Singapore

Pictures to come soon.....
They canceled our Chicago flight, and rerouted us through DC to Tokyo which worked fine. What an incredibly long time to travel! We left our house at 630 am Saturday on the bus and got here at 1:00 am Singapore time Monday morning, which is 13 hours ahead of Boston, so that's noon Sunday your time. We had tight connections so although we didn't have any trouble making our flights, there was no time to run around or rest in between. The kids were troopers and behaved beautifully on the planes (Henry watched Journey to the Center of the Earth 3 1/2 times and Sylvie watched Mamma Mia at least 3 times), but Henry was so tired that he threw up after we landed in Tokyo and again in Singapore. They squeezed us onto an All Nippon Airways flight from Tokyo to Singapore which was reminiscent of the old days where the stewardesses are all beautiful and lovely, and change their clothes to serve food, and they provide metal silverware and free drinks, but of course everything was in Japanese. The plane had a nose camera so you could see the runway on takeoff and landing which was the only time Henry smiled...We were not sitting together but eventually the person next to Henry offered to switch seats with me (good move since I don't think she would have wanted to hold the barf bag). Franz and Sylvie were together which was good, I guess...
Now we are in our flat in Singapore which is on the 10th floor of a high rise tower. There are 3 towers in this complex, essentially a gated community. On the ground floor to the kids' delight are 4 huge beautiful swimming pools with fountains and beautiful grounds. Vera Godley, experienced expat, predicted correctly that the kids would spend all their time in the pool. There is a little gym so I can ride the exercise bike in air-conditioned comfort. There are guards everywhere very politely guiding us toward correct behavior. Our flat is newly renovated and almost every single item in it is brand new and from IKEA.
We can walk about 5 minutes to a nice Chinese grocery and about 10 minutes to the MRT - the subway/elevated train that runs all around the city in typical efficient, safe, spotless, reliable, user-friendly Singaporean fashion. NUS and Franz's office and lab are about a 10 minute walk in the opposite direction. We spent the first day getting acclimated around here, running around on the NUS track and swimming. The next day the kids and I went downtown to the center of the city. It is true that there are miles of malls that run above ground and underground in every direction; it's amazing to me that there could be so many people so interested in shopping. I'll post some photos of the outdoor sights along the river...The kids love their new cameras and have taken hundreds of pictures, movies etc., few of which are decent but they're having a ball.
Yesterday we went out towards the suburbs to the Singapore Science Centre, their Museum of Science equivalent.
Singapore to me is a bizarre combination of exotic and familiar; there are very few white people outside Australian tourists, since nearly everyone is Chinese, either new or Straits (old Singaporean stock); Malaysian (I can identify them most easily by the women's head scarfs since they tend to be Muslims), or Indians (including nearly all the construction workers it seems). So few probably speak English at home but it is the common language; announcements on the subway are made in English and Malay and maybe Tamil (I can't tell them apart by ear yet), and signs are all in English, Tamil, Malay, Chinese and frequently Japanese. It could not be easier to get around - I would feel sorry for a Singaporean trying to navigate in Boston!!! The weather is 30 degrees in the daytime, 25 at night, partly cloudy, an occasional sprinkle, breezy in the afternoon particularly in the wind tunnel of our apartment complex, every single day of the year. PERFECT!!!!! It's urban but all planted and parklike between all the 35-story high rises. The vegetation is beautiful and I recognize almost none of the plants or trees yet except for the bougainvillea and bird-of-paradise, so I'll have to get a book (maybe when we go to the botanical gardens) and look things up. They say there are more plant species in Singapore than in all of North America and it's easy to believe. The streets are lined with big go-dog-go trees, many of which look something like a mimosa, full of huge broadleafed air plants. Insects are not allowed (I read that they fumigate outdoors too) and I have seen only a few butterflies, one large beetle, a couple of ants and a centipede which caused a commotion in the grocery store.
more soon.....