Singapore - Week Three

This happens to be my third Saturday in Singapore, and thankfully, my last until we move. I'm missing three little girls. It has been great to have Kristin here this week as we get to know the city. We have had lots of good food experiences (which I'm sure Kristin will give a great account of soon), several adventures and lots of fun.

The good news is that we have a house. 38 King's Drive will be our home here in Singapore. It has 3 levels, 5 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, and a beautiful "yard". The first picture below is an outside picture of the house. There is a family currently living in it, so we weren't able to take any good inside pictures. We hope we will have some soon. We also found out this week that Addlea accepted a teacher job at International Community School (a christian private school in Singapore), and will be living with us here. The bottom floor of our house will be hers, as it has it's own private entrance, in case she gets sick of us.

We looked at lots of houses Tuesday thru Thursday, and made the offer on Friday. House hunting wasn't always very fun, but we are very pleased with the final outcome. We are convenient to lots of cool things in central Singapore, so Kristin is excited about that. We will also have space for riding bikes, roller blading, scootering, etc for the girls inside the gate, and a little room right outside the gate. We are also just a few blocks from the closest train (MRT - mass rapid transit system for Singapore), so moving around Singapore will be pretty easy. We also checked out the local car lot and have a good idea of what we may get when we return to Singapore in May.

Our biggest set-back (which may turn out to be a blessing, of course), was the school. We met with the large Singapore American School on Tuesday to find out that Emily probably had a spot, but that Anna might be on a long waiting list and may not have a spot for this school year. Therefore, we quickly made some changes to our plans, and also visited the school where Addlea will teach. It was really nice, and may be a better fit for the girls. The Singapore American School has almost 4,000 kids, where as the International Community School has less than 500. Much more personal feeling at ICS.

For fun, we attended the broadway musical Wicked on Thursday night. It was great. It is also in the very modern part of the city, with 100 story buildings, casinos, etc. Pretty amazing part of the city, but definitely the feel of a big city with 5 million people. We like the quiet nature of whee we decided to live.

Well, we come home on Monday, and we are excited to come home. We now have a lot of work to do to get ready to move. Take care everyone, and we will see you or talk to you soon.

Picture 1 - our new home at 38 King's Drive
Picture 2 - the downtown skyscraper with a ship on top ... amazing building.
Picture 3 - a quick drive thru Chinatown.
Picture 4 & 5 - International Community School
Picture 6 - we never did see the zebra though


















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Singapore - Week Two

Good day everyone. It is my second weekend in Singapore and all is still well. I am currently sitting on the 18th floor of my hotel enjoying a very green view. I can see flowers, fish (a koi pond, I believe), traffic (pretty much constant), and more tall buildings.

I spent 3 days this week in Bangalore, India. It is hard to explain India, although, it makes China look calm and civilized. I think I was in Bangalore (population of over 8 million) for almost a whole day before I saw my first stop light. Imagine the chaos of all these people driving with no traffic lights or order, and that is what it felt like. Another interesting fact, is that there are almost no street signs, so the locals have to know where they are going in order to get anywhere.

On my way to work the first day, I saw poverty, people with no shoes, lots of motorcycles, cows in the road, etc. And, they honk. They honk to tell you to move, to tell you that they are there, and ... Because it is a habit. Very loud. However, once in the office, you couldn't really tell the difference from any other country (except that the electricity would go out during the day and the backup generators would kick on).

Several of the highlights included ... A ride in a Mercedes S class (very expensive), sat in a Tata Nano ( a car for masses that is under $3,000 USD), ate a Maharaja Bic Mac at the local McDonalds and tried my hand/eye coordination in a cricket batting cage.

I got back to Singapore early Thursday morning (3 a.m.). Worked in the Singapore office the rest of the week. On Friday night on the way home, I rode the local train system. Pretty cool once I figured it out. Singapore has a very elaborate train and bus system, that takes these electronic cards that track where you go ... So I had to figure out how that worked. I survived and made it to where I was wanting to go. Asians love to squeeze into the train though, so at one point I think was was touching like 5 people on all sides of me, and some were much closer that was comfortable.

Kristin shows up Sunday night (my time). Pray that her travels go well. Went to church last week at a church of Christ that holds both a Chinese and English service at the same time. Nice size congregation. I will go to a different one tomorrow just to check it out. I took a long walk this weekend at a botanical garden. Very nice, but I was sweating by the time I was done at 11:15.
 
