School has started! I think we were all ready for a routine and to get on with normal life. Liam especially was ready to go to school to meet some friends (not that he doesn’t love his sisters…). However, I would be lying if I didn’t say we were all nervous.

The kids are attending Stamford American International School. The campus they attend is grades 1-12 and has 4 buildings separated by a large soccer field. There are about 2500 students which for Singapore international schools puts it at a mid sized school. We chose this school because it was an American school, but it followed the international baccalaureate educational structure (if you’re curious about IB: https://www.ibo.org/about-the-ib/). We thought our kids would benefit from the change in educational structure while we were here. The school is also slightly more diverse, being only 35% American. As Avery said after her first day, “I am the only kid with yellow hair!” Walking around campus, it is truly a melting pot of cultures.

Why is it named Stamford? Not for Stamford, CT! But that does give us a chuckle.

It is named for Stamford Raffles who was the British naval officer that was sent here to colonize Singapore. Many countries in Asia have a complicated relationship with their colonizers. Singapore seems to have a very comfortable relationship with their history. My guess is that this is because their period of British colonization ended peacefully (they were originally part of Malaysia after the British left but shortly after that, became an independent city nation). Singapore also is very business driven. I think the government realized early on that to retain a peaceful relationship with western nations was to their economic advantage. What do the local Chinese/Malay populations really think? I don’t know that answer.

Back to the kids!

During their orientation last Thursday, I asked if I should bring them or put them on the bus for the first day? I was immediately parent shamed. “Wouldn’t you want to bring them the first day?” Yikes, we’re not in CT anymore!

So we took a grab to school on the first morning. We arrived at 8am. They had all the new families in a courtyard and cones with grades on them.

With 3 kids, I couldn’t be with all of them. Luckily, Ella was whisked away quickly, I hardly had time to say goodbye! Liam was nervous, but happy to stand by himself. So I waited with Avery. There were 2 other new girls and a boy. Avery was in her new class with the boy, Jayden (his western name, he’s actually Korean). His mom, Diane was very nice. She and I grabbed a coffee after drop off in the parent cafe (again, not in ct any longer). They let parents walk the littlest ones to their room and I got to meet Averys teacher, Mrs Sunder and her assistant Miss Vickie. They both seemed lovely and all the kids couldn’t wait to meet their new friends. I knew Avery would have trouble, and sure enough, the tears began flowing. I almost cried myself. The reality of what we were asking the kids to do was heavy in that moment. I knew she would be fine, but it didn’t make it easier. I quickly left as to not cause further disruption to her or the class. Then I popped upstairs to check on Liam, who looked like he had always been in that class.

After school, they rode the bus home. Everyone seemed happy. Liam already has a couple of friend potentials. Avery did too, but she couldn’t remember their names. Ella said a few kids were nice but no friends yet. As expected on all accounts.

Liam and Avery come home on a different bus, about 30 minutes before Ella. They all take the same bus to school. They’re picked up right at the end of our driveway by a coach-like bus. My favorite thing about the bus, is the bus “auntie”. In Singapore it is common and respectful to address adults as “auntie” and “uncle”. The bus auntie makes sure the kids are buckled, behaving and for the littles, that a parent or caregiver is there to receive them off the bus. The kids bus aunties seem kind and properly strict. I’m sure Ms. Gina on bus 5 in Fairfield would love a bus auntie!

There are a lot of kids that get on at our stop. Most of them are older. There is a girl that is also in 6th grade that lives in our complex and in the building next to us. She is in ella’s advisory group (like a homeroom). So far she and Ella have not seemed to acknowledged each other’s presence. A big part of the problem is technology. The girl always has ear buds in. It’s hard to make a friend if you can’t talk to them. Every kid middle school aged and above is 100% plugged in for the bus ride, so that eliminates that as a friend making opportunity. At school they have a no phone policy thankfully. Ella received her long coveted iPhone 11 last night so I’m sure she will be plugged in as well.

