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Yay! We have a home!

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Note: I am post-dating these entries to make it more chronological. I apologize for any strange mistakes that I might make.

This morning we signed all the paperwork for the lease and officially have a place to live. Although, we can’t move in until Tuesday, August 28th. It was a very long morning with all the paperwork and inspecting the apartment for it’s furnishings and transferring over all the utilities.

We were plenty hungry so we headed over to the HDB food court for lunch. HDBs are flats built by the Housing Development Board of SG and are basically affordable housing for Singaporeans. Beneath these HDBs are usually food courts and small markets so that the residents don’t need to go too far for shopping. The food is pretty inexpensive, around S$3 per dish (exchange rate for US to SG is 1:1.5) and drinks are usually S$0.60 to S$1 each. Not bad, huh?

After lunch, we went back to the hotel and I took a long nap. We knew we were going to be up late because we were going to WOMAD in the evening. It’s a large open air concert with multiple venues. This year was their 10th anniversary. One of Ron’s classmates set up the event for us to go listen. It was a different experience for me as I don’t often listen to music from other parts of the world, the acts we watched were from Japan, Brazil, Israel, and many more. The food at the event was pretty good too. Yum.

Oh, if anyone decides to go to an outdoor event like this, I’d recommend bring a mat or blanket to sit on, that was the only uncomfortable thing.

Shopping for Provisions

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Note: I am post-dating these entries to make it more chronological. I apologize for any strange mistakes that I might make.

To prepare for our new apt, we needed some home furnishings so we decided to go to IKEA for lack of a better place. We found some nice bed linens and had lunch at their cafeteria. They have a “Friends” program here in SG where you can join if you’ve spent over S$300 in one day or sign up for their VISA card. It entitles you to a free drink with each visit and earning points for other prizes. I wonder why we don’t have it in the US.

We headed over to the grocery store, Cold Storage, in Holland Village to buy provisions for the Partners BBQ at Heritage View in the evening. If I haven’t explained, the significant others of the INSEAD students are called “Partners” and there are BBQs and other outings that are arranged by the Partners. This was the first one for us and we were clueless because we didn’t know how these BBQs worked: who brings the charcoal? who has the grill? how much food or drink to bring? are the “other halves” allowed or is it only for Partners?

It ended up being a lot of fun once we found everyone and got the grilling started. They had plenty of food (actually too much) and karaoke. I was glad to finally meet some of the other Partners to chat.

Little India and Night Safari

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Note: I am post-dating these entries to make it more chronological. I apologize for any strange mistakes that I might make.

We headed out to Little India today to have lunch and for some shopping. We didn’t exactly know where we were going so just took the MRT to the Little India stop. We stopped by a random restaurant to eat and this is what we had:

It was known as a chicken meal set served on a banana leaf. It was chicken masala and pretty tasty. We found out we didn’t eat it right though as we used a fork and spoon. Other customers around us were using one hand to mix the food and sauces and to eat. Next time we know.

We walked down a bit further and stopped at Mustafa Center as we heard it has 24 hour shopping and has anything you want. It seriously was a bit overwhelming because there was so much to see. They have all electronics, clothing, food, linens, shoes, toiletries, makeup, sporting goods, luggage, stationary, books, purses, pens, automotive care, watches, jewelry, etc etc. I had to buy some better walking shoes and Ron got some socks. It was a bit exhausting so we headed back to rest a little before heading to the Night Safari

We met up around 6pm with our flatmates and Joyce, a prof at NUS and from the US. Look how happy we are BEFORE entering the attraction:

We had a bite to eat at Bongo Burger (not the same as in the US) waiting for it to get dark. We decided to do the walking trails and not take the tram. About an hour into the walk, it started to drizzle a little… then suddenly it started raining cats and dogs complete with thunder and lightning. We ended up having to seek shelter and get rain ponchos from one of the staff. They encouraged us to leave after waiting a bit to see if the storm would subside. It wasn’t going to so we took the tram (for free) back to the beginning. Look how happy we still are AFTER the rainstorm:

We realized the tram is a better idea as it takes you around to see more animals. The walking trail is limited but more upclose. So it’s probably a good idea to do both. We missed all the shows though because they were all cancelled for the storm.

We were sad we were rained out but at least we have a story to tell.

Dropping the big bucks

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Note: I am post-dating these entries to make it more chronological. I apologize for any strange mistakes that I might make.

After the crazy first day… we were ready for a slower day.

