Hard to “Contain” our Excitement

I am thrilled to report that our container arrived in Singapore last week. The third and final step to our moving-in process is now complete (the first 2 steps having been getting us here with our 17 pieces of luggage, followed by the arrival of our air shipment last month). Our belongings were delivered on Friday, and we have been enjoying having some of our furniture from home here ever since. (Despite a presumably treacherous journey through the waters off the coast of Africa, my long-awaited bed and sectional arrived nearly unscathed- not a single pirate to be found lounging on either of them!) Logan’s bed made the trip as well, and his room now looks much like the one he left behind in Libertyville (albeit with a very different view out the window).

This looks more like Logan’s room!

Jenna’s eagerly-anticipated doll house and Barbie collection were also among the spoils; she’s been busy playing with them ever since. Ky was very pleased to see all of her art supplies. The younger two got right down to business playing restaurant, now that the toy food is here. (As those of you who know Jen are aware, she wants to be a chef when she grows up, and there’s not much she enjoys more than food- real or otherwise.) We did have some damaged items- a torn box spring, scraped corners on our coffee table, banged up feet on our couch, a big chip in our console table, assorted scratches on a chest and some shelving units, etc.; however, if I had it to do all over again, I would send the same pieces. (I would, however, insist on better wrapping of them; what seemed more than sufficient when the movers were packing everything up at home came to feel very lacking when we saw them come out of the container in various states of torn and tattered packaging; our movers here told us that this always happens with items coming from the U.S. They assured us that they do a much better job protecting the furniture that they pack here to send back to the U.S.)

Torn box spring

Scraped coffee table

Scraped sectional foot

Regardless, nothing was lost or damaged beyond repair, and it feels much more like home in the condo now; we all definitely needed that feeling.

In addition to the container being delivered last week, we dealt with yet another issue with our air conditioning. This has been an ongoing theme since our arrival. We have individual units for each of the bedrooms and for the main living space. The day we arrived, Kylie’s A/C was leaking and required servicing. While the techs were here, they performed the required quarterly (oh yes, quarterly) servicing on all of the units. Last month, the A/C in the living room stopped working, which meant that I had to have the windows open all the time. It’s consistently hot and humid, and there are no screens, so that was not a fun time in our household. Additionally, having the windows open results in an ungodly amount of dust settling everywhere, meaning that you can’t even walk barefoot in your own home without your feet ending up black- disgusting! I hate dirty feet… It took 3 visits by the A/C techs to fix that issue, and at one point, we were told that the part we needed wouldn’t be available for 3 months; Brad termed that “not good news” in his ensuing email to our landlord’s realtor (who we like very much, by the way), and we did ultimately get the part in much more quickly. No more than a week had gone by after that repair was made than the 3 units in the kids’ bedrooms stopped working properly. I have come to expect flashing orange warning lights whenever I look at the A/C, and then I feel pleasantly surprised when they are a steady green instead. It took 2 more trips for the bedrooms’ issue to be resolved. Happily, it’s been all-systems-go since Saturday- we are on an air-conditioned roll now!

Our A/C units, on a balcony outside our kitchen

It was interesting to see the reaction of the A/C techs to the new look of our condo. Having been in numerous times since our arrival, they were accustomed to our ugly rental furniture. While here diagnosing the problem w/ the bedrooms’ A/C on Thursday afternoon, they witnessed the removal of that furniture, in preparation for the next day’s big delivery. When they came on Saturday to perform the fix, they stood looking at our sectional, and 1 of them reached out to touch it and then apparently encouraged one of the others to do the same- before I knew it, they were both petting our couch!

Before: some of our ugly rental furniture

After: much better

So, in addition to our A/C woes, the removal of our rental furniture, and the arrival of our container, last week also brought the return of terrible tummy troubles (accompanied by fever) for Logan, who then shared the bug with Kylie. This has been another recurring issue in our family since our arrival. Jenna was hit within a week of the move and missed a day of school, Brad had a turn and stayed home from work one day, and Logan missed a day of school as well, maybe a month ago, and continued to complain about his belly hurting for weeks afterward. Ky and I had escaped it until Logan got it again last week; he missed 2 more days of school, and then Ky came home with a fever and stomach issues on Thursday. Everybody is back at school and doing better, but I’m not sure that we’ve truly eradicated it yet; my turn is surely coming.