They all seem to be loving the classes so far. They’ve all had mandarin and are busy telling me Chinese names for things. Ella has a new MacBook Air for school which she loves. Ella’s adjusting to the block schedule and seems to really like it. Liam played touch rugby in gym which sounded fun and Avery has “a naughty boy” named Nacho in her class.

They have long days, the morning bus comes at 7:38 and the littles get home at 3:45 and Ella at 4:20. Their after school activities begin on the 28th, so it’s hard to see how a longer day will work but I’m sure they will adjust. For now when they get home, they are loving pool time and yesterday Liam spotted some boys his age so he’s on the lookout!

And I’m not referring to my children…

Singapore is a tropical rain forest. It’s easy to forget that from our condo in the heart of the city, but even here, we’re reminded of this fact (see cockatoo sighting in the last post). As someone who considers herself an “outdoorsy” person, I am terrified of “critters”. One of the reasons I was keen on living high in a condo is Singapore has “critters” that are things of my nightmares. Thankfully, we have not seen any snakes, YET, but we have seen our fair share of wildlife.

A few days ago, I took the kids to the Botanic Gardens. There we saw our first clouded monitor. Liam saw it first, and let out a scream that is indescribable.

What is a clouded monitor you ask?

I’m assuming it’s related to an iguana. They’re fairly good sized, harmless but freaky to see especially since they blend in so well. Ryan saw one today at the treetop walk (more on this later) and screamed “it’s larger than Avery!

We think we saw it’s relative, the larger and definitely scarier water monitor from afar, swimming in a pond at gardens by the bay but we cannot confirm despite Ella having us try to track it down in the woods 😳

The other night at dinner in Robertson Quay along the Singapore river, I felt what I thought was a bug on my arm. Oh no, it was a gecko. Screaming ensued.

Today was the ultimate test of my “critter” fortitude. We took a hike at the Macritchie reservoir to the treetop walk. This was super sweaty, exhausting and beautiful. The treetop walk is a suspension bridge that was built through the canopy of the jungle. It’s about a 3k hike into the jungle to get there. Needless to say, there was a LOT of whining from all 5 of us. The point of this forced march was to see Macaque monkeys. Moving here, we promised the kids monkeys and we had yet to see any. Unfortunately, for the first 2/3 of the hike, we saw nothing. We were crabby, hot and disappointed.

Here’s a few pics:

Note, no Ella in the last pic. She decided she was mad at us and was running ahead.

Finally, on the way down from the treetop walk we hit monkey jackpot.

We also saw two of these guys:

No words. Around this time Liam and Ryan also informed me that some snakes can “fly” through the air, “jumping” tree to tree. Deep breaths.

We saw many more monkeys on the hike out which greatly improved all our moods.

Not sure what future wildlife we are in store for but our first week was pretty eventful!

We’ve been here a full week! It feels both quick and long all at the same time. In many ways, it feels like vacation. Swimming in the condo pool each day, eating out too much and visiting some of the sights. In between getting settled and the constant grocery shopping (the kids say every time, again?!?) we’ve been pretty busy. Since this might get long, we’ll just talk about Tuesday in this post.

On Tuesday morning we had a visit on our balcony from some local wildlife, a cockatoo. My mom is convinced it was escaped, but as it flew in a pack of 3, I’m pretty sure they were wild. They haven’t returned yet but we anxiously await and hope they don’t enter open balcony doors 😬.

Tuesday was also a big morning as we went to MOM (ministry of manpower) and became official residents of Singapore! Immigration in Singapore is tied to employment. So there were no embassy visits for us before we left the US. Basically, Ryan’s company submitted a form that stated that he was employed here in Singapore. They then issued him what’s called an EP (employment pass) card which is his immigration status. The kids and I are a DP (dependent pass) which is based on Ryan’s EP. Our status means we are residents of Singapore, but our children are not immediately eligible to attend the local schools (they would have to pass a difficult test and then be entered into a lottery for school location which could be anywhere on the island) and Liam when he turns 18 does not have to serve in the military as all male Singaporeans between ages 18-20 do. We are also not eligible for local housing (called HDB). All of this is fine as we are only here for 2 years and Ryan’s company has us here on an expat package.

