Packed Up and Shipping Out

The last week has been extremely busy!  Derek and I made lots of spreadsheets and checklists to keep track of everything that we needed to do this week to make sure we didn't forget anything.  So far, I think everything has gone pretty smoothly.

A couple of things happened that were unexpected but we were able to deal with them pretty quickly.  The first happened on Wednesday night when we were trying to disconnect the washer and dryer and realized that when Sears installed the gas dryer that they broke the handle on the gas line.  After some internet searches and calls to some plumbing companies we were able to determine that the valve was closed and safety disconnected the dryer.  Wednesday night we also tried to move our refrigerator which we were selling to our friends down the street.  The problem was between Derek and I we weren't able to move it very far.  We were thankful for our movers who were kind enough to wheel it the six houses down the street for us on Thursday.

How far the movers got the fridge

How far Derek and I got the fridge

On Wednesday we did last minute sorting into air, ocean, and storage around the house and packed our suitcases.  Thursday was our packing day. The movers showed up and packed up everything in the house.  It is amazing how fast they can come in and box everything up.  The twist to our Thursday was that the buyers of our home (that's right, we sold it!) needed the inspector to come so we had to deal with that in the middle of all the movers.  Needless to say, we were exhausted when we finally left the house that night and barely stayed up long enough to watch the start of college football.

Our living room all packed up.

Friday was our loading day.  The movers showed up with our 20' container and loaded all of our ocean shipment items into it.  I'm really glad they didn't bring the 40' container because we could't even fill the 20'.  After they sealed up the container and drove it off they brought back another truck to fill with all of our items going to storage.

Our 20' container in front of the house

Finished filling the container and closing
it up.  We weren't even close to filling it.

All the storage containers lined up and ready to be filled

We are hoping that our Saturday travel day will be uneventful.  Most importantly, we want Maddie to get shipped off with out any issues.  Singapore, here we come!

Moving Preparations

Since May, we have been in full preparation mode for our move to Singapore.  It takes a lot of work to get ready to sell your house, cars, and other items and move half way across the world.  One of the first things we did was make sure to see our families and spend some quality time with them (Family Vacation).  We have made numerous donations to Goodwill, stockpiled goods we can't get in Singapore (or that cost 3x as much), staged our home, and so much more.  Now I can explain how we have gotten ready and what will happen in the future to complete the move.

Loaded up with paper towels, toilet paper, and toiletries.
Hoping its enough to last us two years.

Packing/Shipping/Storage
One of the more difficult activities we had to do was catalog everything we own and decide what goes in the air shipment, the ocean shipment, or in storage.  The air shipment is small and only holds about 100lbs of goods so that will be the remaining clothing that didn't fit in our suitcases and anything we think we will need up until our ocean shipment arrives.  The ocean shipment is a standard 40 foot shipping container.  Because we aren't planning to bring very much the shipping company is hoping to fit everything in just a 20 foot container.  Our belongings will travel on land to California and then be placed on a container ship to be brought to Singapore.  This process takes six to eight weeks so it will be a while before we are able to move anywhere permanent.


Temporary Living
When we land in Singapore, we will have nothing but the six (yes, 6!) suitcases we bring with us.  Instead of living in a small hotel room for the six to eight weeks until our furniture arrives, we are placed into a serviced apartment.  The serviced apartment has two fully furnished bedrooms, a kitchen, and living room.  After a week or two we will receive our air shipment which will give us a few more comforts from home.  Hopefully after Maddie gets out of doggy jail (quarantine) and joins us it will begin to feel like home.


Sell, sell, sell
With our assignment being two years we decided we did not want to maintain our house from afar  so we put it up on the market.  I have to say it is weird to see pictures of the inside of your house on the internet but it seems to be working.  We have had several people come look at the house and we hope to get an offer in the next couple weeks.
Our cars will likely be sold to somewhere like CarMax just before the movers come.  It's hard to sell your car on your own when you can't let go of it until a certain date and time.  At least we know CarMax will take them the second we are ready to sell although we are always open to last minute offers.
Lawn mower, weed eater, generator, gas grill, washer, dryer, and refrigerator all have to be sold too.  It is company policy not to store the appliances because they often require a lot of repairs to return to working order after you get them back which is why we have to sell.  The other items we could store but like the appliances, they will need repair work so we decided it was best to sell them as well.

