singapore slings and new things

After 9 years in Beijing, my family and I have left the motherland to greener (and warmer) pastures. Ironically, having 'free media' again upon moving, I've mysteriously not blogged for several months. The main reason is that moving is CRAZY. Forget the packing and unpacking service, it doesn't really make the move that much easier. Not to mention the crazy emotions that come with moving to a new country.

I had a lot of mixed feelings about leaving Beijing. It was, well, where I lived my entire adult life. I met my husband there, had my daughter there, lived in my first house, purchased my first beater of a car and had my first vacation home. And I had really awesome friends.

But at the same time, Beijing is polluted, Niamh had been sick a lot the past year, and Beijing had its worst winter in 60 years.

So while I practically up and moved overnight, I haven't been able to digest what has happened and how our lives have changed.

Instead of trying to cover four months of highs and lows - I thought it would be better to do a quick list of the key highlights:

1. I learned that Niamh was actually very aware of our home being in Beijing, and she still asks to go to her 'Beijing home' not this home. Making matters worse was how much she missed Ayi - who we fought hard to get to Singapore. I won't pretend that the process wasn't excrutiatingly painful and that at ever turn, there seemed to be yet another step to complete. Overall it took 4 months, but she is here now. Success!

Li Ayi, Xu Ayi (holding Niamh) at Houhai Lake in Beijing

2. In Singapore, people plan ahead. They schedule coffee dates several weeks in advance, they close conference schedules six months in advance, and booking flights three months in advance is not considered planning ahead. I on the other hand, fly by the seat of my pants. Booking a flight two weeks in advance for me is difficult to do, because who knows what my schedule will look like in two weeks? In short, I'm learning to adjust my lifestyle, one painful lesson at a time.

On the plus side, Singapore is crawling with fabulous budget airlines!

3. In China, anything is possible, at any time. There is a wild west mentality there where its such a land of opportunity and there is always a solution. This has obviously made me the type of person who can't take no for an answer. I just can't accept it anymore. I really think 'no' means you aren't trying hard enough, basically I'm a giant toddler.

4. Niamh is motivated by stickers. She gets a sticker each time she goes potty and made the transition in three days. If only we had tried that earlier.


5. Singapore is expensive - like New York or London. Scratch that, in many ways London is considerably cheaper so 'like' is probably not the right word...

6. Singapore is an amazing hub city - its unbelievable to think that Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Bali are at our fingertips. I expect to have a better tan than I'm rocking.


7. I have not magically lost weight by moving somewhere warmer and in fact did not sweat off 40 lbs - although the first two months I was here sort of felt like that was possible. Must now attempt the old fashioned way - exercise and diet.8. We moved our cats from Beijing to Singapore following two months of preperations from Beijing, flown in on Singapore Air, in quarantine for a month, at home for one month - before one of them got out and disappeared. The day before my daughter's birthday. Devastating, yet in many ways seems like the sort of thing that would of course happen to us. Singaporean neighbors are exceptionally nice and we've been touched time and again by how empathetic they have been, and how tireless they have been in helping us try to find him. Nothing short of amazing.

Mo Mo shortly before we left Beijing - my lil man!

9. Within 3 months of my two year contract, our landlord has sold our house and the new landlords want to move in. Ha! So in case moving to a new country wasn't enough, no sooner had we finished unpacking and renovating - than our new landlords have announced they want to move in. So once again, we are on the hunt for a home. Fortunately, we legally can stay throughout our contract, so we won't inconvenience ourselves unnecessarily. I just hope for a good solution for all involved.
10. My sister has been living with us for the summer interning at my company. I am going to be depressed when she leaves in two weeks. :-(

Sisters in Singapore - Arab street

That's pretty much the last four months in 10 quick points. Now we're on the same page, and I'm back in the blogosphere. It's good to be back!