Do you want to go to the airport ...?

Well, these were the words of the taxi driver when he arrived at lobby four at our home address on Wednesday evening. Katrin's waters had broken about half an hour earlier, so we had called a taxi to take us to the hospital. "To the hospital, please" was our reply to the taxi driver, as Katrin with a very round tummy slipped into the back of the cab. Our bag must have confused him.
The confusion continued at the emergency ward, the nurse asked why we were here and Katrin replied, that her waters had broken. He asked, how far along in the pregnancy she were and if she had any labour. Less than two weeks short of her due date and no labour pain was the reply. "So why are you here?", was his comment. Katrin again said that her water had broken and then some action took place. A wheelchair was brought and a fragile looking nurse pushed Katrin to the lift and further on to the labour ward, it was quite a few uphill stretches in this journey and Katrin felt sorry for the nurse, but this wasn't her first time obviously!
To make a long story short-ish: During the night labour started but in an irregular pattern. When Katrin arrived she was 2.5 cm dilated, in the morning it was still only 3 cm. Dr. Yam (our obstetrician) wasn't very happy, he feared the Caesarean scar won't stand this test if he was to induce Katrin, but to wait was heightening the risk of an infection since the waters had broken. He agreed to give us 45min of walking around to start labour properly - and Katrin had been so proud to be able to breath through those labour. Not much difference 45min later, so the drip started with half the normal dose. Around lunch time we had reached 4 cm and the intensity was almost too much for Katrin to cope. A nurse coming in took one look at the situation and then said, in her opinion the baby is posterior and after an examination, she was sure of it. So Katrin was told to try being on hands and feet, but that wasn't much better. Next time Dr. Yam came in he saw only two options: Epidural or Caesarean. Since one needs an epidural to perform a c-section, we went with an epidural first. By the time the anaesthetist came (around 3pm) Katrin was 8 cm dilated. The anaesthetist administered the epidural quickly and Katrin knew why one of the nurses called epidural "happydural". What a bliss and what seemed only minutes later Katrin was told to push and there she was:
SOPHIE CHARLOTTE JENNA
Charlotte is Katrin's mum's second name and Jenna is a deviation of Karsten's mum's second name.
Her profile:
Born: 05.01.12 at 3:49pm, weight: 3560g, length: 51.5cm and despite been born in Singapore she is Caucasian ;-)

For those of you who are super sleuth: We didn't leave the children alone at home. Being-Wan or her helper came and stayed with them. They did a fantastic job in reassuring and feeding the children.
In the evening Katrin and Sophie were taken to the maternity ward and Karsten went home. Before been taken up to the ward, the nurse said she would give a bath we thought to the baby, but she was then bathing Katrin, what a very nice service!
In the room there was already another patient with a lot of people around, quite a racket, but at 8pm they all left and only her TV was still running. Katrin couldn't see her, because both beds were surrounded by drawn curtains and due to the epidural Katrin needed to stay lying for at least 8 hours.
The next morning Katrin wanted to be discharged, which was fine by her obstetrician, but we had to wait for Sophie's blood group test. If she would be Rh + like Karsten, Katrin would have needed an antidote, as she is Rh-. The first test - taken from the cord blood - showed the same blood group as Katrin. But to be sure they wanted a control test, which was never needed before. Rh- is very rare in Asian people (that's why the AntiD syringe Katrin had to buy here was so expensive, whereas it wasn't an issue in Australia or Germany). It took till the evening for the results to come back confirming the earlier test. It was great that Karsten and the children came with Being-Wan to see and cuddle Sophie and it was also good that they left after some time and didn't wait for Katrin and Sophie to be ready to come home. They would have gotten cabin fever waiting all day. That is one thing we discovered here, not many things are done in a rush, which has it's advantages and disadvantages I guess. Interesting for Katrin was also even though many different people came to see Katrin (from nurses and paediatrician to lactation consultant, customer service,
hearing test nurse and others) there was no physiotherapist amongst them - maybe if she had stayed the two days. The smallest package for booking into the hospital was two days, one day would still cost the same.
Karsten, Katrin and Sophie were chauffeued home by a complimentary limousine service by the hospital, very thoughtful.

It was very nice to be back home!

Saturday was a very quiet day with lots of sleep for Katrin, Sophie and Karsten (who didn't get much sleep neither on Wednesday nor Thursday night). Pool, tennis and entertainment for the children. Late in the evening Katie H. arrived from Australia. She kindly agreed to help us in the first few weeks to settle into school and newborn baby. We are truly blessed.

