Tuesday, June 4, 2013

One Year Later: What We Will Miss About Living in Singapore

Here we are one year later. The kids and I have only 7 non-consecutive days left in Singapore. That seems crazy. I don't FEEL like we're going to be saying goodbye soon. There are so many things we will miss about this wonderful place.

Don't get me wrong. We are ready to return home, but what follows is a list of many of the best things about Singapore that our family will miss very much. Keep in mind this is a partial list. Over the last week, we have come up with these 60 things but are adding more every day. I may add more in the comments section.

SCHOOL
1. School uniforms - I put about zero thought into what my kids wear to school each day and save a ton of money, too. Plus, they look so dignified and ready to learn.
2. School bus - During New England winters, I'm sure I'll be thinking fondly of the days when I could just put my children on a bus to school instead of shoveling the car out, driving through slippery slushy streets, especially that last big hill to the school, and fighting to find a cleared parking space.

FOOD
3. High quality, delicious, cheap food everywhere
4. Incredible variety of good food options
5. Indian food - I will miss all the excellent Indian options so much that it deserves its own category. Seriously. I'm kind of crying about this. And we will miss our Indian friends who invite the family over and feed us an unbelievable feast every time. Fun and tasty.
6. Yummy food on sticks and embracing the peanut in every course - No corn dogs, thank you. Yes, more satay please. And who cares about nut allergies? Peanut sauce please! And some peanut crumble on top of my dessert, yum!
7. Tiger beer - We will seek you out in the USA and buy you when we find you because you are delicious.
8. McDonald's - I know. This seems weird. We don't eat at McDonald's in the US really. In Singapore, we have gone probably every other week! The McD's here are all very nice and super clean. It is a pleasant spot to spend an hour with the kids. And you just can't beat the 70-cent ice cream cone!

OUR APARTMENT
9. Apartment-style living - If we knew our neighbors better, I love the communal living possibilities. I like having communities under one roof and I think it can be more environmentally sound than living in spread out houses.
10. Our pool downstairs - Okay, it's probably not environmentally friendly but I sure love having a pool we can use any time we feel like it. And there are often other families down there to play with, too.
11. Awesome balcony - It is so nice to sit outside and watch life happening. The kids play water park out there, sometimes we eat out there. It's awesome.
12. Having a parking spot - In Somerville, we fight for parking on the street and need to remember when to move the car for street sweeping, etc. Here, the car park is in the basement. Nice.
13. Living on top of MRT station - The train station is so close it's ridiculous. I feel connected to the whole city.
14. Mr. Mohammed - One of the guards at our building. He is the nicest, coolest man. A few months back, he had a heart attack and has not been at work, but we have communicated through letters. He is doing better, but we won't get to see him to say goodbye and that makes me sad.

CLIMATE-RELATED
15. Everything is so green!
16. There are gardens and lush landscaping almost everywhere, even on sides of buildings.
17. The almost daily thunderstorm. - Love it.
18. Beautifully landscaped roads, especially the highways - gorgeous!
19. Giant leaves - I guess because there is no frost, plants just keep growing until they become giants.
20. Myna birds and horn bills - So much prettier than the city birds in the USA: pigeons and boring, bland robins.
21. Palm trees everywhere - It's hard to believe that I barely notice them anymore.
22. Shade trees like these:
 
23. Christmas outdoors - I will always remember eating ice cream in sundresses on Orchard Road in the days before Christmas and checking out all the beautiful holiday lights and other decorations. Our Christmas Eve picnic at Gardens by the Bay was pretty memorable too, including spotting Santa's sleigh in the sky on our way home.

PLACES
24. The Botanic Gardens - The most beautiful public gardens anywhere
25. Especially the Children's Garden there
26. Sentosa - All of it. The beaches, the aquarium, the exploring, the outdoor escalators. . .
27. Gardens by the Bay - the meadow, the supertrees, the conservatories, Satay by the Bay, all of it. This place is amazing and it's not even finished!
28. West Coast Park - The kids' favorite park is huge. All the structures encourage active involvement, too. There is so much to do here.
29. The cable cars
30. MacRitchie hiking - What an incredible place to explore. The Treetops bridge hike is really fun, but any part of it is an adventure.
31. Jurong East Swim Complex - For under $5, our whole family could visit this park with several splash and play pools, a few big slides, a giant wave pool, and the family favorite lazy river. Incredible!

