Thursday, November 25, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, it's officially Thanksgiving here in Singapore, but it sure doesn't feel like it.  It's 90 degrees outside, and unfortunately, we won't be eating ourselves into a food coma with family and then watching the Thanksgiving day game.

However, in the process of unpacking, I did come across my Autumn/Thanksgiving decorations!  This is the extent of my holiday decorating:


I'm not much of a holiday decorator - I'll blame that on my Chinese upbringing.  When we moved to Texas, the sales assistant that sold us our house was appalled when she found out I had no fall decorations and brought me some of her decorations to make things more festive.  Now we are good friends and every year when I put up my Thanksgiving decor I am reminded of her.

Here's a sneak peak at my living room with my awesome fall decorations.

In an effort to carry on some American traditions, I managed to find a frozen turkey here and had Andy lug it home.  It was a bit expensive, but worth it to have a little piece of home here in Singapore.  My dad is coming to visit next week and he's bringing me some cranberry sauce and Pepperidge Farm stuffing!  So, I'll be waiting until next week to cook up our Thanksgiving dinner.  This way we'll have an extra person to help in the turkey eating effort.

So instead of a turkey on Thanksgiving, I stopped by my favorite chicken rice spot and picked up some of this wonderful goodness:


Here it is - wrapped in Singaporean "take away" style....which is basically a folded up piece of butcher paper tied with a rubber band.  And of course, everything comes with chili sauce!

A closer look at the wonderful goodness inside....A pretty good substitute for turkey I'd say!

Even though Thanksgiving is not the same without family surrounding you, I'm still thankful for our little 2-person family.  This year has been full of a lot of changes, and I'm definitely thankful for God's blessings on me and Andy.  I still can't believe that we're beginning this amazing adventure half way across the world and getting to experience all sorts of new things.  

Hope everyone back home is having a great Thanksgiving full of love, family, friends, and great food!  We miss you all terribly!

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Things That Make Me Smile

It's move-in day today!  All of my stuff was delivered on Monday.  The only casualty of the move was our desk....seems like whenever we move, the desk never makes it...we've gone through two desks in the past 3 years.

We're leaving the hotel/serviced apartment today and moving into our apartment.  To gear up for all the unpacking (and take advantage of the daily buffet one more time), I had my usual breakfast of champions:


Yes, I've been eating this every day.....my heart will be glad I'm not feeding it strips of bacon 4 times a week. I'm gonna miss this!

So, in no particular order, some things that make me smile:

- my memory foam pillow

- Jollibean soy milk (in the to-go "bag")



- getting facebook notes, emails, IM's from my friends and family in the states

- talking to the crazy Lin family every day.  That's right, EVERY day!  It's a wonder my sister hasn't gotten tired of talking to me.  But then again, she and I share the same gene pool, and she is the only other person who can outpace me in conversation.

- Pandan butter cupcake with green tea and coconut frosting:


- my sewing machine

- finding new fabric shops

- walking around aimlessly with my camera and taking pictures

- Hainanese chicken rice

- Din Tai Fung

- making new friends

- trying new foods

- this awesome commercial.  Gotta love Singapore marketing! 

- checking out facebook pics of my friends and family and their adorable kids - I admit, I'm a facebook stalker, but that's the only way to keep up from here!  I miss you guys!

The list continues, but I've got to get a start on today's task of unpacking!

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Welcome to the 21st Century


Well, it's official, Andy and I have finally warped from the stone ages to the 21st century.  We've lived a whole month without any mobile services.  But now we've joined the rest of the world and gotten ourselves some smart phones....so that I can continue to fuel my facebook stalking habits.  If you know us, back in the states, Andy and I were living in the stone ages....without *gasp* texting.  Many a time, friends have asked us "Did you get my text?"  To which we explain that our phones are set up to block texts and that their attempts to contact us have been lost in a cyber black hole.  Now, we've joined the rest of the well-connected world and can start replacing phone calls to our friends with impersonal texts....except we're now half-way around the world and can't contact our friends.  At this point, Andy is the only person in my contact list....well, him and the McDelivery man (more on that later).

In Singapore, smart phone plans are much cheaper - only $12 more than a regular plan.  Plus, by signing up for 2 yrs, we got our phones for free! Having a smart phone was the logical choice so that I don't have to walk around carrying a map everywhere.  I've already misplaced three of them....good thing they're free at every hotel.

