two weeks and two days

the highlight of some days- chia tea latte

october 30th- another day in paradise

ok so i told myself i would not wait too long before i post again because the last one was crazy long and way out of order. but to update again... here we go. i guess for the sake of "fitting in", i have not been taking too many pictures and since i have not learned yet how to drive on the other side of the rode with one million motorcycles flying by... i really have not gone anywhere without dirk. but still we have had many great adventures just learning how to go to the grocery store, buying gas, and using public transportation. oh and the "fitting in" part... they stare at me anyway, taking picture or not, so i guess i should just take them. dirk says it is to see what cool things americans do... apparently he feels that we are cool and thinks they do too! hmmmm

today dirk is starting his 24 hour rotation which means he will be working from noon-midnight until the project is completed. which inturn means... christina really really needs to learn to drive. BUT i have mastered the public transportation system, MRT, don't ask me what that means. and can get to almost everything by shuttle, train, or cab... only got lost once in a cab... you thought that couldn't happen (trust me)!

so about getting lost... i have said the malls are amazing here and now i know you can definitely get lost in one and loose your car as well. dirk and i decided one weekend to hit up the walmart of singapore, Carrefour. needless to say this shopping mall is many stories high and so is Carrefour. well turns out we lost the car for a good hour... it was getting so bad that dirk and i were making incentives for each other to "find the car"! i never thought i would be so happy to finally see that ford mondeo. but we did get converters for our wine refrigerator and lap top speakers which we blew up. the refrigerator and speakers were fine but the converter... was smokin! since then we have everything converted and in working order... now all we need is patio furniture, desk, and TV stand. oh and the slingbox working, we are majorly deprived of television over here!

the only time i have heard dirk say to me after one hour of walking in this darn carpark "tina i am really really, for real..... lost"- it takes a real man to say that

before we got lost- carrefour "aka walmart"

we decided to get into the halloween spirit and carve a pumpkin. they do celebrate halloween, actually only the americans do, but here they cater to all holidays... indian, malaysia, american... you name it. i have never seen such cultures, races, and religions get along so peacefully. i do admire these people for that... they are truly respectful. and well that means we get a TON of holidays too!

our S'PORE 2008 pumpkin- which was thrown away directly due to the humidity

october 27th- deepavali

so we celebrated deepavali last monday and everyone around us in the complex put up what we call christmas light... for all we know they call them deepavali lights? it is a hindu holiday and a significant hinduism festival. "Festival of Lights," where the lights or lamps signify victory of good over the evil within every human being... the whole week they have been celebrating with cook outs, fireworks, and big parties.

deepavali lights up in our complex

so dirk is working like a dog... you ask what is christina doing? well, there have been some problems with our apartment, very minor actually, so i have been getting repair people to come fix things per the landlord. i actually got to meet our very very rich landlord, mary, she and her sister came to look at the place after i had it all set up. they were no taller than 4 feet and a combined weight of maybe 150 lbs. real estate over here boggles my mind... millions of dollars for 1500 sq ft. well besides helping the landlord out, i take the train everyday to see otto and workout plus swim every morning with or without dirk. i am planning on getting a job as a nurse, it seems i have many avenues to proceed just need to do it. i need something that is flexible and will allow me to take a month off to come back to the states.... who would like to hire an american nurse who just needs something to fill her time in between vacations?

wow.. i didn't know how wordy i could be. well to end today... i have booked our flights to bali, indonesia in december on yet another holiday weekend. now planning our anniversary trip, it doesn't really feel like one year already... maybe phuket, sipadan, or pangkor laut resort (Time magazine said…”one island, one resort”) all in malaysia.

question of the week: what is the buzzing noise outside that always starts at sundown? hopefully to be figured out by next week