Singapore Zoo

I mentioned the Singapore Zoo in an earlier post but wasn't able to show you pictures at the time.  We were given a year pass to the zoo, so the kids and I went back a few days ago with a couple other moms from church.  In Singapore, the school year runs from January through December, with June, the second half of November, and December as their vacation ("holiday") months.  So even kids who would normally be in school were able to spend a day at the zoo!  We saw a sea lion show, and Jessica and Eric were even able to go up to the front to get soaked by the sea lion spinning in circles and hitting the water.  We also saw a kids' show with dogs, cats, and...ugh...rats.  I didn't need to see those! :-)  No, really, we had a great time.

 

Dorcas with her son Elijah and our Megan, and Vivian with her son Joel.
Dorcas also has a daughter Jael, and Vivian has a daughter Charis.

I said in my earlier post that you are walking through a tropical rainforest when you walk through this zoo, and that the animals have nice, big places to roam.  In the following pictures you can see what I meant.  It is absolutely beautiful!

The white tiger

Besides the natural beauty, there is also a great kids' area there, including a waterpark. Our kids could have played there for hours!

As I was looking at one of the animals, the following verse came to mind:  "O LORD, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches" (Psalm 104:24).  What a great Creator we serve!

Driving in Singapore

Last Friday the church bought us a car.  It's been quite an experience. :-)  In Singapore they drive on the opposite side of the road, and the driver is on the opposite side of the car. Singapore is a busy city, and its roads aren't laid out like the roads in the U.S., so although traffic follows pretty much the same rules we do in the U.S. (other than motorcycles coming up between cars to get to the front at red lights), it can be a bit difficult to figure out which road to take and which lane to be in.  So imagine being brought to Chicago at rush hour and given a car with the steering wheel on the "wrong" side, and being told to drive on the opposite side of the road.  A bit stressful!  I don't know if or when I will drive here, but my husband has gotten better and more relaxed each day.  On the way to church for a speech on Saturday one of the kids told him, "Dad, you're doing a good job!  You're doing lots better than you did yesterday!" :-)  Below are some pictures and more explanations.

The girls by our car.  It has two backseats, so there is room for all the kids.  The middle seats fold down and slide forward very easily so that kids can climb into the back.

Due to government regulations, fees, and inspections, Singaporeans own very new cars.  There are some older trucks on the roads that I think are used for construction workers, and it seems to me that some of the taxis don't look so new.  But many taxis and all personal cars are very new and nice.  The parking garages ("carparks") here look like car sales lots!  Our car is actually a used car, but you can't tell!

The front inside.  The screen shows you what's behind you as you are backing up.  Most people here back into parking spaces (and often tight parking spaces!).  My husband was always a pro at backing up into parking spaces, I thought, but it sure adds a whole new level of complication when it's a tight space and a "backwards" car! :-)  He has already improved at that too though, after only four days.

On the top right you can also see a little "box."  There are fees here for parking and for driving on some of the roads.  We have a little card that goes into that box.  It has a certain amount of money on it, like our bus and train passes do, and when we park anywhere or drive on those roads, the money is automatically deducted.  We pay a set fee per month to park by our own house, so we are not charged every time we come and go from our own parking lot.  Besides all these fees, gas is very expensive, so we will probably use a combination of our own car and the public transportation.  But having our own car is nice for getting to church and for those times when I need more groceries than we can easily carry home on the bus. 

In other news, Prof. & Mrs. Engelsma returned home today.  We had a wonderful last evening with them, and with Stephanie VanMaanen and Lynette and Peter Kleyn and some of the church members here, at the home of a family from church last night.  The whole group that was there sang some Psalter numbers together, and we really enjoyed that.  We will miss the Engelsmas.  We are thankful for the good work they did in their time here, and thankful also that Prof. was here to preach, giving us time to settle in and get used to things a bit before my husband started his work full-time.

Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving Day is a U.S. holiday, not a Singapore one.  However, some of the people here know how we celebrate Thanksgiving because of Prof. & Mrs. Hanko's presence here over Thanksgiving once or twice.  So a couple of the families planned a Thanksgiving meal for the Engelsmas and us tonight.

