Singapore and Home Sweet Home

Singapore - To finish up this amazing past year and 3 months we made our final bus journey to Singapore.  This was a little more than we bargained for, it turned into our most laborious border crossings ever.  They had to scan all our luggage at both the Malaysia and Singapore borders; seeing as Stacy and I both had way too much stuff, it was a process.  We also had to hall everything inside the bus, instead of putting it in the storage compartments underneath.  At least we got in a good workout! 

Once we finally made it to our hotel we were spent and decided we would save the exploring for the morning.  We all proceeded to take showers, this was too much for our little bathroom to handle and a small flood occurred.  My sister Karen flew out for her internship, in Indonesia, the next morning.  After taking her to the airport, Stacy and I made our way to the mall to catch an early movie.  We then headed to Marina Bay; a beautiful area of the city surrounded by tall buildings in various shades of blue that reflect the water.  We spent the day and stayed for the free light show in the evening.  Though we had higher expectations, it was a nice way to wrap up the evening.  We then returned to Little India for a delicious Indian meal.  The next morning we made our way to another part of the city for another movie.  Just a side note, the things to do in Singapore are eat, shop, and then eat again.  We then had our last dinner in SE Asia and reflected on the past year!  It was very bittersweet, as we were both looking forward to seeing our families, but we were also leaving a pseudo family behind!  This had been an amazing journey for the both of us and we were sad to see this chapter of our lives coming to a close.  Thank you to all our friends for making this such an amazing experience!



The Trip Home - Our journey home was interesting in that we had two flights almost back to back.  With a stop over in China to have our passports stamped and power cords inspected we soon were in the air, back to the US.  We then arrived in LAX at around 7pm.  With our flight to Michigan not until 5:45am we had a good amount of time to kill.  After making it though customs and maneuvering all our luggage to another terminal we learned that we would not be able to check our luggage in until 4:30am!  We were forced to return to the international terminal and proceeded to sit with all our stuff until we could check in.  Making the best of the situation we wasted no time in purchasing over priced Mexican food and margaritas!  After only two each we realized how tired we were, we both passed out on benches for 3 hours.  We made our way back to where we had to check in.  After a few persistent conversations on why we would not be paying to check our luggage, we boarded our last plane home.  We arrived home to very dreary weather, but very happy parents!  Stacy's family was ready and waiting at the baggage claim and immediately assisted us in getting all our stuff.  We enjoyed our first American meal at Qdoba!  I was also very lucky to have my dad bring my dog to meet me!  So that's it!  We survived teaching in SE Asia for a year and what a year its been.  We wouldn't change a single thing and both can't wait for our next adventure to begin.  But in the meantime, we are going to relax and enjoy how lucky we both are to spend this summer with our families. 

   To our friends in Thailand and those who have already moved on we miss you and wish you all the best in life :)

~ Randi