Singapore?

[flea]

In theorizing ahead of my data news, I have spent some more time looking up Singapore. (I did this for Cincinnati and Aarhus and Athens GA, too - it's just those were a lot less out of the realm of my experience than Singapore!)

It's at the equator - nearly always 80 degrees, 90% humidity in the am, 60% humidity in the pm. Historical recorded high: 100, low: 65. So, I would not be growing English peas in Singapore.

It sounds remarkably clean and non-corrupt and safe for a large city anywhere, and has excellent public transport. We'd probably sell our car and not get one there. As for the rest of our stuff, I guess we'd offload a lot and store a lot? I am sure, somehow, that they have Ikea in Singapore. (Yup, they do: http://www.ikea.com.sg/homepage/home_shoot.asp)

English is the primary language of education, and most children speak it starting in pre-school. There are public schools, including pre-schools for ages 3-6, and many international private schools. The big American one costs about $20,000 a year for kindergarten, though; Wikipedia notes that the corporations employing foreign nationals in Singapore tend to pay for private school for their employees' children. Somehow I doubt that extends to post-doc positions at MIT, though.

Casper and Dillo could learn Chinese! (I am almost certainly too old and stupid.)

Plane tickets roundtrip Singapore to Boston seem to start at about $1800 and take 24 hours. And it seems like we live far away from family NOW!

There's a lot to think about. The opportunities for overseas adventure don't come along all that often; on the other hand there is a lot of hassle and expense and sacrifice in overseas adventure. And we do have a strong yearning to settle down...

Comments

[jesseh.livejournal.com]

Isn't Singapore the place where you can't chew gum??

Singapore Info

[wandsci.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

I've been to Singapore. We really enjoyed it. It is indeed clean and well-run, and there is an amazing night zoo and a great botanical garden. Also the street vendor food will blow you away. And you'd be close to some cool stuff in Malaysia and Thailand (and Indonesia, too, although we didn't go there) for fantastic and cheap weekend get aways. Heck, you could do a long weekend get away to Siam Reap and see the Angkor temples, which are among the coolest things I've ever seen.

We actually have some friends there now. One is an assistant prof at NAS and the other is a post-doc at... I can't remember. Maybe also NAS. The post-doc is a very good friend and would almost certainly be happy to answer questions from a random stranger if you'd like me to hook you up. Both friends are New Zealanders, so they won't be able to tell you about being an American in Singapore, but they can tell you about being a Westerner there. Also, the post-doc is married to a Singapore-Chinese-Kiwi (if that makes any sense) who could probably give you the local scoop on education, via her family.

Let me know if you want to email with these folks- just email me at wandsci AT gmail DOT com and maybe drop a comment on my blog so that I remember to go check that account. Also email if you just want to hear more about what we thought of Singapore. In a funny coincidence, I was planning to write up a trip story about Singapore soon, because I haven't written about traveling lately. I'm not sure when I'll get to that, though.

[wandsci.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

I just read the rest of the comments. You can chew gum again.

But you can still get a big fine for letting water stand in a flower pot on your patio (they're worried about Dengue).