The Flight
We both got to fly Business Class on our flight from Houston to Singapore so we definitely enjoyed a rare luxury trip. Our seats folded down into beds, so Tara got to sleep the majority of the travel time. Actually, she would have been able to sleep in the luggage compartment; Tara has this ridiculous ability to instantly fall asleep on/in any form of transportation. I can't sleep on an airplane regardless of what class I fly, so I managed to get around 5 hours of total sleep. When we arrived in Singapore, we had a slight problem with our luggage. We checked 7 bags on the plane (2 of them were mine...), and only 3 of them initially came out on the luggage carousel. Long story short, they found 3 of the missing bags at the airport, but they lost one of Tara's big bags. It was delivered to us the next day, so all-in-all, not that bad of an ordeal.
Sickness
I got sick the day before we were supposed to board the plane, and I was miserable the entire 24 hour flight. During our layover in Russia, we went to the airport doctor to get me some medicine; flu like symptoms. The doctor could speak English about as good as Tara and I can speak Russian. I wish there was a camera documenting our attempts to express what was ailing me and our requests for some sort of medicine. All three of us were laughing at our lack of communication abilities and our resolve to use the "international-grunting" gesture to express our need for something. Luckily, Caveman for my symptoms translates the same in every language, and we were able to get me some flu medicine.
Jet Lag
The time difference between Singapore and Texas is 14 hours (For example: 8 am in Dallas would be 10 pm in Singapore). This creates a stellar case of jet lag due to the fact that your body thinks that it should be awake when the time zone is telling you to sleep. At this point, I am learning to master my jet lag by forcing myself to stay awake longer on the day that I land. Tara struggled a bit with it, but she still handled it better than I did on my first try (I missed an important conference call with the President and Vice President of my company because I fell asleep at 5 pm).
Tara's Reaction
As expected, Tra loves Singapore. She is in awe of the architecture/city/greenery/weather/etc. Out of all these, she is most fascinated by the weather; Tara loves warm weather and hates being cold (which is weird because I'm pretty sure that her body temperature stays about 10 degrees cooler than the average person). Singapore stays around a constant 80 degrees 365 days a year with high humidity. It rains every day, and it's sunny everyday. She still hasn't seen many parts of the island, but we are staying active enough to keep her interest peaked. I'm preparing myself for the day that we run out of new things to do and her homesickness sets in (I'm not good with crying people; apparently laughing at them is not a good way to console).
Job(s)
My job is going really well, and I am still enjoying it. My official title is the Far East Sales and Operations Manager. My territory extends north to Korea, west to India, south to Australia/New Zealand, east to the Philippines, and everything in-between. It has been insanely busy since I've been back because of the weeks I took off for the holidays and the wedding. Tara had a good informative interview with Ralph Lauren the other day, so we are eager to see how that pans out. Regardless, she is determined to get a job here; with her qualifications and personality, it won't be hard for her to find work in Singapore.
Living
While I was at work this past week, Tra was going around with a realtor to find us a place to live. After a few days of looking she narrowed it down to a few different locations, and we decided on a place together. The apartment is brand new and convenient for her to shop and use public transportation since she won't have a vehicle here. We are currently, living in a temporary apartment while they put the finishing touches on our place. It won't be completely finished by time we move in, but it will be livable. Chinese New Year is coming up next week, and during that time (15 days!), the majority of Asia shuts down. We are hoping that they get most of the apartment ready before this time because whatever is unfinished will be delayed until after the holidays.
Shopping
The other night, we were going to meet up with some of my friends, and Tara started freaking out because she didn't have anything to wear. I don't know if you caught my subtle hint earlier to how many bags Tara packed (5.. and she used up some room in my suitcases as well), but she definitely had more than enough space to throw in some sort of a dress. To spite her (because it's what I do), I demanded suggested that we go shopping the next day to get her a few dresses appropriate for the Singapore climate/atmosphere. Sounds like a nice gesture, right?! I may have failed to mention that shopping in Singapore can be the most frustrating experience of your life. There is a mall on EVERY street corner (that sounds like an exaggeration, but it's really not). Also, every mall has the exact same stores. Also, every mall is at least 5 stories tall/deep (oh yeah, they go underground as well as up). Also, every mall is packed with people. Let's just say that after that day, Tara doesn't have much desire to go shopping around here for a while... Although, we didn't buy anything so I'm not sure who won this battle.
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Anyways, that about does it; I'll update more as time goes on. I hope to get some free time (and motivation) soon to start the wedding blogs. She did tell me that our wedding pictures just came in, so I look forward to sharing those with everyone.
Summary
We are happy. Singapore is awesome. God is great. Life is good.