Sunday was also quiet. The children enjoyed holding Sophie, we nearly set up a roster! We also had to get ready for school, which wasn't as intensive as it would have been back in Australia. Firstly because only 3 not 5 children go to school and also because, the books and textbooks provided at school for Esther and Michael. Jonas' supply was wrapped the German way with easy slip on plastic covers, so mainly the labelling was needed.

Monday was the "big" day for the three "big" children. Karsten went with Jonas to his campus. They left shortly after 7am to be there before 7:45am, on the way they overtook a student wearing the same school uniform. He later drove past in a taxi, stopped and asked if Jonas wanted a lift - what a start!
Michael and Esther were accompanied by the rest of the family who took conveniently the bus. A few chores needed to be done: We had to pre pay for this month's canteen meals for Esther, which can only be paid in cash or cheque. It seems that the main payment method is cheque except at the supermarkets and bigger shops. Then we purchased two school hats - one size fits all baseball caps, hm, sun protection is taken much more serious in Australia. One of the teachers even said that there is no rush to buy the hats, the children could still play outside without them.

On the funny side we saw some monkeys climbing on the school fence - well no, it wasn't David, Yannic nor Noah! ;-) In the school's handbook we read that the children have to watch out for monkeys who like to steal the lunch boxes or backpacks and disappear with them over the fence into the jungle...

 Monkeys?

Found the monkey?

Esther's class teacher is Mr. Landrum and seems to be very friendly and kind, there are 11 girls and 9 boys in her class - what a difference to last year's class!
Michael's class teacher is Ms Carroll, who also is very welcoming and caring.
Each year level has two to three German and two to three English speaking classes.
Back home David, Yannic and Noah did their school work and in the afternoon Katrin took Sophie to see the paediatrician, David and Yannic came along, - all is fine according to Dr. Y. Y. Yip (just read that name aloud!). To have the heel prick test (Guthrie Test) done we needed to go to the laboratory on a different level. The paediatrician has his rooms also next to the hospital (Gleneagles) like Katrin's obstetrician. The receptionist verified the referral, apparently we had the wrong form. A little while later, they could perform the test and David and Yannic gave advice on how to comfort Sophie. Then the receptionist set to work regarding the bill, in the end we had to go along a few corridors, downstairs through to the main office of the laboratory where again we waited - seems to be a great lesson in patience, living in Singapore! Finally we were able to pay, again a nice little sum, I guess this test is also a rather Western tradition. We took the bus home after we had the luxury of taking a taxi to the hospital due to the starting rain. In the bus we sat next to a young man, who tried to get some contact in order for him to become Australian citizen, a bit bizarre. Good to be back home!

Happy birthday could be heard onTuesday in the Schulz home, t'is was the day of Esther's birthday. Both our girls are born just a few days apart!

It was also a busier day than we expected. Esther is learning to play a string instrument through school and needed a cheque as a security for the instrument. Since we don't have a cheque account and therefore no cheque book, we thought that Katrin could quickly get a cheque book at the bank, which seems to be a more common way of payment and more convenient than getting cash from the ATM. Off we all (Katie, David, Yannic, Noah, Sophie and Katrin) went to the shopping centre. We went to the bank, and were told to go to the main hall to get a cash cheque or for Katrin to come back with Karsten in order to open a cheque account. Katrin has a dependent pass due to Karsten's work, so he is needed too. Going into the hall, there was a queue like at the airport check in. On the very right sight was Priority Banking, on the very left side was business accounts and the three counters in the middle served the rest of customers. Katie took all the children for a walk around in the centre, whilst Katrin queued up. After a few minutes a lady joined the queue. Katrin asked her if it was always that crowded which she confirmed adding "Welcome to Singapore", well we had had some taste of this. After a few more minutes without any progress, Katrin left the bank to do the grocery shopping hoping that afterwards it might be less crowded at the bank. One and a half hours later Katrin returned to the bank to the same situation just different people waiting. The lady who came after Katrin was in fifth position now, nearly there to be served but clearly annoyed. Katrin waited for a few minutes then decided to ask how to be eligible for Priority Banking. So she went to the counter at the entrance and was told that you have to have $200 000 in your account as a foreigner, so back she went... Then God moved the hearts of the clerk at the entrance and he had her sit in a waiting room, handing her a form to fill out for the cash cheque. After a while a lady came and escorted Katrin into her office. In 5 minutes the formalities were sufficed and Katrin had the cheque. The clerk asked how far along Katrin's pregnancy were - Praise the Lord for Katrin's baby belly! Meanwhile Katie and the children were waiting in the taxi queue, which was quite long too due to the rain. But they had a taxi even before Katrin was finished in the bank. All that time, more than two hours, Sophie slept happily on Katie's arm. Once again everybody was glad to be home again!
Esther came home happily with a Viola, she played a bit and everybody wanted to have a go too. Quite a racket!

