Heath Care/ New Job

This week wasn't too eventful. Adam was really busy with work,planning for a few trips, and I got sick and couldn't do much. But I got some antibiotics and my sinus infection is getting better by the day. The visit to the doctor was great. I waited for all of two minutes, went right to the doctor, and was out of there with prescription in hand in 10-15 minutes total. And I don't mean a written prescription, they have the medicine at the doctors office. I love the efficiency here.

Adam is off to India for two weeks, back for a day and then off to Australia for another week =(

I have managed to find a way to keep myself busy while he is gone. I start my new job on Monday as the Admissions Assistant for a new school that is opening in the fall. I'm excited to be part of opening a new school and will be working with the Director of Admissions helping with a lot of different aspects including marketing and sponsorship. The school will be for ages 2-11 for the first two years with a high school opening in the third year.

The last of our things arrived from the states too! Our little apartment is certainly full now.

LOVE IS IN THE AIR!

So it was Valentine's Day weekend in Singapore. Love was everywhere and so were special promotions! Since we got about half our house's accessories at IKEA, Ifigured I'd feature theirs first (and it's really funny!)



But seriously, everyone was handing out roeses with special offers tied to them. Chocolate, ballons, hugs, you name it! I'm glad I got Kate some roses or I'd have been shown up by a cell phone company!!!

Anyway, after we meandered through the streets on saturday, we had an authentic Indian dinner at Samy's curry. Great lamb and chicken masalas, tandoori prawns, fried cauliflower, and our favorite, panner (Indian Cheese), all served right on a real banana leaf!



Thanks for all your comments on the Blog. Talking to you all makes it feel a lot closer to home! :)

Heres a link to some more pictures.

Apartment Video Tour!!!

Apartment Video Tour Part I:


Apartment Video Tour Part II:

Thaipusam Festival

What a week! We've had the keys to our place for just 7 days, and we're finally settled in. But there will be more on that later. I wanted to share a new cultural experience we've had the pleasure of witnessing.

This weekend is the Thaipusam Festival for the Tamil community (an ethnic group of India and Sri Lanka) which has a large population in Singapore. The festival in Singapore includes a procession through the streets. They end at a Temple to make offerings of milk for good fortune, health and wishes granted.

The milk is carried in huge, ornate vessels that encircle the carrier. Many of the guys are also pierced ALL OVER as a sign of devotion. In some of our pictures you can see hooks in their skin that are chained to their crazy milk vessel.

The cool part is that the procession passes right in front of our apartment, although they are already on their second straight day of devotion. It has been a non-stop parade of singing, cheering, drums and those poor guys with all the piercings.

Getting Settled

So we made a video tour of our apartment but it's too big to download to our blog. We're trying to post it another way, but in the mean time here's the pictures we took when we first saw the place.

http://picasaweb.google.com/kateandadam09/OurApartmentBeforeWeMovedIn?feat=directlink

We even have a pets! Well, they're just fish but we're sure enjoying them.

Adam also discovered a forum online for expats where he found a group of twenty-somethings who meet for dinner and drinks on Wednesdays. We met some really great people went with them to at a party on Saturday.

Apartment, friends and pets - It's starting to feel like home.

New Apartment

It's been a busy couple of days. We got our first choice on apartments (woo hoo!) and were handed the keys on Sunday. It's been shopping and slowly moving things from our temporary apartment since then. You don't realize all the basics that are required for living until you start from scratch. I've been having fun popping around to all the shops and trying to find the best bargains. We're having some furniture delivered tomorrow afternoon, so we'll be ready with a sofa bed should any visitors appear. =)

Our new apartment is at a wonderful location, right across from the Istana, basically Singapore's White House, so I don't think we could have found a safer area - not that I don't feel safe practically everywhere I go here. On the other side of our apartment is the home of Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew which is guarded by patrols 24-7.

Pictures and a video tour to come...