Orchard Road

On our third day in Singapore we set out to explore Orchard Road - the place to go if you feel an urge to eat, people watch and SHOP your heart out! In an attempt to make the most of our first Orchard Road experience, we decided to go at the absolute "best" time - Saturday afternoon. It seemed like everyone in Singapore, both residents and tourists, were strolling down Orchard Road right along with us! Our main reason for heading to Orchard Road was to shop at Carrefour, which more or less reminds me of Wal-Mart back home. Like all major grocery stores here in Singapore, Carrefour is located inside of a mall: Plaza Singapura. The store was packed...just like Wal-Mart! :-) While walking through Carrefour, I got my very first whiff of durian fruit - it smells TERRIBLE! I can totally understand why they are not allowed to be brought onto the MRT and into many other public places. What I can't understand is why anyone would actually want to eat a durian fruit! The smell is so awful that they actually had each durian wrapped up in its own individual package...but I really don't think it helped in any way. No matter where we went in the store, I could smell them. Ick! After we finished at Carrefour, we walked all along Orchard Road. Well, at least as far as we could make it before my legs and feet got really tired. The entire strip is covered with malls. More malls than you could ever imagine...all on one street. Orchard Road is a place after my own heart! We saw everything from local merchandise to expensive name brand goods. Many of the stores were so familiar to us that at times we forgot that we were even in Singapore! We found ourselves feeling pretty tired after browsing through 6-7 malls so we decided to call it a day and head back home. Orchard Road was truly a bit of a madhouse...but a madhouse I enjoyed nonetheless! With MANY malls still left for me to check out, I'm sure I'll be back again and again!

As we headed toward Orchard Road, we found a beautiful park -- a great place to take a picture of my handsome husband!

My new life includes walking everywhere. Here I am in search of Orchard Road. At least I had a shaded path to keep me cool...or at least sort of cool!

We made it to Orchard Road!

...and here's a huge mall to prove it!

Every cross street along Orchard looked just like this - packed with people!

We found Carrefour!

Carrefour has 2 levels. You can bring your cart down the escalator and it locks in place so you don't even have to hold on to it! It's clear that Matt and I are very easily entertained :-)

Inside one of the many mega-malls that line Orchard Road. This particular mall had 6 levels!

Seeing all of the stores we're used to seeing back home made it easy to forget that we are in Singapore.

My sister-in-law, S, works at Fossil back in the USA so we took this picture specifically for her!

While walking home we came across this great view of all 3 towers at our apartment complex. Our building is on the right.

Sweet Goodbyes

In the weeks and days leading up to our departure for Singapore, our families and friends went out of their way to make us feel special. While we’ve recently had several major blessings to be thankful for, I find that I’m constantly amazed with the wonderful families both Matt and I have along with the sweetest friends we could ever imagine. Back in May, five amazing ladies took time out of their busy schedules to take a road trip with me to Pensacola Beach, FL. I can’t even begin to describe how much fun we had. In early June, Matt and I went to VA for two of my closest friend’s weddings (which happened to be on back-to-back days) and to spend time with my family. During that trip, a goodbye party was hosted for us at PF Changs. My entire family was there plus 6 other wonderful friends that we don’t get to see nearly enough. On our final night in Katy, TX, 16 of our awesome friends threw us a goodbye party with a surprise USA theme (so we don’t forget where we’re from!). They showered us with American flag clothing, fed us every type of true American food you can think of and decked the house out in red, white and blue. Finally, our very last night in the USA was spent in Dallas with Matt’s family. His parents, along with one of his sisters and our precious nephew and sweet, baby niece took us out to dinner. In addition to the goodbye parties, we were invited to lunch or dinner by nearly every friend we have. Each of the parties and meals left us with bittersweet feelings. On the one hand, we were so very thankful to have people in our lives who love us enough to want to make our send off as special as possible. On the other hand, we couldn’t help but feel sad about leaving such a wonderful community of family and friends. I speak for both Matt and I when I say that although it’s only been a little over a week since we left, we truly miss everyone…we feel just a little bit, well…empty. However, we know that leaving such awesome people will make our homecoming 10x better! We just wanted to say a great big thanks to everyone for all you did in the last month. So here’s to the best families and friends in the world! God certainly knew what He was doing when He put each of you in our lives!