 

The girls who made the meal--Iva Chan, Tze Yan Lim, and Isa Chan.  They did a great job on the turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, salad, and corn...hopefully I'm not forgetting anything!

We ate at our house, but they didn't let me do any work and even vacuumed and mopped 

my floors for me afterward!

Dessert was some Singapore fruits.  Clockwise from the front left are longan, 

rambutan, mangosteen, and persimmon.

Afterwards we took some group pictures.  Besides the Engelsmas and us, in the back are Daisy, Peng Lan, Angela, and Felix.  In front are Yang Zhi, Iva, Marcus, Isa, and Tze Yan.  Missing from this picture are Seow Thong and his wife Jean.

The evening ended with Jean trying to teach Jason how to walk.  He's too young to walk yet (only 9 months), but he had a great time trying, and we had a great time watching!

We thought of you all as you were gathering in worship on Thanksgiving Day.  We missed being with you and with our families.  But how thankful we are for the family of God, including our new "family members" here in Singapore!

Getting around, and pictures

We are figuring out how to get around Singapore.  The nearest mall is Junction 8, also known as J8.  That is where we get our groceries, and the public library is right there too.  We all still go as a family every time, but I do know now how to get there by myself. :-)  First we walk a little ways among the high-rises and shops, and then we cross a street and walk just a little farther to the bus station.  Within ten minutes, a bus will come to pick us up, and only two stops farther is the bus interchange at J8.  That's the last stop on the route, so everyone gets off there.  At J8 there is also an MRT station.  That stands for Mass Rapid Transit, and is Singapore's train system.  We tried that for the first time today.  We rode it downtown and did some computer shopping at a mall that had been recommended to us (for good reason--one entire floor was computer stores!).  Then we took the train back to J8.  However, we made the mistake of getting on the train right at 6:00 p.m.  Rush hour in Singapore is not when you want to be taking a family with small children on the MRT. :-)  The trains are very long, and you can get on at any of a number of doors.  There wasn't going to be room for all of us at one set of doors, so I took a couple kids with me and ran to the next set of doors.  We got on the train, and as I heard the automated voice saying, "The doors are now closing," I looked out and saw Eric.  I grabbed him to pull him in--and behind him yet was my husband with Jason and Megan.  Oh no!!  But they shoved their way on just in time.  Whew.  The train was absolutely packed, and we will try to be more careful in the future of what time we take the MRT. :-)

We only picked out a computer today, did not actually buy one--but thanks to the Tan family from church, I have a borrowed laptop and can post pictures!  I will post more in the coming days, Lord willing, but for now here are some pictures of where we live.

The view from our balcony (outside our front door)

The view from our living room

The view from our kitchen--Do you sense a theme here? :-)  Yes, we are surrounded by high rises!

This is what you see standing in the doorway of our flat.  It is a very nice, big flat.  The tables on the left will probably be for homeschooling, but once the textbooks get here we will have to see if that works out.

Our living area--The slide and many other toys were left behind by the previous owner of the flat.

Our kitchen--You can see the clothes hanging to dry on the rack by the window, but also on poles near the ceiling.  No, I do not hang out my 6th-floor window to put poles outside. :-)  I'm hearing from more and more people that they do not do that either.  One of the reasons is the rain.  It's easier just to keep the clothes inside than to be putting them in and out depending on the weather.  I do have a dryer now too.

Our dining room

 Emily and Megan's bedroom, with a trundle bed.  Megan stayed in bed for the picture. :-)  You can see the large dresser/closet area behind Megan.  All our bedrooms have these, although the boys' room doesn't have doors, only open shelves.  There is plenty of room in these for all our clothes, plus some storage.

Where we get our mail--The elevator is right by our flat, and when we take it down we 

come out very close to the mailboxes.  It's very convenient for us.

Looking down from our balcony--a nice playground off to the side

The first floor of the high rises is left open like this so people have a place to "hang out" and kids have a place to run around.  As you can see, it's a great place for Eric to use his new skateboard, given to him by a young man from church.  I think that is a ping-pong table to the left.  The playground in the picture above is just to the right here.

Finally, two pictures going back to what I began this post with.  It makes us laugh that our three-year-old is becoming a pro at public transportation. :-)  We all have cards that have a certain amount of money on them.  We scan those cards when we get on the bus or train, and again when we get off, and money is deducted based on how far we traveled, whether we traveled at peak hours, etc.  Here are Megan and Emily scanning their cards.  

