Hawkers

For dinner tonight we went to Newton Food Centre, which is also known as "where the hawkers are". Hawkers are basically street food vendors. Their name comes from how they "hunt" down potential costumers by talking them up or literally chasing them down while the browse all the options. We had a great time looking at all the stalls- there were like 60!

Hawkers!

Grilled Prawns

The hawkers actually bring the food to your numbered table.

I'm sure it won't surprise anyone that I have a video of this...

Shipwrecked & Van Gogh Alive

Today we went to the Art Science Museum at Marina Bay Sands.

The main attraction for us was the "Shipwrecked, Tang Treasures and Monsoon Winds", since it was only going to be around until the end of July. It was incredible how beautiful some of the trading goods were! Don't you agree?

Gold cup, has a dancer on the left side and a bearded guy on the handle.

Silver box

Plate with sea monster design

After that we went to the Van Gogh Alive exhibit, which was basically his paintings projected on the wall to music. It was a lot cooler than it sounds.... I had a video of the outer part of the exhibit, but it won't upload right now. Oh well. I loved the Van Gogh exhibit- I probably could have spent all day in there, watching the pictures on the wall over and over again!

Adventure/Discovery Day

Today was a pretty busy day. After breakfast we went to SAS again because I had to take a math placement test. It wasn't actually that bad- though it's a bit odd to be the only kid not in uniform while one is at the school because there are awkward glances. I bought a sweatshirt! 

~Before anyone asks me why I bought a sweatshirt... Singapore is actually really cold if you are inside with air conditioning all the time. 

Then, I finally ate chicken rice when we went out to lunch with Mrs. Nancy Beth R. She's an SAS mom and was really nice telling my mom about how stuff works here and what to do. Post taxi-catching, we scoped out local grocery and department stores. Since Singapore has so many expats, the grocery stores are more diverse than in the States alone- I'm not entirely certain what some of the stuff was.

Then the adventure started...

So I've really wanted to get a Lolita (google "Lolita fashion") dress/outfit for a while, and because Singapore has a pretty active Lolita population and local store Black Alice, I wanted to see if I could buy something while I was visiting. After much Googling, I found that Black Alice sells at this place called The Blog Shop in Haji Lane. I was super thrilled because Black Alice sells really high-quality dresses. Anyways, Haji Lane is not so great. I mean like tattoo parlours, massage places, and sex shop not so great. Obviously I did not know that when I was looking this up! Anyways, I managed to find a dress that is very cute and everything. It's by Baby, The Stars Shine Bright if anyone cares. But seriously, I think I've got some serious skills to find a not-so-great area on my fourth day here in Singapore. 

Whole dress!

Detailed Front, No Bow

The back

 Me!

After the little adventure, we ate at this restaurant at the Grand Hyatt called the Mez9. It was amazing and super expensive, but well worth it. I was going to take a picture but... oops. 

Second House Finding Day

These are pictures from last night that we took at Clark Quay. We ate at Octapas- super yummy.


So today we had a pretty busy day of scouting out different apartments. Here's a video of the apartment we really, really want. Sorry if the video gives you motion sickness.

Today was a really busy day. We went to this furniture place where you can either rent or buy furniture, depending on how long you stay. I don't know which one we'll do yet, but they have really awesome beds. 

Sorry this post is lazy, I'm really tired today and still kind of sick :(

Busy House-Finding Day

Can someone please explain to me why house-hunting is so tiring?

After breakfast this morning, Kamilla the real estate agent/relocation agent picked us up. We visited SAS, and I have to say, it was unbelievable. More about that when I can get a video to actually post and work.

Then we saw 5 different potential residences and I very skillfully did not actually take pictures of them. Sorry. But I can describe them. All three apartments had access to facilities (giant pool, gym, tennis courts) and white marble living room floors. In addition, they had balconies, which had these holes in the floor for plant pots. Essentially, pits for one to fall into. Also, the apartments had elevators that took you up to your specific apartment based on your key. Freaking awesome. 

