Good-bye New York, Hello Singapore

Our New York departure was nothing short of the stressful ending you would expect - movers showing up 3 hours late, and 2 men short, with a strict building enforcing the "nothing moves out after 5pm" rule - and of course by 4:30pm, not a single box had left our apartment. Many bribes later (made by the moving company after Oliver dropped the hammer on them), everything was finally moved out by 8:30pm. Not quite the last night we hoped to have in NYC, but at least it all got done.

The following day we were off to Newark with our 10 suitcases, a stroller and a car seat for our non-stop (note not "direct") Singapore Airlines Business only flight which was slated for an 11pm take of. The flight took off at 12:30am - with two kids that delay was a toughie after a night of 3 hrs of sleep - but that meant that both girls fell asleep immediately. We were extremely comfortable and well taken care of. Anna slept most of the way, and Charlie, when not sleeping, was watching Beauty and the Beast over and over again (a TV first for her) and eating granola bars and lollipops. She was in heaven.

 

For us, as a result, the flight was as easy as it could be. What was strange about the flight was that you took off at night, and to acclimate you to the time change, essentially, the shades are drawn all 19 hours (we landed at 7am) so you have 19 hours in the dark or artificial light. It's very surreal. We then landed at 7am, to black black skies and torrential downpours, which only added to this strangeness. 

We got through customs without issues, despite my somehow having misplaced Oliver's work permit (I did have all of our dependent passes though!) and were met by our friend Giacomo who accompanied us to our temp housing - so nice to see a friendly face upon arrival. 

Our temporary housing was another nice welcome - staff incredibly friendly, and apartment - very comfortable, clean and well set up.

This first day is certainly a blur, but we did manage to fully unpack our 10 suitcases and go for a short walk before all collapsing into bed at 7pm (and then being woken up about 4-8 times between the two girls over the next few nights!).

The next day, Oliver went to work and I took Charlie for a "fun excursion" (marketing is everything!) food shopping with me, while Anna was being looked after by the hotel babysitter. Having been told that the supermarkets delivered, I decided, in typical NYC style, to do a massive shop. Two full shopping carts later, and halfway through checkout (strollerless) I am notified that only "dry" goods can be delivered and that I will need to carry the rest (note - all the heavy stuff -milk, oj, butter, ice cream, cheese, veggies, fruit, etc etc). As I'm being told this, Charlie is having her 3rd of 6 massive meldowns, and with a sinking heart, I see the 8 grocery bags that are waiting for me to carry up the escalator and 5 blocks home. With Charlie. With meltdowns. Fast forward 30 minutes, and a fall down the escalator by my grumpy monkey, I am standing in the middle of the equivalent of 55th and 5th, with my daughter prostrate, screaming bloody murder, and me looking down (calmly?), helpless, with my 8 grocery bags surrounding us. Needless to say, I was silently cursing the hotel employee who said I was close enough to the market not to need my stroller, and myself for the stupidity of not trusting my instincts, when the first of 2 women came up to me offering to help. I turned down the first (damn pride). When the next showed up 3 minutes later, after I had come to the conclusion that crossing the street was an impossibility, I accepted. She took 4 of my bags so I had a free arm to carry Charlie, and walked me all the way to the hotel. This was not her route. This was the first of our experience with the Singaporean generosity and kindness. Karma, as they would say. Or perhaps, Karma-la. (La gets tagged onto a lot of things...No-la, yes-la, there-la). I almost wept. 

An hour later, I had my real estate agent appointment to see 5 apartments. The 1st I saw was it. And so we then had to scramble. Chinese New Year's eve the next day meant everything was closed for the next three days. As with New York, the only way to secure a place is with money. And the only way to give money is with a local bank account (which we did not yet have - after all, by this time we'd been in Singapore less then 36 hours). So after a mad scramble we open an account, wire money over, only for it not to hit in time. Singapore generosity kicks in for the 2nd time: our agent writes the check for us. She pays our 1st month's rent (not an insignificant sum) out of her own pocket on our word, and on her suggestion. Because we're nice. I asked, what if we don't pay her back? Karma. Crazy. She didn't even have us sign or write anything acknowledging this. With disbelief, I saw her write this check and hand it over.

Needless to say, our first impressions are very positive ones! The people are wonderful - friendly, adore children - men and women alike coo over our little ones (and I'd venture to say, any little ones), the food is excellent, streets are calm, even when crowded, and in the three days I've now been here, I've only heard 3 honks from cars. What a change from New York City. And I'm sure I don't even need to mention how clean it is here - a wonderful sight.

Incredibly, Oliver and I are starting to feel ourselves relaxing a little, despite the massive amount of things we need to accomplish!