Wednesday came, Jonas walked to school as before, Michael and Esther took the public bus with Katie and planned to come back on their own (which went well). After schooling for David and Yannic and Noah, who takes his sticker book activity very serious, all of them with Sophie and Katie went to Tanglin Mall at the beginning of Orchard Road to have Sophie's passport photo taken. The Australian High Commission recommended that particular photo shop. Tanglin Mall is only two bus stops away from the Gleneagles Hospital. Sophie was sound asleep when we arrived at the photo shop, what a shame to wake her and what hard work! But the staff there was fantastic and we got a good shot, open eyes and no crying! But the Singaporean lesson hit us again (patience) - we had to wait for the photos, they would be ready in a week. After some discussion, we arranged pick up for Monday providing they have texted us to say it is ready and also the pick up is in a different mall a bit further down the road (Forum Mall, where we went to the huge Toys'r'Us and which has lots of kid's related shops). Oh well, off we went to have some late morning tea at Starbucks ;-)
Michael went on an excursion to an organic farm and he managed to take over one hundred photos! His year level is preparing for an in depth study on the topic of recycling and waste which will cumulate in an exhibition in a few weeks. On Thursday they are going to Marina Barrage (a dam at the mouth of the Marina Channel to create a reservoir,  http://www.pub.gov.sg/Marina/Pages/default.aspx) and to a water plant to learn about recycled water.

Thursday was now a home day - wow what a first week for Sophie! But she took it all in her stride, sleeping and feeding and filling nappies! She is the darling of all, even Jonas comes and happily carries her around - which looks great, he is so grown up and she is so tiny! The children marvel at her tiny feet and toes.
Jonas has quite a challenging time to catch up with his class, but he raises to the occasion and thrives. Most of his class mates are turning 16 years old this year, so he the youngest. Karsten loves to sit down with him in the evening to go over Maths or Physics homework.

Friday was busy again, Katie took on the homeschooling of the boys and Katrin took Sophie first to a Coffee Morning for new parents of GESS (Jonas, Michael and Esther's school) and then for her check up with her obstetrician, who said he had anticipated a very fast delivery, but it turned out to be Katrin's second longest labour, go figure! All is well though - thank God!
The first week of school went well for all children, the bigger ones made new friends and settled very quickly into their new school environment. Apparently the teachers of the other year level classes at the primary campus told their classes what new children have joined, so they know their names and can make them feel welcomed. The younger ones applied themselves also well to their new schooling experience. Good on them ;-)

The Week Between the Years

In German the week between Christmas and New Year's Day is called "Between the Years" ;-)

Tuesday we went to a supermarket named "Giant", it is a bit a mixture between BigW and Woolworth (good description, Karen!). We found lots of light bulbs, unfortunately none for the sewing machine, but since it still works, it's not an urgent item. The items in Giant are cheaper than in the two other supermarkets we've been to so far (i.e. Cold Storage and Fairprice). It's also not far from our unit, two bus stops down the road, opposite direction of the other two supermarkets and then a 10 min walk. There is a huge car park and other shops including a "hawker centre". A hawker centre is a typical Singaporean food court (although Hawker centres exists also in other Southeast Asian countries) usually next to bus interchanges or malls or housing estates. 50 to 60 years ago unlicensed street hawker were everywhere, but to encourage food hygiene those hawker centre were built. They are considered to be a venue for the less affluent.