This weekend has been really busy.  We spent Saturday getting signed up for all our technology services....it took two hours to get it taken care of, but now we're finally connected to the rest of the world!  It's funny trying to sign up and register for things like bank accounts without a real phone number.  Afterwards, we went home, and rested up for a trip to the night safari.

Before we headed out to the night safari, we ordered some McDelivery.  Yup, that's right, McDonalds actually delivers here (and they have chili sauce packets, and curry sauce instead of bbq sauce)!  You place your order online...for which I gladly provided my new cell number (good thing I did b/c my delivery was early and the guy had to call me to let me know).


Yes, I did actually ask the guy to pose for this pic.  He just laughed at me.


After finishing up our wholesome dinner, we headed out  for the Night Safari.  It's like a night zoo, but they also offer a tram ride where you can get up close and personal with some of the animals.  When we got there, it was raining pretty hard so there was a huge line for the tram rides.  We decided to be brave and do the walking portions first.  I have to admit, I was a little bit scared at first because the trails were dark, wet, and there was no one on them.  They really made it seem like you were in the rain forest...and we got the full effect with the rain.   I felt like at any moment, some wild animal could jump out at me.  It also didn't help that at one point, we ran into a guide and he told us to watch out for falling trees since there was thunder and lightning...really reassuring.  But, after a little while, I got used to it and it was actually pretty cool.  After the trails, we went on the tram ride.  At one point on the ride, we rode by what looked like a couple of rocks....which then got up and started moving around because they were actually a couple of huge tapirs.  We drove by some deer and water buffalo that were right beside the open tram!  It was pretty neat.  Obviously, the lions, elephants, and hippos were sectioned off from the road so it was all safe.  

I tried to take some pics of the animals but failed miserably as my camera doesn't do well in low light and flash photography was prohibited.  But I did manage to get a couple shots of the fire show performers.




These guys were keeping the fire going by taking turns blowing booze into the flame.  It was crazy!

In the end, the only animal I got a good pic of was this one:


I waited in line with a whole bunch of parents with little kids to take this picture.... Behind us, an Indian man was inspired by me and tried to get his wife (who was wearing a sari) to climb up there, but she refused.   Then we watched a dad hoist an overweight teenager onto the zebra....poor thing.

By the end of the night, we were zonked, but we had such a great time.  Come visit, and I'll definitely take you there!  Well, it's been a productive weekend.  Our apartment is all ready for tomorrow's big delivery. Can't wait!  We'll be staying in the hotel till Wednesday while we unpack.  But, next time I post, I'll most likely be in my new place!

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Singaporean Patriotism

Another week has flown by and I haven't even finished telling you about the exploring we did during our holiday weekend.  Besides taking in the Deepavali sights, we got to check out the Istana, the official residence of the Singaporean president.  Istana means "palace" in Malay.  It's normally closed to the public, but on certain public holidays, it's open for viewing.  It's free for Singaporeans to enter, but for foreigners, you have to pay a whopping S$1 to get in.  


Upon entering, we were greeted by these funny trees with little fruits (?) growing out of the trunk.  


We mostly walked up on the driveway - which is on the right of the picture, but I wanted to step off and take a picture of the Istana golf course.  It's a 9 hole golf course...imagining waking up Saturday morning, stepping out your door and playing 9 holes.  Pretty nice.


Some serious looking guards marching down the path.


The view of the main lawn and fountain area.  Off in the distance you can see part of the Singapore skyline - and the Marina Bay Sands.


Some of the beautifully manicured gardens on the grounds.



Is that a monkey? nope just me being silly. 


The main building of the Istana.  We got to tour the ground floor, see the ballroom, dining room, and some cool artifacts that were gifts from different countries.

And of course, with all this walking around, there must be some food involved!  We had lunch at a Turkish restaurant on Orchard Rd.



Gotta love how Andy always waits patiently in the background while I document our food choices.  Calamansi lime drink for me and Pepsi for him.  I got a Doner Pancake - which was basically a wrap and Andy got Iskender, which was a huge beef plate with pita bread.


Here they serve up fries with not just ketchup, but with chili.  Pretty much everything is served with a side of chili sauce.   Andy and I are working hard at building up our tolerance. 