After MOM (which only took 20 minutes, love Singaporean efficiency) the kids and I walked along boat quay to go see the Merlion.

The Merlion is in Marina bay (across from the marina bay sands hotel with the “boat” on top) and is the symbol of Singapore. It’s kind of silly that a lion is the symbol at all since there never were wild lions in Singapore (there were tigers, but not anymore thankfully). Once upon a time one of the many peoples that occupied Singapore claimed there were lions and it stuck. We did not take a picture trying to catch the water in our mouth but watching others try to take that picture is hilarious.

After that, it was time for a juice!

Better flavor selections this time, all were consumed!

Ella really wanted to buy a plant for our balcony, so we headed back toward home to the Tiong Bahru wet market and hawker center.

Yes, Avery is using 4 chopsticks. No forks at this hawker. The other thing they never have is napkins (they do have wash basins and Singaporeans will wash their hands before and after they eat). Most people carry a pack of tissues which you can use to “chope” your table. Chope means to save. If you leave anything on a table (a pack of tissues, a water bottle, your cell phone) you have chope-ed it and no one will sit there, move or steal your stuff. Being a one time New Yorker, I don’t think I will ever accept the lack of crime here.

After that we walked around Tiong Bahru in search of ice cream (no Singaporean ice cream vendor. Bummer!). We found a store that was cat themed and a very good, fancy ice cream store next door. While the girls and I got very small one scoop cones, Liam got this:

Lucky kid!

Finally home for a rest and swim. That night we went to the uniform store which was such a whirlwind that I took no pictures!

Phew. Hopefully you’re still reading!

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.

Full disclosure… I’ve never been to Singapore or anywhere in Asia for that matter. Ryan has traveled over the past 2 years to Singapore 4 times for work. I also have to admit that when he first started going, I had no idea where Singapore really was. What country is it a part of? My worldwide geography was sadly lacking. It turns out Singapore is one of the few city nations in the world. It is an island located at the tip of Malaysia almost right on the equator (which is how it earned one of it’s nicknames, “the little red dot”).

This means Singapore is HOT all year round. Coming from Connecticut, this is going to take some getting used to for all of us. It’s hard to imagine living where the temperature is always between 77 and 95 degrees and the only difference is a wet season in November-January. All those jackets and sweaters will be going into storage for the next 2 years!

One of the most exciting aspects of this move for us, is the ease of travel to other locations in Asia. Singapore’s airport is one of the biggest hubs in Asia, which means lots of frequent and inexpensive flights to places that have always sounded dream-like to me. Bali, Phuket, Ha-Long bay, Australia, India, China, Japan are all anywhere between a 1 and 8 hour flight. Right now we are super excited and motivated to plan all our possible travel, I only hope we can sustain the momentum!

Next up… Figuring out where the kids will go to school.

I always thought it would be fun to live somewhere else in the world, but I never actually thought we would have the opportunity… Then life throws you a curveball. This July, Ryan’s company asked our family to re-locate to Singapore for 12-24 months and suddenly a daydream became our reality!

Who are we? We are the Morris family. I’m Erin, almost 42 a stay at home mom who needs to figure out what she wants to be when she grows up. I’ve been married to my wonderful husband, Ryan for 17 years. We have 3 pretty awesome kids, Ella (almost 12), Liam (9) and Avery (6). Why are we “Nutmeggers”? A Nutmegger is a nickname for someone who is from Connecticut. I always thought this was a silly name, but it somehow seems to fit for this crazy adventure. We currently live in Fairfield, CT until our move in January 2020.

Why are we writing this blog? The goal is to try to document our adventures as we live and travel around Asia. At a minimum it will be nice to have for our family and maybe someone else will enjoy it too… Stay tuned as we count down the days until our move.