On Wednesday Esther and Katrin went to the "Ghim Moh Wet Market", only a 10 min drive from our unit. Beng-Wan, a Singaporean friend Karen C. introduced us to, goes there almost weekly and took us along. Since most wet markets close by midday, we had to get there early, so at 8:15am we left. First Beng-Wan treated us to breakfast, yes, there was a hawker centre, too. We had a common breakfast dish and street food called "topai", which is a fermented crepe or pancake made from rice batter and black lentils, a staple in Southern India. Topai is rich in carbohydrates and contains no salt, sugar or saturated fats. Since it is made of rice and lentils it is gluten-free and contains protein. The fermentation process increases the vitamin B and vitamin C content. Two sauces served with it were hot and spicy and one was mild. Altogether is was very yummy. (We didn't take a picture, have to remember that for next time, meanwhile for those interested just search online, don't want to breach copyrights)
We also tried "fried carrot cake"(chai tow kwa), which is not made from carrots but from radish. The chinese word for carrot and radish is the same. The white radish is shredded, mixed with rice flour and steamed. Which then is stir-fried with eggs. It's available in white (original colour) and black (through seasoning). It has a soft texture and is very yummy despite it's looks ;-)
Beng-Wan said that most of their traditional cuisine is full of carbohydrates. That's a bit like the German cuisine, where we have lots of bread usually for breakfast and then in the evenings (Brotzeit). Mornings are in general sweet spreads (Nutella is our family's favourite) and evenings rather savoury (sausage/salami and cheese). The exception is a brunch when savoury spreads and dishes are served for breakfast. Whereas the main meal is lunch time, when the children come home from school. It could have changed over the last years, but that's how we grow up.

Esther wasn't too keen on any of those Singapourean dishes, so Beng-Wan bought something sweet, two pancakes with peanut filling in the middle. Those pancakes are quite common, too. The filling consists of peanuts or red bean paste. This is made from Azuki beans boiled with sugar (called "an"). Some Asian cultures enjoy red bean paste as a filling or topping for various kinds of sweets.
The adults enjoyed a kopi = white coffee and Esther was treated to soy milk.
There was lots of left over, Katrin just couldn't eat more. Even though groceries in the supermarkets are rather expensive, these dishes were cheap. Topai cost around $2, fried carrot cake $3 and kopi 80cents, that's what hawker centres are known for. But one needs to know where to buy from, it can end up pretty greasy... So it's was great to have Beng-Wan show us the best places. She then took us to her butcher for the beef and to a chicken stall, which was interesting. The butcher cut everything to our specifications. And again it cost much less than the supermarkets and was fresh. We stocked up on vegetables and fruit and made our way home again two hours later, time flies when you are having fun. Katrin was pretty tired, all those new impressions! While we waited at the beef butcher for our cuts, Katrin heard somebody speaking German just next to her. The lady then saw Esther and started talking to her and Katrin, saying she's seen us at the German School campus, where she works. Katrin was very surprised but then remembered that a large family and highly pregnant woman are probably not easily overlooked here ;-)) Oh well already known here - "like a coloured dog" (another German expression literally translated).
At home the boys had been very active, jogging, stretching and other exercises, one requirement to be able to play computer!
In the afternoon the children spent some time with Beng-Wan's two children in the pool.

Thursday we hadn't planned anything, and since the children were always feeling hot, it was time for haircuts - for the male children ;-) Karsten used a shovel to get the hair out of our living room while Katrin took a shower to get the hair off her belly, we should have taken a picture, it looked pretty funny - another 'next time'. To keep the children still, we turned on the TV and let them watch Mythbusters, a family favourite.

Friday was check up time at the obstetrician. Buzzelchen has grown (around 3.3kg) and so has Katrin. As we mentioned earlier the doctors like to scan every time to measure the growth and check on the heartbeat. All is fine, Buzzelchen is always very active during the scans, makes me wonder if it doesn't like them ... Another interesting fact is that in the mornings when the children come into our bedroom and start talking, Buzzelchen starts moving, I guess a good indictor that it can hear. ;-)
After the doctor appointment, we went to the Botanical Garden just across the road. It was starting to get hot, so a nice stroll around Swan Lake in the shade of the trees was very welcomed.

This Pavilion was built around 1850 and not that long ago transferred to the lake.

Walking under the roots of a tree

Any guesses what's the name of this lake?

After the walk we had worked up appetite for morning tea. So we went to Orchard Road to have morning tea in "The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf", the food was good, but the ice tea and coffee didn't meet our expectations. Jonas and Michael thought the ice tea was too watery and Katrin's coffee was rather bitter, she was glad she didn't take the holiday roast, which would have been stronger, but just the house roast.
Strengthened we went to the mall next door and founds heaps of shops for children, lots of clothes shops (very exquisite), some book/toys shops and also a huge Toys'r'Us, which we manage to visit without buying anything! Well, the children just bought something when we were at Marina Bay Sands Shop earlier that week. And despite the size of the shop there was a lot of repetition. We would have bought some pool toys, but didn't find anything worthwhile. Another time ;-)

 Some Singaporean pedestrian traffic lights have a timer that shows you when the pedestrian traffic light will turn red.