Well, enough posting for now.  The next few days will be a little bit busy for me because.....our sea container has arrived!  That means  I will soon be reunited with my furniture, clothes, and most importantly, sewing machines!  Everything is set to be delivered Monday, but I've got to do a little cleaning in the apartment before the delivery comes.  Not only am I looking forward to getting my stuff, but also getting out of the stone ages.  I've been sans cell phone for about a month now....and it proves to be a little interesting when trying to meet up with people.  It's also funny when you're trying to fill out applications for things such as bank accounts and don't have a phone number to list....  

Oh, and on a completely different note.  Yesterday was a monumental day for me - I went shopping and found the fabric/craft store!!!!  The store is called Spotlight and it's the Australian version of Jo-Anns, but more like Jo-Anns on crack!  It's huge and it not only sells fabrics and crafting goods, but also home goods.  I've already applied with their rewards program since that's where a good chunk of Andy's salary is going to be going...hehe :)

Monday, November 8, 2010

Happy Deepavali

Part of living in another country is celebrating new holidays.  We missed Halloween - though we did attend a "halloween" party at the home of some new friends where a couple of people dressed up and someone carved a watermelon jack-o-lantern.

This weekend was Deepavali - or Diwali...  Andy got the day off so we did a bit of exploring to learn more about Hindu culture.

We ventured out to Little India for a look at the celebrations.  Unfortunately we missed the festival bazaar and concert celebrations leading up to the holiday and only got to see the brightly decorated streets of Little India.

Since it was the actual holiday when we went, Little India was swarming with people who were enjoying their day off....some a little more than others.  Everywhere we looked, there were men sitting around on the sidewalks, grassy areas, basically anywhere there was space.  Some had a little too much partying and were passed out on the street....What I'm wondering is, where are all the women?




Some of the pretty garlands hanging in the shops





While walking around, we saw some bargain deals...only $5 a pair of jeans...that is if you want to dig through this pile. 


The famous Mustafa Centre - open 24 hours for shopping.  It was so busy that day, we were diverted to the 6th entrance before we could enter since they only allow a certain amount of people into the building for safety reasons.  Crazy!

Of course, no better way to learn about culture than to sample some food!  We stopped at Komala Vilas for some good food.


While looking at the menu and debating what to order, our conversation went something like this:

Me: "I'm starving! I just want some chicken or something."
Andy: "Uh...honey, did you look at the name of the restaurant when you picked this place?"
Me:  "Why? What?"
Andy:  "It's Komala Vilas VEGETARIAN Restaurant...most Indians are vegetarians you know."
Me: .....

Guess I missed that memo. 


Even though I didn't get to satisfy my meat cravings, we still enjoyed our dinner.  I don't really remember the names of what we got...since we ordered the waiter's suggestions...but it was good! 

On our way home, we got to admire the festive lights.


(Some guy was thinking the same thing as me....)


All in all, a very interesting experience.  I'm sure I'll be back for some good Indian food, although I do have to say I might try to come at a less busy time.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Officially Singaporean!

Another week has flown by here in Singapore.  Time flies when you sleep in and watch too much TV.  One thing I've already started to miss is American TV.  Honestly, I admit that there have been times that last season's episodes of America's Got Talent has been the only thing watchable.  That and some horse dressage competition...which I had never heard of until now.  TV is definitely lacking here.

This weekend I picked up my dependent's pass!  Probably the most efficient government experience I've ever had.  All in all, it took one 5-minute visit to get fingerprinted and one 1-minute visit to pick up the pass...


Afterwards, we walked along the river and came across some dragon boat racing


Then we walked around the mall, got lunch at the food court - here's my kimchi fried rice:


And after some more window shopping, we stopped for dessert


Then for dinner, we checked out another recommendation from what I will dub our friend "Eddie's Singapore Guidebook".  Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao - for those of you who don't know what that means, La Mian is hand-pulled noodles and Xiao Long Bao are these awesome steamed dumplings exploding with soup.  Here's a look at our yummy dinner:


The reason for the action shot - we were so excited to dig in that I completely forgot to take a picture until after the fact.  It happens alot so you'll have to get used to some half-eaten food shots....sorry!  Anyway, this restaurant was great!  Another one to add to my list of favorites.