Through this blog we hope to keep in touch and give you some insight into what our life is like on the other side of the world. There has been so many questions and requests for pictures that we find this might be the easiest way to keep everyone up-to-date. Thank you all so much for your love, support and interest in what God has planned for us. We miss you all very much and are looking forward to visits from those who plan to make the trip to our new home!
Love,
Mark, Emily, and Adriana
Ok, so sorry for not posting for TWO MONTHS! I actually did have a post typed up that I wrote and never finished, it is dated May 8th. I just posted it today along with this new one, so look back one post if you want to see it.
So, why haven't I posted for so long?
First of all I think I burnt myself out with my super LONG posts. Second of all, to say it has been busy adjusting to our new life is an understatement. I started this blog when we first arrived and it still very much felt like a vacation. But once our sea shipment arrived and some homesickness/loneliness set in, things got a bit difficult. They say when you relocate like this, it takes about 3 months before it "hits" you. Well it hit me about a month into it when Mark started traveling a bunch for work, I was trying to learn how to live in a new city and culture with a baby in tow and not many local friends to lean on. I don't want this to be a negative post, but I also want all to understand what I have been up to. Here are some of the things that happened:
The haze hit mid/late June. I won't get into the details of this (you can read the links below if you want more info) but for a week we were basically stuck inside for fear we (especially Adriana) would breath in toxic air. This is all resolved, for now. Thanks be to God! I said a prayer and posted a prayer request on Facebook on June 22nd and it lifted a few hours later hasn't been back since!
Adriana got her first fever and was ill for about a week. This was the first time she was ever really sick and I was a scared first time Mommy. Felt alone and Mark was traveling for work. So it was another week stuck inside, but this time with a sick baby girl.
The sea shipment arrived and I need not say much more than the fact that it can be hard to unpack with a toddler running around, all the while keep her safe!
It takes time to make friends and I was lonely. Yes I can call home, but its still not the same as a hug in person. Also many times when I was lonely, it was the middle of the night at home and by the time everyone was up, I had picked myself back up. Thankfully I have now met many new friends who are just lovely! Once the haze was over and Adriana was well, we were able to get out and meet lots of interesting people from all over the world! (More on that in another post)
I felt somewhat trapped at home as I slowly learned how to navigate public transport with a baby in tow. I have had experience with this in the past, but taking a baby along is a whole different story. Now that I know how to navigate the city and can confidently keep her safe while doing it I am doing much better. Plus, I am more confident driving on the other side of the road and can take the car out by myself when Mark is out of town.
Here are some FUN things we have been up to:
Exploring the city and sightseeing
Learning to drive in the city on the other side of the road
Making friends, hosting playdates, learning about other cultures
Signing Adriana up for things like music class, swimming lessions, etc.
I want to keep my posts small going forward, so I will elaborate on the above fun stuff in future posts. I want to thank all of you who supported me, Mark and Adriana as we adjusted over the past few months. The phone calls, Skypes, texts, and emails have been so very helpful. This funk I was in was all a very normal part of this relocation. Please know we are doing well and are very happy now that we are more settled in! Here is a pick of our cutie to keep all of the Adriana fans out there pacified until the next post!
So many have asked, how did Adriana handle the relocation? How was her plane ride? How long did it take her to flip her day/night schedule? So here it is......
As I said in the first post, it takes about 24 hours total to make the trip from Ohio to Singapore if you include layovers and such. About 21 hours of that is time in the air. A few hours from Dayton to Atlanta, 13 hours from Atlanta to Narita (Tokyo) and then 7 more hours from Tokyo to Singapore. So yes, many were not in envy of us boarding a flight that long with a 13 month old baby. Once again, ITW took awesome care of us on our trip and put us in business class, which has the seats that completely lay down. Booyah!! :) Well that's just great if you don't have a baby with you, but where will Adriana sleep? If she isn't safely sleeping somewhere, I won't sleep and I am not sharing my little pod with her for fear I would roll on her. So awesome, they even had a solution to that, they have baby bassinets for the plane. So, I was like, okay....but she is 13 months old, she will climb out of a bassinet. Their answer, she is restrained. So, we were all set, we have lay down seats, she has a bassinet, we will sleep! Awesome! So this was the plan anyways....
Our flight from Dayton to Atlanta was uneventful, ON TIME, smooth like any other domestic flight, except it was my first time in first class, which was nice. Once we got to Atlanta all seemed well with our flight to Tokyo and we confirmed the bassinet would be available (for the 3rd time). Then started a big snowball: The flight was delayed due to "mechanical problems". My thought was, well take your time because if you are going to fly me and my family across the Pacific, I want all mechanical problems resolved. I was at first concerned about missing our connection in Tokyo to Singapore, however we were told the same jet was taking us on to Singapore, so no need to worry about missing a connection. Well that all changed, as they decided at the last minute to fine another jet to connect us, so the one in Tokyo could leave on time for Singapore. So we were delayed over 3 hours, missed our connection to Singapore AND when we boarded the flight to Tokyo, we found out THERE IS NO BASSINET in business class seating. WHAT? How could an agent tell us so when the flights are booked and then multiple agents confirm with us the day of the flight that there is a bassinet when there isn't? So to say the least, things got off on a pretty rough start. Plus Mark and I were both ABSOLUTELY EXHAUSTED from the packing and shipping of our things the previous few days. I was understandably upset at this point, but really in someways numb to it as well because I was so tired. Little did I know, God had his hand in all of this, as it all turned out just fine, read on.
So when we boarded the jet for Tokyo, yes we received bad news about the bassinet, but we were also SUPER impressed with our seats (and beds!). Some of you have had the pleasure of flying this way before, but for those who haven't.....We seriously had our own little pod on the plan with a little table inbetween us. The seats layed down flat operated by remote, we had our own TV/computer that flipped out when we wanted it (everyone has this on international flights regardless of seat), we were also given a little "hospitality" kit with slippers, a sleeping mask, ear plugs, toothbrush/paste, etc. along with a pillow and a heavy blanket (not one of those cheapy thin airline blankets). Also, the food was soooo good, not yucky airline food! I mean it wasn't like a four or five star restaurant but you got a menu and it was actually pretty good! I seriously did not know what to do with myself. Thank you ITW!! :) :) :) I planned on getting some pictures of the set up on our third leg of the trip after I got some sleep, but turns out we did not get the same set up on the last flight. Due to the shifting of flights, we got put on a whole other airline (more on that later). But here is one shot I did get before we took off. Mark is taking this picture from his seat and you can see a part of the little table between us. You can also get a better idea if you take a look at the lady behind me (there is an aisle between us). I will get more pics when we fly home at Christmas, because we get to do this all over again, and again. :)
Here are a few pics I found off the internet, picture describes it so much better than words....
