One Month!

Today marks one full month that I have been in Singapore!  Like I've said before, time is moving fast and slow simultaneously.

I miss my family and friends tremendously, but I feel more settled here with each day that passes.  Despite some rough (and ongoing) bouts of homesickness, I haven't felt anything big in terms of buyer's remorse.  Technology is an absolute game-changer these days - cell phones, WiFi, social media - keeping in constant contact with home is super easy.

My favourite things, so far, about being an expat:
- Adding diverse, worldly and ambitious people to my life
- Being challenged everyday

My least favourite things:
- Nothing is familiar or comfortable
- Life doesn't really feel "normal" -- kind of feels like you're on vacation all the time
- Being lonely (without really being alone)

What I'm most looking forward to in the next couple months:
- Travel!
- Visitors!
- Feeling more competent at work

Week 3 Highlights

I got a new local +65 phone this week!  I'm trying to conserve my 303 number via Google Voice, but I just recently learned this was an option and doing it from outside the US has been tricky.  Stay tuned.  I ended up with an iPhone 5, which is less than ideal and I'm hoping to get a 6 in a couple of months, but moving from one Apple product to another is always amazing -- all contacts, alarms, apps, etc. transfer making it so easy!  Not hard to see why Google and Apple rule the world.

I made my first Singaporean green smoothie this week!  Frozen fruit/veggies and flaxmeal are incredibly expensive, but worth it, I think, to eat something healthy.

My employment pass was finally approved this week, so I was able to open a local bank account.  The bank printed and issued my card on the spot!  My grocery store membership and train/bus account can also be linked to the card.  Hello, efficiency!  It feels good to finally have an account that I can be paid into, transfer money amongst friends, etc., but it also feels a little weird to be cutting more and more American ties.

For anyone who has ever taken an underground train, you know how confusing it can be when you get off the train.  You don't really know which was is up, East, West, etc and there are many exits out.  This week, I finally discovered the "Locality Map" which is a close up map of the MRT station and labels the exits.  Finding this enabled me to add 1.5 blocks of Aircon to my commute.  WIN .

I got my desk fully set up with monitors, a docking station, etc.  As soon as I can figure out how to get this pic printed, it will sit in a frame next to me all day.

Wednesday night, I went to Kinki for Happy Hour.  There are a couple of fancy rooftop bars that do ladies' nights on Wednesdays, but they don't start until 9pm and the granny in me can't do that.  Kinki was very cool.  It's a rooftop, but only on the 2nd floor, right on the water, great view of MBS and 2 for 1 HH (which means my two drinks cost me just as much as they would have regularly in the US).  It was a pretty view, and I walked along the water after sunset to catch the MBS lightshow, which was quite lame, but it was a bit lonely.

Sunset view from Kinki. 

I joined GuavaPass, which is very similar to ClassPass in the states.  Gyms here are quite pricey (~$130) and although GP is $140, I think it will be a good way to explore different areas in town and try different classes.  The diversity of classes here blows my mind!  Especially coming from somewhere as physically active as CO.  The first class I did was YogaMax, which was yoga with weights and some swing stretching.

You could also enroll in:  belly dancing, yoga, ballet, judo, pole dancing, open gym, bootcamps, etc.  After YogaMax, I met up with a new friend, Kevin, and some of his local Singaporean friends.  We had delicious cocktails of Japanese whiskey and green tea and stayed out dancing and laughing way too late.

It was just supposed to be a casual Thursday night drink.  Oops.  Does seeing a bottle of Moet & Chandon make anyone else immediately think of that SNL skit?!  I'd link it for you, buttttt I can't actually get to it from a foreign country.  Google it.  You won't be disappointed. 

Then I got to come home and FaceTime with these three gorgeous human beings hiking Matthews/Winters in Golden.  So sad to have missed the Denver/Seattle weekend for Brandon's birthday we planned months ago, but they all were so sweet and kept me up to date with texts and pictures and FT.  [Dad, seriously, get an iPhone.]

Thursday was supposed to be a little quiet because there was a booze cruise planned for Hari Raya Friday.  The end of Ramadan is a public holiday in SG, so we all had the day off.  

 Champagne toast to start the day!  

 Lazarus Island

 The whole crew. 

Last group shot before we headed back to land. 

Alyssa organized this whole thing, so 21 of us got to take a chartered boat out to sea for the day.  Was $75/person, plus BYO food/drinks.  It was such a fun day.  Once we docked, we headed to the Tanjong Beach Club for more fun in the sun/sand and for me to discover that I am, indeed, an athlete.  Rugby was so fun!  And even though it was touch, I managed to get a few sand burns. 