At the moment there is an Elephant Parade throughout Singapore, an initiative to help save the Indian Elephant. Those elephants represent a country or are an artist's masterpiece. Esther liked this elephant.

Saturday was a quiet day at home. For a special dinner we tried a Japanese dish called "Shabu Shabu", it's like a beef fondue. The beef is cut very thinly. On the table is a pot with broth, in which one swishes the beef, then dips it into different kind of sauces and eats it. The sound of the swishing gave this dish it's name (shabu shabu). What a fun mealtime!
To watch Singapore's fireworks we would have had to go to Marina Bay Sands, which is very popular and busy at that time of the year, so we rather went to bed, not without watching "Dinner for One" ;-) That's a classic!
Since we didn't stay up all night we made it to church just to find out that the service starts at 10am instead of 9am because both services were combined (the 9am and 11am). So we were treated to the practice of the worship team, which was more like a little concert for us and some other early birds. Our pastor talked about Jonah (going through the first chapter). Some interesting facts he stated was, that God's call to Jonah could be compared to God calling a Jew from New York in 1942 to go to Berlin and tell Hitler about God's judgement if he wouldn't change and this Jew would instead go to San Francisco and board a ship to Antarctica - makes one think in different terms about a well known story, doesn't it? Another interesting fact which is also well known but sometimes we need to be reminded of it, is God's omnipotence and omnipresence. Jonah thought he could evade God, but God was still there right in the middle of the storm and He had the last word concerning those fellow sailors on the boat, who came to worship God.

Leading to Jesus' and Michael's birthdays

This week was very wet and rather cold, probably 25 C rather than the normal 30 C ;-). Unusual weather for Singapore, maybe the typhoon over the Philippines brought the rather constant rain? Sidewalks and roads flooded and even one part of Orchard Road despite flood barriers, the shops there lost stock. But it was nothing compared to the flooding in Brisbane we experienced in the beginning of the year. Bukit Timah Road is a three to four lane road going from East to West, then there is a canal to channel the flood waters and the other side is called Dunearn Road and just the opposite of Bukit Timah Road (i.e. three to four lanes going West to East). There are lots of bridges for pedestrians to cross those busy roads, mainly to connect the bus stops. Those canals carried quite a bit of water during this week ...

Also the pool felt colder. We are surprised anyhow how cold the pool is compared to our pool back home, which heats up nicely in summer. Maybe due to the rain season the almost daily rain shower cools down the pool? Or maybe the blue sky in Queensland heats up the pool quicker? We'll see in a few weeks when the rain season comes to an end. Another interesting observation is: Despite the humidity, the food, as well as water bottles, don't mould as quickly as in Brisbane during the summer heat and humidity. Nevertheless we keep the bread in the fridge, just to be safe.

Due to the rather constant rain this week our outings were limited to shopping (groceries). On Saturday we picked up our turkey at the supermarket. David and Katrin decided to take the bus to the post office to get a few stamps. It's a similar system here as in Australia leading up to Christmas, letters cost only half price. So we tried to get the right stamps to post a handful of letters to Europe to our families. A few weeks ago on the way to Michael's and Esther's school we found this post office (they are not necessarily in the shopping centres) and bought some stamps. After we finished writing the cards, Katrin hunted for those stamps and couldn't find them. She even feared they had been thrown out because they were in a postage brochure. So another trip to the post office was necessary to send those letters off. It started to rain steadily, but it wasn't too bad without an umbrella, the rain was warm, the climate is warm. Even the shopping centres (post office for that) weren't too cooled down to freeze us. By the way at the check out of one of the supermarkets there is a freezer with little bags filled with ice cubes to keep your shopping cold - complimentary. In the turkey cooler bag was also a little bag with ice - nitrogen ice cube, Jonas enjoyed playing around with it!

Esther was very busy those past weeks sewing artworks for the family. She mainly used felt and made a bag for Michael, a Christmas stocking for Jonas, two animals for the other boys, a snowman for Karsten and Katrin got a pin cushion.

On Christmas Eve we have our tradition:
A rather quick and child friendly dinner (hot dog sausages with salad) starts the evening. Then Karsten reads from the Bible:

Every year we can find an eyeopener: This year we contemplated how God chose the shepherds to tell the most exciting news. Shepherds were on the lowest society rank, their witness wasn't even worthy in a court case. Yet they were willing and available to come and worship Jesus, that is still required today: Availability and openness.

And isn't it interesting that God sent his angels to the shepherds, and not to the political or religious leaders ? What does this tell us about leadership? It starts at the bottom.

