The first few days

Somewhat coincidentally, the hotel where I had a room waiting for me when I arrived here (thanks to some help from my parents) was just up the street from the club where I stayed last time I was in Singapore. I say "somewhat coincidentally" because it's not really that big a surprise: all the nice hotels are right downtown in the shopping district. No surprise there.

Naturally, since that last trip was over three years ago and I was awfully tired when I arrived, I didn't recognize everything right away. But it didn't take too long to realize I was in the same neighborhood I had gotten to know way back when. That made for a nice surprise, though; it meant I already knew where quite a few points of interest were. For starters, it meant I knew where the nearest bookstore and coffee shop were, so I could go there and kill time until my room was ready. It also brought back some nice memories at a time when I needed something like that to relax!

There were a couple of things I had to get done over the weekend, chief among them being to settle on an apartment. But the first order of business was getting some sleep. I'm a bad international traveler - I never bother with that whole rule about waiting until the time you would normally go to bed. So far I have never run into any trouble with going to sleep when I'm ready to, even if it's in midafternoon. It didn't hurt this time either.

Finding a place to live is never much fun, especially when you're in a rush to do it. In the age of Craigslist, it can be a bit easier but it also now has considerable scam danger. Luckily, I'd met a prospective roommate online and she had already staked out a few places we'd "found" - two of which turned out to be too good to be true. (One of them led me to go have a look at the apartment by peeping in the window while the owner was off on business! Luckily, I found the building and then realized the apartment number didn't exist, so I didn't have to subject myself to any such thing anyhow.) I did end up finding a nice little room in an apartment shared by three French guys, of all things. Hey, at least the culture shock will be eased! I moved in this morning and all is looking pretty good at this point. The lease is up in two months, at which point the gal I mentioned earlier and I will probably get a group house together somewhere. (She's staying with her family in the meantime. We met Saturday night and had a nice long chat.)

I'm not thrilled about having to move again in June, but at least this way there'll be time to do it the right way. Meantime, my current digs have all the essentials: a bed, air conditioning, and a swimming pool just outside! No complaints there.

One worry I do have is getting used to actually working in Singapore. I have a fair bit of experience as a tourist here, but now it's a new ballgame. But since I haven't worked in six months and I've spent most of that time wishing I could, I don't think it'll take too long to adjust. We'll find out the day after tomorrow, which is set to be my first day on the job.

But I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Now that I'm moved in, it's back to enjoying one more day of what amounts to a rather nice little vacation. I am going to miss the hotel downtown...if I do end up staying in Singapore long term (and there's no reason to think I won't; everybody tells me there's lots of work available), I can definitely see the Marriott becoming a nice sentimental spot to think of whenever I pass by it. The Marriott in Denver served the same purpose throughout the year I was there, always reminding me of the welcome back to the States it provided when I got back from Taiwan.

There is, of course, no telling yet if I'll be staying in Singapore for even a year. But the early reviews are good enough to make me think I will.