Monday, 26 November 2012

Finding My Happy Place!


 

I am in shock to learn that my last blog entry was almost three months ago.  Yikes!  I will try not to be too hard on myself since we did go back home to the US in September and it has been a bit of a rocky road transitioning to life halfway across the world in Singapore.  I promise my loyal readers to not be so neglectful in the future.  I am sure the popularity of my blog has suffered immensely.  Now back to the purpose of this blog entry.  I am so easily distracted, which is one reason why I have not been able to update my blog these past several months. 

Okay, I think I want to go back and whine a little bit about our transition back to Singapore which eventually leads to this recent blog fail.  I am sure you all are on the edge of your seats just waiting to hear about it!  Well it takes a toddler a lot longer to get used to sleeping in the proper time zones, so I blame Connor for about the first week.  Then he gets sick for about another week.  I put the blame back on Connor.  This is fun to blame my innocent son for my incompetency and lack of motivation.  Now the real fun part begins.  I get sick and the world stops.  I am put on about ten different medications and three inhalers.  I visited the doctor four times in one week.  I felt like a science experiment.  I took home nebulizers and had my sugar levels checked to prolong steroid treatments.  I learned though that Singapore is very proactive and efficient with their medical care.  I love how you can get your prescriptions right there in the doctor office without having to go to a separate pharmacy.  Genius!  The US needs to pick up on this and stop slacking.  Also, I went to a respiratory therapist for a consultation and was able to get X-rays done at the adjoining hospital on the same day.  It gets better!  The doctor was even able to read the results of my X-rays within a half hour in her office by email.  I repeat this is all in the same day!  She even wanted to have my blood drawn right then in there to see if I was ever exposed to Tuberculosis but that was where I drew the line.  Now that would never happen back home.  You would have to make separate appointments for everything, then wait and wait.  I loved knowing right on the spot that I didn’t have a tumor or any other horrible disease that was causing me to wheeze.  This is a hypochondriacs dream or better yet paradise!  Singapore’s medical system gets two thumbs up from me.  I won’t go into health insurance because that would be a buzz kill at this moment.

Now my final blame is put on this lovely little thing called culture shock.  I was worried when I got back from our three week stint in the US that I would go through this but I tried to stay positive.  I don’t think it was that bad because I had it worse during my college study abroad program in Spain.  I was in a major honeymoon stage when we first arrived to Singapore.  Going home transforms you a little to another world where you drive a car and make frequent trips to the beloved store Target.  Yes it’s that simple.  You can go to familiar restaurants where you don’t have to look at a picture to figure out if this on your acceptable food list.  Side note, I did visit all restaurants that made it on my top ten list.  An iced coffee is $2, not a whopping $7.  Stores open so early that I don't even have to know the time to even matter.  Everything is cheap because I am sure it is triple or quadruple in Singapore.  You don’t think about this stuff when you are exploring a new country and culture for the first time.  When we got back I felt like a zombie most days perhaps due to the mood-altering drugs I was on but all things Singapore where just simply frustrating to me; the heat, public transportation, my toddler spitting at me in the taxi.  Oh, how I miss car seats.  I did not handle the different lifestyle very well like I had so easily embraced when I first arrived.  Good thing though is that I think I am over it for the most part.  Now I have found my happy place again so I am ready to conquer the world.  Well, not quite but I see light at the end of the tunnel.  My regular blog posts will just hopefully stay regular from now on.  Happy reading!
XOXO

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