Isn't it interesting that despite all those time reducing household gadgets we have less time to be spontaneous or have our plans changed. Children are a great "tool" to help learn this lesson ;-)
We also like to sing a few carols (there is a helpful app: "Carols" it has not only the lyrics but also supplies the music a-cappella).






Then we open our presents:

It is very interesting to look at a globe and see what lies on the same longitude. Singapore is almost exactly on the equator, like Egypt and Peru for example. If you look up what would be the equivalent of Brisbane in the Northern Hemisphere it would be Hawaii for example.




Boxing Day was Michael's birthday - wow 11 years old!

We went to Marina Bay Sands Shoppes, a very new shopping mall opposite the fancy Marina Bay Sands Hotel. The centre offers lots of exclusive shops as well as exhibitions. At the moment there is a Narnia Exhibition, we weren't allowed to take picture in the exhibition, but while we had lunch we took a picture of David and Yannic with the exhibition in the background ;-) There was quite a lot to look at and videos explaining how the movies were shot. Also some original props from the movies.

For dessert we went to Cold Rock and enjoyed yummy ice cream.

Our Fifth Week

On Monday we went to Jonas' school, we literally walked, well, the children took their scooters (another blessing from the sea freight) while Jonas and Katrin walked. We kept the book-uniform-shop-conveyor busy, firstly Jonas and then Michael and Esther got their uniforms, then we went through the stationary list for Jonas, Michael and Esther will have their stationary pack given by the school, all ready to go. After that  we went to the library to collect Jonas' text books and finally we looked for his class teacher, Herr Maier. He gave Jonas two Spanish CDs to start practicing ;-) By this time everybody was hungry, so we had lunch at the canteen, the little ones went for Pasta Bolognese (which was spicy and a lot of water/cordial was consumed) and the older ones (Michael, Jonas and Katrin) had sandwiches (not spicy). There were also Laugenbrezel available, a typical Southern German bread type. Jonas chewed on those as a baby/toddler all those years back and whenever we go back to Germany, the children love to eat them.
Coming home we hopped into the pool to cool down.

Tuesday Esther, David, Yannic and Katrin went to the primary school by bus. The teachers wanted to assess Esther, an hour later she came out with flying colours. Meanwhile David, Yannic and Katrin browsed through the library, sitting happily in air conditioning. How did people study and live here without any air conditioning comfort?

Wednesday and Thursday were quiet days, pool, games and reading the newspaper. Every morning there is a free newspaper at our door step (the cleaner crew deliver them to every unit). The articles are well written and informative, lots of political news (especially the Euro crisis) and then also focusing South East Asia. Very tempting for Katrin to lie on the sofa and read ;-) Slowly we start to recognise the names of the Asian leaders, at least which country they belong to.

Friday we went to see the baby again, it weighs now 2.7kg and Katrin is quite happy that the weight gain isn't too fast ;-)

Saturday had heavy rain in the afternoon, so we decided to postpone our outing to Jurong Bird Park.

Our Fourth Week

On Monday we visited the obstetrician again. We saw Buzzelchen again on the ultrasound and all seems to be fine. Buzzelchen presently weighs 2.5kg.

On Tuesday we visited the children's schools, German European School Singapore, it has two German and two English speaking classes at each level. Jonas, Michael and Esther will go to the same school, but to two different campuses: The kindy and high school campus (from Y6 upwards) which Jonas will attend, is 2 km North from where we live. However, the Y1-Y5 campus which Esther and Michael will be visiting, is 20 min West by bus from us. So Michael and Esther will be able to comfortably take the bus from almost in front of our condominium and alight (the official Singaporean word for getting off) in front of their school without transfers and it only costs 0.73 cents one way. They can use 4 different buses, which all leave very regularly, no long waiting times. Jonas will most likely take his bike. The way is mostly flat, just at the end it goes a bit uphill.The primary school campus is very new,  the school only moved there 2 years ago. The children love the libraries at both schools, I guess the children will be very frequent visitors there.

