First Singaporean Weekend

After spending all week running errands all over Singapore, we had our first lovely Singaporean weekend. On Saturday, we met up with my cousin, Yoke, and her family in the Orchard Road area. After lunch at Ajisen Ramen, we continued our hunt for a shower curtain and blanket. Derek and I had been searching high and low for a shower curtain all week. Either people decide to not bother and just have a very wet and slippery bathroom, or all the students nabbed them before we did. We finally found one at Takashimaya, one of the greatest department stores in Singapore. On our way to hunt for an Old Chang Kee, I had my first King's Ice Cream. The first time I heard of this Singaporean ice cream sandwich, was from an episode of the Amazing Race. The road block that the teams had to complete was to make and sell these ice cream sandwiches. It looked so good on TV and was just as delicious in person. One can choose to have their ice cream sandwiched by bread or waffles (and by waffles they really mean wafers). To Yoke's delight, we finally found the Old Chang Kee in the basement of a new mall in Singapore called Ion. Old Chang Kee carries lots of great fried snacks, including fried fish balls. Lucky for us, there we have a stall right on the NUS campus.

Meeting up with Yoke, Steven (Yoke's husband), and Sean (their 2.5 year old son) reminded me of one of the many reasons why we felt that Singapore would be a great new home for us. Since all of my extended family live close by in Jakarta, being in Singapore would allow us to have the unique opportunity to spend more time with my family for a few years. Between my mom's and dad's sides of the family, I have 21 cousins in all. And now many of my cousins have little ones that Dewi can hang out with. Next month, we already have our first trip to Jakarta planned for one of Derek's school holidays. We will be there to celebrate both Dewi's first and my 31st birthdays!

We finished off the weekend by having lunch on Sunday with my friend, Ikem, and his family. I met Ikem many years ago through some family friends in DC. Ikem lives in Singapore with his lovely wife and daughter. They were gracious enough to take us to lunch at an amazing seafood restaurant in the complex where the Singapore Flyer is located. We were introduced to creamy crab, which was absolutely delicious. The sauce for the crab came a close second to my favorite Indonesian crab dish, kepiting saus padang (crab with Padang sauce). One of these days we'll have to go for a spin on the Singapore flyer. 

Derek's first day of school was yesterday. Though he hasn't started class yet, we are now getting used to a different rhythm of our days: where Derek is on campus most of the day and Wi and I are hanging out in the apartment and/or getting to know our new city.