All in all, it was a heck of a week. We are thrilled to finally be done with the move, and we are feeling much more comfortable. I will say that part of me was a little apprehensive about the completion of the final move-in step. Having my sectional sitting in my living room here means that it is most certainly not still sitting in my great room at home, which is where I like to imagine it (and us). We are all doing fine, adjusting, learning, and deepening our new friendships. I wouldn’t change our decision or want this experience not to have taken place. However, we continue to struggle with the great distance between us and all of you who are reading this blog back home. We miss you and think about you all the time. It’s great to see your comments after my posts, so please, keep them coming!

Back to Nature & Why So Many Kids?

With no school on Monday or Tuesday this week (professional development days for the teachers), I knew that I wanted to take the kids to the Singapore Botanic Gardens at some point. If there’s one thing we could use more of here, it’s time in a greener, more natural setting. I’d been to the Botanic Gardens with my friend Molly several weeks ago, and I’d been wanting to take the kids ever since. So, on Tuesday, we got an “early” start (9:30 was the best I could do) and hopped on the train. Then, we hopped on a second train. Travel time was about 30 minutes, door-to-door. The B.G. entrance is right next to the train station, and admission is free- perfect!

The turtles were a hit:

 

My favorites, the lily pads:

That’s Ky, taking a rest across the way

Jen, up close and personal

Lo, probably contemplating whether he could float on 1 of those

More sights:

Amazing

Black swans

Evolution Garden:

 

Children’s Garden:

After they’d had their fill of jumping on the bridge in the Children’s Garden (really, the only thing that held their interest for long in that area- my babies are getting old!), we followed sign after sign to the food court. It turned out to be more of a hawker center (stay tuned for more on those in a later post) that was actually outside the B.G. gates, offering a variety of Asian cuisine and catering to employees on lunch breaks as well as B.G. visitors. We found a table and figured out what we all wanted to eat. While I was waiting for the kids’ food to be ready, a very friendly Chinese man sat down next to the kids and began chatting with them. He smiled at me, and I encouraged them to talk to him while I waited in line. After getting their food and returning to the table, I joined in the conversation. The man asked me my name and told me his, which sounded like Green to me (though that’s obviously not what it actually was- for the sake of simplicity, we’ll just go with Green to finish out the story). He told me that Logan seemed shy (not necessarily true, though my little buddy wasn’t too talkative at that moment- it’s been hard explaining to the kids that it’s safe to talk to strangers here), and I guess he had already quizzed Kylie on who the President of the United States is; upon hearing her correct response, he commented, “Quite clever.” Green then asked me, right off the bat, “Why so many kids?” Luckily, my children were behaving quite nicely at that point, so there was no question that he was truly just very interested to understand why Americans have such “large” families, with 2 or 3 kids being the norm. I gave him some answer about people liking to have both a boy and a girl, and I told him that being 1 of 3 kids in my family growing up, I’d always wanted to have 3 myself. He seemed fairly satisfied with that answer, and we moved on to other topics. Green was very impressed that we were all eating like locals; he said that Americans have “iron stomachs” and that the Chinese only eat Chinese food. It turned out that he’d lived in Houston for 5 years, and when I asked him how he’d liked it, he said, “Very hot”- if that’s not the pot calling the kettle black, as the kids & I sat there in our sweat-soaked shirts and hats, I don’t know what is! Green finished eating before we did and took his leave, but I was happy to finish our meal chatting with my children about how interesting it had been to speak to Green, and how you never know what you might learn here, even while eating lunch at a food court.

Given that it was the middle of the day and extremely hot and sticky, we decided to check out one last area of the B.G. before heading home. Logan has his father’s excellent sense of direction and was very enthused to be the navigator as we headed off toward the Rain Forest:

This guy loves a good map

We walked the wooded path through the Rain Forest area:

It was definitely time to go when taking this solo photo of Jenna sparked an issue with Kylie, leaving me to ponder the question, “Why so many kids?” in a whole different way:

A few shots on the way out:

We really did have a very nice day, despite the heat and the girls’ tiff at the end. I was again in awe of this new life we have, which on this day had me taking my kids by train to sightsee in Singapore, farther from home than I would ever have imagined we’d be.

