I made it to Singapore about two weeks before Erica and although my trip to Singapore was not as difficult it was no trip down easystreet either. I left for Singapore on a Continental flight through Tokyo. What I thought was a long 4 1/2 hour layover became not long enough as my flight from Houston was delayed by how long...that's right...4 1/2 hours. I ended up missing my connection in Tokyo by 15 minutes and found out that I was gonna be lucky... I got to spend the night in Tokyo and fly out the next day. It wouldn't have been too bad if I wasn't travelling with 125 pounds of luggage and wasn't staying in a smoking room. Usually a smoking room wouldn't be a problem for me but the combination of room size (a glorified walk in closet) and the fact that I could barely see across the room due to the amount of smoke still in the room, didn't make it comfortable.
Once I was settled in, I thought I would use the internet and then watch some TV. Unfortunately CB&I blackberry's do not work in Japan and the internet in my room did not work either...not to mention my power cord wouldn't plug in even if the internet did work. Once I settled on not using the internet, I turned to the TV. I had 10 channels and only two were in English. No problem, two channels will be fine! There was only one problem though...someone set the TV up so that a loud voice screamed in Japenese the translation from English. It took me over an hour to figure out how to shut that man up! Needless to say, I was happy to pull my luggage back to the airport and fly into Singapore.
My main assignment in Singapore was to get everything settled before Erica arrived. I definitely learned plenty in my first days and figured I would share a few things here.
1) Never wait until you are hungry to learn how to use the oven...(the simple conversion of celsius to farenheit becomes nearly impossible on an empty stomach - usually causing me to settle for Fruit Loops for dinner)
2) Just because you come from America, does not mean that you know how to speak English...(and here I thought I had mastered the English language just to find out at age 27 that I can barely speak it at all - if you have any doubt, just try to tell a cab driver in Singapore where you want to go; example, say it with me...Ardmore Park...seems easy enough, but in Singapore that is pronounced OddMa Pok. One more...Bomb Shelter...seems easy as well, but locally that is pronounced Bum Shelter. I still haven't figured out Evelyn Road which happens to be where we live!
3) Plan showers at least 30 minutes ahead as water heaters are not a given! In Singapore, there is a water heater for each room that uses water, and it must be turned on and off with each use.
4) Washing clothes or dishes is an all day affair...It takes approximately 3 hours to wash dishes and 5 hours to wash and dry clothes. Yes, that is for one cycle! Luckily they are on different water heaters, and can be run at the same time!
5) The little pictures at the bottom of the TV don't go away...If you ask around, locals actually claim that they are words...Crazy Chinese!
6) Avoid buying two prong plugs even though they are made for use in Singapore...(all plug sockets are three pronged, and lets just say that you had better be on the Arnold Schwarzenegger workout plan to plug the two pronged plugs in...luckily for me, I am!)
Although I learned plenty more in my first few weeks, I felt it important to share with everyone the things that really chapped my ass. Stay tuned for more posts...Our next will include pictures showing the interesting sites around Singapore.
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