So how did Adriana do? We went into it expecting the worst, but hoping we would be pleasantly surprised and we were. She truly is a little angel and she did so good. Especially when you think about the fact we had no way of explaining to her what was happening and everything was new to her. Since we didn't have the bassinet, Mark and I decided to take turns sleeping and holding Adriana. Turns out, I really did not get much sleep, but I was VERY comfortable. Getting her to go to sleep was a bit of a challenge as she is used to going to sleep on her own, in her crib. I tried to hold her while she slept, but she just wasn't comfortable. She is used to being able to spread out and roll around in her crib like a big girl until she is comfy. But I knew even if I couldn't sleep, I knew she HAD to get some sleep for all of our sanity, so I managed to make her a nice comfy bed on the floor in front of me. If I didn't lay back my bed, there was a small area at my feet that was protected by walls for her to safely lay down. I made a comfy bed out of some blankets and she was out. :) I didn't sleep, so I could keep an eye on her, but again we were all much happier if the baby could get some sleep.
Thirteen hours later we landed in Tokyo and obviously had to get a hotel room as we missed our flight to Singapore. Everyone was so very helpful, friendly and very attentive to Adriana's needs. They set us up with some food, a crib and some baby bath supplies. While most would be frustrated to have to stay over due to a missed flight, it was quite a blessing to stop and rest, especially for Adriana.
With the flight delay we also had to switch from Delta Airlines to Japan Airlines and wow was I impressed with Japan Airlines. I had heard Asian airlines were more customer focused than airlines from American and Japan proved this. I felt like I was eating in a restaurant with the food service they provided. They also were super awesome with Adriana. She got a children "welcome kit" with baby friendly snacks, little games, etc. They served her first before others (probably to keep her quiet, LOL) and were overall just awesome. A downside to the switch in airlines, is we didn't have the lay down seats, but the seats were still super awesome and reclined back almost to flat with lots of space. Another perk to this was we finally got the bassinet!!! :)
Turns out, I still wasn't comfortable enough to go to sleep while she was in there, but at least I could lay her down and we could have our own space. Again Mark and I took turns sleeping while the other kept an eye on her. She also didn't sleep as long in this as she did on the floor during the other flight, go figure! Here we are snuggling on the flight from Tokyo to Singapore. At this point, she is like "Mom, what is going on? Can we go home now?"
And she's out again! :) This time in Mommy's arms! :)
Through all this Adriana actually got very clingy to me and as long as I was in sight or holding her, she was happy. I loved this because she was in that "Miss Independent" stage at 13 months and I was missing cuddle time!!! It felt so good to hold her and tell her everything was ok and see her relax. She was attached to me before the move, but before the move as long as I was in sight she was good. Now she wants to sit on my lap, sleep with me, give hugs and I am loving every minute of it!
So we finally landed in Singapore the evening of May 10th, just in time for dinner. Another perk of the flight delay we didn't realize at the time was because a 24 hour trip turned into a 47 hour trip, by the time we arrived in Singapore poor Adriana had no idea what time it was. This helped us to easily flip her schedule within a week or so of arriving. Previously I thought it would take a month after talking to other mothers, but Adriana was so very tired by the time we arrived in Singapore the evening of May 10th, that all we had to do was give her dinner, keep her up for an hour or so, lay her down at 8 and boom she was out for hours, even though to her it was actually day time. When we first arrived she would wake up at midnight and 5am Singapore time thinking it was time to eat as it was lunch and dinner time at home, but after a week or so she stopped this and was back to sleeping 11-12 hours at night.
Here is shot from our hotel room the night we arrived:
Beautiful downtown Singapore. Thanks for the awesome view ITW!
I know this post is EXTREMELY long, but once I got started I couldn't stop, there is just too much to tell. I should have probably split it into two posts, one for the condo stuff, the other for the moving/packing stuff but I figured, you all can just read at your own pace. There are basically two large sections. If you want a good view of the videos, I would make sure you have QuickTime player on your computer, only because Windows Media Player flips some of the videos. Enjoy! Packing up and Preparing for the Move The first 4 months of 2013 were the busiest I have ever been in my life and things really didn't slow down until 2 weeks after we arrived in Singapore. Yes pharmacy school was difficult, but that was more like a marathon over 6 years. Yes it was busy planning our wedding but that was over 9 months and I could do it a little at a time with a little sprint at the end. Preparing for this move was more like a sprint for 4 months straight and on top of the move, I was taking care of little Adriana and continued to work part-time until mid-March. Mark was also extremely busy at work getting things ready for the transition of his position and still traveling. I knew we would be busy, but I did not fully comprehend the magnitude of it until April when a lot of it hit at once, which will make more sense below.
One of the most important things we had to do in these four months was to say good bye. We will come home to visit once a year, but we will go to Dallas where the majority of our family is. Then Art, Nancy and my parents will fly down to be with us there during our visit. So there will be many of you we will not see at least for the next 3 years or so. :( We want to thank all of those who organized farewell gatherings for us (I think we had 5 or 6 total!) and for those who made the trip to our house to say good bye. We are so lucky to have such support and love surrounding us! So sorry if we didn't get to see you before we left, as it was impossible for us to make it to everyone with the strain of the move.
Here are some facts that I think will be helpful when reading below:
Move date: May 8th
We didn't get a confirmed move date until February, so it was hard to plan some things until we knew when things were actually going to happen. We were given a range of April-June 2013 and that is all I knew for awhile. I was frustrated but ITW really did their best as they had to move some people (and families) around to get all positions covered.
Shipments to Singapore
We had two shipments going to Singapore, one by air and one by sea. The sea shipment had to be anything large we wanted to have in Singapore as the air shipment was only a 5'x5'x5' container that was to carry any essentials we needed in Singapore prior to the arrival of our sea shipment (takes 6-8 weeks by sea).