1. House. Literally half a second away from SAS. Did not have an oven. WTF?

2. Cluster house, 3 stories. Enough stairs to whip anyone into shape. Was in the middle of no where with  no bus stop and no SAS bus. How practical.

3. Apartment, my personal favorite. Really open with lots of sunshine. And the building looks super cool, if I can get a picture I will.

4. Apartment. The view was fabulous- the guard house. And the layout was really weird confusing (I want an apartment, not a maze)!

5. Apartment. Was really nice, but the master bedroom tiny. Huge living room area but was near a crazy amount of construction. 

Videos! LOL

Here are two relatively interesting videos. I'll try to sound less totally out of it next time...

The Not-So-Mini-Journey to Singapore

Hello,

I am so glad to be off the plane and in the hotel. Here's what I typed up on the flight:

When we got to the airport, everything seemed fine as we went through security.  Walking at a reasonable pace to our gate, we get there to discover that our flight was delayed 5 hours. I repeat, 5 hours.  Thank you torrential downpours and wind. The flight to Singapore was departing at 11, and we simply depart from Boston to Newark at 10! Got wait-listed on another flight. That flight was full. So we got wait-listed on a second flight. No luck. 99% of the second flight we were wait-listed on was booked out with some ski/snowboarding girl’s team from London. So Continental sent us to Delta for a flight to LaGuardia. It was literally the most turbulent, terrifying flight of my life that resulted in multiple sick people, roughly 45 minutes of circling while trying to land, and a full-passenger applaud once we were on the ground. Since our Singapore Air flight was flying out of Newark, we ended up getting a limo-SUV to drive my family and this other stranded traveler going to the same destination. His name was Lucien and he’s actually a professor at Singapore General Hospital, but we didn’t find that out until later.  Anyhow, we made it on the 18 hour flight, which I’m actually typing this on.  Over the 18 hours, I…

1.     1.Watched 3 episodes of Chuck

2.     2.Watched 3 episodes of Criminal Minds

3.     3.Read D &D books for like an hour or so

4.     4.Slept. A lot.

5.     5.Almost died walking to the bathroom in high turbulence, only to have the stupid seat-belt sign go off as soon as I shut the bathroom door.

6.     6.Could not reach the overhead compartment to save my life. Who the heck designed this plane?

So I’m landing now, and the ride is quite bumpy. I'll post this later. 

I sort of had a lot a free time on the flight. Now it's like 7:12 am, and we have to go eat and then go shopping. Why must we shop?

Well, our checked baggage kind of never left Boston. We were having it sent on a different flight to Newark, the end up on the same flight to Singapore as us, but that flight never left the ground and we are now at least 24 hours without luggage. That would be all of my parent's clothes and nearly all liquid items. Yippee.

I'm going to go recover from all this crazy travel. Bye

New Camera!

Good morning,

So who likes watching videos of faraway places?

Oh, right. The vast majority of us. So this blog will probably have a lot more video clips on it thanks to my father, who got me a Kodak Video Camera!  Yippee!

Anyways, is there anything people want me to note of in particular about Singapore?

Hey,

So my dad just told me that Singapore is 1 degree 22 minutes above the Equator. Do you know what that means?

HOT AND HUMID!

Also, this is the official song of this whole journey. Just change the first part from "Woke up in London" to "Woke up in Singapore".  

Comment if you like the song :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZhQOvvV45w

The kitchen has the floor down and some cabinets! Very exciting. 

Weather Issues!

Hey everyone,

So this isn't strictly related to the move, to the house, or to Singapore... But what's with the weather these days? Is it really going to snow tomorrow, or is The Weather Channel just enjoying watching everybody panic?

Now, since I'm feeling bad that this post isn't Singapore-related enough, I'm posting some links about Singapore that I've found, since people keep asking me about where I'm headed in July!

www.sg or http://app.www.sg/  (I don't know which one works because I have a Mac.)

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sn.html
(Yes, I'm a nerd. That is indeed the CIA website.)