Holland Village

 

It’s been about three months since moving to Singapore! They have flown by, and I’m slowly getting used to working weird unconventional hours, having a monthly income, eating amazing cheap food for lunch and sweating constantly and profusely. A month ago I moved into my apartment, a place I’ll be living in for at least 18 months. Every time I sign something for a set amount of time (be it the phone plan, the internet plan, the lease, etc.) I have a mini panic attack. Ok maybe not so mini. Day to day I’m excited to live here, but when I see long term, how far away I am from people I love, I get overwhelmed. But overall, I have been extremely lucky with this whole process. 

After living for two months with relatives (with maid service!), I recently moved to Holland Village, which is known as being expat central. My HDB building (Singapore public housing, which I doubt is anything like US public housing) is mostly filled with older folk, so I feel quite safe. I’m still not quite used to calling neighbors “Uncle” or “Auntie.” Across the street there’s a supermarket, drugstore and a 24 hour café that sells good kopi and curry puffs. Behind my building (seen from the window in our living room) are the streets that most people associate with Holland V. It is only about two to three streets separated from the main road with tons of restaurants, high end and low end. However (other than the food courts) these restaurants aren’t known to be the best, but good for expat taste buds. For my birthday, we celebrated at a Mexican restaurant and while the atmosphere was great, the food was as quite subpar (compared to US Mexican food). Often on a Friday or Saturday night the small street will be filled with people, locals and expats alike, outside grabbing a bite, drinking a beer or watching a football game on the television (no, not American football). And during the day the street will be filled with the Ang mo (white expat) wives and me on my day off. It’s a fun atmosphere. This photo is the view from our apartment window.

I guess I'll have to learn to love shrimp now

A few months ago, I wrote this post, not knowing where I’d be next year. Well I still don’t know which bed I’ll be sleeping in, but I do know the country. After a year of trying to be in Southeast Asia, I just about gave up hope and graduated about a month and a half ago without any prospect of a job or relocation. However, an unforeseen job opportunity arose a few weeks ago and, in possibly the most rash decision of my life, I decided to take it. So here I am, preparing to move to Singapore tomorrow and start work next week. I wobble between extreme excitement and nervousness every ten minutes.

I have a lot of goals for myself for the coming months, one of which is to write. To write on this blog, to write creatively, to write privately and to write to friends and family. I’m hoping to visit all these coffee shops, sit down with kopi and write everything I’m seeing and learning.

Singapore has been a country I’ve visited countless times but never lived in. It has been one of my deepest regrets, having gone almost every summer growing up but too young and naïve to care. I always complained about leaving my dad for too long, about the heat, about the lack of spaghetti and burgers, about Singlish. I’m so happy to have a second chance, to see the same country through different eyes -- older and hopefully slightly wiser eyes.

While I am not a fan of Ted Hughes (because of his moral choices not his writing), I can’t help but love his encouragement to his son, “As Buddha says: live like a mighty river. And as the old Greeks said: live as though all your ancestors were living again through you.”

Illustration by my sister, Lauren Monaco.

Made my way to the dance floor, danced til I wasn't drunk anymore

This is quite a cute coffee shop in Singapore called The Reading Room, and I would very much like to go, sit and read. Books, coffee, city, architecture, sounds perfect to me.

Photos from Cafehopping. Post title from Is Your Love Big Enough? by Lianne La Havas.

One day to get it all right

I miss Singapore. My mother just wrote a lovely post about food from Singapore. Check it out yo. This inspired my sister to make Hainanese Chicken Rice for dinner Friday night. Ooh it was good. And rumor has it I may be eating Char Kway Teow tonight. Mmmm. At this point we may never go back, but at least we can still attempt to make the food :)

Post title from Count On Me by Mat Kearney.

An Ode (of sorts) to Singapore

Let's talk about Singapore.  I found this blog, This is Naive, that has some pretty awesome photos of Sing.  I haven't gone in two years, and whenever I went I was always super bored and overheated, but there are some things I miss for sure.  First off here are some photos of the beautiful hotel where my parents had their engagement party back in the day :)

Oh and we cannot forget the food.  Oh the food.  I spent 20 minutes going through all these photos with my mouth watering.  If you must go to Singapore for one reason, it is the food.  Let's start with kopi and desserts.

Side note to my mother... can you make Pandan cake again? thanks :)

Ok now lets get into the real food. Oh my goodness I'm so hungry.

Ok I promise I'm done now.  Last question to my mother, after you make Pandan cake, can you please make me some Hainanese chicken rice?  Ooof.

We went to Bugis Street yesterday. Later my sis and mom went to Waterloo Street then Raffles Hotel. My sister took tons of pics. We're leaving tomorrow and there's tons of packing to do and our bags are overspilling with goodies!

Happy National Day!

Yesterday was Singapore National Day so we went to a friends house to watch the parade on tv and eat barbeque. The parade was definately over the top, with dances for each decade, ethnicity, etc. Even the president came out. And the food was AMAZING. I definitely ate way too much. There was barbeque lobster, beef, chicken, sausage, pineapple, corn, then various types of side dishes. oh yum.

This morning, my sister and mom went for breakfast near Chinatown. They had their favorite kopi (coffee) and some other local delights. My sister took all the photos today. After having buffet tea at a hotel we went to the Singapore National Museum but most of the galleries were closed because of National Day weekend. The last photos are from the museum: the building, my new haircut in front of the Singapore early opera display, some vintage bottles in the display case, a vintage can, shadows of my mommy in the display case, and later a little courtyard called the Chimes where a wedding was taking place.

These first photos are from a neighborhood near Centre Point. If I were to live in Singapore, my home would be this first white one with the balcony and open windows! The area was so quiet and relaxing compared to Orchard Road just down the road. The architecture was old-style and so open and breezy. You can always click on the pictures to make them bigger.







These are some uploaded pictures from my mom's camera. The first is a huge mountain in the clouds that my sister took in the airplane over here. WOW. Then are some pictures from dim sum last week. Look at the size of those pastries! It was yummy!