1. Week 10 saw us land back in Singapore. This 'Rest Week' was our hiatus before we take off to our next destinations - Cambodia & Vietnam for the Christmas & New Year respectively. Our original travel plan was to head to Australia & New Zealand, which had to be scrapped on account of not having enough time to get our Visas. Since moving base to Singapore, we've barely lived here longer than 7 consecutive days (You might call it our '7 day itch' with this city-state, perhaps). Thus, the need to pick another destination that would warrant a two week long trip & get us expedited visas/ visas on arrival. Thus Christmas shall be celebrated in Cambodia & New Year in Vietnam, this year.
2. Indian & American citizens can get a Visa on arrival in Cambodia. However, for entering Vietnam, ctizens of both nations need to pre-apply for a visa, that gets issued via email, but stamped when one enters the country. So some home work needed to be done with respect to the Vietnamese Visa, in our case. Yet it was one of the most easiest Visas I have ever applied for, having done all the paperwork virtually, sans a single trip to the Consulate.
3. Asia lacks manners, me thinks. No surprise there, but it's just one of the 'habitual contrasts' that hits you right in the face, sometimes literally, when you're fresh off the Western boat here. I find myself using the ever so polite "Excuse me" each time I so much as step into the personal physical space of others, while the entire continent goes by nonchalantly and unapologetically elbowing, shovelling and pummeling their way through me. As much as I believe in "In Rome do as the Romans" this indecency is something I will need to be wary of picking up, while living here. Although, on second thoughts, this might just prove to be a super training ground for getting back into the 'local train commuter culture' when we move to Mumbai next. Hmm..
4. Errands to be run this week included taking care of two things:
i) All the legal paperwork with respect to the live-in maid-to-be who would start with us, on our arrival back home after vacation and
ii) Zoe's pre-school. A decision we have happily procrastinated since she was'nt of eligible age yet (Of course we completely overlooked the fact that in a miraculous example of time-flies-with-children she would be nearly 18 months old once we get back from vacation. Yes we are last-minute parents).
Anyway, so as it would turn out, our chosen maid-to-be's employer decided to stay longer in Singapore, thus bringing us back to square one on our search. Again, I did the rounds of my fave maid-agencies in the area, re-interviewing potential candidates and finally picking one I thought was most appropriate. Having all our paperwork ready helped and we filed for her transfer papers with the MOM (Ministry of Manpower) literally a day before we flew out. If all goes through, we ll have ourselves a lovely New Year present when we are back.
Errand No 2 was much easier. The criteria for picking Zoe's pre-school was straightforward: i) It had to believe in the Montessori approach, ii) It should be a short walk from home & iii) It needed to be bilingual in its medium of instruction.
After touring nearly 10+ pre-schools, I was happy to learn that Happy Kids Adventure Club, in our hood, (where Zoe has been attending Holiday Sessions) has plans to start their very own Montessori-approach pre-school program, January 2013 onwards. And while the main medium of instruction will be English, the second language taught will be Mandarin. It's like Errand No. 2 just went and did itself.
Zoe starts Pre-School on January 21st and we are all very excited about this already! Except my Mom perhaps, for fear of having to pick up some Mandarin herself, in case Zoe uses it as her first langauge of choice.
5. Singapore is big on Christmas and New Year celebrations. Naturally, shopping is at an all time high and elaborate, gaudy displays/ decorations have popped up all over the city. Not surprisingly, other extravagant, over-the-top cities such as Dubai & Las Vegas come to mind, right away.
Since we live in the heart of all this commercial materialism (in the Orchard Area), we've been warned of the traffic nightmare (both pedestrian & vehicular) here, during the next few weeks. Thankfully we leave town then, as we discover, is the case with most of the population here.
6. The transient nature of this city-state is most apparent at the end of the year, when one sees a sharp decline in the 'expat' faces around. An Expat lifestyle brings with it perks, of more-than-average vacation days/ home country visits, especially in the festive season. Hence patterns such as the natural outflux of the Caucasian and a sudden influx of the powerful Indian tourist occur (I need to make a special mention here of this one particular type of Indian tourist one sees very often here - the sophisticated, high-class, large designer sunshades wearing, fashionably dressed, middle-aged all-women groups). And of course there is the omnipresent Singaporean/ Chinese local who has nowhere to go. Who really didnt celebrate the Calendar New Year until commercialisation made it absolutely necessary for them to do so.
I must mention however that the upside of living in Singapore is that every kind of New Year is celebrated here, (Hindu, Tamil, Chinese, Western and what say you) which translates directly into more public holidays, hence more travel ops. You get my drift....
7. We wound up the week with a series of 'last dinners of the year', with Hubster's colleagues and our other Ex-NewYorker friends, all of whom were migrating out of the city for the holidays. While spirits were high in general, the 'sense of not-belonging here' was evident in everyone we met (Most being non-Singaporeans).
Sometimes I feel bad for Singapore. Because everyone wants to have a temporary love affair with it, yet no one wants to call it home. (A stark contrast from cities like NY, that everyone wants to be a part of, whether they live there or not).
I have moved here to Singapore, after living in three other cities; all of which I still call home. Because to them I belong as they belong to me.
Home is where the heart is, they say. And everyone here, seems to have their hearts in other cities. So Singapore gets no love. Perhaps that is why it chooses to mask itself, behind its overt materialism.
It works like a rest-stop, sort of like an extended layover for most; to do exactly that - stop, relax, enjoy a little before it's time to pack-up and leave, for the next destination.
People come and people go; a few willingly stay here forever. So much so that all household services such as cable TV/ Phone/ Apartment leases/ Domestic worker contracts are designed specifically to suit the average duration of a 'transient expat stay' - 2 years.