Busyness and culture

Yesterday we went with some people from church to the Singapore Zoo.  That is a beautiful zoo!  Everywhere you go, you are surrounded by trees and beautiful foliage--you're walking through a tropical rainforest.  The animals have nice big places to roam.  The zoo also has a waterpark area, but that was closed yesterday, so when we were finished at the zoo, the group from church took us to a swimming complex.  I think they said it was built about a year ago.  There was a big pool, a smaller pool, a couple of slides, and a very nice kids' area.  It cost about $1.50 per adult and 80c per child, or something like that--very cheap!  Outside the pool area there were ping-pong tables, shops, and restaurants.  All of this is provided by the Singapore government.  The government here is a very intrusive and yet good government.  They have the interests of the people at heart and do what they can to make their people happy.  This includes setting up swimming complexes like this, along with exercise areas because they also want their people to be healthy.

Today was a busy day around the home, as new appliances, mattresses, etc. were delivered and different people were here to work.  That brings me to a cultural difference.  In Michigan, if we want to get rid of our things, we have a garage sale or sell our stuff on Craigslist.  Here, if people don't want their things, they give them away.  I guess there isn't really a place to have a garage sale when you're living in a high-rise apartment complex. :-)  We have been the beneficiaries of this way of life a number of times already, and today we got two big bookshelves and...a piano!  It is a "real" piano, not an electrical one like they had been talking about getting.  Both the planned electrical one and the one we got today were free, along with the bookshelves, just because someone didn't need them anymore.  Amazing.  There was a very interesting thing about the piano:  it needed to be plugged in.  We asked why.  There is a heater inside the piano to keep it dry so that the humidity doesn't ruin the piano.  I had kind-of wondered how pianos "survive" this weather, and now I know!

Speaking of surviving this weather, my husband said it got up to 94 degrees in our flat today.  I said, "No wonder Jason was so crabby!" :-)  Yes, it's hot here!  We have air conditioning units in our bedrooms, along with fans, so we sleep very comfortably.  We just roast during the day. ;-)  Someone from church is talking about installing ceiling fans, which would help.  The heat doesn't bother me most of the time, but the kids get very sweaty, and poor Jason gets quite cranky.  We hope he will adapt soon.  I don't know how long it's supposed to take to adapt to this weather.

Prof. Engelsma gave another speech tonight, and there is one more tomorrow, followed by a welcome dinner for our family.  We have already been very warmly welcomed by the church here.  They have showered us with gifts and made sure we are well taken care of, including bringing "Western" food to church for the kids on Sundays and at speeches.  We appreciate that very much.  Emily and Megan are the most adventurous at trying new foods (besides my husband, who will eat anything!), but Eric has been struggling.  However, he tried shrimp yesterday and liked it, and today we found milk that most of us could drink, so things are looking up!! :-)

By the way, our "critter count" here in the flat is at 9 cockroaches and 2 geckos.  I found out I handle geckos about as well as I do mice...not so well. :-)

Our day at church

Every year CERC (Covenant Evangelical Reformed Church) has a Reformation Day Conference.  "RDC," they call it.  This year Prof. Engelsma was asked to give four speeches on the topic "His Church Shall Stand."  I was home with kids during the first two speeches, but today our whole family went to church for the end of the conference.  It began at 10:00 and ended after supper.  Two speeches were given today, and the rest of the time was for meals and "free time."  Kids played, adults talked, and some of the young people gathered around and sang for a while.  It was very enjoyable.

During the speeches, some of CERC's young people take care of the children.  They lead them in singing, and then do crafts.  This morning the kids all made bookmarks with a Bible verse on them.  This afternoon they made a calendar with Bible verses on each page.  Our kids really enjoyed it and continue to make new friends at church, which is so good to see.  The young people also love Jason, so I don't see much of him when we're at church. :-)

When the day was almost finished, some of the people brought out durian for all of us Americans to try.  (Besides our family and the Engelsmas, John & Val VanBaren and Hank VanderWaal are here.)  Everyone gathered around, some with cameras, and couldn't wait to watch us eat it.  I managed to avoid the attention for a while, but just when I thought I was safe, a few young people said, "Mrs. Lanning, aren't you going to try it?  You have to try it!"  So I took the very tiniest bite.  It lived up to its expectations, that's all I will say. :-)  But now I've tried it, so hopefully I won't have to try it again. ;-)