Saturday was a pretty lazy day full of recovery, napping and laundry.  A few of us did manage to catch the National Day practice air show and fireworks though!  As I mentioned in an earlier post, Singapore is turning 50 this year and, in preparation for the big day, they practice (in full!) the parade, air show and fireworks every Saturday.  Since I will be out of town for the actual day (we get a 4 day weekend and virtually no one stays in town for it), it was so great to catch the festivities early.   A group of us went to this restaurant/bar OverEasy for a perfect view of the shows. It blows my mind that they do this every week for 5 weeks.  So insanely expensive and disruptive, but also fun!  Someone mentioned to me that I probably only get to play tourist for one more week and then I'll be an actual resident.  Eek - I'm not ready! ;)  After the show, I was talked into making the 30 min walk home...so hot. 

 There's a giant commercial airliner leading the pack there. 

Soooooo pretty!

Sunday I finally made it to one of the famed Sinagporean hawker centers. 

 This picture doesn't do it justice, but the line for this chicken rice was insane. 

 $5 of deliciousness.

After I was full from lunch, I decided I needed 8 fried dumplings ($4) and some delicious pineapple/pear juice ($2). 

After my lunch excursion, I had grand plans to go to the gym.  It took me almost an hour to finally find the gym and then it was closed.  I was so hot and exhausted and irritated after 3 hours in basically non-stop heat, I just decided to go home rather than look for another gym.  I hate to use the heat as an excuse, but it is seriously draining.  I'm really hoping that I adjust to it at some point. 

I happened to fall into a really great group of people via my incredible flatmates and hanging out with them quite a bit this week was nice.  I'm really enjoying everyone I'm meeting - they're all so friendly and smart and interesting and fun.

Week 2 Highlights

Week 2!  Time is going by so fast and so slow at the same time.  I still haven't settled into a routine.  Some days I get up early and scoot to work, others I really sleep in and bum around before ubering into the office.  It's dark in the mornings since the sun doesn't rise until 7:30am, I'm still having nights of crazy dreams and lots of tossing and turning and I also really need to start to exercise again.  Hopefully that will appear in next week's highlight reel :)

I sampled a kebab from down the street one day for lunch.  It was so delicious and served in a brown bag, yet still cost $9.

I decided to partake in Iftar, which is the daily celebration of breaking the day's fast during Ramadan.  Singapore is FULL of religions, Muslim being one.  And since I'd heard that sharing in this celebration was something non-Muslims could do in Singapore, I jumped at the chance.  I can think of almost nowhere else where this would be possible/encouraged/welcomed.  There's a large mosque on Arab street, which is right by my office and one of the cooler neighborhoods in SG I've been in so far, so I headed down there just before sundown (as that is when the fast is allowed to be broken).  I walked around and took in all the different vendors that were set up, collected a sampling of food (no idea what anything was) and attempted to find a seat.  There was a tented area next to a BUSTLING restaurant and I peeked in, but I already felt like I was imposing on a celebration that I hadn't fasted for all day, so quickly went to make my exit when an elderly lady waved to me and motioned to an open chair across from her.  I was SO taken by this act of kindness from a stranger, from a Muslim to an obviously non-Muslim.  Being the emotional wreck I am these days, it made me tear up a little.  I'm so grateful to be having these amazing, once-in-a-lifetime experiences, but I'm still doing it all alone.  This woman's warmth was an assurance I needed at a time I needed it.  So, I sat and she offered me her dates and I offered her my bag of fried ball things.  I wish I knew better what to order, but I did okay.  And then I walked home sipping a canned cucumber juice (so much caramel coloring in it it actually tasted like candy - yuck!) and was very happy that the sun had gone down.

As I mentioned, Arab Street is very close to the office, so I popped over there to get a coffee with coworkers and opted for the fresh kiwi, apple, cucumber and mint juice instead and it was SO good. At $6 that's not bad and healthy! Which can be hard to get in Asia.

On Friday, we did a work outing to an indoor climbing gym.  It was so awesome!  Some of the other ladies in the office got great pics, so I'll have to share those later.  Then, we had dinner at Crab in Da Bag (yes, that's really the name of the restaurant).  We opted for just the traditional steam, but if you pick flavors, they steam them in a bag...hence the name.

Sooooo delicious and sooooo much!

