I remember…

I often get asked a question about how it was living in Singapore when I was a little girl. If people in Singapore talk a different language. Or if the culture is very different from the culture here in Holland. I wanted write some more about me, and how I grew up living in Singapore and in Holland to give you guys some answers.

I wasn’t born in Singapore, I was born in a small town in Holland called “Loenen aan de vecht”. I have one brother, he is one year older than me. We where both born in Loenen. At the age of 3 my father got a good job offer from the company he was working for. The job he had been offered was a job in Singapore. After thinking about it a lot. My parents decided to move to Singapore with our family. In 1997 we had to pack our bags and leave Holland.

In the plane:

In Singapore we didn’t have a house the first couple of weeks, so we stayed at a hotel in the center of the city. I can’t remember a lot of that apartment. Only me and my brother building a tent in the living room out of blankets, and the windows. We had an apartment  that was located quite high. I can remember the windows where slantwise. I could look right down at the people walking beneath us.

 

After a few weeks we moved to our home in Singapore. I remember thinking it was gigantic. though I was quite small so maybe it wasn’t. I loved that home, there was a rambutan tree in the back garden. It was gigantic and my brother and I used to climb in it all the time. Rambutan trees give fruit every year. The fruit looks a bit like lychees. They where delicious!

After getting used to the heat, which was around 30-35 degrees Celsius every day, my mom and dad decided to hire a made. She could help my mom with cleaning and cooking. Her name was Lucita (aka Lucy). She lived in our home with us for over 2 years. I still miss her sometimes. She was very kind. I remember I wasn’t allowed to eat with my hands. Though, Lucita did eat with her hands when she was with her friends on her free days (they would eat some kind of rice).  As a little girl, that just wasn’t fair. I remember Lucita letting me eat with my fingers one day. She let me eat with her friends in the park, I was so happy!

We used to travel to a lot of places back then (now we still do). I remember going to Malaysia a lot. Not only for vacations. Singapore is a dictatorship. There is this rule, which sais nobody is allowed to eat chewing gum. And of course, my dad found it pretty fun to drive to the borders, get chewing gum in Malaysia, and drive back. I remember me and my brother chewing the gum my dad had bought in Malaysia. He would tell us to stop chewing every time there was police. Haha! We felt so badass.

Though, we did go there in trips quite a lot.

I did go to school there to, In the first few months, I had to go to a Chinese kindergarten. I can’t remember a lot of that, except for the teacher who said “Ni Hao Ma Len?” Which meant something like “how are you”, or “good day”. After the Chinese school I went to the HSL. Which is a Dutch school for children from Dutch speaking families. At that school I actually made a lot of friends I’m still in contact with!

There is no actual Singaporean language, although Singlish is almost one. Its English, with a dialect. It’s hard to understand, but f you listen very good, you hear there are a lot of English words in there. I remember Singaporeans putting a “lah” after every line. That’s not really true though. This is how it sounds, only this is still quite understandable.

 

I could tell you guys a lot more about living in singapore, but that would take hours. Maybe I’ll do a big post once.

Hope you liked it! What do you remember from when you where little?

 

 

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