Sea shipment: April 19th, estimated to arrive mid June (still not here yet!)
Air shipment went out 2 days before we flew out (May 6th) and estimated to arrive by May 10th (2 day air with time allotted for export and import).
ITW hired a relocation company, Xerox, to take care of all of our needs for the move and they were great! They answered any and every question we had, even how to transport the dog (sad face). They were "in charge" of the overall relocation and then they contracted out with other companies/services to get things done for us. For example, they hired the moving company.
One of ITW's goals in all of this is that we do not financially "suffer" from this relocation. So they pay our rent in Singapore (~$6000/month for our little 3 bedroom condo!), they pay a certain amount of our utilities based on how much we used to pay in Ohio, they adjusted Mark's salary for the increased cost of living, and of course anything associated with the move (movers, shipments, plane tickets, etc). They also gave us a certain amount of cash to account for moving expenses upon arrival (furniture, appliances/electronics, driver's license, etc).
Adriana's First Birthday on March 28th! Had to include this as it was a fact I had to throw a party and it couldn't be just any party for this special little blessing! Yes, I know, she won't remember it and I probably just should have let it go or done something low key with all that was going on, but I just couldn't. You only turn ONE once and one day I will proudly show her the videos and pictures!
So here are some details about the move based on some questions we have had from many of you:
1) ROXY!
I will start with Roxy as I am still struggling with not bringing her with us. I said this was going to be like a journal for me, so here I am writing down my thoughts and the reasons I keep going over and over in my head why she isn't here with me now. I miss her so very much, especially on nights like tonight when Mark is traveling.
One of the first things I started working on in January was getting things set up for Roxy to make the move as we had to follow some strict rules in Singapore to get her into the country and the timing had to be just right for her rabies shots, rabies titers and her export certificate from the USDA. Plus we had to book her "room" for quarantine well in advance to guarantee her a "good" spot. Well, after spending much of the month of January trying to get these things started, we found out it was going to cost us $6,000 to have a company called Air Animal transport her. We looked into other companies but they were all around this price. This includes the vaccines, transport to and from airport, care needs during the layover, the 10 day quarantine services, etc. We could have opted to do it on our own and it would have been cheaper, however, we then could not guarantee many things including her care on the flight and what would happen to her if we had a flight delay. Now looking back on it, thank God we didn't do it on our own as who knows where she would have stayed the night we were delayed and had to stay over in Tokyo. We just couldn't take the risk with her care, or justify the cost, money that could be put towards Adriana's college fund. Furthermore, we really weren't sure how she was going to handle the flight. The vet did approve her for the trip but she is 12 years old. Also, she absolutely hates to be locked up in a room let alone a crate. So yes, Roxy stayed in Ohio with Art and Nancy, a home she is very familiar with--she spent the first several years of her life here and stayed her while we vacationed. It really is a dog's paradise-out in the country with lots of room to run and a doggie door to come and go as she wishes.
2) What happened to our HOUSE and CARS?
All of the vehicles were sold: My parents bought my car, Mark sold his car on autotrader, Ryan got the truck, and the motorcycle is still up for sale (let us know if anyone is interested!). On May 5th, it really was crazy, we went from 2 cars and a truck to none of them all within 24 hours. That was a bit WEIRD not to have a car! Thanks to Mark's Dad for letting us use his car until we flew out!
As for our house, ITW recommends you keep your house and rent it out, just incase there is a situation where you have to move back to the US on short notice. We selected a property management company and ITW is paying the fees for this. So we continue to pay our mortgage for our house in Ohio and they pay our rent in Singapore, so really no difference for us on this end. It was so hard to leave this house. I know it is just a house but its the first house we bought together, the house we came home to as newly weds, and the house we brought our first baby home to. Lots of memories there and we will miss it and Springboro!
Below is a link to the rental listing of our house on the property management website. I thought I would share this for those who have come to visit us, because it is so weird to see the house empty! There is a video on there if you scroll down. Isn't it so weird?! (If you haven't come to see us , its just an empty house).
3) How do you PACK to move across the world? The packing we did really wasn't the packing you think of when you think of moving because ITW hired a company to actually pack the stuff. What we had to do was purge and categorize everything into five categories: sea shipment, air shipment, storage, donation and trash. In some ways it was wonderful to not have to worry about packing, but in other ways it was really difficult for me. First, who wants complete strangers putting their things in boxes? But once I saw what a good job they did and the stress it took off of me, I was glad they were there. Second, I had to put the house into the categories above and it was difficult to do this. I was worried something was accidentally going to go into storage that was suppose to be shipped. We first cleared out the basement and sectioned it off into storage and sea shipment. Once the weather got nice, I parked my car in the driveway and my side of the garage became sections of sea shipment, storage and donations. So as I went through the things in each room, I put them into these piles. Each room had its piles, but some of it could not be done until the last minute, in order to keep the house livable.
I would say about 90% of our things went into storage. We couldn't bring our furniture as there was no way it was going to fit in the condos over here. Really the only furniture we brought was Adriana's nursery. I wanted princess to have her room over here! We also left behind most of our electronics because not only are the outlets different (that can easily be fixed with an adapter) but the voltage is different: US uses 110volt/60 hertz system and Singapore uses 220volt/50 hertz system. Really we only brought our computers (they are made to handle a wide range of voltages) and Adriana's baby monitor because I love with it and couldn't part with it (by the way, I found it over here but who wants to buy it again!!). Most of our cold weather clothes also went into storage. We only brought a few weeks worth of warmer clothes for our visits home at Christmas.
Here is a pic of the outlet here. Each outlet has its own switch for energy saving and safety. This Mama likes it! ;)
The day the movers arrived for the sea shipment (April 19th), I felt like we were in pretty good shape, I just had a few last minute things in the kitchen to go through. It was a different story the day they arrived for the air shipment (May 6th). This day marked the beginning of some pretty high stress and low sleep that lasted for about two weeks until we got to our condo in Singapore and started to feel settled. So back to May 6th....it was only a few days before we flew out and stress was naturally high. I will never forget the way Mark and I looked at each other when the we heard the moving truck pull up in front of our house. You know the look Macaulay Culkin gives in Home Alone when he realizes he is home alone?
