They wear dresses!?!

This past week was pretty busy. I had an appointment to sign some papers for my new job and pick up my uniforms, finish getting the house all settled, get the dogs from the quarantine, and take Punkin to her 8 week post op check up.

At this point the house is all unpacked and organized and the dogs are doing great. Punkin had to have a bile acids test done and the lab values came back basically in the normal range (one level was normal and the other one was 11, normal for this value should have been <5 but her pre op level was >300 so I would say it's pretty good)! They seem to like the area and are really happy to be home.

My uniforms are a different matter! I was told after signing my papers that I would be supplied with 3 uniforms (since I am part time) and I would also get an $80 allowance for shoes per year. I was pretty happy with that, until I went to get them. The lady handed me a dress and told me to try it on. I was like "a dress, but I am in labor and delivery"! She then said that they have pants suits also and they just needed a size, so I went in and tried it on. When I came out she handed me the pants suit like she stated. Afterwards she asked what I would like to get. I told her "3 pants suits" she then replied "you have to have at least one dress" to which I stated again "a dress, but I am a labor and delivery nurse??". She then put down 1 dress, 2 pants suits. I must explain that these dresses are not ankle length. They come right above the knee.
Oh, and I have not told you the best part. Not only do they wear dresses but...............


They are WHITE!!!!

Yes, I will be a smiling, happy, labor and delivery nurse wearing a little, white, knee length dress!! Is it just me or does this sound a little off? Not too sure how this is going to go over but I will tell you this, the first time I get goody juice all over my legs I'm going home!!

That's all for now, I knew that some of you out there would understand why I am frustrated by this and I just felt like venting! Hope all is well!

Rome Was Not Built in a Day.....

So...Jamie and I just got back from our long awaited European vacation. We started off our adventure in Rome. I've always heard the saying "Rome wasn't built in a day" but did not get the full meaning of it until we arrived. There was so much to see! We were only there for 2 days, but could have stayed 2 weeks, maybe even 2 months! We tried to see as much as we could, so it was a very busy two days. We took almost 300 photos for the vacation and I still find myself saying "I wish I would have taken a picture of that!". We started off seeing some of the sites near the hotel like Piazza Navona, The Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain. We then had dinner at a little restaurant that was recommended near Piazza Navona. The next day we started with St. Peter's Basilica and Vatican City where we walked though the church and saw the Sistine Chapel. We rapped up the day with a private guide who showed us a little more of Ancient Rome. With Monti, we viewed the Spanish Steps, the Forum and Capitoline Hill, the Colosseum and a few places that are not so well known, which included an area that overlooks all of Rome and another area that you can look through a key hole (literally) and see a fantastic view of St. Peter's. It looked like a postcard! I think the Colosseum was our favorite, but the last view through the keyhole was great as well. Below are some of the photos.

Top photo - Jamie and I at St. Peter's
1st two - our hotel and the historic building across the street
2nd two - The Colosseum and the family with the view of Rome
Photo to right - Jamie and I on the Spanish Steps














The next day we revisited a few sites that we wanted to take a closer look at and then took a train to Naples where we would board our cruise the following day. The cruise was an adventure to say the least. It was not the cruise we were anticipating, but what's a McMillan vacation without some bumps in the road? A few notables were having to pay for water (yes, I do mean tap water), and oh, for those of you who have been on cruises before and have eaten your body weight in the free soft serve...not happening on this ship! We had to pay for all ice cream (except dinner). If you have read my blog about prices in Singapore you can imagine how much of a disappointment this was. I have been telling Jamie for weeks before our cruise " Just wait till we get on the boat, you can have as much ice cream as you want", and then they charged us for it! We spent $60 alone in ice cream cones (and that was just on the boat!) Aside from that, I would have to say that the highlight of the cruise was Palma De Mallorca where we went to the Son Amar dinner show. It was great! For those of you who get a chance to visit Mallorca this show is a must see! Like Rome, there really was no time to relax on the cruise either. We had a port everyday and while some of the ports didn't have much to do (like Tunis), you still felt like you needed to get off the boat and explore. The photos below are from the cruise.


1st- Mom McMillan and I on our first camel ride. 2nd -Jamie and I in Pompeii 3rd- Jamie and I at the Son Amar show 4th-Jamie at the German forts on Frioul Island in Marseille, France



















To the right is Jamie running around the forts. At one point we thought he had fallen off the cliff b/c he had disappeared. Turns out he just discovered another hole to climb in! It's funny how quickly they turn into kids again!















