on good days, i’m the most contented new mom on earth. on bad days, i could pull my hair out. on days like today, i swear i feel like i’m a millimeter short of a nervous breakdown.
my steering rack? the 3 month old brat princess. she dictates how my day is going to be like. i wonder how it’s gonna be tomorrow.
it’s already an expensive city to start with, but according to the recent mercer survey, singapore is now the fifth most expensive city for expatriates in asia, and the 13th worldwide (14th last year). living in new york, which ranks number 22, is much cheaper!
it’s getting more and more difficult to get more bang for your buck here, and “expatriate living” no longer means the same as it used to. unless you’re one of those mega-salaried bankers, i guess. (or a truck accident lawyer?)
for those pinoys thinking of relocating to singapore, lured by offered salaries that sound huge when multiplied by 30, don’t get easily lured by the dollar signs. make sure you do your research, and see how much of those $$$ will actually be left to you once you’ve paid the house rent and other bills!
my aunt and mom are back home. after more than 2 weeks of flurried activity, giggling and non-stop chatting, suddenly the flat feels hollow. don’t take me wrong. i do appreciate “having my home back” and getting back into normal routine, but it sure doesn’t seem to be as much fun watching claudine, gabby, and diether on tfc alone in our makeshift home theater seating.
it’s been fun having them around. wish they could’ve stayed longer though, to compensate for those days we couldn’t go sightseeing due to uncooperative weather and illnesses. still so many places i wanted to show them.
next time.
if we were in germany, jan would already start first grade this september; had we been in the philippines, not until june next year. here in singapore, since he’ll be attending a local school, classes start in january 09. parents, however, already need to do their homework.
as early as end of june, registration for entry to primary schools has already started, but since we are foreigners, we’re the last in the priority. citizens and permanent residents gets first dibs at registering at their schools of choice first, and when they’re done picking, that’s the only time foreigners like us get to scavenge for slots left. it almost doesn’t make sense for us to screen schools and see which one best suits our expectations because by the time it’s our turn to register, we’re left with little choice anyway but to go where there are vacancies left.
is that bad? not necessarily so, said jan’s preschool teacher. she said that those schools that are popular with the locals are very competitive and puts a lot of emphasis on academic performance, something which is not the kind of environment we want for jan anyway.
still, we’ve gone to check out two schools.
we attended tkps’ school tour and we were very impressed. all throughout we got the impression that the school promotes a well-balanced education and posits that involvement in co-curricular activities and academic excellence are not mutually exclusive. i especially liked the fact that when asked, the principal couldn’t cite the exact figures on the school’s performance in psle’s. i think it’s rather telling that the school head does not consider students scores and test performance as the end-all and be-all of education. would have been perfect, if not for the strong likelihood that the classes will be conducted in the afternoon, making it difficult, if not virtually impossible, for jan to enrol in other activities after school, such as sports or free play. the school is also located on the other side of the island; jan will have to commute at least half an hour each way until we can move flats by mid-2009. inconvenient is, in this case, an understatement.
the second school we visited, qtps, is… ok. not bad, but nothing to rave about, either. it’s about 5 minutes away from our place, we probably won’t even need a schoolbus service.
we’ve got a third school to consider, but even with just these two, i’m already at sea. are we willing to upset so many things– schedules, place of residence, family routines — in exchange for putting jan into what we feel to be the better option? are all the trouble worth it? after all, nobody can tell whether it actually is the better option; perhaps it’s just as good as the next-door school. whatever good means. and besides, we don’t know if we get a place in any of the two in the first place.
arrgh, nobody told me that having a school kid is this stressful. and it’s just the beginning!
all the effort i invested reviewing strollers,looking for that perfect one that would meet what i thought i needed, went for naught: mia decided she would rather be carried. so yes, the stroller has been, to date, more or less another white elephant, and she’s either in the sling (which she doesn’t really seem to be happy in) or strapped to me with the baby bjorn. i’m bearing her weight ( a little less than 6 kg at 2 months) without much problems so far, and it’s seems like it’s the most convenient to travel with a baby here anyway. but i’ hoping that maybe when she can already sit upright on her own and starts to get more interested in “sightseeing”, she’d find the stroller a better alternative.
well, it’s either that, or i find a better baby carrier. arrgh.
where jan is taking taekwondo lessons is slowly becoming a hub specializing in kids activities. there are schools for soccer, swimming, tennis, gym sports, dance, art, and apparently, based on the kids i sometimes see in their equestrian clothing, horse riding. for an outdated building that’s in the middle of nowhere, it’s getting really busy especially on weekends. what i love most in turf city, though, is the sol playground cafe, possibly the most kid-friendly cafe this side of the town. jan loves it, too, and a hot chocolate after his taekwondo lessons has already become a routine.
yup, they serve great food. but the best asset of this resto? their jolly and ueber-friendly all-pinay crew! on slack days, mia even gets a few minutes of baby-sitting, haha!
what’s a better way to satisfy cravings for food from back home? bring the cooks in!
since my mom and aunt arrived, everyday, it’s like sundays back home: i get to request what’s for lunch or dinner and it’s magically whipped up. i know i should have diligently stayed in the kitchen and watched how those pinoy epicurean delights are made, but well, um, i’ve already long conceded that i don’t have the talent in cooking (read: i’m too lazy in the kitchen).
besides, i just have less than a week of this to go. i want to savour it as much as i can. give me a list of best diet pills later, hehe.
it’s all moot now, but just less than two years ago, i was browsing the net for San Francisco jobs myself. if it wasn’t singapore, we could have ended up either in novato, in corvallis, or in boston. the buck institute, the linus pauling institute, or the tufts university.
don’t you find it kinda fun to look back in time, where you were 1, 5, or 10 years ago? futile, i know but do you also sometimes play the game of could’ve beens and would’ve beens in your mind?
i had to scan through my archives to check if it’s just deja vu. i know i’ve already written a post on Hilton Head rentals some time ago, and true enough i did. except that it was for a different program. funny. what else is there to say, though?
my mom’s finally here for four days now, but haven’t really done much sightseeing aside from walking along orchard road. honestly, i’m not sure where to take her and my aunt. they’re not that keen on signature label fashion, she can’t do waking tours anymore, and i’m not sure they’ll be all that interested in the zoo and bird parks. nor are they interested in shopping for computers, cameras, LCD TVs, and other electronics. the duck tour and the merlion park should be good, but what else?!?
so far, what i’ve suceeded showing them is how our day to day life here is — where jan’s kindergarten is, how the public transportation is like, the local fruits and veggies, the hospital (i had to go for a check up and they went along), the hawker fare. not what the ordinary tourist’s itinerary would be filled with by any means!
Subscribe in a reader