Yeah, that's it! haha!
Well this is the look Mark and I gave each other that morning, May 6th when our air shipment was to go out and they were to start packing our things for storage. We didn't feel ready and it was like, well, ready or not here we go! I felt totally unprepared, but the movers eased my worries when they said we were more prepared than many people are. I guess when its a move like this you can only do so much!?! I had a few hours of some anxiety that morning as they started moving through the house and it got more and more empty. I really just walked around the house, thinking I was doing stuff, but really I was just pacing from room to room. After a few hours, I did calm down and called Tammy to come pick up Adriana so I could focus on what was going on. THANKS AGAIN TAMMY! :) Also, my lovely neighbor Amy brought us over some lunch! THANKS AMY!
The next day, May 7th, started better as everything that was left in the house was to go in to storage, so that part was easy. This day actually got more stressful as the day went on because we flew out the next day but had to drive to Springfield as we were staying at Mark's Dad's house since ours was gutted and they could take us to the airport. It took a lot longer than we thought to finish cleaning out the fridge and cleaning of the island in the kitchen as it had become a catch all over the past few days. Little did I realize how much junk was on that island. Once again, my lovely neighbor, Amy came to the rescue and helped! The car seriously looked like we were moving to college with all of the luggage plus we had kitchen items to give to Art and Nancy. On this day I learned some lessons for our next move:
I will not stay in the house up until we move. I will get a hotel room for a few days if not a week before. There were just too many last minute things to take care of with the food in the kitchen and other items of daily living that made this last day chaotic. Some of the things I needed to do to pack up would have made the house unlivable, so I should have just booked a hotel and got the stuff done.
I will not pack up everything for storage and fly out in the same week, let alone within 2 days! I would have rather had them pack up our stuff for storage a week or so before the flight, even 3 or 4 days before and I could just live in a hotel off of the stuff in our luggage and air shipment. We did it this way as this is how the relocation company recommended we do it, but it was all too last minute for me.
Other things we had to take care of included. medical appointments, setting up our Wills and updating life insurance
policies, Adriana's passport, etc. but I won't bore you with all those little details. I was just happy we took care of this little stuff in advance!
Our Condo Search and Selection
Another task during these months was to search for a place to live in Singapore. We started the process during the December visit but the goal at that time wasn't to find the actual place we were going to live, it was to get a good idea of what the apartments/condos were like here and to see some of the different neighborhoods to help narrow down our search later. When we asked where are the bad neighborhoods, the response was, there isn't really a bad part of town, which was good to know. Other things we had to think about were the further from city center the larger the space we would have and the quieter it would be, but it would be less modern/older condominiums and less convenient to get around. The closer to city center, the smaller the condos with more city noise, but here you would find more modern condominiums with the convenience of the city's transportation systems closer to you (Taxis, bus, MRT (subway)). We ultimately decided to go for the condos closer to city center, but not right in the downtown. We thought, if we are going to live in a city, we should just do it up big and live in the middle of all of it. Plus, I knew I would need the ease of getting around and connecting to the city when trying to navigate around with Adriana while Mark was working. So we knew we were on the search for a condo close to an MRT station---its a lot easier to get on the MRT with a stroller than on a bus and I was not up for taking Adriana in taxi's with no car seat (that is what many do here).
Surprisingly, many of the modern condos are all built with the same basic layout with differences in the smaller details. They all had the following: Entry into the main room which served as living and dining, with the kitchen off of that room. Behind the kitchen was the maids quarters which included a very small bathroom for her use, the laundry area, the bomb shelter and the back door to the condo (this is where deliveries and service men come in when needed). Then the other direction off the living/dining area was a hallway back to the bedrooms and bathrooms. Some places had one balcony, some had two (two is good for a cross breeze if you live on a high floor!). All had pools, workout facilities and playground for the kiddos. Ok, so let me explain a few things:
1) Why do they have bomb shelters??? Yes, this was an immediate question of mine as well and concerned me. I quickly found out that it is a government regulation to have bomb shelters in all households for public protection. Like any large city in the world, Singapore can be a target for terrorism due to the large amounts of people in one spot. This does not mean that Singapore is at any higher threat then any other country or city, its just the government's way of protecting the public (so no need to worry, Mom!). Many times the bomb shelter is used as a pantry or as the actual room the maid sleeps in (this is sad as it is not even big enough to put a twin size bed in!). We are using ours as storage/pantry space. If you want to learn more about the bomb shelters and see a pic, click this link: Click for more info on the bomb shelter
2) Maids?
It is very common for people to have maids in Singapore (also referred to as foreign domestic workers, helpers, etc). Most come from the Phillipines and Indonesia and are willing to work for very cheap rates. They take care of everything from cleaning, cooking, to going to the grocery store and child care. At this point we have opted not to have a maid, just because I am not working. If I go back to work, we may consider part-time help.
We also had to decide if we wanted to go with a furnished vs. unfurnished condo. The first apartment we saw was furnished and it immediately turned me off from going with this option. The furniture was "tired" looking and I don't mean to sound stuck up, but I just wasn't comfortable using furniture others had used and abused, especially couches and mattresses. Ironically, we ultimately got a furnished apartment as Mark found one that was basically brand new (only used by one other tenant), the couch is leather (so I can clean it) and the mattresses were clean (plus mattress covers are a wonderful thing!). Here is why we went with the furnished:
If we did not go with furnished, we were going to have to temporarily move into a service apartment, which is basically like a souped up Embassy suites with a fully equipped kitchen including appliances, dishes, silverware, pots, pans, etc.They were very nice, but we did not want to have to move twice, especially for Adriana's sake and well being. We wanted to get her settled and familiar with her new home.
We would have to seek out and buy furniture ourselves, which would extend the time it took to get settled which is so important when trying to learn a new culture and navigate a large city. Yes, it would be fun to buy new furniture and pick everything out on our own (for me at least), but for the short time we are going to be here, it just wasn't worth it as we would have to sell everything when we move back in 2-3 years. While we can find convenient ways to get the basics like groceries, clothes, and decor, buying and moving large pieces of furniture just isn't convenient for us here.
$$$Money$$$ As I have said over and over, it is EXTREMELY expensive to live here and the furniture prices are outrageous. ITW did give us a large sum of money to account for these costs so we could buy furniture, but if we don't spend it, then its ours to keep. ITW has taken care of us and adjusted Mark's salary to account for the increased cost of living, but it doesn't account for me not working and we do have a daughter we need to send off to college one day! So once we stumbled upon the new furnished apartment, it was a no brainer-save the money and take the convenience of having your furniture upon arrival! No service apartment needed!!