Then, I went out with one of my flatmates, Karl, and his friends.  I met them at a mexican restaurant and then we took a "party bus" to the next bar -- basically everyone pays $10, there's disco lights, and smoke and the driver pours drinks WHILE HE'S DRIVING and takes a very long route to the next bar (so you can get your $ worth).  It was hilarious and awesome and apparently something people do often.  It's almost like expats don't have enough things to throw their money at.

We took our party "bus" to Club Street, which is a very expattastic place to party.  Buying bottles is very typical here and actually a better deal than individual drinks.  You can also cork it and take it with you, which is just what we did when we went to this secret underground bar (which isn't really a "secret" because everyone knows about it, but the entrance is in kind of an alley and there's no marking on the building.

The inside of the underground bar.  I love crazy lighting.  

This delicious drink, and the cucumber spear rolled in a variety of sesame seeds, was delicious.  And $25.  Gasp!  

But this neightboord and the area where the mexican restaurant was were very fun with lots of bars (more to add to my list for visitors!)

Saturday night, my same flatmate, Karl, and the same one who won Junior Masterchefs, hosted a dinner party for friends and let me tag along.  It was so fun to cook with him and host and so many great conversations were had amongst all the guests.

Alyssa, on the left, is an adorable Kiwi who spent the first 13 years of her life in COLORADO.  #nativesunite Christine, is a brilliant German woman and Lyn, on the right, is a fellow (and hilarious) American - yay, Merica!  [Not pictured is photographer and boyfriend to Alyssa, Jerome, and the Masterchef, Karl.  He was slaving away in the kitchen.]

 As they tend to around here, a lot of conversations revolve around life as an expat, and the fact that we are all so diverse ourselves.  We chatted about differences in politics, currency, ways of life, how foreigners are ostracized, etc.  We talked about travel and, of course, everyone was curious about pot being legal in Colorado.  However, they were much more interested in the policy and economics around it versus ("Dude, so do you go to like pot shops and stuff?"), which is a nice change.  We talked about Asia in general and its potential to gain superpower status over America.  And then we went and played beer pong because we don't take ourselves or our situations *that* seriously.

Team USA vs the world.  Typical.  

Sunday I finally got a blender, hair dryer and straightener.  The hair stuff was so expensive!  I also got groceries, painted my nails and wandered around near my apartment trying to find some neighborhood gems.  Not much out there, but the park area was nice...not sure how I didn't take any pictures.  Like I said before, a theme.

One thing that struck me this week, no uniformed police.  At least none that I have seen.  Word on the street is that there are lots of undercover police officers, but something tells me, no matter what, they're everywhere....

Random SG Musings Pt. II

• Maids.  Upon arrival, and after my first week noticing that no one had one, I had to ask, "So, what does Asia have against dishwashers?!" The crowd simultaneously responds with, "Maids!"  When I first started looking for an apartment, nearly every single listing had a maid attached to it.  I just thought, "Okay, sweet, I don't have to clean."  Come to find out, the extra "storage room" in the kitchen is actually a bomb shelter (ya know, for when Malaysia invades) and people have their maids LIVE in these windowless boxes.  Nice.  Apparently, that's becoming less en vogue because people are catching onto this weird thing called human rights, but still, everyone has a maid.  Now, she may live with you or not, but everyone has one.  Ours comes once a week, will do whatever you ask of her, and charges $15 SGD/hour.  In other words, it's insanely cheap.  It's kind of slavery, but I'm also kind of into it?

• Hot water, where are you?  So, typically the shower gets hot.  The water that comes out of the sinks is very lukewarm.  So, you brush your teeth in warm water and we have to refrigerate glass jugs of water for drinking.  But HOT (unless you're showering one at a time) doesn't exist.  So without a dishwasher, we wash everything by hand, in lukewarm water.  Super sanitary.  Jess Heimer would die.  Die.  At least I'm giving my immune system a boost?

• Refrigerate everything.  And I mean EVERYTHING.  Coming from CO, I'm super used to leaving things like bread, garlic, tomatoes, peanut butter on the counter/in the pantry.  Unless you are really into mold, I suggest not doing that here.  The heat and humidity do not allow for this kind of behaviour. (See that spelling?!  I'm practically a local.)

• No napkins.  Restaurants don't really give napkins.  Some will if they're really nice or they notice your alabaster skin, but for the most part, people either don't use them or it's BYO tissues.  Tissues.  Strange and not something I'm getting used to because even in America, I got super hostile when restaurants would serve you a sweaty drink without a serviette.

