Good Housekeeping

While at the Gray's home...during the football games on Sunday...I decided to read and picked up a magazine named "Good Housekeeping". I must say, this magazine is amazing! I can not believe I have not read this magazine before. The magazine is a blend of home project creativity, recipes, and health topics and suggestions. I am defiantly subscribing to the magazine when I return back to the states. If you go to the website and create a user name, you can get 12 issues for $7.97! This deal is better than the price you pay if you send in the slip that comes in the magazine ($12). I found a lot of cute ideas and can't wait to try some when I get home!

A Homecoming

Today Kirk, my brother-in-law, had his Senior Homecoming. It was quite funny to have the whole family (minus Phil, he just left for Spain) at Kirk's homecoming pictures, yeah that would make 8 of us! His date was his girlfriend Lizzie, what a cute and nice girl! We spent some time today with Kirk picking out his shirt and tie, yes I know--the day of-- but he was a stud I must say! It has been great spending time with the Gray family and my family over the past week. We still have a couple of days left until we head back home to Singapore. While in G.A we hung out with the family, ate with some great friends, ate some GREAT American food, and went canoeing down the Chattahoochee River! I will have to add some more pictures later because they are on my other camera!



The Gray Family


Clark getting ready to canoe!





The beautiful Chattahoochee River in G.A

A Mosaic of Me

This is a mosaic of me! Thanks Tara for the great idea.

Now you try:

To make your own:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.

b. Using only the first page, pick an image.

c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

d. When finished, save to your computer to upload to your post.

The questions:

1. What is your first name?

2. What is your favorite food?

3. What high school did you go to?

4. What is your favorite color?

5. Who is your celebrity crush?

6. Favorite drink?

7. Dream vacation?

8. Favorite dessert?

9. What you want to be when you grow up?

10. What do you love most in life?

11. One Word to describe you.

12. Your flickr name (or your blog name or handle or whatever)

"We're leaving on a jet plane..."

This weekend Clark and I get to go back to the states to visit our families! We will be flying to Atlanta and then we head off to Chicago. The trip over to the states will ONLY take about 23 hours. We are so excited to come back and can't believe we get to go back for a few weeks! On our way back we get to spend some time in Korea before we head back to Singapore.

A few things we will definately do that we have missed/will do/enjoy:

1) McDonald's: we have them here but you can't just get enough no matter where ever you are

2) Chic-Fil-A: sorry...thats it for that fast food

3) Panda Express: Seems odd? American chinese is sooo different!

4) Gino's East: No deep dish pizza here.

5) Portilo's: There's no Italian Beef on this little island!

5) Wal Mart/Target: We have to stock up on US stuff to fill our suitcases

6) Mexican Food: I don't care which one just make sure they have chips & salsa!

7) Car: It has been 6 months of taking public trans. I love waiting for trains! (not)

8) Family: I put this in here so my parents won't ask me why I didn't include them.

9) Time: Being in the same time zone instead of living 12 hours in the future

10) Weather: I'll take Miami weather over this humidity

...more to come.

Pictures to follow when we return from yet another travel!!

P.S - I love you

WOW! If you have not seen the movie P.S- I love you, then take your hubby or wife aside and watch it! This movie should be watched with your significant other most definantly. To be quite honest, this movie is a boo hoo fest! Grab a tissue because it is one of the best movies you will see...well I enjoyed it!

I will not tell you the in depth details of the movie since some of you have not seen it, however, this movie is about love and finding your way in life when everything seems to have gone wrong. The movie will end and you will have such great appreciation for those you love. Don't leave the house without a kiss goodbye or saying the words "I love you".

Go rent the movie for this weekend!

Dear Clark,

I just wanted to say that you are the best husband in the world and I love you to death. You make me want to be a better person, and I love waking up to your face every morning. I can't live without you and you are indeed my best friend.

Love,
Jenna

P.S- I love you :)

Off to Malaysia...

Wow I am glad to be back! Clark and I had so much fun traveling to Malaysia this past weekend. To start off the trip, we left at 7 pm on Friday and took a bus to Malaysia for about 2 hours and then traveled on a boat for 4 hours until we reached the island of Aur...at 5 in the morning.

To sum up the trip, we basically ate, scuba dived, ate, scuba dived, ate....then we did it all over again! The food was good and the fishies under water were pretty cool. We did see a baby shark before we hopped in the water! By the end of the trip Clark and I were officially scuba certified! We dived 5 times and went to 22 meters. Woo hoo!