Now that we have arrived in Singapore, I realize going with a furnished apartment was one of the best decisions we have made yet in this whole process. I cannot imagine having to settle in again to another place and uproot precious Adriana again. She has settled in very happily and is eagerly exploring and enjoying her new home. We like refer to as Hurricane Adriana! She leaves a path wherever she goes! It is so priceless watching her find and discover new things!
Below are some interesting differences in the Condos here. At least this stuff is new to me, other large cities may do the same things, I have just never lived in a large city like this! There are actual pictures of our condo below and I know! I know! many want a video tour, but I am not quite ready for that yet. Our sea shipment isn't here yet, so I'm not feeling like showing a full video until we are more decorated and cleaned up! :) There is a video below of our actual condo BEFORE we moved in, so read on...
The Kitchen
Kitchens are enclosed and many have a door as opposed to the modern day American kitchen that is commonly open to the great room and the center of the home. The closed off kitchen is built due to the fact that Asian cooking involves a lot of oil, spices and fish, all which can make for some unpleasant odors over time. By closing off the kitchen the odors are minimized in the rest of the condo. (You can see them in the videos below)
They don't use microwaves here and they rarely bake, so some of the kitchens only have a stove! WEIRD! We got our landlord to include a new microwave for us and we made sure we picked a place with an oven, but it is a small one! It can fit one 9x13 dish in it at a time and it is quite interesting to figure out how to use it (more on that in another post).
Many of them don't use dishwashers, so we had to be sure we got a condo with one. I am super pleased with the one we have. If you ever came to our house in Springboro, you know how much I hated our dishwasher b/c of the noise and only ran it when we went to bed. I love our new one!! Its basically silent, only the sound of a trickle of water.
They are very much into energy saving and thus their is a switch for everything, even to turn on the hot water to the sink, the gas for the stove and the power for the dishwasher and oven to run. The set of switches in our kitchen:
Some of the kitchens we saw were seriously the size of a closet. Sorry, no pics of those ones, wish I would have got some but it was a must to have a decent sized kitchen. Many people here don't cook and just eat out all the time and if they do, they only use the stove and a small slab of counter space to do it. Take a look at the size of the refrigerator in "The Trizon" video below. Obviously some do not store a lot of food in the home.
The Bathroom
Many homes do not have baths in them, just showers. We thankfully got one with a tub for little Miss Adriana.
They basically have no outlets in the bathrooms. They have a built in hair dryer like you see at a hotel that has a few outlets in its console, but the outlets are weird and some say "for shavers only". I still haven't figure out how I will flat iron, if I ever get the guts to straighten my hair in this humidity!
Again to save energy everything in the bathroom has a switch including the hair dryer, the jacuzzi jets and the water heater for the shower. At first, I was a bit hesitant with the water heater for the shower, b/c who is gonna remember to turn it on? So I wasn't sure if I would just leave this switch on all of the time, but turns out, some of the water does stay warm with the hot temperatures outside so if you flip the switch at the beginning of the shower, you have enough hot water to get your shower started and the heater quickly catches up with you. So, I do turn the water heater on and off, besides it saves money and I would feel guilty if I wasn't trying to be environmentally friendly now that I have the option.
For some reason all of the bathrooms have windows in them and most are huge windows. Some are frosted, but many are not. Some of them didn't even blinds up in them. They also commonly have a trough off the bath or shower outside to put plants in, then you can open up the window and bath beside the plants with the breeze blowing on you? Haha, I can't see myself doing that here not only b/c of privacy but b/c I would sweat as I was showering! There is also commonly a space between the shower and window to sit and steam yourself while glancing out the window, I guess? LOL. Thankfully we have big blinds in our bathroom as there are huge windows in there, but the windows do make it nice to see when putting on make up! :)
The Bedrooms
Nothing really unique here except b/c of the tight space, there really are no dressers. The closets are big, have a few drawers in them and also have big cabinets above them the whole way to the ceiling for storage. I am sure missing our old walk in closet! I am super surprised at the lack of closet space here b/c many of the ladies I see out walking around make quite the fashion statement. Hopefully I will pick up some fashion sense over the next few years! :)
Private Elevators (Referred to here as "lifts")
I love this aspect it makes getting to our condo easier. I honestly was dreading having to use an elevator to get to my home, but this actually makes it much better. No walking down long halls and such to get to our place. You get in the elevator and when it opens, you are home!! Another awesome safety feature of this is that ONLY WE have access to our particular floor. So another resident in the same condominium who lives on the 5th floor cannot get to ours on the 18th floor. You swipe a little badge when you get on the elevator and it will only let you select your floor. I love it! There are three towers in the whole condominium and only two condos per floor, so there are two elevator shafts-which allows the elevators to open up to only one condo on each floor.
When the elevator opens, you enter our private foyer, where you take your shoes off. This is another part of this culture that I LOVE! You always remove your shoes when entering a home, we even have to remove our shoes when we enter the church nursery to keep the little crawling babies clean. Love the cleanliness!! As you can see in the video, this is where we store all of our shoes and thank goodness we have room to do it here, because we surely don't in our bedroom closet! I am still waiting for many of my shoes to arrive in the sea shipment! ;)
The Air Conditioning (Referred to here as "Air Con")
Each room has its own air conditioning unit just above the door to the room. Again, energy saving, so you turn off the air conditioner if you aren't using it. We actually turn off the air to the main part of the condo overnight and just leave the units on in our bedroom and Adriana's. They are all controlled by remote control.
Here are three videos Mark took when we were doing the condo searching. These were our top three:
The Trizon
Rhapsody
The Latitude--Our new home! This is the actual condo we picked below:
A view of the entire condominium from the outside (we obviously didn't take this, its just off the web)
Adriana's new playground, she obviously has to grow into it, but she does love the slide already!
This is the Kiddie Pool
I will post some other pics of the outside of the condo in another post!
