Hello from Singapore! We have been here for almost a week, and we have seen a lot of Singapore! The weather in Singapore is cloudy, but hot. To deal with the heat, we walk through the malls whenever possible (Malls are usually the first floor in most buildings.), take handkerchiefs to dab our sweat, and drink a lot of water. 

We have walked a ton, because we don't have our own car (way, way too expensive-- in the six digits). We take the MRT (subway), that is usually pretty busy and very, very clean. The girls noted that there are no durian fruits allowed on the MRT- signs are posted- because they are a stinky, spiky fruit (and also the national fruit of Singapore).

Kiera: We went to Sentosa, an entertainment island. My favorite shops are Candylicious and Hershey's Chocolate World. The thing I most want to do there is go to Universal Studios. They have rides and my dad says they have a Transformers ride. There is a globe next to the Hershey's World that is huge. It spins and there is mist and we got to play in it. My dad said we will go there some time soon. We had to get 100 sister points in order to go and we earned them all so we get to go soon!

We looked at a lot of the things to do and there is climbing up the Merlion, going to the beach, going to see motion movies, bug and butterfly world, ziplines, and a lot of restaurants. We went down to the beach first. Chloe, McKenna, and I (Kiera) kicked the big waves and splashed ourselves. The water tastes horrible. While we were waiting for the first trolley, we saw a beautiful peacock. It was a male and it was plucking its feathers. We got off the bus at Underwater World and got shaved ice with flavoring on it. It doesn't taste the same, but it was good. We noticed when we got to the bottom of the bowl that it had tadpole eggs, worms, and other gooey things at the bottom. They were made out of gross gummy stuff. We said we saved the bottom for our dad.

After that, we saw a female peacock. It followed me. We were about to get on another trolley when we saw a sign that said Please Don't Feed Us. We Like to Hunt Ourselves. We looked up and on top of the sign there was a monkey!! We saw the trees shaking and there were two more monkeys. Chloe tried to get close to one and my mom said they are not meant to be nice. So Chloe backed away.

Sentosa was really fun. I wanted to buy candy, but my dad said maybe later. That was my favorite part about that day. I got to spend time with my family while seeing a new part of SIngapore.

Chloe: We got to the apartment really late on Thursday night. Everyone was tired but excited. We were about to start our new journey and we explored the apartment. We learned right away that the light switches are outside the doors and so are the water heaters. My parent's bedroom is huge and the kitchen is small. My room is pretty small too. McKenna, Kiera, and I all share a room. There are two closets in both rooms. We have a washer, but not a dryer so we have to hang up our clothes to dry. My suitcase is really messed up. We have a balcony in every room, but we can't go out because it is locked. The view is beautiful. I can see lots of buildings right across the street. At night it is very light out because of all the buildings. If I look down they are building a new train station and it is really noisy at night and early in the morning. My dad wants them to stop or at least not work early or late hours. We are now use to the time difference.

Sorry for the expressions girls...this photo was too fun not

 to post!

There is a pool right on the eighth floor! The view is great. We also eat breakfast on the eighth floor. At breakfast they serve watermelon sometimes, but my favorite is the toast- buttered toast. They serve eggs every day. They are scrambled and too creamy. They also have apple juice that is to die for. Some people eat cream of mushroom soup, watery oatmeal, brown beans, and different kinds of dumplings. My family likes to eat the toast, cereal, and fruit. Sometimes we like the tomato noodles and pizza bites. McKenna has hot chocolate every day. As you can see everything is different.


I hope you are doing well. I hope to see you when I get back. I miss all of you a lot. I will talk to you again in the next blog.

Traci: As you can see, the girls are acclimating themselves to the new and different life. It was fun to discuss what they would write about. They had so many things to choose from! McKenna will be writing her own posts, while I will supervise the other two girls' writings. They are both very excited to write again.

I know this is a very long first post, but we purposefully went almost completely offline and focused on becoming a family again for the time that Ryan was off. It was very nice to spend time together again. In five days, Ryan showed us everything he had scoped out. Basically, everything is different! Since Ryan has lived in Chicago, it wasn't as big of a change for him. But, the girls and I have never lived in a big city, so it is all new.

I had read in expat blogs that the people of Singapore are rude. We have had the opposite experience. Men are giving the girls and I seats on the MRT, and we even had an old Singaporean man stop us on the sidewalk, ask us where we were from and gave us advice on sights to see.

