Back as a typical Singaporean

Wow… after close to 10 months here, I’m about to fly home to Singapore for my vacation. It feels surreal, yet at the same time I already know what Im going to do every day for the next few weeks – everything is planned, slotted into my agenda, flawless and impeccable, just like a typical Singaporean, as if I had never left.

I barely make plans more than a week ahead here in Buenos Aires, but like a true, busy, efficient Singapore girl, I know how important time is to everyone else on the island nation, so a month before flying off, I had done all my prep work and sent out emails asking my friends when they would be free to meet up. It’s amazing how easily I slip back into SG-mode, even after being so accustomed to life here in BA. It’s as easy as flipping the switch on and off the sleep mode for your iPhone.

Knowing I’m going home to visit, but also knowing that I will be back in BA in a few weeks, is like having two homes that you love equally, and now I get to be with both.

Am so terribly excited to see all my friends, my family, give them their gifts, tell them exotic Latin American stories of fiestas and chicos lindos, and to hear all the updates in their lives and in Singapore over the past 10 months. I am wondering how I’m going to react to being back home and witnessing the change in the landscape (particularly the view of Marina Bay and the newly-sprouted buildings and Integrated Resorts, and bitching about life in our very broken English and Singlish, and delighting in our heavenly local cuisine.

I have also made plans for a holiday from my holiday – so it won’t feel as if my vacation is spent only at home in Singapore – and for the Chinese New Year weekend, my family and I will be headed to Hong Kong! YES! Hong Kong! after the long 1-year hiatus since I last went there (to eat and eat and shop, duh! what else? Especially since that is the way the HK tourism board markets its country).

So many thoughts and plans – almost couldn’t sleep the last two nights thinking about returning to SG, meeting my friends and aunties with their newborn angels, and just catching up on the time that has passed us by. Oh yes, and did I mention that my new domestic helper Fitri also has massaging abilities??? I sure didn’t see that in her CV!! YAY!

Am so glad to be flying back. More tales soon.

xoxo.