Friday evening we made the big trip to the Cold Storage grocery store at Great World City to stock the refrigerator. I was pleased with what I was able to find there, although I had to get creative with my purchases because the US brand of a product generally costs substantially more. For example, I'm a butter person (no fake stuff for me) so I want spreadable butter. They sold the same Land o Lakes kind I buy at home but it's $11 here, so I instead found the French equivalent and paid about half. The eggs here are brown and not refrigerated, just like in Europe but the yoke is lighter because my scrambled eggs are pale these days. Bacon as we know it is called "streaky bacon" here and I opted for Danish bacon because it cost half as much as the US brand. My sugar supply came from Australia, where they apparently have more grades of sugar than in the US. I had a hard time figuring out the closest sugar to regular granular sugar and I doubt I'll know if I got it right until I make that first batch of chocolate chip cookies. Those will have to be for a special occasion because a bag of chocolate chips = $10. I also have discovered that Splenda hasn't made it to this part of the world yet so bring your own packets if you want it in your coffee here. Sugar, brown sugar and Equal are the only options.
Saturday we took a much-needed break from "relocation" mode and explored the island a bit more. First we took a morning run down to the Marina area of town. I regret not bringing the camera because the weather was perfect and I could have gotten great pictures of the skyline and the riverfront area. 
Thank goodness I'll have more opportunities. I was feeling particularly thankful that we're living by the river because it provides good scenery for exercise. Afterwards we checked out the beach at East Coast Park. It's a lovely green area with beaches and bike trails about 15 minutes from our apartment. It was fun to see the girls' reactions to their first beach experience. Megan kept commenting on how big the waves were (they were actually quite small), Elizabeth ran into the water up to her knees and then happily shrieked all the way back to dry land (and repeated this process over a 2-hour period) and Emily was not fond of the sensation of getting knocked down by water. She preferred to play in the biggest sandbox EVER and only tasted the sand once. Sentosa is the preferred choice for beach-going and we'll check it out at some point, but East Coast Park was a hit with our kids! It would be a great place to take bikes and ride along the shoreline and Brian will likely ride over there when he trains for his next triathlon.Saturday evening we drove to Holland Village and ate Mexican food with the Accenture Senior Exec's family. They have been here for a year and I enjoyed meeting them and hearing their travel experiences so far. And, for Mexican food in Asia, the food was decent.
Sunday it was time for more shopping for basics and I found myself at Carrefour for the first time since our Parisian days. Think Walmart and you're on the right track. One funny thing is that I had a hard time finding dishwasher detergent, which I suppose is because so few households have them (remember: they have housekeepers who wash everything!) It took me quite awhile to find it and there were maybe 2 brands to choose from, but I was a happy woman when we ran that machine Sunday night!
Today Brian took the day off from work and we returned to IKEA with a better idea of what we need for the new place. We bought a small sofa for the playroom, a pink chair for Emily's room and storage bins to organize the toys. They're delivering all the goodies in a couple days.
This afternoon we drove up to Megan's school for orientation. It was Megan's and my first visit to the Singapore American School campus and it is quite large. Of course, it holds preschoolers through 12th grade so it needs to be spacious. We visited her classroom, met her fellow students and spent some time alone with her teacher, Miss Scott, who is Australian. We paid her tuition for the spring semester - a ridiculous amount of $$,$$$ for kindergarten but when someone else is paying, it's not so painful. She is excited about starting school tomorrow and I can hardly wait to hear about her first day. I will miss her smiling face around our home though, as she has been the best helper these past few weeks.
You may recall my saying that I had no intention of driving while living here. Well, that is slowly changing as Brian drives us around town. I now believe that I will eventually get behind the wheel but it will take some time for me to build up my confidence and get used to driving on the left side of the road. I still walk around to the wrong side of the car when I'm a passenger - it's funny. One thing that I don't get is that drivers here back into their parking spot. I have no issue with other people doing it but whenever Brian starts to do it (wants to be like a local) I point out that we have Megan sitting in the way back and a stroller back there (or groceries, etc) that we will have to get out. It's much harder to do when the back of your car is up against the next car! So, when I drive, I doubt I'll be reversing into my spot, unless it's actually some law in Singapore. Highly possible I suppose.
I'll end this post by sharing that I'm delighted to have our first guest from the US booked on our calendar. My dear friend Tonia is visiting us in September and receiving that news this morning put a big smile on my face. Elizabeth's room will be our guest room - a queen bed with a separate bath and we think that her room has the best views at night so there's something to look forward to! I hope the room gets used often during our time here :)
That's enough news for today. I'll try to get some pictures of the apt this week now that it's not quite so messy to give you a feel for where we're living.
Hooray for visitors!
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