Relecting on 6 months in Singapore!

Wow, 6 months in Singapore! At one point, living in Singapore just felt like a distant dream that wouldn't actually materialise, but here we are 6 months down the line.

I'm sitting in our cool, air-con lounge with the fan pointing directly at me and its only 7am. I'm looking out over the city and it looks SO pretty early in the morning. Definitely seems more beautiful when one is sitting with windows closed and air con on - once you venture outside, it's a WHOLE different story!



Reflecting on our last 6 months here there have been many challenging times but also many amazing times!

1. Weather:

I remember telling a friend at work that I was moving to Singapore (She had lived in Hong Kong for a bit) and her reaction was, "oh my gosh, they don't have ANY seasons there - it's just HOT ALL THE TIME!" And my thoughts were, well, it can't be that bad? I have always preferred summers over winter so that would actually be great!

Well, was I wrong! I have NEVER experienced heat and humidity lie there is here! It was so bad that I felt constantly nauseas for weeks after arriving here and felt as if I couldn't get enough fluids in.
We were warned that in "summer" (June / July) it gets even worse and I thought that it actually couldn't get ANY worse, but OH MY, was I wrong!! IT GETS WORSE!! On average the temp is about 34 degrees with about 95% humidity everyday!
I am really grateful for our big pool here because it has really been our life saver!
Sweat just pours off you and I'm still trying to figure out how people actually exercise in this heat. We once did a long hike in MacRitchie Reservoir, and I felt sick for days afterwards and was dehydrated!

This smile below was a FAKE smile!!



2. People and culture:

Coming from South Africa, I didn't realise that we had such a unique and different culture - especially when compared to Singaporeans. We don't realise how often we throw in Afrikaans or slang words in our speech that others are actually familiar with. We just expect them to 'get it.

- It was such a "jol".
- She had no "skaam" in just pushing in.
- "ag shame"
- "ya, no"
- "is it?"

Now to make things easier for Singaporeans to understand we just add a "Lah" at the end to combine some Singlish and Afrikaans. ("It was just a jol, Lah!")

We also assume that all cultures have braais that contain Wors and chops.
We realised how wrong we were at a braai organised by our dear friend Gilbert, who put things on the braai that I had only ever seen swimming in the sea! Sting ray on a braai was a 'hit' that day!



We organised a braai at our condo a few weeks ago and true South African style, it was gonna be a lunch time braai at like 1pm, everyone brought cozzies, we got some 'wors', salads, watermelon etc. Well other Singaporean friends of ours said to me before hand - "You guys having an afternoon barbecue? At Like 1pm?" To which is replied, "um, ya!? Bring your costumes and we will have a nice relaxing afternoon by the pool".
Well, half way through the afternoon, while we were eating, we all wondered where Dawn and Josh were. At about 5pm, Josh arrives and is shocked to see there is little food left for him.... He had figured there was no way we would braai at 1pm and decided to come later but then realised that when Mike says he is going to braai at 1pm, he actually means 12:30pm!

It has been amazing getting to know our Singaporean friends better and understand their culture too. I think it's very easy to go to a different country and just want to stick with your expat friends or other South African friends - and there is definitely a time and place for that. But there is no need to isolate yourself from the local culture! As much as we crave normal western burgers and pizza, its also awesome going to eat at the Hawker stands and food courts and have the famous "Chicken Rice" or Panang cuisine.



We have learnt SO much about Singaporean and Chinese culture from our local friends and they have even enjoyed coming over to our place to enjoy some rugby!

3. Transport:

Man, we miss our cars back home! I miss having Mike drive me around in his Bakkie!



Cars here are SO expensive to drive. You need a Certificate of Entitlement to drive a car here too which is a few tens of thousands of $. The government wants to encourage more people to use public transport!

The public transport system here is oh SO efficient and is run like clockwork, but it's not so pleasant when it's crowded and you are stuck next to sweaty people!



Sometimes it can get really busy too.....



But other times it is really awesome!



But this is my ULTIMATE treat if I don't want to walk in the heat:



4. Work:

This has been a VERY challenging part of our time here. I won't go into detail now, but I'm grateful that I have been able to resign from my current job and was offered a fantastic job as a Grade 2 Teacher at a big International School here. The offer came somewhat out of the blue at just at the right time. Mike will also be working there as a PE teacher which is awesome! We both start there on 1 Aug 2012 when their new school yr starts!



5. Travel:

What amazing opportunities for travelling we have from here. We have a lot of places we want to visit and thats on our 'to go to" list.
But this first 6 months we have gone to small, quiet local Islands, not far from Singapore and Malaysia. It has been amazing!
We went to Sibu Island for the Easter weekend. We had to catch a bus from Singapore to Malaysia and then drove for about 2 hrs through Malaysia to the ferry terminal and then caught a ferry out to Sibu. It was such an awesome time away!!

Photo's just dont even do justice!





Mike and I went to Bintan last weekend - its a little Indonesian Island off the coast of Singapore. It was stunning and a really nice, quiet gettaway!





We have lots of travel plans for the next year and can't wait to go do some more exploring. Some are big trips and others more local.
My next scrapbook is a scrapbook of all our travelling! :)

6. Apartment living:

I was nervous at first thinking we were going to live in a match box - but I was pleasantly surprised. We are comfortable in our apartment and have a gorgeous view over the city as we are on the 15th floor. We LOVE our nice big pool too!



When we see a free standing house, we do drool a bit, but apartment living is SO different for us, that we enjoying it while we have it. There are SO many amazing green parks around here to get out into that we do get our dose of nature!



7. Church:

We have absolutely loved our church here in Singapore! We have LOVED the people, we have LOVED serving and are extremely excited with all God is going. We are moving this week out of the old venue at the Cathay Cinema to our own building which is VERY exciting! Just love being a part of it! They are our family here! :)



8. Children:

I wish I could announce " We are pregnant with twins" or something like that that.
Its just the 2 of us still but we continue to trust and have faith that one day God will add to our family - in whatever way that is, and that we can take our "little clones" on our travel adventures too! Our hearts are so ready to love!!

For now we just LOVE other peoples children!


So, what an incredible 6 months it has been!
Its been a time of growth and change. It was just what we needed.
Yes, we miss home many times and desperately miss our friends and family but I think this change was needed - for our healing and growth too!

I look forward to whats to come and to having lots of visitors staying with us in the months to come! :)

God has been incredibly faithful in our time over here, with providing so much! Physical things as well as people to support and love us too!

Bring on the next chapter!
xxxxx