• The heat.  Seriously though.  It feels like the heat is ON.  Just muggy blasts of hot air at all times.  I keep waiting to get used to it, but I don't, and people say you never do.  I thought my skin would freak out in this climate, but it actually LOVES it -- turns out I'm just a glowing goddess.  A glowing goddess with really frizzy hair, but 1 out of 2 ain't bad.

• Along with the rest of the world, pretty much everyone in Singapore speaks two languages.  Makes me super jealous.  When is America going to start putting this into our school systems?  We live in a global world.

• Being in a new country that was more conservative , I thought I was going to have to be really careful to be PC.  On the contrary, I have found people to be quite comfortable pointing out differences in race, language, religion, etc.  On occasion, some of these comments could probably be regarded as "racist," but you'd have to ask the subject of the joke for a definitive answer on that.  Generally speaking, people move to America to become American and we aren't taught to celebrate different cultures or places of origin and pointing out people's differences is seen as rude or prejudice.  I have found this part of life here to be refreshing.  There's no harm in pointing out someone's race as a way to identify them and, I think, it's nice to recognize that we're all different.

• Metric system.  Just one more thing the US needs to embrace.  WHY is the rest of the world content to operate on this and we just can't seem to get over our feet and miles and pounds?!  It's incredibly annoying.

People Talk Funny

And, no, I don't mean because of any obvious Asian language barriers.  This is all due to the fact that Singapore is a former British colony, so there are lots of British ways of speaking.

- Keen.  As in, "Are you keen for dinner tonight?" Or in American "Do you want to go to dinner tonight?"
- Fancy.  Similar to "keen." "Do you fancy a drink?"
- Posh.  I would typically say "fancy," but that's now been replaced by "posh."
- Lift AKA Elevator.
- Bin AKA Trash Can, which leads us to...
- Rubbish AKA Trash or garbage
- Toilet.  This is quite literal, but it still grosses me out.  "Little girls' room" has a much better ring to it.
- Return AKA round-trip.  When booking a flight, no one says "Oh yea it was $200 round-trip."  It's ..."$200 return."
- Quite.  They just say this quite a lot.
- Flat AKA apartment
- Air-con AKA A/C.  Just a funny way to shorten "air conditioning"
- Holiday AKA vacation
- Opposite AKA across the street
- Cheeky.  Meaning something rude or disrespectful.
- Take away AKA to-go
- Booking (often subbed for "reservation")
- Give way AKA yield
- Alighting AKA....disembarking?  One should "give way" to "alighting" passengers before boarding.
- Queue AKA line

These are all small, and things we've likely heard before, but I always have to pause for a second or two and make sure I know what people are saying.  I'm getting the hang of it though.  Next comes spelling things like "favourite" and "specialise" -- even professional emails from Americans/native English speakers have words spelled like this.

Oh, yea.  And there is Singlish, which would qualify as one of those typical Asian language barriers, but it's almost English, too....hence, SINGLISH.

- Ah then -- "and what else"
- Don't shy -- "don't be shy"
- Don't play play -- telling someone to take you seriously
- Shake leg -- for people who can't sit still (I'm looking at you, Schaefer)
- Fatty pom pom -- to make fun of people who are overweight
- Fly aeroplane -- if someone stands you up
- Sorry no cure -- when you don't want to accept someone's apology
- Confirm and can -- just used to say that you can do something.  "Can, lah!"
- LAH -- added to the end of every sentence just for fun to add emphasis
[So many more of these...when I learn more, I'll pass them on.]

So, when I come home sounding completely different, perhaps you will understand :)

Let Freedom Ring!

It's the Fourth of July!  Happy 239th birthday, America, you don't look a day over 225!

After a rather rude comment by someone about "cooling it with the whole America thing," I was determined to make my 4th abroad great.  I decided to keep Friday low key (despite the many social invitations I had ;)) so that I could "hike" on Saturday.

The Southern Ridges is a large green area that connects various surrounding parks via a walk way.  I was originally going to do the entire length (9km), but stopped short.  Shooting off from the main walkway, are many loops and trails, so there's much more exploring to do here.  I follow what must equate to Singapore's tourist board on Instagram and they posted something about the Henderson Waves that really caught my eye and my Saturday day plans were born!

I woke up 7/4 to a crazy storm.  I couldn't see out my window and the rain was lashing against the building.  Basically, the apocalypse had arrived.

