The Bucket List

My friend Ginger visited over the weekend and she told me she's thinking of starting a checklist of things she wants to do and that I should so the same. Brilliant.


I told myself I wanted to move here to experience living abroad, to see if I can live independently, and to do things I have not yet been able to do in Manila living under my parents' roof. I have always wanted to live in a 1st world country and be on my own. Maybe more as a test to see if I can make it. So I left my loving family and boyfriend, suffered through homesickness and just to see if I can do it.


But today, I just stayed home the whole day, surfed the internet, read blogs and watched the 2nd season of how i met your mother. I wouldn't have been able to laze around the entire Sunday back in Manila (what with the usual scheduled family lunches and dinners) but still... not exactly how I pictured things.


So I made a list of what I have done so far in my 4 months and to see what I still need to do to make the most of this experience:



- I have learned to cook pasta - and realized anything can be tossed with it- , plus white rice, fried rice, garlic rice. Unfortunately, I still have to learn to do my one signature dish. My mom has spoiled me so far with all the cooked frozen food she brought with her. So to do: learn a signature dish from scratch

- I have always envied the scenes in movies with main characters jogging around a park - exercising in the great outdoors. Manila does not have nice clean parks to jog around in. The village would be the next best thing but one is surrounded by gated houses and not greenery. I brought over my rubber shoes and 1 - 2 excercise outfits to do some jogging at least once a week. But I never have. So to do: jog around Singapore Gardens (or even around my block)... at least once.

- I realize that I truly am a clean person. I like the routine of doing chores. Every Saturday morning, I roll out of bed at noon, sweep my room, scrub my bathroom and do my laundry. I always wash the dishes after I eat and if ever I do dump anything in the sink, it would only be a glass and a spoon, max. I can actually live without a maid. But the one thing I have yet to learn aside from cook from scratch is how to iron. I have a pile of clothes due for ironing that I have put off for a month now. So to do: learn to once and for all, iron my clothes.

- I am obssessed with first world living. I love the idea of new restaurants to try, fabulous clubs and bars to discover, exhibits and festivals to go to. So far, I have been able to compile a list of go-to restaurants for visitors (cheap hawker-style and expensive chi-chi settings), gone dancing and drinking until 4 in the morning (with no wru text from my mom), obssesively scouted the luxe guide and time out magazine, tried out cafes and desserts, hung out in destination areas. I have yet to experience though watching a play, going to a concert (I chickened out of going alone to Singfest where Alicia Keys, Simple Plan, Newfound Glory played), experiencing full exhibits, museums, and fairs. So to do: all of the above.

- I left Manila because I felt I always end up in the same places - UCC Podium, Rockwell Cinema, the Fort resto's, Shangri-la mall. I want to discover and visit new places on any given weeke-end. So far, I think I have more or less memorized Orchard (and been inside most of the malls), gone to two cinemas, explored the Marina Bay Area, gone to Chinatown and its little streets, hung out in all the quays (Boat Quay, Clarke Quay, Roberson Quay). I've gone to some tourist spots: Night Safari (1st trip here), Botanical Gardens, Sentosa. But there's still a lot of "heard-of-but-never-been-to-places": Little India, Arab St. (been there once but stores were closed), East area, Jurong, Ang Mo Kio and other exotic sounding names. So to do: discover more. The funny thing is, now that I am more familair with the places, it amazes me how everything in the city center really is connected to each other.

- In Manila, I hardly have time to myself. With familial routine activities every week-end, work, going out with my boyfriend and a full household with 4 sisters, I used to crave and cherish time home alone. Now, I am alone more often than usual (in the train on the way to work, in the bus/ taxi to go somewhere, when my flatmate is away, during meals). I still cherish alone time. It doesn't bother me as much to eat alone. It doesn't bother me as much to show up to dinners and to go home after alone. Sometimes it does feel self-concious especially if I am unsure of where to go. But afterwards, I feel that I have accomplished something. Anticipating all this alone time, I have brought over DVD's and TV shows to catch up on. I am getting there and I am not as delayed as I used to be back in Manila. So alone time: going well.

In the end, this experience is all about finding myself and discovering what I am capable of. It is about stepping out of my comfort zone, learning to do things on my own, on my own pace, on my own time. I still miss my loved ones terribly but I know that this has given me confidence and pride as well as experiences I would never have had back home. This has opened my eyes to the world bigger than me. I can't wait for more lessons and experiences to come.

Now to check those things off my list...

Explorer

chijmes

cathedral of the good shepherd

What I love about living in a foreign country is the feeling that I am always travelling.

I know Manila. I've lived there all my life. Sure, there are a lot of new developments but life is routine and places are in general familiar.

