A Weekend's Worth

Well, my first full weekend went very well. It started out with a lovely dinner at the Koch’s on Friday night (described more in detail in previous post). After dinner on Friday, my sole focus was on finding a place to live here. I found a website called easyroommate.com, a cool website where people can look for flat mates. It’s kind of like the Internet version of a poster board, with listings of the rooms for rent and profiles of the possible roommates. We saw the website Friday night and I knew I would spend a bit of time on it the next day.

I slept in Saturday morning and boy did that feel nice. After getting ready, I made my way back toward the Koch’s. Side note, yet again I feel it’s necessary to say how wonderful they have been to me. They have helped me get set up with phone, wireless Internet at café’s and of course, they have fed me nicely as well. Okay, back to the story. As I got off the MRT, I saw that it was raining pretty hard outside. So, I figured I’d go grab a bite to eat at the Food Junction (a food court that is common in many of the malls) and hoped the rain would be subdued when I was done. After looking at some of the stalls, I decided to eat at “Korean Cuisine.” My friend Jordan Rothstein (AEPi Pledge Brother) is teaching English in South Korea and he told me he ate Kimchi everyday. My understanding is that Kimchi is a spiced cabbage dish. Anyways, I ordered Kimchi fried rice. Well, as I saw them making it, I could see them adding more and more chili flakes. Yikes! When I got the dish, I saw those pepper flakes staring right at me. I ended up getting a side of white rice to dilute it a little bit. I tried funneling my inner Jimmy George while eating the hot stuff. It wasn’t all that bad, but to be fair, I also downed a full bottle of water in about ten minutes.

The rain had let up a good bit by the time lunch was over. I walked to the Koch’s and hopped on magic jack and talked to my dad for a bit. After, Amanda and I skyped for about an hour which was very nice. During our conversation, I’d been sifting through easyroommate.com and looking at various places close to work. If I saw one that was interesting, I sent the poster an email. It basically said, I was a personable guy in my early twenties, keeps clean and will be working quite a bit so would keep things quiet. Anyways, I ended up seeing a couple of places that really piqued my interest. I got impatient with waiting for an email back, so I ended up getting a 10 day subscription to the website that shows me the poster’s number.

I ended up going later that day to see a room for rent very close to where I work. I mean within walking distance. The place didn’t blow me away. The big issues were that it was too expensive, the showerhead was set way too low for me, but the biggest issue was I couldn’t use the kitchen. It was more like a room in someone’s house than a real place to rent. Still, it has a great location for work.

Later that day, I called on the condo that from the listing was the one I really wanted. Luckily, the guy renting the room out was available for me to come by on Sunday-more on that later though.

After visiting the room on Saturday, the Koch’s and I went to an Indonesian restaurant they like. It was a little café, definitely not a fancy place, but the food was very good. We got a chicken dish (skin crispy, great flavor), a beef pot roast dish, a tofu dish and a variety of vegetable sides. The food was excellent and I topped it off with a glass of lime juice (my new favorite drink). After, we went into the adjacent mall where we scanned the food court and went into a golf shop. Then, we stopped in a grocery store where I bought some water bottles, more bread for peanut butter sandwiches (my breakfast most mornings) and are you ready for this, PASTRAMI! I couldn’t believe it. I only bought maybe six slices worth, but it was just too much fun to pass up. That mostly wraps up Saturday. When I got back to the hotel, the movie Twilight was on, so I gave it watch to see what all the fuss was about. I don’t see the wonderfulness of it, but I didn’t see it all and I’m not a 15-year-old girl.

Now, it’s time for the fun of Sunday. I went to meet this guy and see his condo in the Bishan neighborhood. We went to see the place, which is maybe a 5-7 minute walk from the Bishan MRT stop (one stop away from Lorong Chuan MRT-my work exit{perfect}). Right by the MRT, there is a grocery store and a mall (which of course means food haha).

The condo is in a neighborhood surrounded by HDB’s (government run apartments). That’s probably a good thing because that means construction will be pretty limited. Anyways, we took a look around the facilities, there’s a security guard on duty, a nice pool area, tennis court and workout area as well. The condo was built in 2003-2004, so that’s a positive that it’s fairly new (even though by Singapore standards, that is coming up on being considered old). The possible roommate is a 30-year-old guy and is an expat from Europe. He loves sports as well, so that was an easy jumping off point.

The condo is very nice. A great looking living room. It’s furnished in a Balinese style. There were bamboo plants and coaches in a cool bamboo structure. The floors are nice and granite I think, not exactly sure. The room I would live in is very nice, pretty much enough room for the bed and a tv with a nice wardrobe. I would also be getting another room, which I could use as a guest room. So, far all those wanting to come over here, you’d have a place to stay! All in all, this is the place I wanted to live in if he would want me as a roommate. We’ve talked again since I left and things are looking good. The one issue is that I might not be able to move in there until January 1st, but I’ll figure things out.

I still went with a property agent to view a couple of places in the afternoon. One of the HDB flats he showed me was super, super nice. The apartment had brand new furniture and kitchen appliances, but the condo was still at the top of my list. If I hadn’t seen it though, this would have been a great place as well. We looked at other places, but it was clear I knew what I wanted. I just have to hope it all works out, which it looks like it will.

After a nice rest, I ended up going to dinner with a friend from work, Akshobh. We went to a pizza place in the mall right by my hotel. It was pretty good and probably about as good as I'll get here. After dinner, we went over to Chijmes, a really cool spot in Singapore. Chijmes used to be a nunnery, but after some year it was going to be closed. Now, it’s become a series of high end restaurants and shops. We went downstairs to a cool looking spot to relax. We watched a little bit of Almeria-Real Madrid on a projection screen. I had a dessert while he got a Tiger beer. I tried the beer and it was very good. Tiger is the locally brewed Singapore beer. I am sure that won’t be the last time I have a Tiger, plus I feel so Mizzou spirited when I think of it.

After that, I used my newly added wireless Internet on my phone to skype with my cousin Sheri. We talked for probably about 45 minutes, very nice. After a light stroll to the hotel, here I am typing this blog to send the next time I have Internet.

Okie doke, for now, I hope you enjoyed this one. I’m trying to find the balance between typing too little and too much. As you’ve noticed, I’ve been going a little long. Do you all like that or would you prefer shorter entries? Again, I want to stress, I want you to feel free to read as much or as little of the blog as you’d like.

Until next time,
Michael