Shop 'til You Drop
Because almost everything costs more in Singapore we have been on a mission to buy everything we need/want while we are still in the US.  Lots of work clothes, summer clothes (Singapore is above 70deg every day of the year), shoes, paper products, toiletries, tablets, power transformers, power converters, additional suitcases, and the list goes on.

I will try to document everything as all the real moving begins next week.  I can't believe Tuesday will be my last day in the office here.

Maddie Has To Move, too!

One of the questions I get the most about our move is "what are we doing with our dog, Maddie?"  Well, our furry baby is coming with us.  As soon as we found out we might be going we started looking up the requirements for importing a pet and doing whatever we could to get Maddie ready.  Because Singapore is an island, it is rabies free and wants to remain that way so all animals are required to go into quarantine when they arrive.

Maddie has had a series of shots and tests to make sure that she is rabies free and when she arrives in Singapore, she will go into quarantine for ten days.  We will be able to go and visit her almost everyday that she is quarantined and will even be able to take her for a walk around the grounds.  If we had not done all the tests and shots here, she would have had to stay in quarantine for thirty days.  I'm very thankful we were able to get a head start!

The other question I get is "how will Maddie get to Singapore".  We considered flying her in the cabin with us but there were issues with the length of flights and the airlines that would allow us to have her in cabin so we have opted to ship her as cargo.  The airlines have programs that are tailored for relocating pets.  There will be a tracking device on her crate and we can call the airline and get her location at anytime.  They also will plan a route that will give her a stop or two where she can stay the night, eat, drink, and potty before continuing on her journey.

We just hope she isn't completely traumatized by the experience and is ready to enjoy her new life in Singapore!

We're moving!

Over two years ago, as I was sitting in an apartment in Baton Rouge and Derek was sitting in an apartment in Houston, we decided that the best thing for our family was a change.  We did not like being apart but wanted to be able to continue to travel and move for our jobs so Derek decided to leave his job and come work for the same company as me.  Derek, I can't thank you enough!  We were told we would be in Houston for a few years so were settling down and enjoying life in the suburbs.  Then a few months ago plans changed and we found out that we were going to get the opportunity of a lifetime,  an assignment to Singapore!

We have been fantasizing for years about what it would be like to live life overseas and are so excited that we will get the chance to do it.  It is sure to be challenging living 12 timezones and a 24 hour plane ride away from our families but we will do everything we can to make it work.  

To make the most of our two years in Singapore we have made a few objectives for ourselves:

1.  Travel as much as we can.
Singapore is on the tip of southeast Asia and is just a couple of hours flight from so many amazing places.  A few of the places we hope to see are Bali, Bangkok, Siem Reap, Hong Kong, Japan, China, Australia, Hanoi, New Zealand, Boracay, and Phuket.  If anyone has ideas of must see places, please let me know so I can add them to our list.

2.  Eat our way through Asia.
Of course we love food so we will try to be adventurous in our eating and not turn our nose up to too many dishes (I draw the line at insects).  One notable Asian delicacy to try is Durian which is a fruit with the saying "Tastes like Heaven, smells like Hell."

3.  Become more worldly.
Living in America we find people seem to be very unaware of other cultures and customs.  We want to immerse ourselves in Asian culture and keep an open mind so that we may learn about other people's way of life.  We will not discriminate against people of different religious beliefs or ethnicities but try understand more about them.

It is sure to be a fun and exciting couple of years and we look forward to sharing stories and pictures of our adventures!