Here, there's something new and undiscovered around the corner. There are still a lot of places I have never treaded upon. I like the feeling of just walking and getting suprised at what is on the next street. (Of course, the nice thing here is that one can actually walk and roam the streets. It's harder to discover and revel in discovering new places while inside a car peering through tinted windows as we do in Manila. Maybe that's part of why I like travelling - to satisfy the explorer and the walker in me.)

Take one weekend for instance, I wanted to visit Raffles City since I don't really go there plus to scout a hotel for a friend. I went around the mall, ended up going to Chijmes (an old convent school turned into a F&B complex) which I have only visited once during a rain shower. I was there during sunset when the place was bathed in the yellow light and it was quite beautiful. A street away, I found a church, decided to go inside and lo and behold, a service was just starting so unwittingly, I was able to attend Mass for the first time since I got here.

Another weekend found me running errands to buy cookies for my sister then stumbling upon the hawker center in Esplanade, sitting down for a snack admiring the bayview while a concert started up.

I love the spontaeinty of suddenly just finding myself do something unplanned and on impulse. Back in Manila, things aren't so quite up in the air. We eat here, shop there, drive here. It's all so specific and sometimes, there is joy to be found in being lost. There is a sense of wonder in stumbling upon something. Losing the routine, losing the schedule, losing the map, losing oneself in the streets... and afterwards, realizing that getting lost means a chance of finding the unexpected.

National Day

the view from esplanade during one of my sunday walks

re-discovering my love for oyster omelette

Singapore is growing on me.

It's the most bashed country, consistenly and continuously -- at least from my circle of fil-chi friends. It's small, there's nothing to do except shop and eat, the people are not attractive, it's boring (for the singaporeans reading, sorry!), the energy is flat...

Maybe they're (we're) all just jealous. Because Singapore is a first world country surrounded by countries wannabe first world.

Since it's National Day here, I guess it's time to raise the red and white flag as a proud 3-month old Employment Pass Holder.

Actually, I've always loved the city-state since I first visited for work last 2004. I love order and neatness and Singapore is all about that. I love Orchard road -- 2 specific moments: walking at night last December 2006 with the twinkling lights strung on the trees and shopping with the throngs of people clutching a Dior & Prada paper bag last Great Singapore Sale. Felt so "Sex and the City" then although my purchases were paid for at 40% off! I love the food - here the high and low is all good. The high with the fabulous interiors and chi-chi plating combined with the popular hawker centers churning out local favorites (chicken rice, char kway teow, carrot cake and oyster egg). I love the discovery of new places to eat and now, I can't live without Singapore made Kopi-C paired with kaya toast. The breakfast (or in my case, the afternoon snack) of champions!

Okay so all I've done so far is prove that Singapore is all about shopping and eating with the paragraph above.

Let's go beyond that...

Moving here has been smooth. Everything works like clockwork (I apply for a credit card and get it in the afternoon!). It's easy to use the public transportation (even for a newbie to the public transport system like myself). People in general speak English -- arguably, not good English and English wherein I have to slow down and enunciate the words more clearly. There's no racism because at any time you will see a Chinese, Caucasian, Indian, Malay riding the train together. It's safe -- I don't feel fearful walking at night.

Singapore creates little pockets of events to make the city-state busier - arts festival, singfest music festival, garden festival, food festival, and wonder of wonders, beer festival come this october!! There was a Louvre exhibit and currently a Vietnam showing plus continuous concerts at the Esplanade. F1 is coming soon as well (and to prove Singapore effiency, they are already setting up all the lights in the streets as we speak). They have tourist sights albeit manufactured ones - night safari, sentosa - okay artificial, but hey, they try and it works!
There's also a lot of new developments- Dempsey, Rochester Park, Wesssex - wherein old places are turned into something new and hip again. Reconstruction: an old church to a restaurant, old army barracks to a cocktail bar. Plus the bars here are really cool - nice ambience, original & extensive cocktails (but pricey!), international names in party-ing (hed kandi bar, ministry of sound) and lots of local clubs (if only I were single...!). It's party-ing but never over the edge - can't be bad here, they take it very seriously!
Shopping yields American brands plus the European brands mixed in with the local brands and Japanese/ Korean funky imports. Housing is clean and well-maintained. The city is green and you feel healthier walking versus choking on air pollution. Even the botanical gardens is so lah lah happy with free concerts at the park that I envision myself jogging there (haven't done so far but soon!).

Let's not forget about the amazing Changi airport which is the one airport I look forward to visiting and the extraordinary Singapore airlines which is the one airline I look forward to flying.

I like to think of Singapore as "Stepford" country.