We met up with the Jeannie, the agent, and landlady to sign the letter of intent and put down a S$4.5K “good faith deposit”. Luckily we had enough to just cover the deposit.

We headed over to Holland Village to check out the banks since we needed to open an account. We needed to pay rent eventually…

We had a little snack at Bread Talk and saw this funny pastry (didn’t try it though):

Anyways, for banks, we ended up at POSB (owned by DBS) because they only required the student letter from INSEAD, a passport, and S$500 deposit. It took quite a while because there were many other INSEAD students opening accounts. The staff said it wasn’t as bad as the week before when NUS started, the wait time then was 1.5 hours.

There went bowling and had dinner at the Beach Hut which is located on Marine Cove. It’s near the water and we sat outdoors. It was rather nice to relax and have good conversation.

Apartment hunting

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Note: I am post-dating these entries to make it more chronological. I apologize for any strange mistakes that I might make.

After a night’s rest, the plan for the day was to start our apartment hunt. Ron had been looking at apartments online and talking to agents by phone while we were in the US but without much luck.

He started the morning by looking through the Straits Times and almost missed the following:

Heritage View 3+1 bdrms. 1163 sqft. Fully furn. High flr. Full facilities. Near MRT/sch/mkt/Biopolis. Immed. $4.8K. XXXX-XXXX

Ron called but no answer so he left a message. Prices have been crazy high with many other agents, in the $5K-6K range whereas last year it was only $3K. Apparently the real estate market has been going sky high the past year. In part because of the two new casinos being built here, one is being built by the Sands Las Vegas.

Anyways, we had our first meal in Holland Village at a noodle shop. I’ll have to go back and find out the name.

I had cha siu wonton noodles and Ron had some sort of saucy chicken dish:


We went shopping in Sim Lim Square for electronics. We just had to get a power adapter for our Wii. We had appointments with some tenant agents later in the afternoon… then the fun began.

One agent was nice enough to pick us up in her car and drove us around to a few places, Bayville had 2 apts and one at Himiko Court. They were all pretty far from school and a bit on the older side.

Jeannie for the above Heritage View (HV) listing eventually called us and we planned a viewing. The place was great! Newer and cleaner with nicer amenities BUT on the pricier side. We thought we could talk her and the landlady down to $4.5K but weren’t sure. The previous apts we viewed were $3.5K.

We had met up with our flatmates, Justine and Roli (and her husband) to view the last place and another apt in Normantan Park (NP). The Normantan apt was only $3K but it was lacking A/C in the bedrooms.

These agents though were kind of pushy and intimidating in a way. The two agents were rushing us to sign a letter of intent and make a deposit so we wouldn’t lose that apartment. They kept on encouraging us to make a counter offer and sign papers that evening. The flatmates decided to go have dinner to think it over and we ended up being together for quite a while.

We had a long debate about the benefits of HV apt versus NP. HV pluses included: walking distance to school (10 minutes), nice amenities, ability to network with other students, clean and spacious apartment, close to MRT and buses, landlady willing to negotiate, agent not pressuring us at all. NP pluses included: affordable rent, large and spacious apartment, landlady willing to install A/C units in the 3 rooms that did not have it. The decision at dinner was the bid for the Normantan Park apt for $3.3K and requiring the landlady to install the A/C. The cost savings was what drove the decision. The agents gladly made some calls and wanted us to sign papers ASAP.

Ron was having second thoughts and called the agent (Jeannie) for the HV apt but no answer… until we arrived back at the INSEAD residence but this was after we already agreed to meet with the agents for the NP apt. The NP agents were coming to meet up with Ron at 12AM! Seems pretty desperate, huh?

Jeannie told Ron that dropping the rent to $4.5K should not be a problem but she wouldn’t be able to confirm until she spoke with the landlady in the morning. The networking ability at HV drove the decision now to live in HV. So what to do with the NP agents coming over right now?

Ron had to go sit in the agent’s car for over an hour calling back and forth to all the flatmates trying to figure out what to do. It was after midnight and the agents were expecting a decision at this time? Sounds unreasonable to me. Eventually Ron was able to get away after making that argument and had to pay them off with S$200 each! They said they would apply it to the cost of the deposit if we decided in the morning that we wanted the place.

Well, we’re out S$400 because we chose the HV apt. It was a pretty stressful situation though with those 2 agents for NP pressuring us into making a decision that night. They were playing on our nervousness by convincing us that we would lose the apartment if we did not make a decision right then and there. They know how to play a good game. The apt we have is much better so I think we still won out.