Saturday, a few hours after the conclusion of our daughter's school program, we flew to Singapore. As always, the flight was uneventful and we arrived in Singapore on schedule. Upon our arrival, I challenged my cousin. She hasn't traveled internationally before, and her flight home includes exchanges in some fairly complicated airports, so I said we would follow her. She did fine once she realized we needed to go to "arrivals" not "departures".
A $50 van ride later we arrived at our home away from our home away from home - Great World City Apartments in Singapore. The gentleman checking us in remembered us - from nearly two years ago! He said it was because I have a unique last name. I guess in SE Asia, full of Ho's and Wang's and Minh's, my last name would be fairly unique. Something tells me that in Western England or the southern US no one would bat an eye.
The first thing we had to do after dropping our bags in the room was eat dinner. And, when we're in Singapore, tradition dictates that our first meal - or one of our first meals - must be at Subway. So I stayed with the kids in our new apartment (which is half the size of our house in Jakarta) and my wife and cousin went to the mall and bought us Subway dinner and water from the grocery store. I had hoped they would also buy cereal for the next morning's breakfast, but my wife had other plans (she's sneaky that way). After eating, I tried to go buy breakfast, only to find everything had closed at 10 PM. That meant, according to my wife's plan, we ate breakfast the next morning at Starbucks....where she was able to get her beloved bagel and cream cheese.
Sunday we took my cousin, a professional shopper, to Orchard Road - the world's largest mall. It's really about twenty different malls, lining both sides of the street each with 5-10 floors of shops, but because they are all connected by subterranean tunnels - which also have their own shops - I consider them all one big mall. Needless to say, she fell in love and now wants to move to Singapore on a permanent basis. I'm sure her folks will be sending me thank you letters for that one.
Monday we had another visit with our obstetrician who assured us that, contrary to our Indonesian doctor's belief, our baby was not on the large side. In Singapore, they actually take into consideration the parent's nationality and measure your baby's growth according to the averages of your home country. In Jakarta, they compare your baby to other Indonesians. Compared to Indonesians, our son is big; compared to Americans, he's just another average baby.
An hour or so after the doctor's appointment I kissed everyone good bye and left for the airport. I'll be in Jakarta the rest of June, making a trip back to Singapore for the weekend of my daughter's actual birthday, and then returning on a more permanent basis at the end of June. Then we'll all come back together, new addition in tow.
A $50 van ride later we arrived at our home away from our home away from home - Great World City Apartments in Singapore. The gentleman checking us in remembered us - from nearly two years ago! He said it was because I have a unique last name. I guess in SE Asia, full of Ho's and Wang's and Minh's, my last name would be fairly unique. Something tells me that in Western England or the southern US no one would bat an eye.
The first thing we had to do after dropping our bags in the room was eat dinner. And, when we're in Singapore, tradition dictates that our first meal - or one of our first meals - must be at Subway. So I stayed with the kids in our new apartment (which is half the size of our house in Jakarta) and my wife and cousin went to the mall and bought us Subway dinner and water from the grocery store. I had hoped they would also buy cereal for the next morning's breakfast, but my wife had other plans (she's sneaky that way). After eating, I tried to go buy breakfast, only to find everything had closed at 10 PM. That meant, according to my wife's plan, we ate breakfast the next morning at Starbucks....where she was able to get her beloved bagel and cream cheese.
Sunday we took my cousin, a professional shopper, to Orchard Road - the world's largest mall. It's really about twenty different malls, lining both sides of the street each with 5-10 floors of shops, but because they are all connected by subterranean tunnels - which also have their own shops - I consider them all one big mall. Needless to say, she fell in love and now wants to move to Singapore on a permanent basis. I'm sure her folks will be sending me thank you letters for that one.
Monday we had another visit with our obstetrician who assured us that, contrary to our Indonesian doctor's belief, our baby was not on the large side. In Singapore, they actually take into consideration the parent's nationality and measure your baby's growth according to the averages of your home country. In Jakarta, they compare your baby to other Indonesians. Compared to Indonesians, our son is big; compared to Americans, he's just another average baby.
An hour or so after the doctor's appointment I kissed everyone good bye and left for the airport. I'll be in Jakarta the rest of June, making a trip back to Singapore for the weekend of my daughter's actual birthday, and then returning on a more permanent basis at the end of June. Then we'll all come back together, new addition in tow.
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