an Eagle!
Yes, just saw an eagle hovering near the house.
Welcome to our life in Brunei! :-)
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
While having a pap smear...
After seeing the doctor bring out a metal tool (called the "speculum", thanks toWiki)...The clinic had no stirrups, just the usual check-up bed, and the doctor was not nice at all.
"Oh, are we using that?"
"Yes!" [incredulous tone] "I thought you had pap smears before? What? They don't use this in Korea?"
"Sorry, I just didn't know. I was up on the stirrups so I didn't see. "
"Stare up? You can stare up!"
"Oh, are we using that?"
"Yes!" [incredulous tone] "I thought you had pap smears before? What? They don't use this in Korea?"
"Sorry, I just didn't know. I was up on the stirrups so I didn't see. "
"Stare up? You can stare up!"
Friday, July 02, 2010
School Break for Big Girl
Big girl's school break has started. It's too bad that her daddy doesn't share the same vacation time, but that's okay, there are tons of activities for her to do anyway.
Mr. Big's company has a summer camp for a month at the RBA (Royal Brunei Airlines) club. That's 4 weeks of swimming, small fieldtrips, and other fun stuff. Most of her friends in school are joining as well, so she's very excited about it. Plus, once a week she'll have art class and ballet.
The summer camp costs almost nothing, but the art and ballet classes are surprisingly very pricey. It costs about USD 50 a month for 4 lessons in art class. In Korea, we paid about USD 100 for 20 lessons a month plus they pick the kids up and bring them back home for free. Same thing for ballet. It costs about USD 65 a month for 4 lessons. In Korea, we paid about USD 85 for 12 lessons! And again, the school bus is included.
Considering how most necessities (water, petrol, food, electricity) are way cheaper here than in Korea, we really didn't expect to pay this much. My guess is it's because there isn't enough competition around. There are only 2 ballet schools to choose from and the art school is probably the only genuine one here.
Big girl really loves making art and dancing ballet though. She actually wants to go to these classes more than once a week! We'll see, but I guess, we really don't have a choice. As the Visa commercial goes:
Art class: 50 dollars
Ballet class: 65 dollars
Driver: 100 dollars
Big Girl's happy face: Priceless!
Mr. Big's company has a summer camp for a month at the RBA (Royal Brunei Airlines) club. That's 4 weeks of swimming, small fieldtrips, and other fun stuff. Most of her friends in school are joining as well, so she's very excited about it. Plus, once a week she'll have art class and ballet.
The summer camp costs almost nothing, but the art and ballet classes are surprisingly very pricey. It costs about USD 50 a month for 4 lessons in art class. In Korea, we paid about USD 100 for 20 lessons a month plus they pick the kids up and bring them back home for free. Same thing for ballet. It costs about USD 65 a month for 4 lessons. In Korea, we paid about USD 85 for 12 lessons! And again, the school bus is included.
Considering how most necessities (water, petrol, food, electricity) are way cheaper here than in Korea, we really didn't expect to pay this much. My guess is it's because there isn't enough competition around. There are only 2 ballet schools to choose from and the art school is probably the only genuine one here.
Big girl really loves making art and dancing ballet though. She actually wants to go to these classes more than once a week! We'll see, but I guess, we really don't have a choice. As the Visa commercial goes:
Art class: 50 dollars
Ballet class: 65 dollars
Driver: 100 dollars
Big Girl's happy face: Priceless!
Big Girl when she was 3 years old
Sunday, June 27, 2010
OMG, a snake!
Just heard that one of Mr. Big's teaching colleagues found a baby cobra (seriously!) in their kitchen. Fortunately, nobody got bitten before the firemen came to deal with it.
This is not surprising considering how Brunei is basically an inhabited rainforest/jungle, but it's still really scary, especially since we're only a house away from the wild .
See the picture on the header? That's the view from our veranda. It's nice because we sometimes see monkeys swinging on the trees and we get visited by small reptiles, but having snakes in the house is a totally different matter, of course!
We're used to seeing this fellow around.
Friday, June 25, 2010
TGIF---especially in Brunei
Brunei is an Islamic country, and since Friday is a go-to-mosque day, it's also an off day for most public offices, hospitals, and schools. It's business as usual on Saturdays though.
It's still a bit strange for us that Mr. Big has Fridays off instead of Saturdays, but we're getting used to it. This means though that we can't have weekend trips somewhere. Fortunately, he gets a 2-week break every 2 1/2 months.
The international school follows a Monday to Friday schedule though. At least, Big Girl and I get to sleep in a bit on weekends!
It's still a bit strange for us that Mr. Big has Fridays off instead of Saturdays, but we're getting used to it. This means though that we can't have weekend trips somewhere. Fortunately, he gets a 2-week break every 2 1/2 months.
The international school follows a Monday to Friday schedule though. At least, Big Girl and I get to sleep in a bit on weekends!
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Home sweet home
We love our new house. It's spacious enough for all of us plus extra guests, but it's not too big that you can't possibly maintain it without a battalion of help. It's also in a quiet neighborhood, not far from Big Girl's school(but then most places in Brunei are quiet and it only takes 20 minutes to go anywhere in the city).
We were looking at several houses that are within the company's housing budget and we instantly took this house as soon as we found it. Some houses were so huge! Mr. Big thinks that we probably only think this way because we got used to the small apartments in Korea. He's probably right, but really, who needs 8 bedrooms and 7 bathrooms when you have 2 small children who still like to sleep with you sometimes? Plus, some of them looked really old, and the interiors were too ornate for our style. Elaborate ceiling paintings, velvet curtains, Baroque furniture...Nah...I don't have Imeldific delusions of grandeur. We wanted a house that is nice, homey, and comfortable and most importantly, child-friendly.
Blogging again
Welcome to my new blog!
It's been 5 years since I kept a blog when I was in South Korea. Of course, many things have changed since then. I am now a mother of two (a 4-year old girl and a 1-year old boy), my hips are much wider, and we now live in Brunei (a small, oil-rich country that is geographically sandwiched by Malaysia). We've only been here for 3 months, and so far, it's good. New place, new people, new language, new adventures/misadventures.
This blog is for those who miss me (yeah, all three of you!) and our family and for those who want to learn about life here in Brunei. But most of all, this blog is for the frustrated writer in me that has been itching to come out after it got buried under tons of kimchi, diapers, insanity pleas, and other self-concocted excuses.
Someday, I hope I'll be able to find the guts and the inspiration to actually write the stories that have been swimming in my head for years. But until then, I guess this blog will do.
It's been 5 years since I kept a blog when I was in South Korea. Of course, many things have changed since then. I am now a mother of two (a 4-year old girl and a 1-year old boy), my hips are much wider, and we now live in Brunei (a small, oil-rich country that is geographically sandwiched by Malaysia). We've only been here for 3 months, and so far, it's good. New place, new people, new language, new adventures/misadventures.
This blog is for those who miss me (yeah, all three of you!) and our family and for those who want to learn about life here in Brunei. But most of all, this blog is for the frustrated writer in me that has been itching to come out after it got buried under tons of kimchi, diapers, insanity pleas, and other self-concocted excuses.
Someday, I hope I'll be able to find the guts and the inspiration to actually write the stories that have been swimming in my head for years. But until then, I guess this blog will do.
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