So just took a really long hot shower to wash off one of the crappiest days I've had in some time. Maybe it's because I'm getting sick, but after months of anticipation with what Singapore would be like, ew and I had a rude awakening today. And no, it's not the weather.
The weather has actually been quite pleasant. At least pleasant enough to walk short distances (despite our feet feeling really sore). Singapore also has lots of shade everywhere, so you never really have to walk in the sun, and you get some nice breezes for the moments you aren't in a shopping mall. No, the rude awakening is actually realizing that the only people who can afford to live in Singapore are (1) Singaporeans who live with their parents, and (2) expats on ridiculous stipends. Pretty much the only thing affordable in Singapore is food, where hawker centers selling dishes for $2-$5 is a better value than buying groceries and cooking yourself.
The biggest culprit to living in Singapore is finding housing that won't cost you your whole monthly salary. Apparently two bedrooms in the city will cost upward of $3.5k, and that's probably for hdb housing. Hdb housing was constructed by Singapore's housing and development board, so all the layouts are very similar, and they were intended to house Singaporeans. Condos and apartments, private residences, will cost more than that. If you go to the edges of the city center, you're looking at $2-$2.5k for hdb, and $3-$3.5k for a two bedrooms. And these aren't nice two bedrooms persay. Ew and I spent the whole day looking at housing around the west side of the city (close to Biopolis where ew is working), and in all hdb flats, the shower is shared directly next to the toilet SE Asian style. For those of you who do not know what that is, there is no separator for the shower, so once you take the shower, the whole floor will get wet. The plus side of hdb is that it is larger. We viewed a place in Chinatown that was close to $3k for about 400 sq ft. Our agent told us that fresh out of university, a Singaporean will make about $2.5k a month, and after 5-8 years, about $4k. So pretty much the only way they can afford housing is if they stay with their parents, which apparently, a majority of Singaporeans do. Just don't know how people live in this city ...
... which brings me to ridiculousness No. 2. So after getting our employment and dependent passes from ew's employer today, we figured we'd try to set up a handset (cellphone) plan. Initially, we were quite optimistic, as you can get about 200 minutes, 500 sms (texts), and 12 gb of data for $41 per month. (Minutes cost a lot here, so it seems everyone just sms's ... something I will have to get accustomed to). In addition to that, if we sign a two-year contract, we can get a free windows 7 phone, or an htc phone for much cheaper. Alas! Imagine our surprise after finding out that SingTel cannot issue 2-year contracts to people with employment passes for 1 year or less (which ew is on). The funny thing is, ew's employer has an offer letter to her for a period of 3 years, and said that it's a bit ridiculous they have to renew the employment pass every year. So that has left us with two options ... either suck it up and get the 1-year contract and pay about $400-$800 for a phone, or figure out an alternative (prepaid plans? but still need a handset). Needless to say ... we are in a holding pattern on this until further guidance from ew's employer, though we're not optimistic at all.
So after spending about 12 hours out of the house today with only rejection and a scratchy throat to show for it, I'm not quite sure how Singapore is livable. At least not yet. At least while I do not have a job. Maybe ew is right, and that we're basically stuck in the worst of all worlds ... (1) we look Asian (she claims whites get better treatment), (2) we're not from Singapore, and (3) we have no cushy package to fall back on. But maybe every new city needs this type of adjustment. Maybe I was expecting more because I wanted it to be easy, because it is such a difficult transition, with never visiting Singapore before, with very few friends here, with no job. But all we can do is rely on each other and rage.
ALS- hang in there!
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