Jonas' class will be 10a, this year they have started with Spanish, so Jonas has a bit catch up to do. There are 16 students in his class, most of them native German speakers, we heard a lot of German being spoken while we walked around the school.
There is a canteen there too, and the children have the choice between three (high school campus) and two (primary school campus) main meals, one is Western, one Eastern and one Vegetarian. The children have a student ID card which can be used as "credit card" at the school canteen, which is open all the time.
The school uniform is green t-shirt and black short/pants/shirt as the formal uniform and white t-shirt with the school logo printed on and black sport shorts. Hat, bag and shoes are up to each person's liking, Australian schools are much stricter. German schools normally have no uniform at all, so for those expats it's quite a change and therefore the school is a bit more lenient. We'll have to come back next week to buy the uniforms, books and stationary, there was no time today.
All in all the school reminded Karsten and Katrin a lot of their own schooling, it's somehow very German, especially looking at the text books. Most of the staff is from Germany. Hopefully the children will come back to Australia with much improved German and maybe a better Mandarin too. But that is not taught at school, rather everyday life, maybe a tutor would be a good idea.

Wednesday was another exciting day: Our sea freight arrived. Finally Esther has her own bed again. Lots of Lego came as well. We have now all the baby stuff here (pram, baby capsule and cot). Esther is also very glad to have Katrin's sewing machine for all those projects. Some books were unpacked. Most unpacking happened on Wednesday and Thursday. Now there are lots of boxes for more nests or other buildings. Two boxes serve as makeshift book shelves:

On Thursday we went to the library again, all by bus. Since the library is in a mall (Clementi Mall) we also stocked up on groceries, a bit more than we could comfortable carry on the bus. It had started to rain, too, so we waited at the taxi stand for a little while only. Instead of cramping everybody in one taxi, the older three and Noah went by taxi and Katrin, David and Yannic took the bus back home. They arrived only 15 minutes after the taxi. At first it was a scary thought to leave Jonas, Michael, Esther and Noah in the taxi all by themselves, but Singapore is very safe and Jonas knows where to go.

After a busy start to the week, the remainder was stay at home and enjoy the pool and the new-old toys.
Katrin started to browse through the online shopping of the two supermarkets close by. Delivery costs are $7 and if she goes by herself and takes a taxi back it costs almost as much. Most of the grocery items are available online, but although one doesn't get to choose the items, the quality is fine. Usually if ordered before lunch, delivery is made the next afternoon (between 2pm and 6pm) or evening (between 6pm and 9pm). And since it is being carried right into the kitchen it's very convenient.

Back home in Australia school has wrapped up for the year, so the children are now officially on holidays ;-)

Saturday we stayed home assembling Esther's bed and the cot. Esther made cupcakes and did some more sewing, she is very industrious.

Our Third Week

Our third week started with a visit of Karsten's colleague Wasim for dinner. It's nice to have a familiar face visiting, even for only a short time. The next morning, Dorotee and Henrik with their children Tim and Kiara visited us briefly during their 8 hour stop over. Boy, was that an early breakfast, but so much fun! We had set the alarm clock for 6:45am which we thought would give us enough time to get presentable and also breakfast on the table. Katrin woke up earlier - pit stop as usual - and thought she heard something. Well, sure enough our friends were already at our door step! Luckily friends are those people you can greet in your pyjamas and they don't mind ;-) After breakfast we had a swim together and then they were off again. What a blessing to have friends visiting!

That day proved to be a busy one. Not that long after the Maier-Braun family had left a friend of friends rang to see if she could come over to introduce herself before they flew out that night to holiday in Japan. A little while later the buzzer buzzed.

Level 1: lift entrance to our section

Under the non smoking sign is the swipe card terminal

A quick explanation: To get in you need to have a swipe card at the gate either on level 1 - to get into one of the courts of this condominium - or in the carpark (B1) to get into the lift. In the carpark there are a handful of lobbies which have lifts for each 'tower' of the court. Lobby 4 of Chempaka Court (= 991 Bukit Timah Road) leads to our unit, just take the lift to level 7. There are 4 units on each level. One day on our way back from the pool Yannic and Noah ran ahead to the lifts and pressed 7 and stood in the door to keep it waiting for the rest of us. When the rest got closer we called them away from the lift, after all it's not a toy, so Yannic came running leaving Noah in the lift. The door closed and off he went. We were a bit in a frenzy then. Karsten and the children took the other lift up while Katrin waited on Level 1 in case Noah came down again. They must have pressed 4 too, because Katrin could hear Noah cry when the lift stopped at Level 4. There is a display next to the lift to show where the lift currently is and if it's going up or down. That stop gave the other lift with Karsten time to catch up, so when both lifts reached level 7 Karsten could "rescue" Noah, who was not a happy camper. In hindsight is't quite funny, but when the lift disappeared with Noah, we got a big fright, all kinds of what... if scenarios crossed our minds. That all happened after Katrin had told the children to wait sitting on the little garden wall opposite the lifts until everybody is there - Katrin isn't the fastest at the moment ;-) How often tells God us the same things over and over and still we don't learn the lesson by listening but by experience?!