This is How We Roll

I’ve already mentioned how I loved my minivan- that Honda Odyssey was my go-to mode of transportation from shortly after Jenna was born over 8 years ago until we sold it the week of our move to Singapore. Our siblings, all younger than us and not parents until just recently (2 of the 3, anyway), gave us a hard time about the van, but it was perfect for our family, and I was planning to drive that thing until it would drive no longer.

One last ride

Goodbye, minivan!

Brad had a great Acura MDX that had a 3rd-row option, giving us 2 vehicles that fit all 5 of us. That’s how we got around- period. However, one of our major decisions as we tried to determine where we wanted to live in Singapore was whether or not we would be getting a car here. Had you asked me 6 months ago if I could imagine not having even 1, let alone 2, vehicles, I would have laughed at the absurdity of considering life with 3 kids and no cars. And yet, here we are, in just that situation. We opted to try the car-free route. Driving here isn’t appealing to me in the least- wrong side of the road for us, lots of congestion, impatient drivers… not what I want to worry about. It’s also crazy-expensive, and we’ve opted to use our transportation allowance on busing the kids to and from school, cabs whenever we like (though that hasn’t been often, thus far), and bus and train fares.

So, how’s that working out, you might ask? I’d have to say that it’s going surprisingly well. We chose a condo right near a train station, so a short walk is all it takes to get to the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit). The kids have quickly become pros when taking the train, from navigating the escalators in the train station, to swiping their ez-link cards to gain admission and later to exit (i.e., pay), to hopping quickly onto the train and finding a place to sit (occasionally) or stand (which we usually have to do). They have memorized the recorded announcements (“Please mind the platform gap,” which you hear as the train arrives at each station, being their favorite) and know not to sit in the seats reserved for the elderly/handicapped/pregnant women/parents holding babies. We are working on the younger 2 not freaking out if they want to sit but can only do so if there is a stranger on either side; they’re learning that if you see a seat open up, you take it. Logan is endlessly fascinated by the train itself and the track it runs on. All 3 kids were delighted when we went somewhere a few days ago that involved a brief time above-ground, allowing them to see out of the train windows, as darkness is the norm. I don’t love when they “surf” or try to hang from the handles while riding; luckily, they only try this when the train is less crowded than usual. They are always interested in the map on the train, showing all the stops; I love that they’re figuring out where they are and where they’re going.

On the train after orientation at school

Standing next to Daddy

The bus system here works great as well. There is a stop right near the condo, and the buses also utilize the ez-link cards, so we just make sure to keep an adequate balance on each of those. The kids like to help us “top up” the cards at the train station by feeding cash into the kiosks. Logan rides for free on both bus and train because he is under 7, so that is a definite plus. I had to take his passport to the ticket office at the train station to get his special pass; I assumed it would be good until he turns 7, but that turned out not to be the case- I’ll have to bring his passport in again in April to get him a card that will then last him till his 7th birthday. Anyway, we’re happy to have the buses at our disposal as well. Brad & I each have a very useful app on our phones (gothere.sg) that provides us with information on all the ways to get wherever it is that we want to go, giving us estimated time and cost for the assorted transportation options. I didn’t have a cell phone for the first few weeks we were here (as we waited for Brad’s employment pass to be issued), so I was nervous when I ventured out initially. Now, though, gothere.sg tells me all I need to know. To get to the kids’ school, I take a bus and then the train; when I did that alone for the first time, I was pretty proud of myself. I certainly miss being able to hop in my car and drive 30 seconds to get to school, but at least I know what I’m doing now and can get there if I need to- as long as I have 40 minutes to spare for the commute!

On the bus, off to shop for a dining table

Cabs have turned out to be my least-favorite transportation option. We weren’t sure how it would work with 5 of us; we’d been warned that some cabbies would likely refuse us based on the number of people in our family. That has happily turned out not to be the case, though they refuse everybody when they don’t want to go where you’re asking them to take you, which happens more than you’d think. There are a number of apps that allow you to order taxis, and those have been helpful in avoiding that problem. Brad sits up front with the driver, leaving the 3 kids and me to squeeze into the backseat. Jenna has an issue with not wanting to sit on the seat itself, so she typically sits on my lap. Logan sits in the middle, and Ky sits on the other side of him. We seem to have trouble with seat belts frequently, leaving somebody unbelted. For a mom who is used to strict rules about seat belts, carseats, and the like, tooling around Singapore in the back of a taxi with unrestrained children who don’t each have their own seat is a stressful experience.