GENERAL (in random order)
32. Our Chinese tutor, Ms Sui Na
33. Automated tolls and parking - Every car has a little windshield-mounted machine on it with a NETS card. You add value to the cards at machines that are everywhere or at a 7-11. All tolls and parking fares are automatically deducted from the card. So convenient! The only annoying part is the constant beeping it makes when you get below $5.
34. Red Dot
35. Our local Sunday night hawker centre and all the regulars.
36. The ease of public transport. I feel like buses and trains are very convenient here in Singapore. Add to that the convenience of having one card to handle all fares and it just makes it so easy to get around this place--and cheaply because fares are based on distance traveled.
37. An affordable neighborhood seamstress who can keep stitching back together all the many pieces of Zoe's red blankie.
38. The ease and organization of parking - There are plenty of car parks (parking garages) and electronic signs all over the city listing how many lots (spaces) are open in the closest or most popular ones. Once inside, directions are clearly marked and often there are green or red lights hanging from the ceiling marking the lot as open or filled. Most rows will have a sign announcing how many lots are open in each direction. So handy.
39. A cheap plan for a smartphone
40. Festivals for all the different cultures - There is always some event happening and there is so much to learn and taste and smell and see.
41. Singlish - We will miss hearing "lah" the most. We will miss saying "can" the most. "Can" just makes sense and is so useful. Maybe we'll keep using it.
42. Healthy looking children - Okay, it's not that there aren't healthy looking children in the US, but as a percentage, there just aren't as many.
43. Mustafa Centre - 24-hour shopping in Little India. The only place I bought clothes for myself and where we bought at least half of our souvenirs for friends and family.
44. Cheap haircuts- $5 for the kids, and for Ted!
45. People asking to take their picture with the kids - There are many tourists in Singapore and these tourists love to take their pictures with our fair-haired children. We started taking pictures too and have quite a collection.
46. "Way Out" - In car parks (garages) the directions out never say "Exit" but instead "Way Out." I didn't really think about it until my mother-in-law pointed it out, but it's pretty funny.
47. British spellings and terms (car parks, lot=spot, boot, using the "s" instead of the "z" and lots of "-our" and "-re")
48. Health care - Affordability and efficiency. I love being able to get my medicine from my doctor and not having to make an additional stop at a pharmacy.
49. Inexpensive stationery-type toys - They are everywhere, even in a book shop at E's school!
50. Wearing flip-flops (slippers) every day.
51. Daily wet market - Farmer's Markets aren't frequent enough, but I'll take them. And the wet market is year-round!
52. Date format (day/month/year) - It just makes sense, people!
53. Metric system - goodbye kilometers!
54. Teens having fun and excited, not worried about looking cool - Not that they don't look cool, they are just having fun. I feel like teenagers have it rough in the US. There is an inherent mistrust like if teenagers are hanging around, they are up to no good. Where are teens supposed to hang out? Here, they are just around everywhere, engaged and having fun. Or texting, sometimes texting.
55. Business with funny names- Like the Fragrance Hotel ("My, that hotel sure is . . . fragrant!") and entire stalls at hawker centres named for one un-appetizing (to me) dish: Fish Head Soup.
56. Easily spotting my family members in a large crowd - We do stand out a little.
57. Smelling incense everywhere we go
58. Double-decker buses - Come on, they are so fun!
59. The no eating or drinking rule for public transport - I love this. Cleanliness.
60. CHANGI AIRPORT - There is no better airport in the entire world. As frequently as we have traveled, I will miss that maybe most of all.

I guess I have to add a 61st item. I almost forgot this one completely and it's fairly important. SAFETY. It has been so nice this year not to worry about pickpockets, scams, burglaries, people taking off with your kids, and so on. Heck, things aren't even usually locked up!





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