happy halloween

october 31st- halloween

first halloween a world away

happy halloween... today is also otto's first birthday and since we treat our dog, like a human, we bought him presents and celebrated at quarantine. otto seems to be getting used to his tight living quarters and not as worried when we leave. next weekend we will finally be able to bring him home.

halloween was uneventful due to dirk working but i was able to have a girls night out with a friend. we went to holland village, i would equate it to a rice village, lots of shopping and restaurants all within in walking distance. we ate at tapas restaurant, had some drinks and good political conversation with some locals at a bar called wala wala. it seems america is wrapped up in this election but the rest of the world is even more curious. first questions is always, who are you voting for? of coarse they love obama...

otto's birthday presents-yes i know he is only 7 dog years but we bought him a toy bottle of beer

i think even my dog thinks i am crazy- with his new favorite toy-Houneken

we are so proud

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

flying singapore style

august 23rd- the departure

so dirk's departure on august 23rd was an eventful one. we managed to lay sod in the backyard, move a gun case to the jacobs house in katy, and sell the big red truck to dirk's cousin all before 3pm. it was bitter sweet saying goodbye to the red beast... nothing but good memories in that truck! it is now off to a better place called uvalde texas.

SEPTEMBER 2008- what a crazy month
so in between dirk leaving and my arrival... there was alot to fill in those 2 months. my last day of work for memorial hermann memorial city hospital where i have worked for more than 4 years, a little storm we called IKE, and renting our townhouse in rice military. thank the lord our house was untouched by ike, except the 5 days without electricity, which was rather eventful with our wonderful neighbors. otto and i were able to ride out the storm with the lewis's, we are thankful to have such good friends right down the street... miss you guys! and our neighbors took care of us every night with food, cocktails, and entertainment. dirk decided to leave the smoker-grill we got from his friends as a wedding present to our neighbor who in turn smoked on it every night during the post hurricane mess. since the hurricane hit the exact weekend that sarah, my friend from florida, was to come. we decided to switch the direction of the tickets and I went to tampa instead for an amazing girls weekend while houston and galveston cleaned up the post storm mess.


september 13th- aftermath of IKE

our street- maxie/birdsall

septmeber 19th- girls weekend in tampa

cheap bar with kristen & sarah

october 6th- otto man has left the country

otto flew KLM airlines which was suppose to be the best for flying animals. well... lets just say it better be the best because he was more expensive than a small child would have been... but we love him just the same. lets just hope he makes it there and out of quarantine in one piece. he is going to stay in an air conditioned kennel for 30 days for quarantine... they have very few animal diseases over there... and they would like to keep it that way, i guess. otto was vaccinated for rabies twice and who knows what else.

deer in headlight- is this animal abuse?

october 7th- otto man is in the redlight district of amsterdam

after arriving in singapore- already asleep on his pillow

october 8th- otto man makes it to see his daddy in singapore

the quarantine space is really nice. otto has made many friends already... he is a very popular boxer. he found another boxer his same age from san fransisco, his owner was brought here working with Google (aisa headquarters) and it looks like his job hours are even worse than dirk's... working both asia time & california time.

play area

he sits in your lap if he knows you are about to leave- abuse?

october 7th- first tuesday of the month= margaritas

neighborhood night with the best neighbors EVER-pearl bar

october 14th- leaving the states finally

the whole family made it to the airport including james, my brother's roomie. it was all finally done, well most of it, still need to sell my car. but the renters moved into 5722 maxie and were already complaining, most american accounts had been closed, and even last minute insurance issues were straightened out with the help of dirk's dad :)

brother & sister at the airport

october 26th- sentosa for deepavali

monday was a holiday called deepavali which inturn allowed everyone a day off of work.... since dirk and i were unaware of this holiday we did not get to book a vacation in time and all the flights were booked therefore we headed for the next best thing... singaporean beach! sentosa... an island off of Singapore connected by a bridge, cable car ride, and MRT (above ground tram). besides it being crazy busy... we enjoyed ourselves... found some amazing mojitios on the beach and did some great people watching.

sentosa beachthe southern most point of asia

party party par tay

the lewis's, the dunlaps, the bruces on the last night in the states

August 9th- going away party

last weekend in Houston, TX and bonham lienweber & catherine helle were nice enough to host a party for us at bonham's house in houston, texas. we really enjoyed seeing everyone and hope you all can come visit in the three years we are in singapore.


August 22nd- last night in the states

we decided to do a happy hour at our favorite outdoor bar in houston, little woodrows in midtown. so after all the movers left with all our stuff we barrowed towels from the Lewis's took showers and met all our friends! dirk's fellow coworker who first showed him the international ropes in Brazil and Trinidad came to see us off!

Click here for pictures from the parties...

last night in the states...

varsity park

dirk at our new home

varsity park

a place to live was top priority on this trip and little did we know, there was one already picked out for us at varsity park... it is 1500 square feet, three bedroom, 2 bath, with a maids quarter/bomb shelter and shower/bathroom (look at the picture and you will see what i mean). the condo is on the west part of the country close to dirk's work and the malaysia border... dirk can literally go to lunch in a different country. the new address is:

50 West Coast Road
#04-55 Varsity Park
Singapore 127363

although i don't recommend sending us mail... the shipping cost is really expensive! our mail hopefully will be sent to FMC (dirk's company) and they will send it to us monthly... the condo is on the fourth floor with a great patio overlooking a kiddo pool. it has full facilities meaning pool, gym, and playgrounds... it is a very kid friendly country (dirk says there is a new campaign right now with an incentive for fertility... just the opposite of china)! it looks like living here is going to be extremely easy... grocery delivery, live in maids, and extremely easy public transportation. the extravagant amenities (the things us americans are use to) are washer and DRYER, dishwasher, ceiling fans, and using the air con (air conditioning is not centralized) everyday! We are still fighting for an oven and to keep the Toyota Camry that dirk is driving...

Click here for the pictures of our new place...

varsity park

the sell

at the zoo in the orchid exhibit

july 19th-26th, 2008- first trip to singapore

the first trip to singapore in july was a week full of orientation tours, house hunting excursions, and some fun side trips... we stayed at the fairmont hotel in downtown singapore... it was within walking distance to every mall possible. the malls there were amazing... they were on every corner and each was at least as big as the houston galleria. we had a full week planned, to say the least: the first day was the only alloted time for jet lag, the second day house hunting was the game and Josephine the realtor was her name... the day was pretty much a joke seeing that a condo had already been found for us, the third day was full of orientation tours with relocation company... we were able to check out a cold storage (gocery store), a wet market (fresh produce market), an appliance store where we will buy everything that plugs into the wall (yes... even my hair dryer does not work over there), and even a private hospital (to find tina a J.O.B... dirk was smiling the whole time)... the last day was the zoo as well as wrapping things up with dinner accompanied by the Kirkhams (dirk's boss)... the zoo was extra amazing because it was an open concept where many of the animals were allowed to roam freely... my favorite exhibit was the orangutans which were rather commical... we would have seen more sights if the jet lag and the 13 hour time difference did not get to me... I was up at 3am and back to bed by 5pm... I never really adjusted to the time. dirk was amazed that i was awake before him every morning... he was able to adjust because he had been there a week and a half before me for work... we were able to see the Dark Knight in a first class movie theater complete with our own lazyboy chair, blanket, and personal waiter.

Click here for the zoo and other pictures around singapore...

trip to singapore