Awaken to a Dream on the Edge of Tranquility

It can be difficult to find an apartment from abroad, so we were fortunate that we were able to take over Garrett & Mara's apartment situation, since they were leaving right before Jacob arrived.

Condos across the pool from us - it is a BIG place!

Fair warning - this place is pretty ridiculous! The tag line of the condo complex is, as the blog title suggests, 'Awaken to a dream on the edge of tranquility!' (A line best whispered creepily in another persons' ear just as they're waking up). The complex is called Lakeshore Condos and the amenities are awesome. We are pretty far out on the west side of Singapore, but there is an MRT (train) stop right across the street - as well as a beautiful lake complete with running paths and Chinese Gardens. Also, a five minute walk in the other direction brings us to a market, hawker center, and Fair Price (grocery store), putting us within easy reach of groceries. 

Living room

The is a fully furnished 3-bedroom condo on the second floor. It is owned by a Chinese family (living in China), whose daughter, Lena, lives here while attending high school. Kind of funny to have a 16-year-old landlady, but she's pretty mature and handles things well. So Lena has one room, we have one room, and the final room is occupied by another couple: Tanya, a German electrical engineering doctoral student, and Abdullah, a Singaporean police officer (and electrical engineer as well, I think). Quite a mixture! We share a bathroom with Tanya and Abdullah, though there is another tiny half-bathroom (closet sized w/o mirror or shower curtain) when necessary. They are fairly new to the apartment too, but we're all getting along well. And they like to go running in the evening too, so we're planning to join them some evening next week!

Dining room and door to kitchen.

Small but sufficient kitchen - no oven though!

We all share a kitchen, dining room, and living room. There is also a laundry room with a washing machine - though all clothing has to be hung on hangers and then up on poles on the ceiling of the laundry room. It takes awhile for stuff to dry, but there is no where to hang laundry outside, so you just have to plan ahead. Everyone tends to spend most of their time in their rooms, because each room has an air-conditioning unit, making it a haven from the warmer kitchen and living room. Overall it is working well so far - a little bit of adjustment to a more dorm-style living, but really very livable.

Our room isn't huge, but as long as we stay pretty tidy, it definitely works. We've decorated it with plenty of pictures, got some pretty awesome Ikea sheets, and put up some sound proofing foam on the door so Jacob can practice.

Our bedroom (view from door)

(View from desk)

Odd attempt at panorama - our windows look out on the car park, so we generally keep the blinds closed.

View from living room window!

And then you walk out of the condo and you're in paradise. Seriously, it's nuts. The pool area is huge, with multiple hot tubs (and a cold jacuzzi too!), fountains, bubble jets, lounge chairs and umbrellas, palm trees, bridges, and even barbecue areas on sort of islands in the middle of the pool! There are also tennis courts, an indoor gym, rooms that you can rent out for parties, and a 'foot reflexology pathway' (really sharp stones to walk on - ouch!).

We live here?

One of several fountains

Various gazebos with lounge chairs inside! The one to the far right has a grill and tables for barbecues!

Those lounge chair thingies in the water have jets you can turn on, and the raised pool by the barbecue place is the 'cold jacuzzi.' To get to our apartment, we walk along the whole length of the pool.

We're going to stay here at least through mid-November, but as cool as this place is, we'll probably look for another place. It'd be really nice to have somewhere for guests to stay when they visit, and if possible it'd be nice to have or own place. But housing is expensive in Singapore - even renting a single room here costs more than our previous place in Rochester, so we'll have to see what we can manage. Moving a few MRT stops east would also be nice, cutting down on my 50-minute commute and placing Jacob a bit closer to most of the schools he teaches at. But until we move, I can promise you we're going to enjoy the heck out of this place - and in fact, we're going to go swimming right now! Peace!

Aw, he's all tuckered out from our grocery trip
(and the curry puffs we ate!)