After the cruise our last stop was Sorrento, Italy. It was a great little town where we had an amazing view! It was the total opposite of Rome, quiet and quaint. From there we took a boat trip to Capri, Italy which was wonderful as well. For the overall trip these two days were the best. Jamie and I decided that these two spots were a must for vacation again. The people were so polite and the scenic views were gorgeous! So, I leave you with my absolute favorite photos from the trip. The one on the left was taken after we arrived back in Sorrento from our trip to Capri and the Blue Grotto (an amazing experience but they rush you in and out of there like cattle). The sunset was so pretty and the view was amazing! The next photo was taken from our balcony at the hotel. You almost can't tell where the sea ends and the sky begins.

We hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the blog. Our sea shipment was delivered yesterday and the girls come home on Sunday. After this weekend hopefully it will truly start to feel like home. Jamie and I have been taking some funny photos around town that we will share with you next time. Until then, everyone take care and we hope that everyone in Houston does well during the storm!

Getting Adjusted

This past weekend Jamie and I didn't do to much. We explored the area around our house, visited the girls, opened a bank account, and started to get things ready for our big trip (we leave for Italy tomorrow the 28th!!!). While we haven't been brave enough to try the local food courts again, we did eat at a few restaurants that are "local chains" around here and then we topped the weekend off with Pizza Hut (felt just like home until I noticed that half of the items on the menu had "curry" in the name). We spent $150.00 eating out this weekend. Now I'm sure some of you are thinking "that's not much" but wait till you hear what we got for this.

1st meal
BBQ Brisket Sandwich with fries
Beef Pot Pie
Coke
Water

2nd meal
Buffalo Chicken wrap with fries
Cheese burger with fries
2 waters

3rd meal (Pizza Hut)
9 inch pizza - this is considered a "Regular"
equivalent of 2 bread sticks
2 cokes

When I really sat down and thought about what we had eaten I realized just how expensive eating out around here is. As an example, soft drinks are anywhere from $4-$7 average and you get no refills. We made that mistake the first weekend I was here and Jamie accepted a refill. We ended up spending $16.00 just on cokes that night! We have since learned to ask!

We will be on our vacation from the 28th - the 10th. Jamie's bringing the computer along to make use of his slingbox to watch the first Clemson game of the season, so I may have time for a quick update at some point.

The week we return will be a busy one. Our sea shipment arrives the next day and that weekend the girls come home! I'll have to spend what's left of the week getting the house ready for their arrival!

Welcome to Singapore - His Story

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.

Welcome to Singapore via Paris

As many of you know I travelled to Singapore via Paris with Air France so that my dogs could fly with me. When I first started calling around to find a flight that I could get on with my dogs, I was under the impression that both Air France and the Paris airport were pet friendly. I will not go into the long details of why I was not happy with either one, but I will tell you that I did not find either one to be "Pet Friendly".

When I arrived in Paris, 7 out of the 10 people I asked for help did not speak English. The only word they all knew was "Sorry". The three that did speak English all stated that there was no designated pet relief area in the entire airport! How can you be a pet friendly airport and not have a pet relief area with grass and benches? The solution I was told, was to take them outside any of the exits and go "potty" out there. I wanted to show those of you that have not been to Paris what the outside of the airport looks like, from all terminals. If you have been outside the Paris airport then you already know what it looks like.

Looks pet friendly, doesn't it? After I established that there was nowhere to go, I spent 8 hours walking around the airport with my girls, and a cart. Not sure if the awkward stares were for my dogs or me?

(You won't find any homeless people pushing this cart around, you can't find a cart like this at Wal-Mart. This is Paris airport quality! )

As much as they disliked the airport, they where able to find something they loved about Paris, the automatic rotating doors.

(They loved going in and out of this thing! Every time we would pass one they would try to pull me over to it!)

Eventually, Punkin and Budder both decided that they were tired of walking around, and I was finally able to get them to lie down. They looked so cute I had to take pictures! This is them on a bench in the hallway outside of one of the baggage claim areas.

After 31 hours of traveling time we finally arrived in Singapore. Both flights went off without a hitch, and we are all here and doing great! Punkin and Budder are in their 5th day of quarantine and doing well. I have gone to see them 3 times, and been able to take them out twice. While they hate it when I leave, the people there seem to be really nice and the facilities are clean. They have their own room that is 8 x 7 and air conditioned (the dogs at the quarantine station have it better than my soon to be maid). They have allowed them to have their own beds and babies in the room with them, so I am sure that helps when I am gone. Only 25 days to go and counting until they come home!