First Impressions

I am in our hotel room in Singapore, waiting for Scot to return from a business meeting. We have been here 4 full days and yet it seems like we've been here much longer. It is strange coming to a new country and not viewing it through the eyes of a tourist, but viewing it through the eyes of a new resident.

See Garrett and Nathan? They really do have a California Pizza Kitchen here!

I have soaked it all in and am honestly very excited about our move here. It is a beautiful country with a ton to offer and I am looking forward to our family having some amazing experiences here. Some things that stand out:

1. I am going to have to find a new home for my Chi. It is humid every single day. The weather feels much like Houston weather in late May or June......very warm during the day, but pleasant at night. It is odd that besides frequent rain that comes during the monsoon season, the weather here never changes. That means I am going to have to embrace my curly hair!

2. The people are extremely friendly and accommodating. Apparently there has been a big push by the government for improved customer service. The government has also encouraged good manners and respect is ingrained into children. It is very, very evident. The normal term of endearment for anyone older than you is to call them Uncle or Aunt so in chatting with a cab driver, you would refer to him as Uncle. I love it!

3. I have almost been run over about 5 times because of looking the wrong way in crossing a street. It is going to be interesting learning how to drive on the opposite side of the road with the steering wheel on the opposite side of the car. I can only imagine the predicaments I'll get myself into!

4. Just because the national language here is English does not necessarily mean I will actually understand Singapore English, which is also known as Singlish. It is going to take some getting used to!

Orchard Road in city center

I feel like we have experienced a ton since being here which would explain why this self-proclaimed night owl has been sound asleep by 9 or 9:30 most nights. One of my favorite evenings involved going to the East Coast. It's an area on the water where the vessels hang out waiting to be brought into the harbor. There's a long stretch where people are biking, running, and rollerblading along with several seafood open air restaurants. I am looking forward to spending many a Saturday in this area with the boys.

Apparently the crooked peace sign is some sort of popular Asian hand signal.
Wonder if we should have found out first what it actually means?

We also went to Clarke Quai that night. It is an large area with a ton of bars and restaurants and it goes along a waterfront.

Yesterday we visited the school we are hoping our boys are accepted to. It was incredibly impressive and I am super excited for them to have the opportunity to go there. Now we just sit back and pray that all my charming of the Admission Advisor pays off!

The Middle and High School pool. K-5 have their own pools
where swimming is part of the PE curriculum.

One of three 6th grade hang out rooms.

A 4th grade Science classroom

Middle school band

3rd-5th grade library

The best part of our week was our decision to go ahead and visit a local church on Sunday. We were up early that morning because there was a light in our room that would randomly go off and on. It it weren't for that light, we probably would have slept in......hmmmmm.....

Anyways, the moment we walked into the church, a very nice guy that works for BP greeted us. Turns out a couple in his Sunday School class work for CAT. We met them and hit if off immediately and are going to dinner with them tonight.


I can not even put into words what I was feeling sitting in that church service. It was a full house of about 750 people with the Youth choir leading the singing that morning. The opening song was one I knew well and I was working hard to fight off my emotion. My world can become so small sometimes that I forget that God is doing amazing things all over the world. I loved every single thing about the service. It was simple and lacked much of the bells and whistles we have grown accustomed to in our churches back home and I loved it.

I quickly realized that our living situation and food experiences deserved a post all their own so this is one of three I'm posting at the same time. It will be interesting to come back and read over these posts in a year or so when life here becomes somewhat normal for us!