Singapore Month 2!

Singapore Journey month 2 has begun!!!

I can NOT believe I've been here for over a month now. Time has truly flown by. I'm so sorry to my blog that I have been neglecting you.

Where to begin? So much has happened!

Work has been going good, which is a pleasant step up from fair/high stress!

The children seemed to be settled in with me now and all I can hope is that some sort of learning took place in my first few weeks as their teacher :) The past two weeks were especially eventful- we had a professional rice dumpling maker come to school to teach our class (and me!) how to make chinese rice dumplings. This proved to be way too difficult a task for the students, their parents, and me!! The poor dumpling maker (I have no idea what his official title would be) had to literally go around to every child and do it for him because the adults proved so useless in assisting him!

Another exciting thing that has happened recently is Singapore National Day which celebrates Singapore being independent from Great Britain- 45 years now! Our celebration at school was complete chaos but a great time nonetheless! This is a picture of my class all decked out in our red and white for the parade and party at school last Friday.

It's a pretty fun-looking class, right?! Children from this part of the world love to give the peace sign in photos!

Other than work I have not been up to much. Sad, I know! This last weekend was a long weekend so we had Monday off school. It was a much needed break. Andy had to work a lot of the weekend but we were able to go wakeboarding on Monday morning with a couple of friends we have made from Andy's condo complex. It was the perfect sunny morning in the straits between Malaysia and Singapore! Unfortunately I don't have any pictures from that, but Andy does so maybe I will figure out how to put them on my blog?

In other news- my friend Rebecca in Kansas City is due to have her baby ANY MINUTE! I have been eagerly checking my email for the good news! I can't wait. Congrats to her and Scott and baby!!

I miss everyone so much and already look forward to Thanksgiving and ranch dressing! Does anyone want to mail me some ranch dressing?!

Have a great week!

My first blog EVER!

Well this is a very exciting moment! Despite strongly believing for years that creating a blog about yourself is the most self indulgent thing a person can do, I now see the purpose. It allows me to share with people who are actually interested in what I'm up to without bombarding their email accounts or announcing to my 500 FB "friends" the details of my life. I have no idea how often I will blog or that it will be entertaining in the least, but I will try to keep it as updated as possible with photos, stories, comments, etc.

To begin...

The time I have spent in Singapore has gone by incredibly fast. I can't believe it's been almost 3 weeks! I have me so many nice people, started a job I know that I will enjoy, and I am finally with Andy in the SAME city!

The people: Andy and I have been participating in what I like to refer to as "blind dates" with people we have been set up with by friends or family. We have been on 3 so far and are scheduled to have another one on Friday night. Should be a good time! I have not met any other Americans yet but am still hopeful for a friend to watch/listen to college football with. On Sunday a man in a ROLL TIDE tshirt walked by the restaurant I was eating lunch at and I literally chased him down and went into a rant about desperately needing to know where I can watch college football come the fall. He looked at me blankly and said he just randomly had the shirt because he had visited someone in South Carolina. Very confusing conversation actually :)

The job: My teaching job started out a little rocky as the girl I was due to shadow had to bail out early, leaving me with 18 children and no lesson plan at all for my first week. It was not her fault because she is also starting a new job within the school that was demanding more of her. I guess it was a sink or swim situation and I think I did a little of both, with a lot of scrambling in between. The children have asked me many times, "Ms Grace Mills, why you do not speak Mandarin?" It is very sweet they like to call me by my first and last name even though I've explained that Ms. Grace would be fine. They seem to prefer "Ms Grace Mills." This week we are discussing Singapore National Day (like our 4th of July) and I obviously had no idea where to begin or even what day it was on. So last weekend I did A LOT of reading trying to educate myself before I try to educate them. Wish me luck!!

Same city as Andy! We are really enjoying exploring this amazing city together. We have been eating a ton and eating some more. The food is so good! And cheap! Good combination I think :) Last weekend we went wakeboarding with a few friends we had met on one of our blind dates and had a great time. We were in the waterway between Malaysia and Singapore and the water was pretty dirty, but fine as long as you don't take too much of it in during a fall!

We have signed up to be part of a tennis club together which I'm looking forward to and both believe we've made the right decision coming to Singapore :)

More to come (I hope!)