These should have made it in yesterday:
The light switches all are up when off-the opposite of the U.S. I spend about 50 cents per day in electricity turning lights on when I want them off!
You have to “top up” (add value to) your metro/bus card in person at a desk in the subway station (or at a 7-11, I hear). There is no way to add value on line or even at a machine with a credit card.
Yet, you can buy a soda from a machine with the card.
How can the technology be so cutting edge on one side and so ridiculously inefficient on the other????
Last thing—you have to drop mail off at a post office. The mailman comes and delivers our mail here every day but we have to go to the post office—he doesn’t take it! Weird huh?
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
March 17, 2008
Hello All-
Feel free to delete this if you don’t care…
Here is the update on things about/in Singapore:
We have moved into our new apartment—its on the 19th floor and has a view of the Singapore River. We have a great pool and room for visitors!
Siena is doing well in her school and takes the bus (mini van) home each day to her great delight. It has a bus “auntie” on it to take care of the kids and so she calls the bus “the auntie.” I don’t correct her—its too cute.
She starts up swim lessons again-and its right here at our pool, so it couldn’t be more convenient.
Here are some things of interest (to me anyway):
every outlet has a switch so you have to turn it on to get electricity to flow before you use an appliance or anything. It is so annoying at first, but does make us realize how much electricity we are using. It becomes second nature after a while
in the kitchen and bathrooms the floor is like ½ inch below the rest of the floors and there are drains in them. Its like a public bathroom, but they are finished our nicely—I think its maybe a hold-over from the days of just throwing water on the floor and scrapping it down the drain to wash it.
You can hear the water from the sinks (but not the toilets, thankfully,) running through those drains when you use the sinks. It is also annoying at first, but them becomes white noise—and also makes you realize how much water you use
We have to use our “ID” cards for way more things than you would think…its interesting that they want it on a warranty card for a cordless phone.
Everything is pretty much in a shopping mall. There are no free-standing buildings for retail or even services of any kind. The malls are all first rate and air conditioned. People love to shop here.
The banking system is either primitive or advanced. I can’t tell—I have to get a one-time PIN in addition to all my other PINs and access keywords to do anything in banking on line—and it takes every single thing—from an address change to a phone number addition—four days to go to the system and takes a person about 10 days (the longest I have been willing to wait) to return a call.
Text messages to phones are the way people communicate most things—instead of e-mail. This includes the banks—when they get around to calling you back.
Clubs—the American Club, the British Club, etc. are popular here—they are the social venues for most people—perhaps because they have all the pool and other facilities people do not have in their homes. Anyway, belonging to a club is quite important. All the condos (where expats and some rich Singaporeans live) have gyms and pools too.
There are food courts in the malls and in “hawker centers” (breezeways between malls generally) everywhere. Food is very cheap—can be S$3.00 for a full, good meal. Food without meat and seafood is nearly unheard of—like in Texas, its not “food” if there’s no meat. I do get a lot of delicious food though because they slip up and make stuff without meat or seafood by tradition.
The cabs are just plain odd—we cannot figure out the surcharges, we can not figure out why they will just not pick you up sometimes….they are generally cheap though when you get one
Some things you would not think are so expensive compared to the U.S.: sunblock is more than twice as expensive as in the U.S., all clothing is expensive versus the Targets, etc. of the U.S., all kinds of things that would be sold at a Target or Wal Mart are more here—I suspect is a volume thing. Books are outrageously expensive—your regular paperback is twice as expensive as in the U.S. and hard cover books are even more than that. I think its going to be cheaper to get it from Amazon and ship it here. Wine and beer are expensive, liquor is outrageous. The price in restaurants is about the same as NYC though—not the same kind of mark up I guess.
Okay, that’s the update. If you are coming here you’ll get a list of items to bring that includes wine, sunblock, books and chocolate-covered raisins from Fresh Direct. Luckily, Reuben just came over and brought a care package for us and my mom already sent the sunblock.
Faith
Feel free to delete this if you don’t care…
Here is the update on things about/in Singapore:
We have moved into our new apartment—its on the 19th floor and has a view of the Singapore River. We have a great pool and room for visitors!
Siena is doing well in her school and takes the bus (mini van) home each day to her great delight. It has a bus “auntie” on it to take care of the kids and so she calls the bus “the auntie.” I don’t correct her—its too cute.
She starts up swim lessons again-and its right here at our pool, so it couldn’t be more convenient.