Pensacola Beach Road Trip! And just incase you're wondering, yes, it's extremely cool to wear matching souvenir shirts ;-)

Our goodbye party at PF Changs in VA.

Our USA themed goodbye party. Matt and I wore the correct colors even though we had no idea everyone else was going to be wearing red, white and blue. It was meant to be!

The morning after our dinner with Matt's family.

Singapore!

We're here! After nearly 23 hours of flying and two quick layovers in LA and Tokyo, we arrived in Singapore last Thursday at 1:30 a.m. and made it to our apartment by 3 a.m. After a quick (and rather overwhelming) explanation on how to operate everything in the apartment, we made it to bed by 4:30 a.m. and were up at 8 a.m. to start our new life in Singapore! Though we've only been here for a week, I already feel like I could write an endless amount of information on the things we've seen and done. I think we'll have PLENTY of activities to keep us busy over the next year...and if activities don't keep us busy, than the insane amount of walking we have to do will surely help pass the time quickly. Our apartment is located in an area called Robertson Quay (Quay is pronounced like "key") and directly overlooks the Singapore River. If you follow the path along the river about 10 minutes east of our apartment, you come to an area called Clarke Quay, home to one of Singapore's most popular, night time hot spots. Clarke Quay hosts dozens of restaurants (after a quick survey of the crowds, I'm guessing Clarke Quay attracts tourists, expats and even locals) and plenty of great shopping malls. Speaking of shopping malls, I have never in my life seen so many malls. They are everywhere you turn and often several stories high (or as I've noticed its spelled here...storeys). I have a feeling I'll be frequenting the malls pretty often, if not for shopping then just to escape from the heat for a few minutes! Oh, the heat! I keep telling myself I'll adjust to it and gosh, do I hope that's true. If I don't adjust to the heat, I suppose I'll have to adjust to taking 2-3 showers a day :-) Another thing we're getting used to is the cars being on the "wrong" side of the road! A very close friend of mine, Karis, moved to Australia with her husband back in September. I remember her telling me how hard it was to look right than left when crossing the street instead of left than right like we do in the USA. She was definitely right! It doesn't come natural to me at all and I really have to work hard on training myself to look right first. It's funny how little things like that make living in a foreign country seem so different. In any case, no matter what adjustments we have to make, we are still so thankful for the opportunity to be out here!

M & K on board Singapore Airlines and ready to start our newest adventure!

My very first morning in Singapore. We ate breakfast at a precious cafe called eM that sits right along the river.

Our complex has three towers. This is our building -- we're on the 23rd floor!

We can't get over how HUGE the pool is at our apartment. This is just one side of it. It wraps around almost the entire complex!

The view from our balcony -- I don't think I'll ever get sick of looking out there. Even a non-city lover like me can appreciate this view!

Looking down from our balcony, we have a wonderful view of the Singapore River. It's so pretty when it's all lit up at night!

This gorgeous, tree-lined path leads the way to the Great World Mall which is where we do our grocery shopping. Since we have to walk there, we're thankful that we have a pretty path to stroll along!

This is Clarke Quay. If you look closely, you can see several restaurants lining the river. The atmosphere is and fun and casual -- a great place to have dinner on a Friday night!

The "Art Bridge" by Clarke Quay

All of the streets are lined with lush greenery -- it's so beautiful!

Chinatown

There is a campaign going on called "The Singapore Kindness Act" and these cute little things are all over the place. The one in the back says "offer your seat to someone who needs it more."

I was thrilled when we found an Auntie Anne's in the mall right by our house. Unfortunately, these flavors didn't thrill me quite as much. Thankfully, they have all the regular flavors too!

This trashcan gives you an idea of how clean things truly are in Singapore. I've noticed countless people cleaning the streets (not just with brooms, but with power washers!) no matter where I go in the city!

I'm not going to take my chances with trespassing in protected places here! (Look closely at the picture on the sign)

Dragon fruit is really common here. I haven't tried one yet, but I think they look really cool!

When I get too hot from all the walking, at least I have these delicious ice cream flavors to turn to...durian, sweet corn, and yam.

This sign was in the public bathroom. It's always nice to have a reminder on how to use the toilet!