'Where have you been?' I hear you cry...

Hi! It's been awhile - we've been busy! Here's a quick update on some of what we've been up to...

Apartment Hunting/Finding!

We began looking at apartment options at the beginning of October, visiting quite a few different places. It was really interesting to see the range of options and a bit difficult to get used to the high prices! We looked mostly at HDB apartments - apartment blocks built by the government and then sold to Singaporeans. Once the owner has occupied them for at least 5 years, they can rent them out.
After a week or so of looking, we found a renovated, 3 bedroom HDB we really liked - and also managed to find some housemates that we also really like! A fellow St. Olaf grad, who also works at Duke-NUS, and a Duke-NUS student. We signed the lease (at a McDonalds, no less!) and handed over a fair amount of money, and will move in November 17th. A few pics:

Living room and dining room.

Kitchen - still no oven, but it looks really nice!

One of the bedrooms

AND it comes furnished - with a piano!! That pretty much sealed the deal!

Pit Orchestra in a Musical at the Esplanade

Jacob had a rigorous start to October - from the 3rd through the 14th, he rehearsed for and played in the pit orchestra for the musical National Broadway Company. The show was written and put on to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the durian-shaped Esplanade Theatre. Such a short rehearsal time meant lots of long nights - I think most days Jacob had 8-hour rehearsals, on top of his teaching, and he rarely got home before midnight for 12 nights in a row! However, it was a good gig and a great place to meet lots of well-connected musicians. I got to attend the show (comp ticket, holla!), and while I have to say I didn't necessarily 'get' all Singapore references and humor, the dancing and the music were really great.

My First Meet-Up Group

For the past 2 Mondays (and tonight will make 3), I've been going to a running Meet-Up group (found via the Meet-Up website, which turns out to be a really handy tool!). The Singapore Shuffle running group meets at a public track on Monday nights for a speed workout. In the past I've learned that runners are some of the coolest people I meet anywhere, so it's been great to meet some new people and get in a good sweat. Workouts consist of a short warm-up, some drills, and then 2-3 miles of intervals (usually 400s and 800s). It's been great to run with people again, and to remember (fondly) some of those crazy track workouts from college (though there is a 0% chance of getting snowed on here!)

Durga Puja

Last night we headed over to Little India and met up with some friends from my work to celebrate the Indian festival of Durga Puja, remembering the triumph of the Goddess Durga over the demon Mahishasura. We watched as various goods were offered to idols of Durga and her children, accompanied by drums and a ringing bell. And then, typical of most festivals I can think of, we ate a lot. We ate southern Indian cuisine, complete with roti, naan, briyani with mutton, butter chicken, paneer curry, a cauliflower dish, and more rice - and finished off with fresh lime sodas and mango lassis. I'd be lying if I said I didn't eat too much...

From left to right: Chandima, Kumar, Amudha, Zach, Reshmi, Jorge, Jacob and me.
Apart from Kumar and Jacob, we all work at or go to school at Duke-NUS
(and we typically eat lunch together too!)

And that it what we've been doing! Also, I've recently spent a significant amount of time sitting by the pool (or standing IN the pool) and reading Game of Thrones - one book down! It rained a ton this weekend, but even so, I sat out under an umbrella for something like 4 hours yesterday - joy!!

Also, had my first sighting of massive cockroach. Didn't scream. Did stand up on the couch and then jump off and run away. We'll fight that battle another day (and by 'we,' I obviously mean Jacob with a baseball bat...)