We have been in Singapore (SG) for 3 days now. The jet lag has taken it's toll on us. Kylie and I have given in to it. Sean kept fighting it and now he is sicky poo with a froggy voice and nasty sinus infection (so we think). We have managed to get a whole lot done and even enjoyed a night out with Kylie on our first evening.
First, I wanted to mention that our flight of 22 something hours was the most wonderful experience. That is HUGE coming from me. We flew "Korean*Air" and we had service with a smile the entire flight experience. I've flown on shorter flights with crabby flight attendants. The crew catered to a sold out flight and they were always eager to please. The service was truly A+. From the moment we took off, the crew started their services and it seemed to me that we were always eating. I completely over planned busy activities for Kylie and I. Sean said that the activities I had planned would have been appropriate for the other airlines he had flown but this one was definitely the best. We had economy seats with plenty of leg room, tv's for every seat, a port for our laptops and free wine and beer...need I say more? - lol!! The flight was smooth throughout and Kylie did not complain once about having to be buckled in throughout the flight. She slept alot, watched TV and we gave her a few gifts here and there which she loved! We still have unopened gifts that I had planned to give her as a way to keep her occupy but we ended up not needing them at the time. I'll save them for a rainy day.
I had a tough time falling asleep on the flights. I tried really hard but my body just refused to sleep in a vertical position. I finally fell asleep for an hour during the last flight which was a six hour flight. I was okay for a little bit but by the time we arrived I started getting a little crabby. I wanted a BED big time!! We barely made it on that last flight, by the way. Our layover was approx 55 min. We arrived a few minutes later from the previous flight then we had to go thru a security check point once we arrived in Korea. We had approx 5 min to run from the gate we had arrived to our next gate. We were hauling 6 carry ons which according to hubby were the heaviest carry ons he has ever had in all of his previous travel - lol!! When we arrived into Singapore we were ecstatic to find out that our luggage had made it as well. That was just the icing on our wonderful travel experience.
My first reaction while riding in a cab to our hotel was how lush and beautiful the landscaping was. The trees are so nicely manucared that they remind me of the little bonzai (sp)? plants. This amazing place is a melting pot of cultures. Everything is in English by the way. I would describe it a little like Manhattan or any big city but tropical, lovely palm trees and 100 times cleaner. There are signs all over about the fines if you litter. We ventured out Saturday night and walked to an area near our hotel that felt like we were in South*Beach on steroids. There was so much to see and do. The restaurants had all sorts of offerings from every culture including a Cuban restaurant which really blew me away to see. The Christmas decorations are over the top. They are beautiful!! All restaurants have outside seating which Sean and I really enjoy. We ate at a restaurant Saturday night and we were seated next to the river were tour boats adorned "with lanterns passed by. It reminded me a little of the famous place in "Italy" with the gondolas minus the lanterns of course - lol!
By the way, we are getting alot of double takes from people who look at Kylie and then look at us then they look at Kylie again - lol! No one has asked us any questions which I would of course welcome and love to talk about our adoption process. I keep joking with Sean that we could never ever let Kylie out of our sight because people are not going to assume that she belongs to "those Americans" - ha, ha!! Everyone is really courteous and friendly.
Yesterday we went shopping for some of my essentials, a hair dryer, a flat iron and an iron! My Chi does not work here and I feel lost without it. My hair is not cooperating with the humidity. Speaking of shopping - WOW!!! Their are thousands of stores in the malls or at least it feels that way. I'm not sure that I will ever get thru one mall end to end. It is huge! So far, we had our walk thru of the apt. Kylie jumped for joy at the view from our apt. I caught a pic of her in mid air which I will post once I overcome the challenges I'm having with posting pics. We have a lovely view of the largest pool I have ever seen in my life. I let Kylie pick out her own room and she immediately went for the master - she is no fool:-) I asked her to pick a different room which she did. Surprisingly it was not the other one with the pool view. I asked her several times which room she wanted and she chose the same one. Kylie is so funny and continues to amaze me. She walked thru each room unprompted letting me know what we needed for each one. She started with the bathrooms and she said we needed soap, toothpaste and toilet paper. She then said she needed a bed for her room and so on. I found it quite entertaining. We ordered our cable, internet and phone services (apparently not as easy as the states). It took us approx 2 hrs to get that done. I can usually get that done with a phone call but here we have to appear in person. Conveniently enough they are located at the mall:-) We signed Kylie up for her new school and she loves it. While we were filling our paperwork, Kylie kept running back and forth to her new playground and us. She kept smiling the whole time. We will take her tomorrow as a little trial run to see how she does. We hope to order our furniture this afternoon after Kylie's nap. The list seems endless at the moment but we are crossing them off one by one.
Overall it is turning out to be an amazing experience for our family and one that we are so thankful to have the opportunity to do. I was a little sad about leaving my job and my home but sometimes you need that little kick in the butt to take one out of their comfort zone and experience what life has to offer. In an earlier post I mention that a very good source told me that SG was beautiful, fun and exciting. That good source was hubby who came to SG to start work and get things in order for us including finding us an apt and school for Kylie. I didn't mention that because well you just never know who is reading this stuff - right? He did a fantastic job as I knew he would. He came back so that we can spend Christmas Eve with the family and we all flew to SG together. He also mentioned to me that he thought SG was paradise. My hubby doesn't use words like that. I'm now beginning to understand what he meant. We are just in awe of everything we are experiencing.
I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. Thank you very much for all of your well wishes. It really means alot to us.