A couple of unrelated topics:  Everywhere we go here, we get looked at.  I think it's a combination of the blond hair and the fact that we have five kids--more the latter.  Five kids is so uncommon here.  And everyone loves to see Jason.  The first day we went out walking below our building, someone asked if she could take pictures of him.  When we were out for lunch with someone from church, a waitress wanted to carry him around the restaurant.  Others say hi to him and want to "play" with him.  He grins at everybody and doesn't mind the attention at all!

Last night some people were working in our kitchen at suppertime, so we went down to what are called "coffee shops"--little eating places right below each high rise.  There was one with American food, so that was our main goal, although my husband wanted to get some local food too.  The American food place had an idol on the wall, with what was probably incense burning in front of it.  We had heard that was common here, but it was our first time seeing it.  When we got home we read Psalm 115 for devotions.  "Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands.  They have mouths, but they speak not:  eyes have they, but they see not..."  And on the other hand, "Our God is in the heavens:  he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased."  What a blessing that one of the things that "he hath pleased" was to call us out of such darkness into His marvelous light!

I know you are waiting for pictures, and I can't wait to post them.  However, I still don't have a computer and am still not much better with this tablet than I was a week ago when I started using it. :-)  In order to get a computer we need to get a Singapore credit card, or we'll be paying a foreign transaction fee on our American credit card.  But in order to get a credit card, we were told we'd have to jump through some hoops, including getting a letter from the church saying how much money we will be making.  We hope to start this process tomorrow.  In the long run, not a big deal--but it's just one of those things about moving to a foreign country that makes it a little more challenging than just moving in the U.S. would be.  In the meantime, please continue to wait patiently, and I will post pictures as soon as I can! :-)

We're here!

Hello from Singapore!  I'm on an unfamiliar computer and need to go rest, but hopefully I can at least get a short post on here!  I thought I was adjusted to the time change, but I was awake for two and a half hours in the middle of the night, so I guess not. :-)

I think that for those who may not know us well, I should give a quick introduction to our family so you will know who I am talking about when I refer to our children.  Our oldest is Jessica, who turned 10 just ten days before we moved.  She was in 4th grade at Heritage.  Next is Eric, our 8-year-old 3rd-grader.  Then we have Emily, 6, who just started kindergarten.  Megan is 3 1/2, and Jason is 8 months old.

Our flights went well.  The weather in San Francisco was just beautiful.  They'd had a record high (if I heard correctly) of about 80 degrees the day we got there, and the next morning it was still warm and just the perfect temperature.  After a little walk around the hotel area while waiting for our shuttle to the airport, we began our flight to Seoul.  We'd thought it was 11 hours, but it was 11 hours and 45 minutes.  The good news is that the next leg of the flight was an hour and a half shorter than we had thought (5 1/2 hours), so it all worked out in the end. :-)  Jason kept us very busy, but really all the kids were good on the flights.

We were greeted at the airport by quite a few people from church, and arrived about the same time as Prof. & Mrs. Engelsma and John & Val VanBaren.  We were taken in two cars to our flat, which was decorated with welcome banners, and many cards lying on a table waiting for each of us to open, welcoming us to Singapore and the church here.  We got to bed about 4:20 a.m. Singapore time.

The last two days have been busy with shopping for various household items and just trying to get set up here.  The flat is very nice.  At some point I will post pictures, but like I said, this is an unfamiliar computer.  I hope to get a computer of my own sometime soon, and then I'll be able to do more.  Last night Andy, Jessica, and Emily went to a birthday party for a girl from church.  Emily fell asleep and slept the whole time. :-)  Megan fell asleep in the car on the way to Ikea at about 4:00 yesterday, and we could never wake her up.  She slept until 6:00 or 6:30 this morning!  So besides the busyness, we are still adjusting to the 13-hour time difference!

Anyway, that's it for now.  I'll try to post more in a few days, including some pictures.  Thank you all for your prayers these past few days, as we traveled and are now trying to settle in!