Here are some things of interest (to me anyway):
every outlet has a switch so you have to turn it on to get electricity to flow before you use an appliance or anything. It is so annoying at first, but does make us realize how much electricity we are using. It becomes second nature after a while
in the kitchen and bathrooms the floor is like ½ inch below the rest of the floors and there are drains in them. Its like a public bathroom, but they are finished our nicely—I think its maybe a hold-over from the days of just throwing water on the floor and scrapping it down the drain to wash it.
You can hear the water from the sinks (but not the toilets, thankfully,) running through those drains when you use the sinks. It is also annoying at first, but them becomes white noise—and also makes you realize how much water you use
We have to use our “ID” cards for way more things than you would think…its interesting that they want it on a warranty card for a cordless phone.
Everything is pretty much in a shopping mall. There are no free-standing buildings for retail or even services of any kind. The malls are all first rate and air conditioned. People love to shop here.
The banking system is either primitive or advanced. I can’t tell—I have to get a one-time PIN in addition to all my other PINs and access keywords to do anything in banking on line—and it takes every single thing—from an address change to a phone number addition—four days to go to the system and takes a person about 10 days (the longest I have been willing to wait) to return a call.
Text messages to phones are the way people communicate most things—instead of e-mail. This includes the banks—when they get around to calling you back.
Clubs—the American Club, the British Club, etc. are popular here—they are the social venues for most people—perhaps because they have all the pool and other facilities people do not have in their homes. Anyway, belonging to a club is quite important. All the condos (where expats and some rich Singaporeans live) have gyms and pools too.
There are food courts in the malls and in “hawker centers” (breezeways between malls generally) everywhere. Food is very cheap—can be S$3.00 for a full, good meal. Food without meat and seafood is nearly unheard of—like in Texas, its not “food” if there’s no meat. I do get a lot of delicious food though because they slip up and make stuff without meat or seafood by tradition.
The cabs are just plain odd—we cannot figure out the surcharges, we can not figure out why they will just not pick you up sometimes….they are generally cheap though when you get one
Some things you would not think are so expensive compared to the U.S.: sunblock is more than twice as expensive as in the U.S., all clothing is expensive versus the Targets, etc. of the U.S., all kinds of things that would be sold at a Target or Wal Mart are more here—I suspect is a volume thing. Books are outrageously expensive—your regular paperback is twice as expensive as in the U.S. and hard cover books are even more than that. I think its going to be cheaper to get it from Amazon and ship it here. Wine and beer are expensive, liquor is outrageous. The price in restaurants is about the same as NYC though—not the same kind of mark up I guess.
Okay, that’s the update. If you are coming here you’ll get a list of items to bring that includes wine, sunblock, books and chocolate-covered raisins from Fresh Direct. Luckily, Reuben just came over and brought a care package for us and my mom already sent the sunblock.
Faith
February 18, 2008
Hello all-
Sorry for the mass mailing, but here is the update that I have been promising for two weeks, but somehow never got around to (also, its been in Draft mode for a while too):
We love Singapore so far. The weather is great—warm (hot sometimes) every day and my favorite part of the morning news (that I watch when we are down in the Resident’s Lounge for the free breakfast they have every day) is when they show the temperatures all around—particularly looking at NYC and Toronto and the like. Also, it’s a good reminder of all the major cities in each region, which is how they list them.
The public transportation system is really good—and so efficient and clean—and quite cheap.
Everything is so clean. It would be somewhat disconcerting if we hadn’t been to India before and I am now all for the strong-arm of the law making cleanliness a national mandate. Everything is well ordered and so far there is no “culture shock”. I know that this will appear at some time, but it is really so easy to live here. Everything functions as it should and Leon and I have had a lot of help from the relocation people hired by JP Morgan. They call this “Asia light” for expatriates because it eases them into Asia. I think its just fine and see no reason to go further a field right now!
It looks like we have found an apartment—3 bedrooms/ 2 bathrooms (with a view of the Singapore River—the end bit) plus a maid’s room (and small bath). We’ll have more news on that later.
The maid question: everyone has one. They are called Amahs and do cleaning, laundry, cooking and babysitting. They come from the Philippines, India, Indonesia (or maybe Malaysia). They apparently cost about US $6,000-$10,000 per year to do all that for you. I am having trouble getting used to the fact, but I am using my friend Marc as a guide—he was one guy with a family of three servants, perhaps one would be okay for 3 of us—and not seem too imperialistic. I’ll have more update on that later too.