So the Latitude is the condo we ultimately chose. We looked at 12 condos when we came out in December and then Mark looked at 18 more when he flew back out in April! It was quite the task, but happy we put so much work into it because we are very happy and comfortable in our new home. We did downsize from our house as the condo is about 1605 sq ft (this includes the two balconies) but the space is very functional and livable. Its also very contemporary, which I love! We picked this one in particular for many reasons including its proximity to the grocery and a mall which are both within walking distance, proximity to bus stops and the MRT (subway), its only about 2 miles from beautiful downtown, the fact that it was furnished with new stuff and then also smaller details like the size of the kitchen, storage space, the private lift and a bathtub for Adriana.
That's it for now..........next post will be about Adriana's big plane ride so you can see her air bed!!
Fast forward
about 10 months later and the FINAL decision to make the move was made with a
week long trip to Singapore, WITHOUT THE BABY! This was one of the hardest decisions I had to make since Adriana was born. I was still working from home and I really had never left her more than a few hours, let alone leave her and fly across the world. She was only 8 months old and still exclusively breastfeeding and I was not about to give that up. On the other hand, I knew I could not just move to this foreign city without spending some time there first, despite all of the good things Mark said and all the good stuff I read online. I also knew there was no way I was going to take Adriana with me. First, I had to see it for myself before taking her there. Second, why would I take her on a 24 hour flight, flip her day and night schedule, just to turn around and come back home? Furthermore, how were we going to get any of the apartment searching done with her in tow? If she did come along, there was no way she would be in any shape to be out traveling around the city looking at apartments. So after three long months of discussion, I gave in and we booked the flights. I knew this was coming far in advance, so I started stock piling my breast milk in the freezer so she would have my milk while I was gone (and we had JUST enough, seriously she finished the last bottle of it hours before we got back). Then on the trip, I "pumped and dumped" my milk throughout the entire week so I could keep my supply up so we could resume when I returned, and IT WORKED! I kept my supply and the evening I returned home she nursed like I had never left. I WAS ONE HAPPY MAMA and obviously determined to nurse her for the first year. Thanks to Amber and Jeremy for watching her for us and thanks to Ryan and Jamie for helping out the day we arrived home! Its so wonderful to have such good friends!
So onto my first trip to Singapore!!! We were gone from Nov 30th-Dec 8 but really only had 5 full days there when you consider the time change (Singapore is exactly 12 hours ahead of the Eastern Time Zone, so 10:00am at home, is 10:00pm in Singapore). Mark's company paid for the trip and while he had some work to take care of while he was there, the major reason for the trip was to get the "wife's stamp of approval". From what I gather in talking to his boss and stories Mark has told me, ITW has lots of experience in relocating their employees and therefore lots of experience with spouses making the move and then freaking out once the deal is done and they are moved. So, while I was thinking this is crazy they are paying for little ole me to fly here, (just one ticket is $1500!!) I understand the amount of money that would be wasted if I got here and then decided I couldn't live here.
So the flight is obviously a LONG one. We flew from Dayton to Minneapolis to Narita (Tokyo) to Singapore. The longest stretch is the 13 hour flight from Minneapolis to Tokyo and you would think you would almost be there, RIGHT? Not so much! Its still another 7 hour flight from Tokyo to Singapore. So total flight time is about 21 hours, but if you include layovers and all about 24 hours. The flight surprisingly went fast once I got over leaving Adriana. I got lots of sleep and everyone has their own personal TV/computer to watch TV, movies, play games, etc. so that killed lots of time.
Much of this trip was spent looking at apartments (more details on the apartments/differences from home living in another post). You basically have to be a millionaire to own a house here, so one of the big adjustments for us was going to be transitioning from our house in little Dayton, Ohio to a high rise apartment in Singapore. I needed to see (and Mark's bosses needed to know) if I thought I could live this lifestyle. Mark did work some while we were there and I was able to go into the office and meet all of his co-workers. They are a very diverse group of people--there are only about 12 people in the office with 6 different countries represented just in that one group! I also got to spend a good amount of time with his boss, Vianney (from Indonesia) and his boss's wife, Kalin (native Singaporean) and go to their church, International Baptist Church service and Bible study. The last day we celebrated my 30th Birthday. Below are some first impressions I had on that trip and some highlights:
1) HOLY HUMIDITY! Sheesh! Its a tropical climate and the city is located just 1° off the equator, so its HOT. There are no seasons, its just hot and humid all year round (this is a good thing for me because I am always cold). So when I was researching the weather before the trip I saw nightly lows around 68° and highs during the day around 85°, I thought, I can handle that. What I did not account for was the humidity. Mark said it was humid but WOW. Its about 80% humidity, so when you walk outside it hits you like a wall of heat. 2) Lush and green! Singapore definitely lives up to the title of tropical climate. It really is absolutely beautiful and the government does a good job of ensuring the city "preserves" that tropical look, even with all of the buildings. The bridges and overpasses are decorated with flowers, there are lines of trees along the sides of the roads and in the medians. One of my favorites on this trip was our run through the botanical garden. We were there at Christmas time so there were little Christmas trees all along the path representing every country in the world. Wish I had taken my phone on this run, but here are some other pics of the greens when we were traveling in the city:
3) Clean! Some of the ways they keep the air clean is by restricting industrial plants to only certain parts of the island and by minimizing the number of cars on the road--it costs ~$60,000 for the registration for ONE car here!!!!!! INSANE!! So only the very wealthy have cars, so that ensures there are less cars on the road. (The only reason why we have a car is ITW is paying for it because Mark needs it for his work). Smaller ways they keep it clean are heavy fines for littering, chewing gum and leaving your dog's poo behind. I even learned on this trip that they take children's temperature before getting on public playgrounds (haven't seen this for real yet, only heard about it so far). Below is a picture of the inside of their subway system, called MRT (Mass Rapid Transit). Super clean for a city subway and super easy to navigate around the city (which is good for directionally challenged me!). Also notice the guy on there with the Pirate hat, all the way in Singapore! Go Bucs! (that was for you Daddy!).
