Singapore day 5

The Lord’s Day

For the 2^nd time, we missed our bus to the train and had to walk. It’s only a 15 minute walk, but in the heat & humidity, when you’re wearing Sunday clothes, the a/c on the bus would be welcome. After a pleasant walk, train ride, & bus ride, we arrived at Bedok Methodist Church. This is not where mom & dad have been attending, but George Verwer, the founder of OM was speaking, so we went to hear and support him. At 76, he is so full of energy and passionate.

After church, lunch was provided for all of the OMers who attended the service which included us. It was a delicious meal at a “Hong Kong” style restaurant. We sat with Jason (who gave us the tour last night) & Serina.

Afterward, they invited us to the “best dessert place ever” just down the street. It was incredibly delicious. Among our family, we sampled cheesecake, apple crumb muffin, carrot cake, and brownies with ice cream (that was made there onsite). EVERY item was amazing!
After dessert, Jason & Serina invited us to their home across the street to watch English Premier League Football.

Scott& our new friend Jason M (who works in the OM office with mom & dad) took turns in the massage chair.

Jason M is so patient with our kids. (:

Our hosts continued to bestow more small gifts upon us and when we left we asked Jason M about the gift giving and he informed us that we could respond with reciprocal gifts, but not to one up them, just to show them that we care for them – which is their message to us. They have been so kind to us and we had actually already talked about them coming to LA in the near future and that we should meet up, so that would be a fun opportunity to show some Singaporean care.

Scott’s parents had left for home from the dessert shop, so we were on our own to get home. Except we cheated because Jason M was with us. (: So after a bus and train, we walked home, allowing the kids to run ahead. We’ve heard from so many how safe it is here. Many children ride public transport by themselves, and while we’re not quite there (with the exception of by accident last night), our family is enjoying the freedom that Singaporean control provides, for now.

We spent the evening relaxing after many days of going, going, going. It was an enjoyable time. We even got the tree decorated!

Singapore day 4

 

Another super long amazing day!

We started out our morning with French toast at home. We rode to the MRT and took 2 trains to see where Grandpa & Grandma work.

A monk standing in front of Jo.

Their office is in a super cute historic building. It’s a 3^rd floor walk up with REALLY steep stairs. It used to be the living quarters above the retail area on the ground floor so it has a kitchen and restroom, but because of the age of the building, both are outdoors on the backside of the building. It was really fun architecture.

After the office, we walked over to the Singapore National Museum.

They are revamping most of it to celebrate the country’s 50^th anniversary next year, but the exhibit about the history of Singapore that was open was very informative and interesting.

 They started with folklore about the founding and naming of Singapura in the 14^th century then moved through the British colonial period in the 1800s, the Japanese occupation during WWII, and finally to the history of the independent city-state.

 Random: This bell was given to a local church by Paul Revere's daughter. Interesting to us Americans.  

Not much is known about the period before the British were here and the colonial period was similar to what I’ve read about elsewhere in the British Empire. But the Japanese invasion and occupation was really interesting and complimented what we learned this past summer when we stopped at Manzanar, a Japanese Internment camp in Northern California.

After Japan left, Singapore came into its own and much of what is here today is the product of a master plan that began in the 1960s. More about that in a later post.

After our historical tour, we headed to… the local mall (#6) to grab lunch in the food court. Eating at the food court is much cheaper than a restaurant, but more expensive than the hawker stalls. But we were downtown and there were no hawker stalls to be found, so to the mall we went. Jo & Ky & I had chicken & rice. Sy had chicken nuggets – who knew we could find those?! Scott & Kik had chicken & pork with rice from the “Vegetarian” section. I still maintain they were eating tofu, and Scott doesn’t actually argue it wasn’t, but we’re not entirely sure what they ate. (:

After lunch we jumped on the train to head over to the Marina Bay Sands. This amazing spot has become an icon of Singapore. About 4 years ago, we watched a “Build It Bigger” episode of the construction of this hotel and more. Then, just before the trip we looked for that episode and found instead a National Geographic episode instead. It was so fun to see in real life something we watched being constructed on TV.

