OIF

Today is our 2nd Sunday in Pittsburgh. I'm starting to miss family and friends at home as the "holiday mood" wears out. However, we're blessed to be able to attend a church, called the Oakland International Fellowship (OIF), on both Sundays. It's a Chinese church and has both Chinese and English services. We, of course, attend the English service, which has a much smaller group. There're also many Singaporeans attending it. The family that has so kindly taken us in for the last 2 weeks attends the church too. The people are friendly and they do make us feel quite welcomed.

I'm glad that Charis gets to attend the Children's Sunday School with many children her age. We told her that she may get to go to school in the US so she has been asking me about school! Well, I meant preschool but for now, I can tell her that she attends school on Sundays! She likes it, especially the art & craft time, but she's really not such an attentive student... she gets distracted by the toys in the room... haha. She's also quite silly, she get her toys or chair taken away... I think she needs to learn some survival skills too!

Generally, Charis has made good progess since we arrived. After getting over the jet lag, she has been eating quite a lot. TK thinks that her face is looking a little rounder =) We've also trained her to seat at the back of the car by herself in the safety seat so that I can eventually take the driver's seat. It seems that she has taken a liking to it... often talking and singing to herself along with the CD that is playing, many times with one leg placed comfortably on the window. She has even fallen asleep in her safety seat a few times!

doing as the locals do

It's a strange feeling... we drive around in our car, go to local supermarkets and malls, live in an apartment, eat in local fast food joints, just like when we were in Singapore (guess, doing what the locals do)... but when we look around us, things are just not the same! Almost everything is in plus size!

Actually, since we arrived, we have not done anything touristy, like visiting the museums, parks or taking photographs. Guess we're too caught up in wanting to find a home to settle down before TK's school term starts. The shopping is mainly to get grocery or find furniture. Well, at least Charis and I visited the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh today, which is next to the Carnegie History Museum and Carnegie Music Hall (erm, for those concert lovers out there, this is not the same famous Carnegie Hall in NYC =P).

I must say that Pittsburgh may not be too difficult to get used to. People are quite friendly, pace is relatively slower and malls are huge with much less crowds. Only problem - they're closed on Sundays and we found ourselves quite bored. Fortunately, Walmart is open 24/7 and near where we will stay... have a feeling it's going to be one of our fav haunts being so Singaporean!

We'll have lots of time to tour Pittsburgh... so we'll take it slow for now...

Finally here...

After so many months of anticipation, we have finally arrived in Pittsburgh! It's quite surreal... I guess the reality of it all hasn't set in fully. "How did we end up here?" was one question we asked ourselves when we first set foot in the country, especially after the "flight adventure" that we experienced =P

Can you believe that the computer system at the LA customs hanged for almost 20 mins?!?! It happened while we were in queue and worried that we may miss our flight. Oh well, it did happen. We actually missed our connecting flight from LA to Pittsburgh... even after running like crazy with 2 trolleys (3 huge luggage bags and 3 carton boxes) and a toddler in tow! At that moment, we felt like refuges. Our hearts dropped when we saw that the counters at the US airways were closed. We were stuck in transit for 24 hours... in LA (you may be thinking that we should have taken the opportunity to tour the place, but our jet lagged bodies were unable to take us anywhere... sigh).

Now, we are thankful that it's OVER! At least, we only missed the flight but not lost one another or our luggages in transit. The real journey has begun!

PS. We will try to put up some photos when things are more settled here. Take care everyone!

Boxed Up

Writing this blog from my parents' home... no need to rush our packing and no mess around me. This is our first night away from our JW home. All of our possessions have been boxed up into 20 carton boxes, to be stored away for a long time, and 3 HUGE luggages bound for the States. Yes, still 20, even though we have thrown and given away soooo many things!!!

Didn't think that boxing up all our things would be such an emotional experience. As I packed away my priced possession, gifts, albums, photo frames with our favourite photos, etc., it felt like a part of me is also being kept away. How nice if I can have all of them with me when we go! But of course, cerebrally, I know that I have to learn to let go.

Though stressful, there's a huge lesson learnt through the entire process. Material treasures, regardless of the sentimental value each holds, is not everlasting. Really, what matters is the relationships and love we share with family and friends as well as the treasures that we build up in heaven. A tough lesson but I thank God for it.

4 years!

On this day, 4 years ago, TK and I made our vows and exchanged rings before God. We made it through and moving on to our 5th year!

"I take thee to be be wedded husband/wife, to have and to hold, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, from this day forth, till death do us part, according to God's holy ordinance." God help us to remember this vow for the many years to come...

temp housing in Pittsburgh

Since April, we have been searching for a temp housing in Pittsburgh. We just need a place for our first few days in Pittsburgh as we look for a more permanent apartment. We have been looking at craigslist and also put up our request through a church there. However, for the last 3 months, there wasn't much progress.

Just as I was about to email a friend to ask him for some recommendations of affordable motels (in case we need one), he offered his place as a "last-resort". Two hours later, he emailed us again, saying that there are now 3 offers (inclusive of his) to take us in from his church. It is so amazing - just yesterday, we have no place to stay during our first few days. Now we have 3 place (and maybe even more) to choose from. As my friend said in his email to us, and we testify, "God has been good". We truly thank our friends in church for praying with and for us regarding a temp housing for the last 2 months - and thank God for the positive answer.

So, where exactly are we going?

Based on what we have read and heard so far, these are what we know about Pittsburgh, the city that we are heading to:

1. It is in the state of Pennsylvania. On the map of USA, it is located towards the North-East.
2. It is a few hours drive to New York.
3. Winters could be quite harsh in Pittsburgh.
4. Main sports in Pittsburgh: Baseball (Pirates), ice hockey (Penguins), American football (Steelers). I think the nearest NBA team should be the Philadelphia 76ers.
5. No famous touristy attractions that we know, as of now.

More information can be found at this excellent resource.

If you like to have a sense of how Pittsburgh is like, you may want to check out those movies that were shot in this city, including Inspector Gadget (!), Groundhog Day, The Silence of the Lambs, and Robocop (!!!). Hmmm, we should have rented some DVDs...

Some stuffs about Carnegie Mellon University, the purpose of our going over.
1. Remember lycos search engine? It was started in CMU in 1994.
2. John Nash, who won the Nobel Prize in Economic Science in 1994, received his bachelor and master degrees at Carnegie (then known as Carnegie Institute of Technology, before it merged with the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research) in the 1940s. He then went on to Princeton and MIT. If his name sounds familiar, you must have read his theory in an economics class or watched the movie "A Beautiful Mind", or both.