Siena loves her school and is going 5 days a week from 8:30 to 3:30. So far I am taking her and picking her up (we take a cab there and a bus back), but we may get a bus to take her one (or two) ways when we get our permanent place—they are busses (minivans really) just for the school and fit like 7 kids and there is a bus “Auntie” with them—and they all have seatbelts—these things are the best—we seriously have a lot to learn from this country on this front!
Here are some things that I have been thinking about sharing:
there are Orange Julius all over the place—I haven’t seen these since high school and LOVE them
there are also Long John Silver’s—I have considered—in depth—eating chicken again to get that fried stuff and the vinegar for the fries! I had forgotten all about those things—I used to love them
7-11s are everywhere—little boutique shops—like they usually have at a gas station in the U.S. except these are all over the streets and malls
Everything is in a mall—there aren’t any free standing stores
The food courts in these malls are awesome in terms of variety and quantity—and the price is usually really low
Little India looks JUST LIKE INDIA—except that it is exceptionally clean—all the people out on the streets and the little store fronts and everything else is the same—which is in such contrast to how the rest of the city is
All the kids are always in school uniforms and they different for every school-they look so cute
There are so many non-Asians here—I was (and am) surprised at how many blonds there are
English is spoken everywhere—except by one cab driver I had today—and I think he thinks he was speaking English
Singlish is what many Singaporeans speak and it is just crazy sounding English with some odd expressions
Okay, this is not really enough, but it is high time I send something….
Faith
Sorry for the mass mailing, but here is the update that I have been promising for two weeks, but somehow never got around to (also, its been in Draft mode for a while too):
We love Singapore so far. The weather is great—warm (hot sometimes) every day and my favorite part of the morning news (that I watch when we are down in the Resident’s Lounge for the free breakfast they have every day) is when they show the temperatures all around—particularly looking at NYC and Toronto and the like. Also, it’s a good reminder of all the major cities in each region, which is how they list them.
The public transportation system is really good—and so efficient and clean—and quite cheap.
Everything is so clean. It would be somewhat disconcerting if we hadn’t been to India before and I am now all for the strong-arm of the law making cleanliness a national mandate. Everything is well ordered and so far there is no “culture shock”. I know that this will appear at some time, but it is really so easy to live here. Everything functions as it should and Leon and I have had a lot of help from the relocation people hired by JP Morgan. They call this “Asia light” for expatriates because it eases them into Asia. I think its just fine and see no reason to go further a field right now!
It looks like we have found an apartment—3 bedrooms/ 2 bathrooms (with a view of the Singapore River—the end bit) plus a maid’s room (and small bath). We’ll have more news on that later.
The maid question: everyone has one. They are called Amahs and do cleaning, laundry, cooking and babysitting. They come from the Philippines, India, Indonesia (or maybe Malaysia). They apparently cost about US $6,000-$10,000 per year to do all that for you. I am having trouble getting used to the fact, but I am using my friend Marc as a guide—he was one guy with a family of three servants, perhaps one would be okay for 3 of us—and not seem too imperialistic. I’ll have more update on that later too.
Siena loves her school and is going 5 days a week from 8:30 to 3:30. So far I am taking her and picking her up (we take a cab there and a bus back), but we may get a bus to take her one (or two) ways when we get our permanent place—they are busses (minivans really) just for the school and fit like 7 kids and there is a bus “Auntie” with them—and they all have seatbelts—these things are the best—we seriously have a lot to learn from this country on this front!
Here are some things that I have been thinking about sharing:
there are Orange Julius all over the place—I haven’t seen these since high school and LOVE them
there are also Long John Silver’s—I have considered—in depth—eating chicken again to get that fried stuff and the vinegar for the fries! I had forgotten all about those things—I used to love them
7-11s are everywhere—little boutique shops—like they usually have at a gas station in the U.S. except these are all over the streets and malls
Everything is in a mall—there aren’t any free standing stores
The food courts in these malls are awesome in terms of variety and quantity—and the price is usually really low
Little India looks JUST LIKE INDIA—except that it is exceptionally clean—all the people out on the streets and the little store fronts and everything else is the same—which is in such contrast to how the rest of the city is
All the kids are always in school uniforms and they different for every school-they look so cute
There are so many non-Asians here—I was (and am) surprised at how many blonds there are
English is spoken everywhere—except by one cab driver I had today—and I think he thinks he was speaking English
Singlish is what many Singaporeans speak and it is just crazy sounding English with some odd expressions
Okay, this is not really enough, but it is high time I send something….
Faith
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