4) DENSE! This is such a small island for all of these people and buildings, which explains why you have to be a millionaire to own land for a house and to drive your car on the roads. The population is about 5.2 million and the island area is only 3.5 times the size of the area of Washington, DC. If you go to this website and look at the map on the right, it gives you a good idea of how small island is. Make sure you hit the zoom out button to really see! http://www.ifitweremyhome.com/compare/US/SG Here's another way to put it in perspective: The population density of New York City 10,640 people per sqkm The population density of Singapore is 5, 539 people per sqkm The population density of Washington, DC 3,977 people per sqkm The population density of Los Angeles 3,176 people per sqkm Singapore is also the third most densely populated country in the world after Macau and Monaco. I know, I am a HUGE dork for looking this up! But many have asked, how can I compare the size of Singapore to a US city, so here it is, Mom! ;) Plus, this is really helping me put my new home into perspective. 5) DIVERSE! I did feel like a minority here, but I also see people around me from all different parts of the world. I learned that 42% of Singapore's population are foreigners with the sixth highest proportion of foreigners worldwide. From what I hear, this diversity makes it easier to transition into the culture than other less diverse countries, so we'll see how we do!!! 6) Shopping! Shopping! Shopping! I seriously have not seen so many shopping malls in one spot. Its not like shops lined up on the street one after another like on Michigan Ave in Chicago, its like 5 story mall after 5 story mall after 6 story mall after 4 story mall, all within a tini little area. Unfortunately, its all high end expensive stores that I have seen so far, so Adriana and I will be doing LOTS of window shopping! Here is a pic of the entrance to one of the malls, ION:
6) International Baptist Church (IBC) This church was probably one of the highlights of my trip and one of the reasons I felt comfortable moving here. I loved the service (we saw a baptism that day!), I loved the church leader and his message, Pastor Rodney Woo (from TEXAS!), and we attended a small group that Sunday evening and loved it. Its a very diverse church: "International Baptist Church is a very unique expression of the body of Christ, The vast majority of churches reflect one nationality, culture, or ethnicity, but in a refreshing contrast IBC is composed of believers from 51 different nations." Below is a link to their website and a picture inside. The baptistry is right behind the choir and Cross.
I was quickly connected to this church on this trip and I truly believe it was God's way of showing me this was the right path to take. I was invited to a Christmas luncheon and got to know many lovely ladies and connected to a Mom's of Preschoolers (MOP) group for Adriana and I to join. The small group Bible study we attended the Sunday evening we were there also introduced us to a group of Americans to connect with. I truly felt welcomed to IBC and believed this would be my "network" when living here.
7) My 30th Birthday!
Last but not least, thanks to Mark I had a wonderful 30th Birthday celebration the last day we were here. We went to an island off of Singapore called Sentosa which is a very touristy place filled with lots attractions for little kids and big kids!, including Universal Studios. Here we did indoor sky diving, I can post pics of this on another post, don't have them readily available and I am sure we will be going back! We then went downtown and had dinner on the Singapore Flyer, which is basically a gigantic Ferris wheel with a spectular view of downtown
. You can just go for a ride, go for a drink, go for dessert or go for it all and have dinner, which is what we did. It takes 30 minutes to go around one time, so we had our appetizer/soup/salad the first time around and then as we swung around the bottom they "picked up" our hot dinner and dessert for the second time around. I did have some better pics of this, I think they are in our sea shipment which has yet to arrive. So these are off Marks phone and will have to do for now!
That night we stayed at the Marina Bay Sands, downtown. One of the nicest hotels I have ever stayed in. The best part and main reason for staying there, is the infinity pool on top. It seriously looks like you can swim over the edge, watch this video Mark took while we were there:
Again we have some awesome pics but I can't find them in the chaos of the move right now, so here are a few off Mark's phone for now:
Pic of the hotel from the ground:
Here is a better pic of the hotel from the outside until I find my good ones.
So it was a wonderful trip and obviously I liked what I saw! I had a sense of peace while I was there and was excited to return in the Spring, this time WITH OUR PRECIOUS ADRIANA! :)
So it was decided, we were going to
move to Singapore in Spring 2013!
Based on questions, I will
begin by "back blogging", starting with why we decided to move
and the prep for the move. I (Emily) will be doing most, if not all the posts
as Mark is SUPER busy with his new position, but know he will be watching to
hear updates and comments back from all of you. Who knows, we may even one day
get the pleasure of a direct post from him once things settle. ;) Let me also say that this is
kind of my journal for my time here. It’s a way for me to write my thoughts and
experiences, which I think will be therapeutic for me. I am a woman, so expect
me to get emotional from time to time. :) I also think it will be an awesome way
to connect with many of my loved ones, but it will not replace the more personal
Skyping, telephone conversations, and texts, so let’s also keep up with those
people! Furthermore, you all know me and know how detailed I am. So when I
commit to doing a blog, I will likely try to include EVERYTHING, so I apologize
in advance for my long posts. Read, skim and skip what you wish! See why
Facebook just wasn’t enough? J I will start with the why and
how we got to this point: We started talking about the
possibility of moving to Singapore in February 2012 (hence the back date of
this post), when I was 7 1/2 months pregnant with little Adriana. I remember,
it was the day before we left for my baby shower in Pennsylvania when Mark came
home from work. Prior to that there were talks of Shanghai, China and even
before we were married, I knew there was a possibility of an international move
for Mark’s career. So, WHY exactly did we move to Singapore? Mark works for
Illinois Tool Works (ITW), a company based out of Chicago. ITW is a large
multinational corporation with operations and customers in over 40 countries. ITW
has several areas of business including welding, food equipment, automotive
components and more. Mark started with an ITW business, Hobart Brothers, in
Troy, Ohio as an engineer upon his graduation from UD in 2005. He didn’t stay
in his engineering position long and soon found himself going back to school
for his MBA while working his way up the ladder at Hobart. In his most recent
position, he was the General Manager for two business units at Hobart Brothers,
solid wire and stick electrode. Since ITW is a global company, the company has interest
in developing employees by exposing them not only to their different areas of
business, but also to the different cultures where they do business. So, Mark
has been assigned to a position as Business Unit Manager for ITW Welding at
their Singapore office. The position includes sales, which is a new area for
Mark, but is still in their welding business, which he is very familiar with. ITW’s
plans for Mark are to expose him to the business and sales culture of Southeast
Asia and then bring him back to the US in 2-3 years, what that entails is still
