Jamie's Birthday

This past Saturday Jamie turned the big 2-8!! To celebrate, I surprised him with a day in Sentosa Island. It's a small island near Singapore where the people go to "get away" from the "city life". It has beaches with bars and restaurants as well as some attractions. We took the cable car over from Singapore and once we arrived we visited the Butterfly Park and Fort Siloso, rode on the Tiger Tower, took the sky ride down to the beach and had lunch at a place called the Bikini Bar. We had a blast! Jamie has been so busy lately that it was good to have a full day to relax!

This isn't the best photo in the world, but if you look closely you will see a miracle! Jamie's first gift of the day was his first pair of flip flops. He has always hated flip flops! He didn't even like it when I wore them. Since we've been in Singapore he's begun to change his mind (mainly b/c people do not wear shoes inside their houses around here, there are even some shops that won't even let you wear your shoes so it's easier to have something that slips off) so I decided if I was ever going to get in into a pair I had to do 2 things. 1) Buy them while we were here and 2) Make sure I got a really good pair so they wouldn't look cheap (that's what he's always hated the most about them). So, here they are. If you've never seen a pair of $100 flip flops, here 's what they look like.

On the top is the view coming into Sentosa on the Cable Car. On the right is the view from the Tiger Tower. The big statue in the center of the photo is the Merlion attraction. The Merlion which is popular with Singaporean culture is a fictitious creature that is a lion head with a fish body. The lion head symbolizes the fabled beast that once roamed the ancient island state, and the fish body symbolizes Singapore's origin as a prosperous seaport.

The next photos were taken at the butterfly park. It was amazing how close the butterflies would let you get to them! The last one reminded us of a tiger, so we called it a "Clemson" Butterfly.

This last photo is a self portrait that we took taking the sky ride down to the beach.

For the most part it was a great day. I was a little disappointed that I was unable to get a birthday cake, but that is another story for another day. I will tell you that it ended with an order for a chocolate cake with butter cream icing and when I went to pick it up it was a chocolate sponge cake with no icing. The lady was not happy when I refused to accept it! The rest of his gifts included tickets to the Barclay's Singapore Open (Golf Tournament) held on Sentosa Island in the middle of November and a Bose Portable Speaker System for his IPOD. We had to have someone bring it from the States so it didn't arrive until yesterday.

So Happy Birthday to Jamie, who is now in his LATE 20's but is still denying it!!

Another Week

I am sad to say that I have survived another week of work,and not much has changed. I have learned a little, gotten aggravated a lot, and still have a long way to go. Hopefully it will get better with time! One of the things I have found amusing about working here is the different names for stuff. I would like to introduce you to some "Singaporean Medical Terminology"

Cot - baby crib
Jab - a shot
Drip - IV fluids
Passing away - Urinating
The Stick - an IV
The Sting - a UTI
The Chop - a stamp (here we have stamps with our names so we don't have to sign everything, you just stamp it and put your initials)

I have met some people at work who have been nice enough to take me out to lunch a few times to some of the "local joints". It's easier to try new things when you have people around who can tell you what it is! I think they have made it a goal to take me around to try all of the different types of local food around here. So far everything has been pretty good. I haven't tried anything crazy, but I have ventured out a little bit!

Jamie on the other hand went wild with some clients the other day and had the fish head curry! I know! Can you believe it? He said it was actually pretty good! Still don't think I'm there yet. Today at work I had a hospital orientation class to attend and they provided lunch. One of the items I had was fried rice. It was really good, until I noticed some bright blue dots in it. I began to dig around and found that the dots were eyes!! Yes, eye balls!! There were tiny fish cooked in with my rice. The more I explored, the more I found and suddenly I had little fish bodies with their little eye balls staring at me. Needless to say I felt sick for the rest of the afternoon. Jamie just laughed and gave me some advice.

"If it's good, don't ask what's in it and don't look to hard at it. Just eat it and relax".

Again, I'm just not quite there yet!

Guess I'm a working girl!

This week I was finally able to put my little white uniforms to work and I must say I looked pretty good in them! (sorry, no pictures j/k) It was a strange, trying week and thank goodness it's over! I knew that the hospital setting would be different in Singapore, but I was no where near as prepared as I needed to be. Even the most common sense, minuscule task are so much different. It's like being in another world. The policies, the procedures, even the scope of practice is way different than anything I am used to. I am constantly being asked questions about how it's done in the US, and I almost feel bad telling them about it because I know they just don't get it. Even with all of the problems our health care system has, I've realized that it's still a great one!

For the month or so that I have been here I can honestly say that I have not really been home sick once, but that all changed once I stepped into the hospital. I miss all of you from the FBC sooo much! I miss Amy's crack-in-a-bag (I mean chocolate bag), Pru's whacked out emails and videos, Kristen's "suck it up and get it done" attitude, Jennifer's never ending appetite, and well...I could write a book listing everyone! (so for those of you that I did not mention please know that I am thinking about you :) Julie, you will be happy to know that I have carried on the "Princess" name, as that is what some of the people over here think of me (I guess I learned from the best right!). I know that I am just going through a period of adjustment and It will take some time to get use to it, but I needed to vent a little. I think we are entitled to that every once in a while.

In the end I love what I do, so I don't think being in another country will change that. In a few weeks I'll probably be on here taking about how much I love it, right? Until then I hope everyone is happy and well!

Catching Up

I've fallen behind the last two weeks so it's time to play catch-up. The past couple weeks Jamie and I have started to do more touring and site seeing. Two weekends ago, we went to the 1st ever Singapore River Festival with some friends. We only attended the opening night for the lighting of the river (which for the most part was several of these boats floating around) but it made for a nice scene. The festival itself is two weeks full of music, drinking, and well...that's really about it. They do some shows as well but mostly drinking. They even had a floating bar and stage. The photo below is shortly after they turned the lights on. The building in the back is one of the many shopping malls. The area we were in was so full you can see the people lined up along the mall front watching the festivities.

I also had a chance to explore Little India with a friend. I must say that I have heard it's truely like being in India but since I have never been to India myself I can not confirm that. I will say that I sure wasn't in Texas anymore! Right now they are celebrating Deepavali (the word means "Row of Lights" and is celebrated all over by Hindus as an occasion symbolising the victory of righteousness over the dark forces of evil). At night the lights you see in the photos below are all turned on. Here they celebrate from Sept 20th to Nov 2nd, and have different functions during these months. The huge tent you see is filled with street merchants that sell everything from Christmas lights to handmade trinkets and keychains.

This past weekend Jamie and I went to the Botanical Gardens and spent the afternoon relaxing and walking around. There was so much to see I don't think we even got through half of it. I have been told that unless you want to spend the entire day, plan on going back two or three times. With all of the shopping malls you sometimes forget that a good part of Singapore is still rainforest.

We also made our first "Singaporean Purchases" this weekend. When I got here I was told that there are two things people who move to Singapore don't leave without. They are 1) Hand made carpets and 2) Teak Furniture. We purchased our first hand made carpet to go in our living room. It's a 5x7 silk wool blend and (as they are suppose to) changes colors depending on the way you look at it. We did not buy a piece of teak furniture per say, but we did buy this unbelievible hand carved wall hanging that is awesome!!! It is 3 ft by 3 ft and 2 inches thick, and made out of Burmese Teak. I am so excited about both, that I couldn't wait to show you guys. The photo of the carving doesn't do it justice, it's so much better in person.

Hope everything is going well for everyone and you are enjoying eating your "American Food"!! As you can read all is well here, although we are having a major craving for some Black Walnut!