In case you hadn't heard, we signed a 2 year rental agreement on our house in Peoria. Less that 24 hours on the market. What a blessing.

Picture - inside Singapore's airport, rated as one of the best airports in the world. Includes free movie theater, a swimming pool, a 3 story slide, and LOTS of shopping. I saw a watch that would cost about $30,000 (I didn't buy it).

Pictures - driving to the office in India. People walking, rough rode, and yes, a cow calmly hanging out. We had to stop for cows quite a bit, and this is in the city. They wander back home when they want food, but other than that ... They just wander.




Pictures - walking in the botanical gardens. Everything is green and beautiful (as always). 




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Singapore -Week One

Hey everyone. It is Saturday morning in Singapore, 13 hours ahead of central time in the U.S., and I thought I would give you a quick update. So far, things have gone very well. I did make a crazy calculation this week, noting that by the time I return home, I will have spent approximately 50 hours of flying time in an airplane. That, of course doesn't count the time spent in airports. Movies, books and the iPad are necessary.

I spent most of this week in China (Tianjin and Beijing). Interesting place, with a lot of smog. Tianjin is a metroplex of about 14 million, Beijing about 20 million. With that comes traffic, traffic, pollution and traffic. The people have been great, hotels excellent, food pretty good. I didn't see any sites in china other than what could be seen from the car or hotel window. Quick 3 days with meeting a lot of people. Lots of high rises being built. China has a policy of pre-building what is needed. So, there are massive apartment complexes that will house thousands of people that are being built with no one in them yet. Office complexes the same way. "Build it and they will come", and it normally has worked.

Arrived in singapore on Thursday night about midnight, with the temperature a cool 79 degrees. Beautiful lush island, with 5.5 million people on it. Friday was a work day, then spent the evening with the family we are replacing. A great tour of the American school (amazing place), and their neighborhood. Houses are different, but in this neighborhood that is with walking distance of the school, plenty of room. They have (in the house), 5 bedrooms and 5 baths, with an additional bedroom and a bathroom attached to the back of the house for the live in help. Plenty of space, just different space. Kitchen and laundry room (laundry is outside), are not for the people who live in the house.

3 pictures attached, all out of hotel windows. First in Tianjin business park. Second in Beijing. Third in Singapore.

I will wander around this weekend. Lots of food and shopping malls. More expensive than Peoria, but then again, most places are.

Have a great weekend from the tropics of Singapore. 90 degrees or so today, although, Same as the last 6,000 days, so nothing new here.

Disney ... Day #2 - Epcot

Lunch with the princesses was located in the Norway section of Epcot.  After lunch, as we were waiting for Uncle Joe and Aunt Suzi to find us, we went on the Viking Voyage located in Norway (no pictures of that ride).  After that, we spent the next several hours wandering around Epcot doing fun stuff like Finding Nemo, and riding the ride inside the Epcot ball (which was one of Emily's favorites). 

Our first ride was on Finding Nemo

The Norway Troll, plus 3 little girl trolls.

 We meet Uncle Joe and Aunt Suzi for the start of a great time.

 Explaining to the girls what a phone booth is ... but a nice British phone booth it was.

 One of our many Mickey Ice Cream Treat breaks.

 We had to get our picture taken with one of the cat's from Aristocats.

 And Mary Poppins, which Emily loved (since she loves the movie).

 And who wouldn't love Chip and Dale.

 Jenna and Chip bonded, as they played with some mulch together. 

And then they snuck up behind Emily and Anna for a hug.  I didn't get the Emily hug since I wasn't expecting it.

 A show with Crush (from Finding Nemo)

Disney ... Day #2 - Time with the Princesses

On Friday morning, we headed for lunch with the princesses.  Well, the princesses didn't eat, but we had a good time eating, and then talking with them and getting their autographs.  The girls thought it was wonderful, and then, once we had this time with them, we didn't have to stand in line visit them.  Belle and Cinderella were their favorites. 

Disney ... Day #1

The girls decided that before we moved to Singapore, the one thing they wanted to do is go to Disney World. So, we packed up last week and headed for Disney and had a great time. This is day #1, as we headed out on Thursday morning for a direct flight to Orlando. Nothing too exciting on Thursday as it was a travel day and preparation before we hit the parks.





















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