Jewelry

A few very special pieces of jewelry have been giving me a lot of comfort on this journey:

My sister gave this to me on the last night we were together.  It's Colorado made (!), navy (!) and has "M&M" engraved on it for our first-ever nicknames, Monkey & McGee.  Can you guess who is Monkey and who is McGee??  I'm probably not supposed to shower in it, but I can't take it off.  It's now an extension of my left arm and a reminder of my roots.  (You can find it on Etsy)

This bracelet was a gift from KC & Hannah for my MBA graduation.  It's a bangle with the Dr. Suess quote, "If things start happening, don't worry, don't stew, just go right along and you'll start happening too."  It's a reminder of their faith in me.

Brandon gave me this for my birthday.  It's by an Etsy designer that is friends with my friend Andrea in Denver - you can find her here.  "Peach" is just one of the many things he calls me, whether I'm being super nice to him in the morning or I have some fabricated ailment.  I fiddle with it all the time to remind myself that I am loved.

My favorite Korean, Sarah Yoon (or "Jungah" if you're me or her mother), gave me this for my MBA graduation.  We met and studied abroad and lived together in Italy in undergrad and she is one of my best friends in the world (even though we aren't the best at always keeping in touch and only see each other less than once/year).  This necklace reminds me of that experience and that adventure and that life-long friendships are just around the corner.

My work sister, Jess, gave me this.  She's my work sister because, A - her name is Jess, just like my real life sister and B - just like my real life sister, once one of us walks into a room it's non-stop laughter and I lean on her constantly. 

Jewelry is such an easy way to carry home with you and even though I can't get real hugs from these people, I just have to reach around my neck or wrist to know they're "here" and have my back.

Days 3, 4 and 5

Day 3
Happy Monday!  Happy first day of work to me!  I didn't think the heat was so bad until I had to commute to work with my laptop bag -- oy.  Imagine my horror when I walked in the bathroom and this was the first stall I walked into...

First one I've seen in SG.  Boy, do I loathe the squatty potty.  Pee splatters, people.  Also, in places like China where western toilets are much less available, where do people puke when they're hungover?  Thankfully, there were western toilets in the other stalls or else I may have had to quit :)

Work is great.  I have so much to learn, but I also have an awesome boss who is so willing to teach.  He also treated me to both coffee and lunch on my first day.  My work days will be long, but I'm learning that's pretty typical for SG.  People also typically do later mornings and later evenings.  The commute is busy and I'm still figuring out exactly what works best, but it should be about 25 min no matter what.  The office is 1.25 miles from home and I'd love to walk it if it weren't for the HEAT.

 This is a large green space next to my condo building with the sun starting to set. 

 My condo building!

 Sunset from our kitchen window.  10 cranes are in there.  10!  And I thought Denver was booming...

Day 4
Tuesday.  I was on my own for lunch today and found this in the nearby mall.  It's so weird to always be going to malls.

 So delicious and only $5.80SGD

I pass this on the way to the office.  It cracks me up every time because I feel like every woman's feet feel the same as this little sidewalk garden. 

Hi!  Here I am in the office elevator returning from lunch very shiny.  In the mornings, there is always an open elevator waiting for you and the elevator says, "Good morning!"  Also, the close door button really works!!!!

Tonight I went to trivia with my flatmates and their friends.  It was an Australian restaurant and my one beer, mediocre chicken BLT and pitching for 2 shared apps was was $50SGD - yikes.  It was pretty fun and good to meet people.  However, I remembered how hard it is to socialize at trivia and how serious some people take it.  I'll try, try again :)

Day 5
I had a later morning start because I finally got to FaceTime with Dad -- hadn't talked to him since I left, so that was great!  I'm thinking of looking into a "work schedule" that starts at 9am here, so I have time in the morning to catch up with the US.  Nights are harder since I'll hopefully have a social life at some point and I'll be working later than I did before and I just like my sleep.

Today I experienced my first SG rain!  I just watched it from the office -- it wasn't the crazy thunderstorms I've heard of, but it was nice to see some weather -- now it can go back to being sunny :)  We have a little sandwich/soup/salad joint in the lobby and I did that for lunch today.  It totally tasted like home and made me so happy :)  It was a bit more expensive than yesterday's at 7.40 SGD, but I really don't think I could make/bring lunch for much cheaper and we don't have the large kitchen set up like my US office.

Vegetarian sammie and minestrone soup.  Have I mentioned that the office is super cold?!