View from our unit towards the lifts

View from the lifts to our door

Back to our visitor that Tuesday: After answering the buzzer, Katrin waited at the door for the visitor to step out of the lift. But out came Shirley, the landlord's manager, whom we hadn't expected. It's quite funny if you wait for somebody and suddenly somebody else comes, Katrin was glad that she had met Shirley before otherwise it would have been interesting to see how they would have solved the misunderstanding. Shirley had a few questions. And a few minutes later our visitor arrived: Beng-Wan with her children Chloe and Jared. She offered to take us to the public library the same day and to show us a wet market once she is back. So at 2 o'clock off we went all squeezed in one car, Katrin thought Being-Wan had a van or so, but it was a normal Sedan. So 6 children squeezed in the back seat and Katrin had a front row seat ;-)
At the library we got one library card, which costs over $50 since we are not citizen nor residents but foreigners. On one card we can borrow 8 books, but at the moment due to the holidays they have extended it to 12 books. Those of you who know our little bookworms can imagine how quickly we might have to go back to the library. They all love to read. We took a taxi to get back home - same method; 6 children in the back seat and Katrin in the passenger seat, the poor taxi driver didn't have time nor words to object. But Katrin was glad when they got home safe and sound, we won't be doing that too often.

Noah and bounty from the library

Yannic's nest

Wednesday and Thursday were quiet stay at home days for 7 family members and go to work for one (guess who). We read the books, hopped into the pool and played computer. Friday Karsten was able to work from home, a treat after a few long days at work (ups, I told you now). The air conditioning units (we have 6 units in our 4 bedroom appartment) were serviced. This has to be done every 3 months apparently since they are being used rather frequently.

Singapore during the rain season is very humid, as throughout most of the year :-). That is the reason for not having fly screens despite Mozzies and the possibility of Dengue Fever: Moss would quickly grow on the fly screens. A lady told me that her mattress moulded and only when it came through the fitted sheet, she realised what was happening - she has been here one year so far. Somebody else told Karsten, that his leather jacket got ruined just sitting in the wardrobe for a few weeks. That's why it is helpful to let the air conditioner run every day. ;-) And it's also advisable to dry clean suits which aren't used for a while. The washing is drying very slowly since there is not always a breeze. Although the breeze seems to pick up shortly before a big thunderstorm comes through.

Saturday we made a trip to Sentosa Island again - iFly! All except the oldest and youngest member of our family had a go, well, three goes in the wind chamber at flying. Noah and Katrin could watch them from the outside. IFly is the world's first largest themed wind tunnel for indoor skydiving and the world's largest vertical wind tunnel. The chamber is 16.5 feet (5 m) wide and 56.5 feet (17m) tall - about 5 storeys high - with a 18 feet (5,5m) tall acrylic glass wall with view over the South China Sea. It was very comfortable inside in air conditioning almost cold.

Unfortunately we weren't allow to take pictures of the actual flying, some people did nevertheless. So we just have a couple of pre-flight pictures.

The afternoon was spent at the beach much to Noah's delight, he loves the sand and the water.

Michael, Esther, David and Yannic went exploring, across a small channel of water was a little island like sandbank where they climbed on the rocks until the life guard ask us to get them off since it's dangerously slippery.

Our time at the beach was cut short due to the seasonal thunderstorm. So we found a bar and had satay sticks for a late afternoon tea or early dinner. Those sticks were yummy and Karsten was going back a few times to order more for the hungry family.
We stopped at a water play and Noah decided he was still hungry. Hasn't he got a big bite?!

On our way home there was a long queue at the taxi stand, so we took the monorail out of Sentosa, boarded the MRT (Mass Rapid Transportation, an underground train) and then the bus to get home. Almost exactly the same way Karsten commutes to and from work. The children enjoyed it, but we all were rather tired by the time we go home.

Sunday we went back to the Methodist Church around the corner, we received again a warm welcome. The children went to Junior Church/Sunday School. First all the children have a worship/singing time together before they break up into small groups for the teaching and some arts and crafts. Jonas' Senior Church was not on, it's only three times per month, so that the teenagers can participate at communion. The sermon taught about Mary, about our plans and God's plans. Also after her response came the action: "Be unto me according to Your word". And how Mary was wise to turn to an older person (Elisabeth) for guidance and purpose. Mentors are in!