Fidgets

Last week in Cultural Training courtesy of Cartus, one of the many things I learned was where to take kids to play. You'd be surprised how this lovely bit of information helps with settling in and getting adjusted. On the list was Fidgets in Turf City (now known as the Grandstand--but don't tell that to the cab driver.) There are three locations from the website. The one we went to had a toddler area and didn't seem to be too far from us.
So after some not so pleasant days stuck in the apartment together, today the kids and I ventured out! Ross has the car on work days so we chose to travel by taxi. Here are some things I have learned:

• Using the baby carrier is great when traveling via taxi or public transit. This eliminates fussing with the stroller or worrying about always finding lifts and ramps. This option works best when we plan to stay in air conditioned malls and places. It gets a little warm being in close contact.
• Try to avoid using taxis before 9:30 am on the weekdays as there is a surcharge during the morning commute. While definitely not the cheapest option, taxi is the most efficient and worth it for the occasional sanity-saving activity such as this. We didn't need the extra adventure of the bus or train along the way today.
• A crying baby makes for a faster cab ride. Huh, the taxi drivers didn't seem as 'lost' today.

We arrived at the Grandstand and followed the signs for Fidgets. There is quite a bit of construction going on there so it was kind of a maze to get to the place. But there were plenty of directional signage and no major hurdles. Not much was open before 10am but we were on a mission so it didn't matter.
The closest thing I can compare Fidgets to from back in the U.S. is a fast food playland. The comparison applies only to the fact that the play structures are similar with padded climbing, tunnels and slides. Here are the differences that make oh so much sense!:

• We had to wear socks (thankfully we could purchase as I was unprepared.) Unlike what I got at McD's, the socks were cute and comfortable. Cade didn't want to take his off when we left.
• We had to use hand sanitizer to even come in AND they took the kids' temperatures to make sure no one is running a fever. Oh what a thought! They actually enforced that play is only for well children. No passing tons of germs. 
• They issue a card (kind of like an arcade card) to use at the cafe for snacks, drinks and lunch. This way you can lock up your wallet in a locker and only have the card. At the end of play, you settle your bill before leaving. Plus, the food at the cafe was actually good! Passion-fruit iced tea and an egg salad sandwich with side salad for mom. Yes please!
• There were sandals to slip on outside the rest rooms so you didn't have to go in there in just your stocking feet. And there was a playpen set up in the bathroom so I didn't have to hold the baby while I tried to go. Genius!
• There was a toddler area that'll be nice once brother is in school. He really wanted to be able to play with his sister so the three and under rule was tough to abide by.
• There is a no-kidding ball washer set up so you know the balls in the ball area are actually cleaned on a regular basis. I do confess that the baby tried to put them in her mouth, but at least it wasn't terrifying.

We didn't spend much time exploring the rest of Grandstand/Turf City. Just popped back in the queue for the taxis and came back in time for nap. The added purchase of socks, snacks and then lunch plus cab fare both ways did make this fall more into the 'occasional outing' category instead of an every day thing. But I'd say it was well worth it.

Now we know

Here are some things we've learned so far in Singapore . . .
* You have to deposit a dollar coin into the grocery cart (I think it's called a trolley or buggy) to use it. Luckily I had a coin on me. Now I try to always have a dollar coin.

* Queue = line. Longer queue supposedly means it's better, whatever it is.
* Lift = elevator. And it feels like a game of how many will fit, then add one more person.
* Travelator is a weird cross between a ramp and escalator, and I still cannot get my balance.
* Top off = refill.

* Pram = stroller.
* Cash card/ERP = ipass or toll booth card. Side note: this is a very efficient and smart system used to pay road tolls and parking garage fees, among other things. Just a prepaid card but much easier.
* Giant supermarket is the closest I found to Wal-Mart. (The actual name of the store is Giant.)
* Ikea = Ikea! It was such a relief to be somewhere completely familiar.
* Food courts don't take credit card, cash only. And they don't give out napkins. You are supposed to have your own; which you can use to reserve your seat while you order food.

* The smallest bill is a S$2. See note above about the dollar coins.
* Taxi drivers always seem lost, possibly so they can make a little extra.
* Tipping is not culturally acceptable. (Perhaps why taxi drivers get 'lost'.)
* The hot water doesn't work if the heater switch isn't turned on for that bathroom.
* Life does not begin before 10 am, on Orchard at least. Feels a lot like the time I went to Times Square NYC.
* Singapore is actually Singapura and it means Singa = lion, pura = island. Because the first person on the island saw a lion. But some historians believe it was actually a tiger.