Beautiful Singapore

Tales from the Taxi

I don't have a car to drive during my visit to Singapore so I am forced to take cabs everywhere I want to go that isn't conveniently near an MRT station.  Every ride I take is a new adventure.   I'm about at my limit for taxis and am counting down the days until I don't have to take them anymore.  Here are some of the things I've experienced:

Not all taxis take credit cards.  
Plastic is the only way that I pay for anything in the US and if I ever have cash its never more than $20.  The other day the hotel called me a cab that only accepted cash, which I did not realize until I was on my way.  I only had $30 SGD in my wallet and the cab ride cost me $29 SGD.  Close one!  Now I insist on waiting until a cab that takes credit cards comes.

Not all taxi drivers know where they are going.  
Most of the drivers I get have no idea where my office is.  This baffles me because the entire country of Singapore is about the size of the inside Beltway 8 in Houston.  My hotel is 15 miles from the office at a very large manufacturing site for a major corporation yet they have no idea where it is.  The drivers often do not have a GPS or smartphone so they will want me to tell them how to get there.  I just want to scream "This is your island!! How do you not know?!?"  Thankfully I loaded some offline maps to my otherwise useless iPhone so I am able to give them directions if required.  It was the only thing that kept my $29 SGD taxi from being more than I could afford.

Cabs smell.  
I have been gifted (or maybe cursed) with a very sensitive sense of smell.  I can smell a smoker from a mile away, perfumes make me nauseous, and I can't sleep at night until I take a shower after being in a smokey bar, hibachi restaurant, or a stinky cab.  Smoking is prohibited inside cabs but that doesn't stop the cab driver from smoking outside and then getting in it to drive me somewhere.  The smell of the smoke was so bad this afternoon that I had to take a shower the second I got in the door because I thought I was going to lose my lunch.  It was some strange smoke, nothing illegal but certainly not Marlboro lights.  I've also become nauseous from the smell of the cab drivers pungent body odor but I'm pretty sure everyone would too.

Some drivers like to talk.  
Many drivers see an American get in their cab and want to hear all about you.  This doesn't usually bother me as long as I can understand what they are saying.  I got in one cab at night where the driver basically had a conversation with himself.  He was laughing and carrying on but I only understood a couple words so I just kept nodding my head and responding "mmmhmm, oh really."  He acted like an Asian version of Sloth from the Goonies (Hey, you guys!) and I was afraid it wasn't my hotel he was going to take me to.
Most drivers want to know where I am from and what I'm doing here but today's driver was particularly interesting.  He says to me "You engineer? You work at refinery?".  I respond "Yes, I'm an engineer" and he says to me "Oh, I thought only men work at refinery."  Thank you for taking me back to the 1970's, taxi driver.

The best way to get a cab is via the iPhone app.  
This is terrific when your iPhone is a glorified paperweight.  I've tried calling the cab company but that usually results in my waiting for 30 minutes on the phone only to find out that there are no cabs available.  When I have someone else book it for me on their phone it takes 2 minutes.  Now, the driver does look at me a little funny because they are expecting Mr. Liu, Toh, Koh, or Choo but at least I get my ride back to the hotel.

Three more days, I can make it....

Hawker Centres

Hawker Centres are prevalent in Singapore and are known for their variety of inexpensive food.  A hawker centre is an open-air complex consisting of many restaurant stalls that serve a variety of food.  They are called hawker centres because of the way in which employees from different stalls will hawk or call at the patrons as they walk by trying to get them to buy from their stall.  I have learned from experience that if you stand still and look around, they will start to circle you like sharks.  The best way to visit one of these places is to either not look like a tourist or to know exactly what stall you want to go to and barrel on through.

Newton Circus Hawker Centre

Restaurant workers just waiting for you to walk by and become their prey.

Despite being asked to eat the food at half the stalls in the place, we finally settled on one and began to order.  We were trying to decide whether or not to order a chicken dish when a friend asked if the chicken was white meat or dark meat.  The waitress gave us a puzzled look and responded "I don know, eets cheeken" as if all chicken meat is the same.  I tried not to laugh but it was just too funny.