Last but not least, we do a LOT of walking. Even if we take public transportation, there is a fair amount of walking involved. Logan has been known to request that we take a cab from our door to the train station, which we can literally see from our gate, though he now seems resigned to the walk. I have to say that they don’t give you much time to cross the street here- the “green man” does not appear for long, leaving us racing across the street, kids in tow, to beat the clock and stay out of oncoming traffic. I also don’t love having the kids walking so close to very-busy streets all the time- makes me nervous! I do like that everyone is getting plenty of exercise, and the kids are certainly soaking up their new surroundings.

So, having proven that we can, we’re still planning to make do without a car for the duration of our stay. Brad misses driving and is looking forward to an upcoming vacation to rent a car and get some time on the road. I absolutely look forward to the day when we’re back at home, and I can take my new vehicle, minivan or otherwise, to the grocery store and load up. However, for now, I’m glad that we’re managing without and acquiring a new set of skills.

Yes, the Tooth Fairy Comes to Singapore

So, what did our first few days here look like?

Well, there was jet lag:

This was our first night in the new condo, and poor Logan was exhausted! (Brad wasn’t so wide-awake either.)

The day after we arrived, there was Brad’s first day of work (yes, the very next day- nothing like being on your own with 3 kids in a new country, on a different continent, almost immediately):

In this pic, he’s waiting for the elevator, just outside our front door. He then walks to the train station, rides the train, and walks a short way to his office; round-trip, it takes him about 25 minutes, which is about the same as his drive to work at home. At least he’s getting some exercise!

Here are the kids on our balcony, before their first swim in our gorgeous pool- definitely one of the best parts about living here:

Here’s a better view of the pool itself:

That’s actually Ky down in the pool, later in the week, with a new friend from Australia.

This is Brad before his second day of work:

Note the change in footwear; just as I learned back in my days of commuting to downtown Chicago, he quickly figured out that dress shoes weren’t going to cut it while walking to and from the train. He also has to bring a towel to dry himself off once he gets to work; the humidity in Singapore is no joke!

Finally, just to add another big first to the first few days we spent here, Logan lost his very first tooth:

He is proudly displaying both the tooth and the new gap in his smile in this photo.

We were a little nervous about proper protocol over here, but as it turns out…

…yes, the Tooth Fairy does come to Singapore, and she even pays in Sing dollars! 🙂

Just Another Fumigation Friday

It all starts with a loud buzzing noise outside, typically around 9:30 each Friday morning.

Almost immediately, there are clouds of insecticides billowing through the air.

I see people out on their balconies each week at this time, frantically grabbing their wet laundry off of drying racks, trying to get their clean clothes inside before the clouds reach them.

Anyone caught entering our condo complex as this is happening scurries along, coughing and gagging, racing to get to the elevators.

The prospect of mosquitoes spreading dengue fever certainly scares me, but I have to say that watching this cloud waft past my window each week leaves me feeling pretty unsettled. And, am I the only one worried about the guy who is down there administering this treatment? Try to find him in these photos- it’s kind of a Where’s Waldo?-like endeavor.

So, now it’s almost 9 o’clock on Friday morning, and I have places I need to go. Last week, they got started an hour late. I think I’ll head out and hope for the best. Wish me luck!

The magic number was 17…

…pieces of luggage, that is. Yes, we kept track of 3 kids and 17 suitcases/backpacks all the way from Chicago to Hong Kong to Singapore. Seven of those suitcases were checked, but we were on our own with the rest. Our saving grace? The kids’ backpacks came with their rolling carry-on suitcases, and we could zip the backpacks onto the suitcases when we were walking through the airport- I highly recommend this! We happened to see another family at the ticket counter at O’Hare with all manner of luggage and boxes; they also had 3 kids, and all 6 kids just looked at each other, as if they were thinking, “I bet I know exactly what’s happening to you…”; it was kind of reassuring that we weren’t the only ones crazy enough to be doing this.

Our departure from my in-laws’ house on 8/9:

       

Thankfully, Grandpa has a vehicle large enough (barely) to carry 7 people and 17 pieces of luggage!