The "view" from my window. 

Checked the local radar map.  Singapore is so tiny it doesn't take much to really knock her out.  Notice in fine print in red up top that we were experiencing a "squall" - haha.  

Finally, the weather cleared, so I packed up and headed out.  I had to wait 4 whole minutes for a train!  Those things are slow on the weekend :) During the week, if I have to wait more than 2 minutes to get to or from work, people start to get reaaaallll bijigitty.  (Someone told me that if the signs ever say 6 minutes or more until the next train arrival, people whip out their camera phones, post on Instagram and demand refunds - ha!)

I stumbled upon this Singaporean running blog/website called justrunlah.com (more on "lah" in a post to come) that detailed how to get to and navigate what I wanted to do, which was perfect!  The train stopped right outside where I wanted to start.

 I was so sad to not see any monkeys :(

 Marang Trail.  Gorgeous!  And it smelled all damp and woodsy, almost like home :)

Looking back from where I came. 

 Up, up, up I went. 

 Old mansion that local artists live in. 

 All around Singapore you'll find Heritage Trees, which are very old trees that have been preserved even through the city's rapid expansion.  

Big tree!

I brought my DSLR on this jaunt and, boy, do I need a refresher from my BIL.  Thinking of looking into photography classes here - I think it would be a really fun hobby for me and useful with all the travel I'll be doing. 

 At the top, you reach Mt. Faber park. 

 HERE is where I needed my BIL.  Lighting, spot metering, whaaaa?!

 I love looking through this LUSH window to a METROPOLIS

 Homie was doing some kind of crazy Tai-Chi/ballet moves and he did NOT like my picture taking. 

 The Henderson Waves!

 Nature and industry coexisting.  And they said it couldn't be done!

 The waves create all these cool bench outcropping things.  I saw people resting, reading, snuggling, and even doing yoga. 

 Gotham.

Pano!  (wish it weren't so hazy.  stupid rain)

 Oh, how times have changed :)

 These little workout stations were all over the place.  Singapore, where you can eat a kebab out of a paper bag and never get fat.

 FYI - I simply took pictures of this shit.  Exercise?!  I'm in the middle of a 9k walk for god's sake and these 70 meters of elevation are really givin' me a fit.  Ooohh!  Kebab stand....

 After Henderson Waves, you come to Forest Walk...another long bridge suspended into the treetops. 

 Hi!  I've gotten into a really great beauty routine here.  It's called "I know no one, I give no fucks"

 And that wraps up the Nature Preserve for the day.  They light the bridges at night and the park stays open till midnight.  Can hardly wait to return with visitors!

 I told Brandon my plan was to get to the end and then just wander around until I found something good.  He tried to convince me that it could be good to research and find a place.  "Nay!" I told him.  "I'm an adventurer."  An adventurer with an iPhone who promptly whipped out her phone, found her way home, stumbled upon Chinatown and gorged herself on greasy food and the day's news.  And iced oolong tea!  For $5.  Woop!
(So, he was right.  He rarely is, so I'll give him credit here in teeny tiny writing.)

 Post nature-walk, we had a work BBQ for a teammate who is leaving us :(  It was still the Fourth, so I donned my red, white and blue, found Budweiser and made a night of it!  It's true, NO ONE outside of America cares about our Independence Day, but I'm glad I still celebrated it.  After all, home is where the heart is and the more I see of the world, the more glad I am to have been born with a US Passport (thanks, mom and dad!)

 Did I mention there were SPARKLERS?!?!?!  There are MANY years where even sparklers are outlawed in CO due to fire danger, so this was a real treat.  I lit like 17 and twirled around and was just HAPPY. 

 Then, my boss convinced me to go to Zouk with him.  It's like the best club in the world or something?  IDK.  I'm not used to being pals with my bosses, but I'm glad I am now because we had a blast.  At times,  I was the only one on the dance floor, twirling around like a fool, because I know no one, I give zero fucks (see above). 

July 5 brought with it a raging hangover, so I spent the afternoon at the "cinema" (as my British peoples call it) seeing Ted 2 and then we absolutely GORGED ourselves on Din Tai Fung.  Seriously, the waitstaff was appalled.  CANNOT wait to take visitors here.  So good!  Ted 2 was good, outlandish, but funny.  I was worried about censorship here, but if they censored that thing, I don't want to see the real version.  Yay for movies in Singapore! 

(If 36 pictures in one blog post is wrong, I don't want to be right.)