I hope to forge some sense of belonging with this city before I leave. So that I can call this my 4th city home. Not only because I've lived here at some point in my life, but because it kept a part of me and gave me some part of it in return.
Thanks for reading,
Shweyta
2. Indian & American citizens can get a Visa on arrival in Cambodia. However, for entering Vietnam, ctizens of both nations need to pre-apply for a visa, that gets issued via email, but stamped when one enters the country. So some home work needed to be done with respect to the Vietnamese Visa, in our case. Yet it was one of the most easiest Visas I have ever applied for, having done all the paperwork virtually, sans a single trip to the Consulate.
3. Asia lacks manners, me thinks. No surprise there, but it's just one of the 'habitual contrasts' that hits you right in the face, sometimes literally, when you're fresh off the Western boat here. I find myself using the ever so polite "Excuse me" each time I so much as step into the personal physical space of others, while the entire continent goes by nonchalantly and unapologetically elbowing, shovelling and pummeling their way through me. As much as I believe in "In Rome do as the Romans" this indecency is something I will need to be wary of picking up, while living here. Although, on second thoughts, this might just prove to be a super training ground for getting back into the 'local train commuter culture' when we move to Mumbai next. Hmm..
4. Errands to be run this week included taking care of two things:
i) All the legal paperwork with respect to the live-in maid-to-be who would start with us, on our arrival back home after vacation and
ii) Zoe's pre-school. A decision we have happily procrastinated since she was'nt of eligible age yet (Of course we completely overlooked the fact that in a miraculous example of time-flies-with-children she would be nearly 18 months old once we get back from vacation. Yes we are last-minute parents).
Anyway, so as it would turn out, our chosen maid-to-be's employer decided to stay longer in Singapore, thus bringing us back to square one on our search. Again, I did the rounds of my fave maid-agencies in the area, re-interviewing potential candidates and finally picking one I thought was most appropriate. Having all our paperwork ready helped and we filed for her transfer papers with the MOM (Ministry of Manpower) literally a day before we flew out. If all goes through, we ll have ourselves a lovely New Year present when we are back.
Errand No 2 was much easier. The criteria for picking Zoe's pre-school was straightforward: i) It had to believe in the Montessori approach, ii) It should be a short walk from home & iii) It needed to be bilingual in its medium of instruction.
After touring nearly 10+ pre-schools, I was happy to learn that Happy Kids Adventure Club, in our hood, (where Zoe has been attending Holiday Sessions) has plans to start their very own Montessori-approach pre-school program, January 2013 onwards. And while the main medium of instruction will be English, the second language taught will be Mandarin. It's like Errand No. 2 just went and did itself.
Zoe starts Pre-School on January 21st and we are all very excited about this already! Except my Mom perhaps, for fear of having to pick up some Mandarin herself, in case Zoe uses it as her first langauge of choice.
5. Singapore is big on Christmas and New Year celebrations. Naturally, shopping is at an all time high and elaborate, gaudy displays/ decorations have popped up all over the city. Not surprisingly, other extravagant, over-the-top cities such as Dubai & Las Vegas come to mind, right away.
Since we live in the heart of all this commercial materialism (in the Orchard Area), we've been warned of the traffic nightmare (both pedestrian & vehicular) here, during the next few weeks. Thankfully we leave town then, as we discover, is the case with most of the population here.
6. The transient nature of this city-state is most apparent at the end of the year, when one sees a sharp decline in the 'expat' faces around. An Expat lifestyle brings with it perks, of more-than-average vacation days/ home country visits, especially in the festive season. Hence patterns such as the natural outflux of the Caucasian and a sudden influx of the powerful Indian tourist occur (I need to make a special mention here of this one particular type of Indian tourist one sees very often here - the sophisticated, high-class, large designer sunshades wearing, fashionably dressed, middle-aged all-women groups). And of course there is the omnipresent Singaporean/ Chinese local who has nowhere to go. Who really didnt celebrate the Calendar New Year until commercialisation made it absolutely necessary for them to do so.
I must mention however that the upside of living in Singapore is that every kind of New Year is celebrated here, (Hindu, Tamil, Chinese, Western and what say you) which translates directly into more public holidays, hence more travel ops. You get my drift....
7. We wound up the week with a series of 'last dinners of the year', with Hubster's colleagues and our other Ex-NewYorker friends, all of whom were migrating out of the city for the holidays. While spirits were high in general, the 'sense of not-belonging here' was evident in everyone we met (Most being non-Singaporeans).
Sometimes I feel bad for Singapore. Because everyone wants to have a temporary love affair with it, yet no one wants to call it home. (A stark contrast from cities like NY, that everyone wants to be a part of, whether they live there or not).
I have moved here to Singapore, after living in three other cities; all of which I still call home. Because to them I belong as they belong to me.
Home is where the heart is, they say. And everyone here, seems to have their hearts in other cities. So Singapore gets no love. Perhaps that is why it chooses to mask itself, behind its overt materialism.
It works like a rest-stop, sort of like an extended layover for most; to do exactly that - stop, relax, enjoy a little before it's time to pack-up and leave, for the next destination.
People come and people go; a few willingly stay here forever. So much so that all household services such as cable TV/ Phone/ Apartment leases/ Domestic worker contracts are designed specifically to suit the average duration of a 'transient expat stay' - 2 years.
I hope to forge some sense of belonging with this city before I leave. So that I can call this my 4th city home. Not only because I've lived here at some point in my life, but because it kept a part of me and gave me some part of it in return.
Thanks for reading,
Shweyta
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