An Interview with a 5 year old

I haven't had much time lately to write a blog entry so I thought a quick interview with my son might be fun. Keep in mind, he's five.

What's your favorite food here?
Chicken Rice (Chicken rice is just that: rice cooked in chicken broth with boiled or roasted chicken sliced and laid on top. It's got a bit of flavor but very tame in comparison to other foods. Surprisingly, it's a national dish and we can find it almost everywhere.)

What's your favorite drink?
Guava juice! (My son would drink guava juice all day long if I let him. It's sweet, has a creamy texture and really is quite delicious.)

What's your favorite thing to do?
Go swimming. (Disclaimer: his idea of swimming is splashing around in the shallow end, but hey! being in the pool cools him off and keeps him active.)

What is the coolest thing we've seen so far?
Mmmmm, the coolest thing so far is two things: the ferris wheel that lights up and the Merlion that shoots out water.

What is weird here?
The car that was parked in the turn lane. Because we were walking along, minding our business and look straight -- we saw a car parked right on the side!

What else do you want to tell people about Singapore?
Nothing! You are asking me too much questions. 

A little game

Let's play a little game, shall we?
What does Singapore *not* have?

Is it:
A) Ranch Dressing
B) Wal-Mart
C) Netflix
D) Pandora
E) Graffiti
or
F) All of the above

Ding, ding, ding, time's up!

That's right, All of the above!

Boy, I sure miss listening to Pandora and now I just won't be able to catch up on Grey's Anatomy. Oh well, guess there's better things to do around here. :) But once I get a proper mailing address, I'm probably going to ask someone to ship me some ranch for my fries and salad. Curry and chili sauce just aren't the same. Oh the things we miss!

People

There are so many people here. I love to people-watch and this place is amazing for that! Today we wandered around Ion Orchard and Wheelock, with the kids in the morning and then by myself in the afternoon. (Much better without the kids, thank you hubby!) Here are some 'field notes' from my outings today.
~ Walking through the shopping places on a Saturday, especially by the MRT (subway) exchanges, is insane! There are sooooo many people. It's a sea of faces. Thankfully, everyone is about the same height as me here; I feel like I can swim along instead of drowning.
~ Kids zip around on scooters if they aren't being pushed in a stroller. Cade now has a scooter.
~ Lifts (elevators) are very much like cans of sardines. Smaller sized cans of sardines. And of course the person at the very back is the one that needs to get off next. Today an elderly man didn't want to get into the lift with a group of people. A younger man made a comment that it was odd and perhaps the man was self-conscious. To which I commented something to the effect of "Singapore is the wrong place to have claustrophobia." According to the young man, Hong Kong and Japan are much worse. True but it's sure a heck of a lot more crowded here than it was in Illinois or Oregon.
~ I'm pretty sure that was not a girl in the tall bright red high heels and skirt walking down the street. I cannot confirm this suspicion though. She did go into the Orchard Towers.
~ There is an IISS Summit being held at the adjoining hotel this weekend. Every type of uniform, rank and high level person is in that lobby. Too bad I had to look like I knew where I was going instead of just looking around at all the dignitaries.
~ I'm starting to see the tourists among us. I'm not sure if I count as a tourist or an ex-pat. But I noticed the cameras, pointing and selfie-takers a lot more today.
~ I saw people holding hands! I thought PDA was strictly prohibited here so I was pleasantly surprised and a bit relieved.
~ The shopping centers, specifically the Ion, have aromatherapy piped through the air conditioning. It's fairly subtle but quite lovely.
~ A group of people are having a surprise party across the hall from our apartment. While I was feeding the baby tonight I heard "Happy birthday!" followed by singing. It's tempting to go join in. I think I'll just call it a night instead.