At O’Hare, done with tearful goodbyes and now full of excitement:

     

Luggage stowed, settling in for the first leg of our journey:

I am usually all about reading and limiting electronics, but let me just say, the personal TV screens were key on this flight.

Arrival in Hong Kong, 16 long hours later:

 

After spending a few hours in China and flying another 4 hours on the 2nd leg of our trip, the Skibitzki family arrived in Singapore, tired, sore, and relieved:

      

These last 2 photos were taken after midnight on Monday, 8/11. Happily, no luggage (or children) were lost, and everyone held up pretty well, given the fact that this journey took more than a day to complete. Now, who’s coming to visit us first?!

Simply a thank-you

Well, here we are: my first post. I’ve never had a blog before. I’ve never been one to post much on Facebook (until recently, anyway). I’m typically a pretty private person. So, why am I starting this blog? To save time on emails, of course! That’s actually not quite true- my primary motivation is to create a place where all of our interested family members and friends can check in on what’s happening with us, now that we’ve actually done this crazy thing and are living just about as far away from our home as possible. Additionally, when we were first presented with the opportunity to move to Singapore, I quickly became obsessed with expat blogs- it was the best way to figure out what exactly life here would look like. If my blog gives anyone in the same situation a better perspective on living in Singapore, all the better!

My blog posts will likely be frequent and short, providing you with a snapshot of our new life at any given moment. It’ll be about living in Singapore, parenting my children here, trips we take, discoveries we make, how we adapt to this new set of circumstances, etc. I’ll try to answer my own question regarding the simplicity of this life by the end of our stay here. This first post, however, won’t be about any of that.

This post is all about thanking everyone who helped us get to this point. When we first contemplated moving nearly 4 months ago, we were staggered by the thought of all that it would take to actually make the move. We were firmly ensconced in our life in the Midwest, and to take that show on the road would take a whole lot of work. From the day we made our decision final on June 6th, until we left Chicago on August 9th, our lives were pure chaos. I am a self-professed control freak with extreme Type-A tendencies. I like planning and organization; I don’t relinquish control easily or often (fun, right?). However, despite really late nights and very early mornings spent preparing for our move, I was quickly forced to conclude that there was just no way we were going to be able to get it all done in only 2 months without help. And, in the most amazing of ways both large and small, our family and friends provided us with all the assistance we needed to meet our deadline (by the narrowest of margins, admittedly) and make our flight on 8/9. You all know who you are, and your list of contributions is long (and in many cases, ongoing, as you help us manage anything that comes up while we’re gone). Thank you to those who:

• helped me with my first-ever garage sale (may it also be my last-ever garage sale)
• drove my kids around Libertyville this summer when I didn’t have the time
• encouraged me when I wasn’t sure we could do it
• picked up the slack for me when I couldn’t attend to outside obligations that I had committed to prior to deciding to turn my life upside-down
• helped us get our house ready to put on the market
• entertained my kids when they’d had enough TV (but thank goodness for Full House reruns, incidentally- it was all new to my 3, and it seems that Uncle Jesse and Joey are timelessly funny)
• let us fill up their garbage and recycling cans each Wednesday night, as we turned into stalkers of all extra can-space that our neighbors had to offer
• hauled all manner of our stuff to their own house and offered to store it for us for the next 2 years
• watched our kids for us for days (or a week!) at a time
• hosted lovely going-away gatherings for us
• traveled a significant distance to see us before we left
• drove us around when we sold our vehicles (and yes, I miss my minivan- make fun all you’d like, but it was a great car)
• helped us with unpleasant tasks like laundry, cleaning bathrooms, and painting as we got down to the bitter end
• have essentially become our stateside secretaries, managing our mail and bills
• have continued to help us with our house; my unofficial property manager has gone way above and beyond for us
• encouraged our kids as we prepared to leave, filling them with excitement about their great adventure (and thanks as well to everybody who has sent them emails since we’ve been here; hearing from friends and family at home makes them feel like we aren’t quite so far away)

This list is surely not complete, and we appreciate everything that everybody has done for us; it has been truly humbling to witness. We have an amazing family and wonderful friends. We miss you all so very much. We look forward to sharing our adventures with you, and when our time in Singapore is over, we will be very excited to get back home to all of you.

With love and gratitude,

Carrie, Brad, Kylie, Jenna, & Logan