August 2010
37 posts
life in the new apartment
Today I hung around for a while and skyped my mom and then Jane and John. I went to the US Chamber of Commerce in SG website (which is retardedly organized) to try to find a contact. A guy in Chris’ department suggested I ask them for a list of American design firms here. So, I sent out that and a few more emails, and then I was restless so i went on a walk. There is supposed to be a park...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasi_goreng →
Lots of Photos →
weekend of no internet- written sunday
Friday night we discovered that leaving most of our stuff in the hostel until after we were done with all the apartment formalities was a BAD idea. Back at the hostel we packed up and then used the internet for a while, and then I asked the girl at the front desk to call a taxi. She called and waited a while and then told me they were all busy. She tried again a few minutes later. It was friday...
Moved Into Our Condo!
This afternoon we moved into our condo. That means we were homeless in Singapore for barely over a week. Success!
Great things about our new home.
1. There’s a pool. A really nice pool.
2. Next to the pool there’s a restaurant with hawker food (and hawker prices). YUM.
3. We have a porch.
4 Chris and I have our own bathroom.
5. It is very common for flats to come furnished here,...
So today i would like to talk about...
… some disconcerting things about bathrooms.
1. Restrooms, even nice ones, are never air-conditioned (which is called AIr Con, not AC), and are often open to the outside, even nice ones. I guess they consider it a waste of energy? When it’s really hot/humid it is gross to pull up your pants when your thighs are all sticky. But I guess it makes sense considering you’re not in...
The pictures from the past 2 days! →
I’m going to post some photos later, from apartment-hunting yesterday and some random ones from today.
One of my new favorite things is this soup where you grab a bowl and a pair of tongs and you pick a certain amount of items- it’s either a set amount of like 50 cents an item- and you hand it to the person and they cut them up if need be and they add a broth and sometimes noodles....
I made friends with a french girl by letting her use my computer to transfer pictures, then sharing music. It was nice but I never even asked her name! She was here for just a few days with a friend, they were backpacking with those intense european backpacks!
Here are all of the pictures from yesterday →
Tired uploading with flickr this time, but it took... →
We got a lot done today, it was beautiful out, and I finally got to have some fun with food!
First we went to try out the metro and locate NYU Tisch Asia. The metro was pleasingly simple, super clean and futurisitc looking. Instead of swiping a card, you tap it on a panel. Unlike NYC, there are no bums, no filth, nothing smells. Tunnels between places are large and bright and plasted with...
friday
Our trip went very well but arriving did not. But first for the trip:
Flying All Nippon was definatley a good choice. All the people were very nice, the planes were nice, and we encountered no problems with luggage or anything. The first leg of the trip was far superior, partially just becuase it was the first half. Thirteen hours from Dulles to Tokyo. The plane was a Boeing 777, and I think the...
pep talk to myself
FUCK YEAH I CAN FLY HALFWAY AROUND THE PLANET AND FIND AN APARTMENT AND FIND A JOB! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We leave for the airport in approximately 12 hours (gotta beat that rush hour traffic)
“You will succeed at everything you do, because you do it with love.”
– Grandma Bea
3 days
So packing & moving was a lot of work, but we had an immense amount of help from Jonathan Chun and Chris’ mom and sisters. Go teamwork. The amount of cat hair left in the empty apartment made me want to gag. The mess was just overwhelming, and it made me hate the drive to collect/horde more than ever. We were pretty much going from 7 am till 9pm, but we got a late start with the truck...
4 days left
Today (yesterday and tonight) was CRAAAZZYYYYY. Packing, arguing, packing. errands, annoying phone calls, my phone dropping calls. Calling All Nippon Airways and experiencing good customer service- such a treat nowadays. Dinner with Jonathan and Sam, drinking, then crazy packing with Alec; he helped us clean up a lot of the junk that is difficult to organize, and got us to throw away a lot of crap...
One week and counting....
Today was a stressful day. We were grappling with messed-up banking, possibly-necessary travel documents, packing, debating the criteria for choosing a hostel, etc. Feeling way in over our heads.
Then we talk to Jonathan and he’s all like “oh you’ll figure it out.” I don’t know if we worry more than the average person, but I wish we lived with Jonathan, maybe it...
Very stressed out today
Things I am looking forward to
not seeing an f’ing dumpster whenever I step out my door: broken glass, discarded furniture, literal piles of trash that people put in their recycling bins and leave out for weeks.
not living somewhere that smells alternately of sewage and rotting fish
being somewhere utterly new
challenging myself
mastering a public transportation system
Things I am not...
Chris' student pass has been approved, yay!
“Dear Christopher
Congratulations on having your Student Pass application approved in-principle by Singapore’s Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA).”