It's very nice to have someone come in and clean for us every day. We just do our laundry  and straighten up. I will certainly be spoiled once we move into our apartment.  We are going to look at apartments on Monday and Tuesday next week. That will be interesting! We start at 10AM (The time for everything here. Nothing opens or gets going before that. Ryan doesn't go to work until 9AM.), and go all day. They are "sending a car for us."



I will be posting an album of more photos on Facebook with many more interesting sights!


We are so happy to be a family again!!

Traci

"Let your mind start a journey thru a strange new world. Leave all thoughts of the world you knew before. Let your soul take you where you long to be...Close your eyes let your spirit start to soar, and you'll live as you've never lived before."  ~Erich Fromm


Welcome friends, family, and other folks. You join us just as our story begins...a family having been blessed with a chance to journey thru a strange new world~ Singapore.


July 8 no 9, 2:03 AM
Location: Delano, MN
Details: Three children and a dog sprawled out around the room among the crates, open suitcases, and piles.


So, one more night before the day we have been waiting for, for what seems like an eternity. When Ryan left for Singapore on May 1, we believed we would be apart for about a month. I've noticed that things seem worse when you've prepared yourself for something else. What I mean is~ this separation has been a killer because it has been extended and extended, again and again. 


Let me regress for a moment. For those of you who do not know the story of how we got to where we are right now, let me fill you in. About a year ago, Ryan was updating his Accenture profile and came across the question: Would you entertain international projects? At the time, he read it out loud in our quiet bedroom in Delano. We agreed that he would check the yes box. This decision was like checking the: Would you like to be a donor? box on our driver's licenses. Sure, I can do that-- in theory. I drifted off to sleep and dreamed of spending my days in little coffee houses in Italy. I liked coffee in my dream for those of you wondering. And, I enjoyed the views and the gondola ride until the trickling water in my dream woke me up. 

Fast forward to January of this year, when an email came across Ryan's inbox from a project in Singapore looking for experienced people in Ryan's talent area to work on a project. We laughed about it and decided it wasn't the time. After all, we were very involved in hockey, and the spring soccer season was coming. And, I mean really....Singapore??? So, he said, "No thank you, " and we moved on. Two weeks passed, and he received an email requesting a phone call. It became apparent very quickly that this project in Singapore was not just looking for talent...they were looking for Ryan. Over the course of the next month or so, the question of Singapore became a serious one. Ryan had just recovered from a second collapsed lung and was on his doctor's, wife's, and senior manager's do not fly list. Yet, Singapore was calling. 


Here is where we notice the differences in how Ryan and Traci deal with big decisions-- Ryan ignores them until they fester and begin to pus, and eventually they blow up and he has to deal with them. Traci, on the other hand, investigates, ok, and maybe, just a little bit, obsesses. Let's just say, thank goodness our internet isn't pay per view, because we would not have made it through the first night. I read expat websites, information about Singapore's bathrooms (yes, a first search, thank you very much), kitchens, cleanliness standards, food, people, language, schools, transportation, housing, and most of all Accenture's policies and procedures for international assignments.


Eventually, we hit the maximum overload on our information gathering, and the direct question was asked, "Will you accept a long term overseas assignment in Singapore for a year?" While it was still unknown whether I could get a leave of absence, we decided the opportunity this choice would bring for ourselves and our girls was too great to pass up. When life throws something like this your path, it's time to be open and accepting.


So, before long, Ryan was packed and on his way half way around the world (literally- you can fly either way and it is very close to the same time) to a country where he knew no one.


Our separation got extended after BHP decided to cut everyone from the project and postpone it for six months or so. Luckily, after some very scary days, Ryan reported that he was approved to stay in the interim and the eventual return to the project. But, the girls and I had to wait for the new interim project to be approved and assigned a charge-to number before we could make travel arrangements. After all, we needed to pay for our gold-plated airfares! 


This is where I decided that the saying, Good things come to those who wait, is not really reality. It is actually, Good things come to those who wait, and wait, and wait, and- yes you guessed it- wait some more.


As of now, we have known for about 12 days that we would be flying on Tuesday, July 10. 

The girls and I have decided that we can wait to see Singapore....it is Ryan that we are most excited to see right now. We have missed him. Even when he has traveled in the past, he has remained very tuned in and active as a husband and father. This separation has made that very difficult. We are ready to be a family again. 


I am going to get some sleep now that you know how we got to where we are. The girls and I will share a little bit about what we are thinking before we take off on Tuesday.


Nightie Night Friends.