What you have to understand about chicken in Singapore (and much of Asia) is that most of it is dark meat chicken and usually involves all the bones and skin.  I have ordered chicken a time or two and they take a thigh and wing and will cut it into a few pieces with kitchen scissors and then throw it on your plate.  It's a quick appetite killer.

Now, the food we did get was absolutely delicious!  We ordered garlic prawns, Tom Yum soup, pepper chicken, shrimp fried rice, and a couple veggie dishes that were very non-American but very good (probably cooked with MSG).

Veggie dishes and pepper chicken. 

The prawns are almost the size of my hand!

The day before we stopped by the hawker centre to get some fresh juice.  They have tons of fruits available and you can pick any combination you want and they juice it right there.  If you want to keep your blood sugar in-check, they have pure sugar cane juice.  I just went for pineapple mango which was amazing!  I could certainly get used to fresh juice everyday.

Waiting in line for our juice

Hawker centre, I will be back for more of your wonderful food and juice!

Interesting Finds of the Week

Here are my finds from my first week in Singapore:

$16.95 for a bottle of Barefoot?!?! And that is the sale price!

The "fruit" plate I get everyday in my hotel room.
Why is fruit in quotations? That is because one of the "fruits"
is an orange tomato.

This is a wine store in a very high-end mall.  If hoarders goes
international, I have the place for them.

Tokyo Lash Bar.  You can get lashes that are
beaded like you just got dreads in Jamaica.  If
that doesn't suit you then you can get feathers.

Seafood tanks in front of a restaurant.  They have Geoduck,
where is Mike Rowe when you need him?

Alaskan King Crabs! How do I know they are Alaskan instead
of Australian or Rock Crabs?  Too many episodes of
Deadliest Catch, of course.

Why does this bike look strange?  That is because it folds up.
I haven't seen one in the folded position but I have heard
about them.  I'm a little skeptical about riding a bike that
is collapsible. 

Chinatown, where everything is cheap.  Probably the only
place in Singapore where you can get stuff cheaper than
it is in America.

My very first bubble tea.  The bubbles (balls
of tapioca) weirded me out at first but I
enjoyed it and can't wait to try some more.

Din Tai Fung Dumplings

There is a dumpling house in Singapore called Din Tai Fung that I am quickly learning is a local favorite.  I have been taken here by friends and co-workers three times in my first week.  What makes this place so special is that they make everything fresh to order.  One of the things I like is that none of the chicken has bones (I'll have to explain that later).

Workers feverishly making dumplings

I feel like after three trips I've tried almost everything on the menu.  It's nice to have one restaurant where I know what to order and what not to order.  Most restaurants I just stare blankly at the menu and have to ask someone else to choose for me.  When I choose, its usually whatever item has the best looking picture.

Vegetable Dumplings!

I have a feeling there will be many more visits to this restaurant in my future.

Sorry, my sunglasses are too cool for you...

One of the things I have noticed while in Singapore is that almost no one is wearing sunglasses.  The other day I was riding to lunch with several Singaporeans and I realized I was the only person putting on sunglasses so I decided to ask why no one else wears them.  Here is how the conversation went:

Me: "I've noticed that no one here really wears sunglasses.  Why is that?"

Singaporean: *laughing* "Sunglasses?  People only wear sunglasses if they are trying to look cool."

Me: "What?!? What do you mean only if you want to look cool?  Doesn't the sun bother your eyes?  You know if you don't protect your eyes from the sun you are more likely to get glaucoma.  Do people just not care?"

Singaporean: ''I've just never thought to wear them.  Most people don't."

Me: "Well I just want you to know that I'm not trying to be cool by wearing sunglasses.  I've had lasik and my eyes are very sensitive to sunlight.  It physically hurts to not wear them."

Now whenever I am out in my sunglasses I feel like everyone is looking at me thinking that I'm just trying to be cool.  Oh well, it's not going to stop me from wearing them.