Really cool and interesting things are happening at work.  I'm not actually working on them yet because I'm dumb, but just getting to sit in on the meetings has been fascinating!  Working in International M&A was always THE dream, but everyone told me I would have to work in investment banking to do that, so I resigned myself to never doing it.  Again, I'm not actually doing anything right now besides training and learning the markets, and when I do start contributing I won't be working front ends of deals, BUT we work very closely with the transactions team to understand their models so that we team can track them once they close and start hitting our books.  We also work with them on upcoming deals so we can build them into forecasts.  Additionally, deals are occasionally restructured and we work with them on that.  Soooo cool!  I'm really energized by the work and little pieces are starting to make sense.  We will see what happens once I actually have to start pulling numbers and creating reports...

We closed our first deal of 2015 today and a few of us went to Champagne happy hour (okay, Prosecco) at Halia in the Raffles Hotel to celebrate.  Only $8/glass, people.  It was fun to celebrate the accomplishment and to spend time outside of work with my teammates.

....

Adjustment has still been hard, but Brandon gave me some good advice in the comment section of "Advice" (here).  I've been putting so much pressure on myself to see and do everything.  A - that's not realistic B - it's not me and C - i'm living here now, so there's no real rush to run through a checklist of sights and restaurants.  I need to get settled at home and focus on work and the rest will come.  I guess I have two life coaches :)

Random SG Musings

I started keeping a note in my phone of random things I'm noticing/loving/hating:

• Prices.  When I first told people I was moving to SG, they had the same two morsels of "advice" for me.  "It's hot!"  "It's so expensive!"  Honestly, it hasn't felt that expensive to me.  I was really worried about it coming in, but I've been pleasantly surprised.  My rent is cheaper (although I have roommates), taxis are cheap, no car ownership, food is reasonable.  Booze IS expensive, but there's just no escaping that.  I've heard from other expats that life is much improved with the stronger dollar (thanks, Merica!)  Also have heard that apartment prices are coming down (yay!) because lots of new condos have opened.  It's also easier to negotiate and will be more likely to not have to be locked into a 2 year lease.
• Blue Sky!  I LOVE the sun.  Brandon calls me weather bi-polar (ain't he sweet?!).  If the sun is out, I'm the happiest person, but if it's cloudy, hide 'yo kids.  Having only ever been to China in Asia before, I was preparing for the worst..."sunny" days that aren't actually sunny because you're constantly shielded by smog.  But it's sunny here all the time!  And that equatorial sun is no joke, people.  I need to implement an SPF regimen.  Any gals out there have any face lotion with SPF that you love?  Send it my way, please!  SG really is beautiful.  
• Receipts.  When I am world dictator, one of the things I plan to eradicate, along with smoking, cat calls, rat-tails and homophobia, is receipts.  Whyyyyyy?  It's 2015.  I haaaaaaattteeeeeee receipts.  Well, here in SG, they double your fun and give you two receipts for every transaction.  TWO.  One itemized, one for the credit card.  Kill me. 
• Time change.  It's getting brutal.  I'm 14 hours ahead of Denver, which means all I want to do is stay up all night to talk to everyone back home.  That, and/or get up early.  This is all meaning less sleep for the gal who loves to sleep.  And then I want to spend all morning at work texting with everyone.  This is not sustainable. 
• 220 Voltage.  My phone charges so fast!  (If you know me, you know my phone is always dying)
• Safety.  I could not do this in any other place.  SG is so safe.  It's like Merica, but better I have to assume.  Safety (or my perceived safety) has made the transition so much easier.  Anywhere else in Asia, or even in Europe, you have to watch your belongings very carefully.  VERY.  Here, run around with your purse open, leave your laptop on the table while you order your Starbucks, it's cool.  
• Speaking of things that are cool, SG is not.  It really is hot.  Except for the office.  Where, just like every other place I've worked, I'm freezing at all times.  Today I snuggled against the sunny window for warmth.  Everyone thinks I'm crazy. 
• Shoes.  If y'all were feeling a Ferragamo drought in the USA, I know just where you can find them.  Every single woman is wearing Ferragamo's and I'm just over here in my Old Navy flats like, "heeeyyyy."
• Escalators.  They move super fast.  I almost fell off my first one, but now I'm an old pro.  Merica would never have fast escalators.  Someone would certainly fall off and sue.  Efficiency, I love you! 

Sick

For home.

One of my first thoughts upon arriving at my new apartment was, "Okay, getting here was an adventure.  I'm ready to go home now."

The first two days in SG were pretty rough for me.  Exacerbated, I think, by the jet lag.  There were a lot of tears.  I would wake up in the morning and groggily think that it had all been a dream and when I quickly realized it wasn't, I would burst into tears.  Then I'd walk past a family and sit next to a couple at brunch or smell lilies at the grocery store and I'd lose my shit all over again.  The thought "mistake" kept popping into my head and I kept trying to remember how much I have wanted this and how hard I pushed to get it.

I don't think I managed expectations well going into it.  I was just SO excited.  I kept thinking back to my study abroad experience in Italy and how I didn't really get homesick until about 6 weeks in and how I figured that's what would happen here -- the first few weeks would be bliss, and then I'd be really missing home.  But Italy was different...being in a study abroad program, I had a built-in community.  I had classmates and seven female roommates and everyone was new, everyone was looking to hang out together.

I was so eager to get out of Denver.  I'd lived there my whole life and without owning a dog, being obsessed with skiing or smoking weed, I didn't really feel like I fit in anymore.  I started to feel stagnated in my job and as more time passed, I just knew I need to experience working abroad.  And I was glad to finally be realizing this dream.  Maybe I purposefully didn't let the full weight of what I'd be leaving behind sink in, but I certainly felt it once I arrived in SG.  One of my favorite things about travel is the perspective it gives you...how big (yet also small) the world is, how there are SO many walks of life (but how we're all still humans at the end of the day), etc.  It also has always made me appreciative of what I have at home, but previously I've only truly missed silly things like food and Target.  Wait...I take that back...Target is not silly.  Nor is Whole Foods.  WF - I miss thee!  This time, the appreciation is much bigger.  I know what and who I have at home and what and who I've left and I'm missing it all.

All that said, I'm 100% glad I did this.  I KNOW I would look back with an ocean of regret if I didn't.  And, I've promised myself I'll tough it out for at least a year even though I don't think that will be necessary because all the expats here LOVE it.  I'm just waiting for that day to come around for me :)  Starting work has helped a lot.  I've always found quite a bit of my identity in my professional self and being back in an office (and a DaVita one at that) has been nice.  I have some sense of normalcy and I'll eventually get into a routine.

I read an interview with James Taylor in the Hemispheres magazine on the flight from Tokyo to SG and he said, "I write a lot of songs about the pull of home, the pull of family, of watching the sun rise and set in the same place through the seasons, and then the attraction of wanderlust, of getting out on the road, of seeing the world."  And a line from one of his new songs is:

"My favorite thing is to miss my home when I'm gone."

The man is a genius.  

Day 2

I finally slept!  Wahoo!

First thing this morning I went grocery shopping, or to the "Cold Storage" as it is called here.  I'm still struggling a bit with the adjustment and mornings are the worst because I wake up feeling like it was all a dream.  So, when I entered this large shopping center and saw a 7/11 with jarred Frappucino, I just HAD to have one.  A little caffeine and taste of home was just what the doctor ordered.

I will take pictures of the CS eventually.  I had no idea what to expect, but was very pleasantly surprised.  It was big and bright and had anything one could want.  I got a few things and headed back home.  Jaywalking is a big no-no here allegedly, but with arms full of groceries I had to break the law today.  Thank goodness I'm here to tell about it.

My first homemade "meal."  Avocado on $13 Ezekiel toast.  I had to.

After shopping, I bummed around at home for a while and blogged (yay!).  Then, I headed out to figure out the subway or MRT (mass rapid transit) as it's called and to find my office for the morning.  I got my little metrocard thingy, which can be used for both bus and subway and headed to my office.  It's a 10 min walk to the MRT, about 3 min on the train and then 6 min walk to the office.  Shouldn't take me more than 25 min each day to get there.  I could walk the whole way for a little mroe time, but a few minutes in air conditioning are probably worth the $0.80 fare.  

 The Gateway!  These are two towers in the Bugis neighborhood.  DaVita occupies space in the East tower and there's a Starbucks in the West one :)  I checked out the company listings at both places -- the whole world is here!

 I laid on the ground for this and still couldn't get the whole thing.  You can find me on the 19th floor of this tower for most of the next few years :)

I was doing so well on my adventure that I decided to walk to central downtown, so that I could get a picture of Marina Bay Sands.  I'd seen it a few times in passing from a cab window, but that thing stops my heart every time, so I wanted to get a picture.  It was a 30 min walk and I was SWEATING, but I made it!  

 Taken from Youth Olympic Park.  MBS is the spaceship on the left.  The ArtScience Museum is the spaceship on the right. 

 Pano!

Got up the courage to ask for someone to take my photo.  I better get used to it.

Seeing the MBS is so amazing and will likely never get old.  I've always been a sucker for city skylines, but this one.  Oh man.  There's so much to explore down here that I know I'll be back many times, but maybe next time I'll come at night and via cab.  

I was so hot that I was going to head home after I got my photo, but I walked across the bridge and into the Shoppes at Marina Bay for some of that coveted A/C.  Holy shopping.  The place is unreal.  I found some postcards and sending love notes home really boosted my spirits.  If you'd like one, send me your address :)

I probably won't keep up these lengthy daily posts, but hopefully the blog will inspire me to take pics and write stuff down!