undetermined. Maybe, their food equipment group in Texas?!?! ;) That would make
many family members, VERY happy. We really do not know where it will be next for
us, only that it will be back in the good ole US of A! So, while we are here in
Singapore, Mark will be based out of Singapore, but traveling throughout Southeast
Asia to sell ITW Welding products to many customers primarily those who need welding
supplies for the construction of big oil rigs out in the ocean. Yes, my initial
thought was, sooooo you are going to move me and our daughter across the world
to Singapore, and then leave us? LOL!! I am actually very excited for this
aspect, as many of the trips will be short and once Mark has his first go
around, checks it out for safety and cleanliness, Adriana and I will get to go
along for the ride!!! Other countries include Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines,
Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam. We would like to vacation in
Australia, Bali, China and Japan. Why not see this side of the world why we’re
over here? It’s going to be quite the adventure and we hope to get you pictures
and updates from each. Many have asked, what is
going on with my career through all of this. Let me tell you, this was a hard
decision for me, as you all know how much I have poured myself into pharmacy. I
haven’t lost my commitment to it and I do miss it very much already, but I just
could not look past the once in a lifetime opportunity God has given us. I
cannot even comprehend what we will learn and how it will change our lives and
views of the world forever. It also goes without saying, this is a GOOD career
opportunity for Mark. It is also a very good time family wise, considering
Adriana is not of school age yet and we aren’t too old and set in our ways not
to try new things. So, yes, I obviously had to quit my job at the VA, a job I
loved! But while here in Singapore I do have to keep myself up-to-date not only
for my continuing education but for my wellbeing when I rejoin the workforce,
whenever that may be. It could be here in Singapore, as I do plan on pursing
some leads on consulting positions that I can do online for a US company. I
also do wish to get board certified and was pleasantly surprised to discover that
there is an exam site here in Singapore, so I don’t have to fly home and take
the exam with a mega time zone change! Many people study for this exam for a
year, so it will definitely keep me busy and allow me to keep up with my
continuing education requirements. I also already have a contact to a faculty
member at one of the schools of pharmacy here in Singapore, which I am super
excited about. Even if I can’t get a position there, it will still be super,
nerdy awesome to see their school of pharmacy and maybe even do one guest
lecture or a talk on US pharmacy. As for my actual employment here in
Singapore, it is an option but a hard one. ITW would pay for me to get my
pharmacy license here, however once I got it, I would likely have some issues
getting hired. Only because in Singapore, they will favor a native Singaporean,
over a permanent resident, over a temporary resident (which is what I am). So I
may do all of that work to get licensed and never get hired. So as it stands
now, I will take the first six months or so to get settled and when we come
home for a visit at Christmas I may interview for an online position if
available. If that doesn’t work out at the least I will do my continuing
education work and sit for my board certification exam. And lets face it, all
along I will be doing my most important job of all…being a Wife to Mark and a
Mommy to Adriana Marie! Another thing we obviously
considered before we decided to move: Is this place called Singapore a safe
place to be? Is it especially safe for a little baby girl? With some reading,
we found out, Singapore is one of the safest cities in the world. It is
actually safer than most US cities. Here is some info I found online when reading up on it: "The crime rate in Singapore is one of the lowest in the world. There are reports of petty crime such as pickpocketing and street theft which occurs at airports, tourist destinations, hotels and on public transport. Incidents of violent crime are rare in Singapore. In the Corruption Perceptions Index 2010, Singapore was ranked 1stout of 178 countries for corruption (least corrupt countries are at the top of the list)." With this safety comes a more strict government, so
from what I have read some Americans feel “restricted” here. Big laws include,
it is illegal to own a gun for personal use and bringing illegal drugs into the
country is punishable by the death penalty. Some offenses are also punishable
by caning!!! A weird law I have told many of you about already, is it is
illegal to chew gum here! I guess years ago someone put a piece of gum over one
of the subway system sensors and shut the whole thing down, so the government banned
chewing gum. The law says you can chew gum only for personal consumption, so I
guess we can chew it in our apartment, but you can’t find it anywhere in the stores!
So we have a stock of it here from Sam’s Club, but will only chew it at our
apartment. A few other laws I like are, it’s illegal to spit on the ground and
its illegal to leave your dog’s poo behind. I guess if you break these rules
you get a pretty hefty fine, so people follow them. This and many other laws,
make for a very clean city. J I am sure there are many other laws I
will learn about along the way I can update you on. Some other stuff I looked
into was natural disasters. This is a quote I read from National Environment
Agency, Singapore: "Our geographical position and the relatively shallow waters of the Straits of Malacca and South China Sea make it highly unlikely that we will be affected by a tsunami cause by an earthquake in the region. We are also located away from the tropical cyclone belt and earthquake epicentres which makes us at a low risk of being affected by these natural calamities." Last but not least and the
hardest decision of all was to leave our loved ones. We knew this would be
difficult and it has been. To tell you the truth, I don’t even really think it
has hit me yet. I said good bye to many people, some I may never see again and
I didn’t cry more than a few times so far. That tells me I am being typical
Emily and not processing some of this yet, but I know when I do, many of you
will be there on the other side of a Skype, e-mail or phone call! That is also
one of the things I considered when making the decision to make this move. It
really is amazing how we all can keep in touch now, even instantly on the other
side of the world. If this was during a time when I had to hand write a letter
for snail mail to keep in touch and pay outrageous money to call home, I don’t
think I could have done it. But between our Magic Jack phone, Skype, e-mail, and
Facebook, I was much more comfortable with the move. Plus, we get to fly home
for Christmas once a year, paid for by ITW. Furthermore, if you think about it,
2-3 years is not very long at all. It’s crazy to think, Mark and I will already
be married for 4 years in September. Crazy, huh? Time flies! We will be back
home before you know it! So, I am going to soak up as much Singapore rays as I
can, try to enjoy each and every moment and leave my worrying days behind. It
will all work out, God has us, and has a plan and purpose for us being in
Singapore. Even for little Adriana, who knows, she may break some little boy’s
heart over here, haha! Just playing, Mark. I can see his face turning red now! JJJ So it was looking like we
were gonna move to Singapore, but I wasn’t completely 100% sure yet. I had to deliver
our 1st baby, get settled into motherhood and take a trip there to
check it out before I would fully commit.
