Learning the Ropes

This is Day 6 in Singapore. I haven't gotten to get out of the apartment much--it's hard with two kids, especially two kids who are still jet lagged. While walking in the city, Hannah gets tired of holding our hands, which is a necessity when we’re on a crowded street or in a packed subway station. She does the whole limp noodle thing after a while. Fun.

We found an apartment, and we should move in at the end of the month. I’m looking forward to having our own stuff in our own home again.

So, some of the highlights of our stay so far, mixed with some of the things we’ve learned:

• This truly is a garden city. Tree coverage everywhere, with beautiful flowers too. Even though the weather is very much like Houston’s, it is easier to manage walking the city because the trees keep you much cooler. There are crossovers over the streets, and they’re all lined with bougainvillea. Gorgeous.
• They have many more U.S. restaurants than I expected. I was pretty surprised to see a Subway, Kenny Rogers’ Roasters, Sullivan’s, California Pizza Kitchen, and Popeye’s. Oh, and there’s a Ben & Jerry’s. Score!
• They have online grocery ordering, and home delivery. Score again!
• There are outdoor food courts throughout the city called “hawker centers,” that have all sorts of super inexpensive foods and drinks. There’s one just across the street that we’ve been to a couple of times. We had fresh (!) apple juice, sugar cane juice (which is a popular drink here), and char siew, aka Chinese barbeque pork. Holy cow. How did I not know about that dish? It is so good. I have a goal to learn to make this myself at home. The hawker centers also have lots of scary looking food as well.
• Our first meal in Singapore? McDonald’s! Ha! Well, the kids had been through a lot, and we wanted to give them a sense of familiarity.
• Just about every toilet I’ve seen so far has had a square seat. SO comfortable!!
• Our temporary apartment building has a continental breakfast each morning. We went yesterday, and they had the usual breads, pastries, cold cereal, fruit, etc. But then they also had baked beans, and “chicken sausage,” which when I first saw it, it looked just like a hot dog. Scott got one and yes, it was a hot dog. So Scott had beans and franks for breakfast. Also they had a boil-your-own-egg station. I didn’t have much luck though, because I either got confused as to which egg was mine, or someone took it and put one in its place, because twice I got barely cooked eggs.
• On light switches, up is off, and down is on. It’ll take me a while to get used to this one.
• We went out with a realtor to look for a permanent apartment to move into. First, she had said she had an SUV big enough to fit both our car seats and an adult in the back seat. Uh, no. We could squeeze maybe a 7 year old back there with the car seats, but that was about it. But she did have this bizarre little rumble seat in the very back. The floor popped up and there was a seat underneath it. There was no space in front of it for legs, but there was a seat belt! Obviously Scott couldn’t sit back there, so I climbed back there and sat with my legs in all different directions trying to get comfortable, which was impossible. Meanwhile, the realtor had put on a kid friendly CD, which had some creepy sounding kids singing classic kids songs, like Do-Re-Mi from Sound of Music, and the ABC song. And they sang the ABC song wrong. How do you sing the ABC song wrong?? She also stayed in her own lane maybe 5% of the time, and called me “Fiona” all morning.
• Most kitchens here are not air conditioned, and are open to the back porch. It’s also common to not have a dishwasher, and if there is one, it’s usually outside on porch. They also have a thing (maybe a law?) that there must be a step down into any wet area like a bathroom or kitchen. Being the klutz that I am, I have tripped several times over these little steps, that are maybe 2 inches high. I’m surprised I haven’t broken a toe, seeing that the flooring is marble. I did come mighty close this morning though.
• The sun doesn’t even begin to rise until 7 am.
• The cigarette companies are required to put warnings on their cigarette packages, along with pictures of the dangers they pose. The first one we came across was this one:
  

Between having to look at that every time he gets a cigarette, and the fact that one pack costs US$10, Scott immediately remarked that perhaps he would need to consider quitting.

Speaking of costs, some other outrageous prices (in equivalent of U.S. Dollars):

• Cereal: $8
• 6-pack of beer: $15
• 2-liter carton of cow’s milk: $4
• Ribeye steak: $20/lb.

So that’s the story so far. I really like it, and can tell already that it will be a big transition going from public transportation here, back to driving in Houston. That I do NOT miss. Speaking of Houston, we’ve got a contract on our house, so we’re hoping the inspection goes well and that’ll be one less thing to worry about.

We miss you all!