got her to sleep in the airport there but then the attendant came over and weighed our carryons. We then had to rearrange and check in two of our carryons, which, thankfully they didn’t charge us for. Since Samara didn’t nap she was tired pretty early on in the flight, which was great because we thought then she’d sleep all the way to Korea. We got her to sleep and laid her in this bassinet thing that hooked to the wall in front of us. It was quite small but some sort of a bed. Unfortunately, we didn’t know that anytime the fasten seat belt light came on we’d have to take her out. An hour later it came on and the flight attendant frantically came over, unzipped it, and told us we had to hold her and buckle her to one of us. She, of course, woke up and the fasten seat belt light, of course, went off 10 minutes later. We then experienced the only really bad part of the flight, where she couldn’t fall back asleep for 4.5 hours and was pretty miserable for about 2 hours. The flight attendants were all very helpful and nice. They offered us at least 27 times another little stuffed Bloo and to take her to give us a break. After collecting a pile of these little Bloos, we asked them if the Bloo was laced with some kind sleep aid. They replied that the Bloos were and usually after 3-4 bloos even the toughest child is out cold.
That’s our little girl--even the strongest sleeping meds don’t put her to sleep. We had asked when we booked our tickets and in SFO if we had to deboard the plane in Korea. We were always assured we didn’t as they were only refueling. After everyone deplaned and we were just hanging out, they told us we had to get off and reboard. Samara had stayed asleep up until we had to get off. We reboarded and each took turn sleeping a little bit until Samara fell asleep again for the last few hours of the flight.
New Niece
Here is my new niece—my little sister’s baby. She was born a few days before we came and I was so glad I got to meet here. She is so precious. And, yes I do realize I look like I look a little off in the picture. Welcome little Celeste! We are glad to have you in the family.
Christmas
Samara enjoyed Christmas, especially the song Frosty the snowman. She still asks us to play it. Every time we asked her what she wanted Santa to bring her, she said, “more trains”. On Christmas morning, we asked her what she thought he brought, and she said, “more trains”. Thank goodness she didn’t want a play kitchen—that wouldn’t have packed nearly as well. We had a wonderful time with my family as well as Ben's brother and his family. We even got to see his sister who came up to go to Aspen Grove with her in-laws. We're grateful we were able to spend so much time with family before leaving the country.
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Our little Ski bunny!
Amid preparing for our move to Singapore, we were still able to enjoy the snow! My toes healed enough to fit into a ski boot for one day of cross-country and then one day of downhill. Unfortunately, after that they were too swollen & sore to go again. Samara went skiing for the first time. Contrary to what it looks like in the pictures, she didn’t really ski on her own but had a nice time being pulled up and down the hill and is at least familiar with it now and had fun. She needs to start young if she is going to be an Olympian. No pressure.
Cutting Down the Tree
We had a little tradition when we lived in Utah of cutting down our own tree. We were even able to go and cut one down a tree for my mom’s house. We did it in record time this year. In the past, we've roamed around for hours only to wind up inevitably picked the first tree we saw. We gave ourselves a ten minute limit this time and came home with a beautiful tree.
I broke my toes in Canada
We were able to go visit Ben’s family for a couple of weeks over Thanksgiving. We got to see 3 of Ben’s sibling and their families, his grandparents and, of course, Grandma & Grandpa Bikman. We loved seeing everyone and were sad to leave. Ben managed to stay up past 3 AM every night and complete a video game. He needed to purge all those years of studying from his overloaded brain! I managed to break my toes. Regretfully, it wasn’t because we were back-country skiing in the Canadian Rockies but by running into a door jam.
Mr. Ben the PhD
Ben officially graduated on December 13th. He flew back for the convocations exercises and happily his dad was able to meet up with him to attend as well. The other gentleman in the picture is his mentor. Congratulations, Benjamin!!
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