We had to take 2 trains to get there and you’ll notice that Kik & Ky are not in this picture. That’s because when we changed trains, they got on and then the doors closed on the rest of us! So my 2 dear middle children were swept away by train in a foreign country with no adult. Thankfully, we were only going 1 stop and we were able to communicate to them by signing through the window to get off and wait at the next stop. So when we got there 7 minutes later, they were sitting nicely on a bench just waiting for us. Phew! And thank you, Lord.

Weird: a tall candy cane and reindeer wanted me to take a photo of them with my son.

Once reunited, we went to check out this landmark which includes: a 1000-room, 3-tower hotel, a science and art museum, a casino, a super-upscale mall (think Chanel, Dior, Gucci, etc), and a ton of beautiful architecture and finishes. It began to rain shortly after we arrived so we walked through the mall. We were waiting to meet a couple other people from the OM office because mom had arranged a personal tour for our family and 2 others with one of the architects who worked on the project and his wife!!!

Jason, the architect, met with us and walked us through the hotel, then the mall, and an overlook of the casino and gave us a ton of inside info about the structure.

Views from the top! (Gardens by the Bay and Marina Bay - where every building has a bank's name on it.)

This was such an incredible opportunity! Even the kids really enjoyed it, though Sy was a bit tired and hungry by the end. We watched the evening laser light show together at 8pm, then headed to the food court (mall #7, by the way) to have dinner. We had yummy Chinese dishes and our tour host even bought us a traditional dessert with shaved ice and longan fruit.

We were exhausted by the end of the meal, but there was more fun to come because we still had 2 train rides and a bike ride before we could rest at home. (:

Seriously. Incredible. Day.

Singapore day 3

Today was a rainy day. We woke knowing we planned to do a bike ride whenever it wasn’t raining, but then checked the weather to see that there was rain forecasted all day long. So we had a leisurely breakfast, played in the pool for a bit in the rain, then got ready to head out. Our pool play was a big game of get all the balls on the other team’s side: Jo & Mom vs. Ky, Sy, and Grandma. The littles won several times, but I must say that they had the high pool and Jo & I were below, so we had a much more difficult job!

I'm swimming in the rain, just swimming in the rain! What a glorious feeling...

We headed out by bike to the MRT and went just one station over. When we exited the train, it deposited us straight into… the mall! (#5)

This is just like at home... the children's play area of the 21st century! Enter store with mommy... mommy shops, kids play...with electronics while daddy and mommy got SIM cards so we can use our phones about. We had lunch at Pizza Hut. The sauce tasted surprisingly similar to home. 2 large pizzas and 8 drinks cost $85 – which is actually a good deal for a restaurant that’s not just a take-out stall.

After lunch, we visited the Lego store, then caught the shuttle bus over to another shopping area

to visit 3 big box stores: Giant (like a giant Walmart), Courts (like a giant Best Buy), and Ikea (like Ikea).

We had dinner at Ikea, but the menu choices were different. There was also a separate line for halal foods and a prayer room in the hallway with the phones, changing room, and restrooms. The little mock-houses at Ikea were totally catered to the homes here and items shown being used one way in the US are shown being used in different, more useful ways here. In the US, you just have to see what they fit in a 500sq.ft. home and imagine how that could apply to your house. But in Singapore, 80% of the population lives in HDB housing, so Ikea can use their exact floorplan to show what their house could look like – no need to imagine where you could use their ideas in your home – it is your home they’ve mocked up. Interesting…

We had quite an experience grocery shopping and then based on our purchases decided a taxi was in order because we had too much to manage a shuttle to the MRT to bicycles. Thankfully, we’d only taken 5 bikes to the MRT this morning, so 3 of us rode home in the taxi with the groceries and the others rode public transport and returned by bike.

