Some thoughts after 48 hours in new apt!

Some thoughts….

I have made a pretty big dent in finding places for all my things.  I still need to work on the clothes and my bathroom.  Though I just bought a curtain rod for my bathroom and hung up my curtains.  I had the liner and curtain and curtain hooks, just lacked the rod.  My guest bathroom is finished – the color theme is blue with rocks!  The kitchen is finished and groceries have been purchased and my Kate Libby calendar is now hung up on the wall.

Coincidentally the floors of my place are the exact same as Greece.  Living/dining room – marble, kitchen and bathrooms – tiles and bedrooms  - wood!  I thought that was kind of odd.  I have arranged the minimal furniture in the living room and dining room to where I prefer it.  I still need to figure out where my photos are going to go.

Dorthe, Bruce and I ventured on the bus to the grocery store today; which obviously took less time.  We went to Fair Price rather than Cold Storage which I went to yesterday and I have decided Fair Price is the better grocery store; better by merchandise, prices and variety. 

Ok – so Fair Price is attached to a small mall and as I was walking around things looked familiar.  I then realized this was the mall that Dorthe, Bruce and I ended up in after we opened our bank accounts the first day!  Wow – that seemed so far away.  In this mall called Bukit Batok Plaza there is a store I would say reminds me of a Bruce’s Variety Store in Bethesda.  Though it doesn’t have everything… it seems to have everything I need that has to do with domestic chores…and this is where I bought my curtain rod!

There is someone on my floor who plays the piano and thankfully well because they practice daily for a good hour!  There are many kids in my apartment complex – actually there are many kids in Singapore, period.

Whenever someone calls the elevator from whichever floor it ding-dongs – even if it is not coming to this floor.  This is somewhat annoying.

Though I enjoy my air conditioning, I miss not having a ceiling fan.  My throat hurts in the morning from the dry air.  And again even though I like the cool air I miss the breeze.  Maybe I will attempt not to sleep with the A/C on tonight and sees what happens.

It is the first day of work tomorrow – August 1!  Luckily work (right now) is only a 10 minute walk down the street!

And JT if you are reading this, this font is for you!!!! 

Friday Social and Bumboat Ride

Today (July 29) there was a happy hour for the entire new faculty, their families and the administrators at a bar called Red Dot on the Singapore River in the Boat Quay area.  It was a lovely venue with beer, wine and appetizers.  There are 57 new faculty members this year.  That is correct 57! 

The largest portion of us “newbies” are hired for the TK campus which is located on the Southeast side of the city/island/country.  Apparently there has been a positive growth to this campus.  I have met so many wonderful people so far.  I find that most people who are in my age range are working at this TK campus and are married, and many of them with small children.  It is said that unfortunately since those who work at TK live near TK and we who work/live on the other side of the city/island/country hardly ever see these folks!

The next largest population of “newbies” will be working at my campus TT (Toh Tuck).  And the smallest amount of new hires will be working at JE (Jarong East); though the TT and JE campuses will be coming together at the end of October as we move onto our brand new campus called Lakeside (LS).  Are you following with all my acronyms?

I basically had met all the new teachers ai will be working with at TT while we were at the hotel together, so this evening I met the principal Rob Kiddell (who is also new) and the new vice-principal Mario G  (who is ALSO new!).  Everyone was so down-to-earth and nice with great senses of humor.  Neither of these two men were pretentious nor displayed superiority.  It was quite pleasant!  (Aside note:  Rob’s wife Melissa graduated from LPCI!!!!)

Merlion

bumboat

After some great mingling we all boarded a bumboat for a river cruise.  It was a beautiful way to see the city.  We passed under many bridges, saw the Lotus and other famous buildings, the Merlion – the famous symbol of Singapore spraying water out of its mouth, the Sands Marina Hotel, many other high rises, and other well-populated areas.

I will always look glossy as it is so humid here!

After the bumboat ride, Bruce, Dorthe and I headed to the Carrefour so I could pick up some breakfast groceries for my new apartment and took the ever-so-crowded bus back to the suburbs!

Raffles Hotel

Marina Bay Sands Hotel in background

 On Wednesday, a whole bunch of us were picked up from the hotel and driven to MOM (Ministry of Manpower) – the government office for work/resident permits.  We had our photos taken and our thumb prints scanned.  By Monday our cards will be ready and all the necessary paperwork/permit work will be completed.  What took Greece 2.5 months to accomplish was accomplished in 10 days here!  And though I am quite pleased by this efficiency and I wouldn’t want it like Greece again I  have learned …

Everyone went their separate ways, now in a new area to explore.  Jasmine (the new art teacher at my school), Dorthe (pronounced Dorothy) and her partner Bruce and I all ventured out together.  Now I do see a smile growing on some of your faces as you read this… I was in charge of following the map and getting us to our destination…. I told them my friends would laugh and I am somewhat map reading deficient.  But we did make it to our destination of the famous Raffles Hotel.

famous hotel doormen

What a huge obstacle it is getting from point A to point B. There are so many places where you can’t cross the street and you have to use an underpass.  Once in the underpass it’s like a maze.  You would think you would just walk to the opposite side to where you were but honestly it’s not that easy.  Or most of them time you are brought into a mall and there you are most definitely lost.  It is truly unbelievable about how many malls there are here which have at least 6 floors and it is so difficult of finding your way back out again. (More about the shopping in another blog entry).

a building in the back

When we did finally make it to the Raffles Hotel, again it took us awhile to figure out that we entered the back of the hotel not the front.  The Raffles hotel opened in 1887 by the Armenian Sarkies Brothers as a modest hostelry.  The hotel continued to expand until 1915 where all the historical buildings were in place. It was in 1899 that the Main Building opened which was the signal of Raffles transformation into a Grand Hotel.  In 1991 after 2.5 years of restoration the Raffles Hotel reopened as it was historically in 1915.

This is the place where the famous cocktail the Singapore Sling was created and it is what one should have while there.  We however decided not to have the drink.  I have also heard there is a great High-tea here, so this will be my new “Grande Bretagne” hotel for my annual birthday tea!  We were not allowed to go inside the main hotel lobby as it was for “residents” only.

Jill, Jasmine, Dorthe, Bruce

Breakfast with the Orangutans and the Browne’s!

What another great day it was today!  I met the Browne’s (D – mom, A-one twin, M – other twin) at their beautiful house not far from my hotel.  They are

American but I met them in Athens, Greece as the girls attended K-2 there.  The girls will be attending CIS too!

python

A and M

We took a taxi out to the Singapore Zoo to have breakfast with the orangutans and then spent the day at the zoo.  The zoo has a lot of different plants and vegetation that is welcoming to both the visitors and the animals!  Their habitats are well-laid out and spacious. 

As we ate breakfast so did the orangutans, which are SO cute!  We were able to have our pictures taken with them (in the background).  The zoo took the photos and also you could use get your photo taken with your own camera – but those one didn’t turn out as well as the “zoo photographer” photos… which cost $35 for an 8x10 with a free key chain.  But I just went with what I had!  I also held a python and got some great photos of the orangutans!

We went to the sea lion Splash Safari show – where M volunteered and got a big wet kiss from the sea lion.  Then we continued on to the elephant show, the Fragile Forest (which contained parrots, flying foxes (large bats), butterflies, ducks, lemurs and other free-flying creatures!), and saw just about every other animal.  We ended our 8 hour tour of the zoo with an elephant

2-toed sloth

ride!

$5 to feed the rhino - he had quite
a square mouth!

I am looking forward to going to the Night Safari sometime this month (as purchased a double ticket price for both zoo and safari!).  We then retreated back to the Browne’s for a swim and some dinner.  I also did a load of laundry and Skyped with the Confers and Blaufuss!!!!!

sleeping flying fox - it was about 1 m from me!

Another fabulous day here in Singapore!

Day 2 - Evening

Sugar cane juice

Though I had stayed awake all day and had gone to bed at 10pm, I had awoken bright eyed and bushy tailed at 3 am and never went back to sleep.  So after the whirlwind of apartment shopping I tried to rest in the hotel room… they are unfortunately doing construction on the 6^th floor and I am staying on the 7^th floor so now peace and quiet.  So I headed to the pool, but the clouds started to form, the wind began to blow and then there was something else blowing through the air… we were asked to leave the pool area because they were fumigating the area to get rid of mosquitoes.  AAGH!   

Just as I was leaving.. Dorothy and her partner Bruce came by and wanted to know all about my shopping adventure so met at the pool and chit-chatted over some cocktails.  

They make a lot of different juices; sugar cane, watermelon, starfruit, avocado, basically any fruit.  I look forward to trying some new ones every day.

In the meantime, we met more CIS folks and collected some more people at our table and decided to head to Chinatown for dinner.  We ended up at the hawker stands in Chinatown for dinner---I don’t think I will frequent there too often but Smith St. a main street in Chinatown which is closed to cars in the evening looked more inviting, and I will definitely go back to that area.  We watched some fireworks as they were practicing for August 9^th National Day celebration (similar to Independence Day).  And then head home.  What a great day!