Day 2 Observations

Day 1 was spent in a haze of exhaustion so we might as well skip over it. My main observation yesterday: it's beautiful here! I'm especially obsessed with the building across from our apartment. It has large gaps in the building specifically for gardens and greenery. The picture I took with my phone does not do justice for the awesomeness of this building. I even think I read about it in a magazine one time.
Day 2 has been mostly spent hanging out around the apartment and running short errands. Here's what we have noticed so far:

• You push the light switch down to turn on the light.
• It's going to take a little bit to get used to the different way of saying the date (day then month), the temperature in Celsius, weights in kilograms and distance in kilometers. 
• The toilets, at least at the apartment, flush straight down -- no swirling toilet water here. I'm not sure if that has anything to do with being so close to the equator.
• I still don't know which side of the sidewalk to walk on; the cars drive on the left but people walk anywhere they want. Which reminds me, cars have the right away if you aren't crossing at a pedestrian light.
• There are no panhandlers.
• Groceries and food seem to be double the cost of what I'm used to or half the size. For example, my small frappuccino yesterday at Starbucks was $7 and the package of spaghetti noodles today was over $2.50. The supermarket I found does not carry milk in gallon size. We might have to get away from our cereal for breakfast every day.
• It's surprisingly easy to get dehydrated here given how incredibly humid it is.
• The food options are unlimited! We haven't even made it to the food hawker centers yet. We drove past one last night and it looks delicious. Kinda reminded me of the food aisles at the Fair, except cleaner.
• There are flowers and orchids everywhere! And lots of greenery. So beautiful!
• All the street signs, shop signs, etc. are in English. So helpful. 
• The city reminds me of a combination of Portland and San Fransisco. But that's my frame of reference for big cities. Luckily I'm a fan of both places so the reminder is a pleasant one. 
• Elevators are considerably smaller than I remember.

It's still pretty surreal that we are here and there's so much to take in.

In the Waiting

This post is for my friend Laura's blog (see it here). 

I don't consider myself a patient person. Oh sure, waiting in line to check out at the store or waiting for the light to change is fine. I can handle those. But waiting for the 'next big thing', that's hard for me to do! And the way my husband and I are, we always have a something in the works. Recently we've been thrown into the 'next big thing' and the swirling chaos of a big move. But before that all happened, it felt like I was waiting for-ev-er. 

In October of 2012, we decided it was time for us to move. What had started out as a quick 2-year stop to get our foot in the employment door had turned into an eventful, yet overextended 9-year stay. We had never intended to be in Klamath that long. The hard drive through mountains to get to a mall and the lack of family support started to wear on us. I had been laid off, twice, and we worried about the future for our children. The employment opportunities, education options and general health of the basin made us nervous.

So I interviewed for jobs in the Portland area. (We had honeymooned there and I have a soft spot for that area.) We anxiously put our house on the market. We set our sights on moving and waited to see if anything would happen. Well, nothing did. A few showings, one offer that wasn't serious, but no luck. It was frustrating! We had blinders focused on moving and I just didn’t understand why it wasn’t happening NOW. That's when God decided it was the perfect time for us to have a baby (that's a story about waiting all itself.) That’s not moving! Looking back, of course it's easy to see that moving then was our idea and not what God had in mind.

After a year of having the house on the market, we decided to let the listing expire and enjoy our holiday season with a little less stress. After all, we just had a baby so wasn't that big enough? We also decided that I would stay at home with our daughter instead of paying for two kids in daycare. When our very independent son was a baby, I had a pretty great job doing marketing. Now that the economy had down-turned, it wasn’t quite so great. I took a deep breath and let go of moving and a career, for now. I struggled to accept that I wasn't going to be a working mom any more. I struggled with what that meant to my identity.

Our little girl, it turns out, is much more content to cuddle at home with mom or go out shopping, even if just for groceries. She was easily overwhelmed by situations and needed the security of being home. So I joined the mommy's group and started reading blogs and books about being a homemaker. I was going to accept this shift in thinking and embrace it.

But still I was waiting.

We needed the ‘next big thing’. It wasn’t until I learned about creative prayer in late January, that I really started to talk to God about His timing. I’ll be the first to tell you that I think his timing is terribly inconvenient. Can’t he just tell me what is going on so I can make plans?! And then the figurative dominoes God had put into place started to fall. I made a vow to myself to “pray about it more than I talk about it.” But it was so hard to wait even while God was doing something. But He was making things happen! My husband found a job to apply for, he got an interview, he got the job! Our house sold and everything came together.

This move is beyond my wildest imagination. I had ‘thrown it out there’ in my prayers about living in another country (done!), living by the ocean (done!), having better educational opportunities for my children (done!), experiencing the bigger world out there and so much more. Had things happened on our time frame, we would probably be struggling to make ends meet in a town that might not be quite the best fit for our family with very little support from family or employers.

It’s easier now for me to say “It’s ok to wait—God’s working on something bigger and better.”

Found on Pinterest (of course)!