 

I remember when we moved to Cypress, we had to add 10minutes to every drive because it took that long just to get to the freeway which in my mind was before the drive even started. Living with bikes and public transport would definitely take some getting used to and learning to gauge time (and adding time in case we missed a bus or something). But living in Singapore almost requires this because to purchase a car is a minimum of $250,000 and you have to bid for a lottery to even have the option.

We are so enjoying learning so many interesting things about the world outside our “normal”. 

Singapore day 2

We woke up at 6am, which did not feel early at all as we are still adjusting to the change in time. (After all it was 2pm at home. Felt like we slept in way too long!) (: we got everyone ready to go – each person had a camelbak topped off in preparation for the extreme hydration need, cleats packed for a game later, tissues prepared for restrooms that are unequipped, an MRT card to use public transit, and a sheet of paper with instructions for where to go if lost.

 

adding some money to our MRT cards

our home station - Kembangan

riding the rails - NOT at rush hour = plenty of space

We walked about 15 minutes to catch the MRT (train), then rode for about 30minutes to our stop. We made good time, so we had the opportunity to stop at a shopping mall to exchange money and get a sim card for scott’s phone, BUT the shops were not open until 10. We were too early.

We checked out some of the different produce available here - so many varieties of onions on this aisle.

We looked around a bit at our first mall of many then began a 25minute walk to the International Community School. Some friends of mom & dad’s from Georgia now live here and are working at the school. They gave us a tour and chatted about employment opportunities available at the school. The admissions counselor met all the kids and asked when we’d be moving over. They are ready for us. (:

waiting in the lobby while scott was chatting

Flags on the wall from all the countries represented by the students here - how many can you name? Jonas totally impressed the admissions gal because he knew the location of Latvia. Thank you Challenge A! Can you pick out their flag?

After the school tour, we walked to the bus stop (next to mall #2). On the way, Terry (the friend from GA) pointed out one of the traditional houses on the block. Most have been replaced with more than one house that makes better use of the land space – a precious commodity on this tiny island. This one still stands on its raised stilt foundation and metal roof.

Our bus took us to the MRT station where we had a familiar lunch at Wendy’s.

We had rushed to get there, eat, and be ready to meet some others. But as missionaries so often need to be flexible, so did we. The meeting was postponed. And we were meeting at 4 instead of 1, so now we had time to kill which we spent at the mall (#3) cross the street.

This mall was 8 stories tall. There were 3 basements and 5 floors above ground – 2 levels of parking, a food court, a “fashion” level, an IT level, an ice rink, a cinema, and a theatre. In the food court, we tried red dragon fruit.

It was lightly flavored, sweet, and the texture of a kiwi. Another OM-er we met up with pondered that the dragon fruit and kiwi may be related as they both originated in China. Hmm…

We made our way back across the street to the MRT and rode a couple stops North. We caught a bus, then walked 10minutes to the futsal fields.  Here we would play soccer alongside Malay kids who were part of a soccer camp being put on by some of the ship’s crew (staying here while the ship is in drydock for repairs). Not surprisingly, it began to rain while they were playing. Then it began to pour. You could not see from one end of the field to the other! Then, there was thunder and lightning right on top of us. There was an announcement, “Please exit the pitch!” Sy and a couple other little guys were plugging their ears because the thunder was sooo loud!

The rain lasted for almost an hour. We decided to catch a cab home, but at this point it was just after 5pm, the work day was ending, and we spent over 30 minutes on hold trying to call for a cab. We were able to get one, but needed 2 to accommodate the 8 of us. So Mom took the younger 3 in the cab and the rest of us took a bus for 25 minutes to the MRT. After a 50 minute train ride, we had successfully crossed the entire island, west to east, and arrived at our stop. We walked 5 minutes to pick up dinner and another 5 minutes home. We ate and retired after a great, but exhausting day.

Sadly, I was super sick at night. But after much pain and finally my body rejecting the food I had just enjoyed, I was able to rest. I woke up refreshed and ready to go! Hopefully, this is the only sickness we must endure on the trip. (: