Down the rabbit hole…

We’ve officially arrived! We all survived the direct flight and it was even an hour shorter because we had a good tailwind. The kids traveled like pros and we loved that Avery watched the map almost the whole way.

We landed on Saturday night and the kids and I went directly to the hotel while Ryan took our luggage to the new condo. We stayed at the Hilton on orchard rd, which is in the heart of Singapore’s shopping district (but really, everything here is a shopping district, no one does retail like Singapore). The kids thought it didn’t feel much different than home (that will change). We were deliriously tired, but the kids still had enough energy to take a dip in the hotel pool.

Not the best pic, but the best I could get of sleep deprived kids running around the pool. Once Ryan joined us from the condo, we had a very unremarkable first dinner at California pizza kitchen, cementing the kids view that Singapore was just like the US.

Christmas decorations are still up on Orchard Rd!

That night jet lag came calling. Ella woke up at 1:30, Liam 2:30 and Avery at 3. Day 1 was going to be a very long day indeed. We were all anxious to get to the condo. So after an early breakfast at the oldest Starbucks in Singapore.

We headed to the condo. Since we were traveling light, we walked through the neighborhood that connects our condo to orchard rd (about a 10 minute walk). On the way we saw 3 cats that looked like Tia. We thought that was a good omen.

Home!

This was at about 7:30am! Up we went to explore our new digs, unpack and make our beds.

Kids on our new balcony, sunrise over Marina Bay Sands from our condo and Avery making her new, much anticipated bunk bed.

So far the condo has exceeded all of our expectations. It feels like a home. We have a long way to go with furnishing and decorating, but we have a great view, get a wonderful breeze and love the space. The only adjustment will be the white marble floors with kids. Yikes.

By 10:30am we were swimming in the new condo pool. The kids have declared it the biggest pool ever.

Next we headed out for lunch and a grocery store run. We took the kids to a very small hawker center by Ryan’s office. Singapore is known for their hawker centers. They are open air markets with stalls for food. The vendors each specialize in a specific food that many times their families have been making for generations. They are inexpensive and very delicious. We had pork dumplings, roasted duck rice and roasted pork rice. We also introduced the kids to the juice vendors. I got a fresh coconut and the kids each picked fruits to juice. Their choices had mixed reviews (Liam’s guava wasn’t the best). But we all love sugar cane juice on ice.

Next it was home for a much needed nap!

That afternoon we tried ordering our first amazon prime now order. At home in CT I’m not an online grocery person. Here, without a car, that’s going to have to change! What we didn’t realize is that our intercom wasn’t set up yet. Ryan received a text that said “delivery fail, order cancelled”. That was our first reality check that things are going to take some time here to get setup. Some things are similar to home, but most are not. Just figuring out where to buy a kettle and a toaster oven is a project. It will all come together and part of the frustration with not knowing is how you get to know the city. For now, I’m so proud of the kids who are riding the buses like a local and being such troopers about being dragged to endless stores. Hopefully in a few days we can be tourists a little and enjoy our new city.