We shared a little cabin that was on stilts and right on the ocean. You could even look through the floor and see the water! We had a BBQ night on Saturday which the local Malaysians cooked for us. The boat trip back was nice because we got to see all the random islands that we missed during the night time on our way there. We even saw fisherman huts in the middle of the ocean! Crazy!

Clark decided he wanted to taste the fruit called Durian...you either hate it or love it...you tell me if Clark liked it...notice the dry heaving over-board.

Well that was our trip! Short and sweet, but hey, when you live close to all these countries, the weekend is all you need! Our next trip will be in two weeks and guess where we are going .......HOME! We are so excited to take a break and go back to visit our families! Enjoy the pictures and if you want to see more...click HERE!

A Weekend in Vietnam

Clark and I had the opportunity to visit Vietnam over the weekend with two other friends of ours. We were all way excited and couldn't wait to get there. The plane ride was short and the taxi driver in Vietnam tried to rip us off. Needless to say, we paid the price we wanted and drove off in the crazy streets on Nam. People drive mopeds here and it looks like there is no driving system here but they all use honks as a way to communicate! I swear we almost hit 390 people before we got to our hotel.

The next day we took a tour to the Cu Chi Tunnels. These tunnels were used by the Vietnamese soldiers to hide from the French. The tunnels spread out for miles and were very cramped inside. The had everything from bedrooms,kitchens, and traps down in the tunnels. Our tour guide used to be in the US Navy, fighting along with us and not the Viet Congs.

The next place we hit went to after the tunnels was the lacquer factory. At the factory they make very beautiful art work from egg and seashells. They have a whole assembly line and each person does their part.

Later that day we were all longing for massages since they are sooo cheap here. We all ended up getting a deep tissue/ hot stone massage for 1hr and 15 mins! Not bad for $30!!! Clark and I got the VIP couples room. It was sooo nice! The next day we headed back and got pedicures...yes even the guys! If I ever go back to Vietnam I will def. hit up Q Salon and Spa. That night we headed to the market where we bought some souvenirs.

The next morning we went to the revolution museum and the war museum. Let me tell you...I have never seen so much Vietnam Propaganda. I mean there was a purpose for the Vietnam war and the US was not the only people at fault.
Later that night we headed to the trendy club in Vietnam, Apocalypse. The music was okay but the smoking made it unbearable!

Our last day was spent walking around Vietnam and eating all the great food. We ate at this Vietnamese place called Lemongrass! mmm YUMMY! I mean who wouldn't want a 3 course meal for $5!

All in all we had a great time in Vietnam. I am so happy that our friends invited us to go or else we probably never would have. I feel so fortunate to have what I have and live where I live. However, people can be happy where ever they are! I hope you enjoy the pictures! I tried not to write a lot but this blog is like my journal! If you want to see more pictures then go here.

You think your grocery and gas bill is expensive in the U.S.?

I was thinking about our 'world economy' and how the U.S. economy is so 'dark and gloomy'. Gas prices are high, your grocery bill has gone up, a gallon and milk costs just as much as a gallon of gas, you hear words like 'inflation' and 'recession' and your savings every month is a bit smaller and you don't eat out as much. Oh, and lets blame is on the government while we are thinking of it.

Now, having traveled to about 8 countries in the past year and living overseas I get to hear about what is happening outside the U.S. in the local media. Guess what....every single country is having the same issues. It is not just the U.S., in fact, I would still say that the U.S. if affected very minimally compared to the rest of the world. Just to give you an idea on how CHEAP the U.S. is I will lay out a few examples. I will speak mostly about Singapore prices which are a fair representation of the rest of the developed countries (except for rent is a bit higher in Singapore). So relax, have some faith in the U.S. of A. You are doing better than you think!

I have converted all prices to U.S. dollars with a very favorable exchange rate as the US Dollar has seen about a 15% gain on almost all foreign currencies in the last 45 days which is very big. So right now, my U.S. dollar buys me about 15% more than what it did when we moved here. (No Jenna, this does not mean you get to do 15% more shopping.)

Gas (per gallon)
U.S. - $4.00
Sing- $6.00 (most of Europe is a bit higher)

Milk (per gallon)
U.S. - $4.00
Sing- $7.08

Rent/Mortgage (per month)
U.S. - $1,500 (approximate mortgage on a 2,000 sq ft home)
Sing - $1,400 (for our 450 sq ft 1 BR apt. Most expats pay about $3,500 for a 3 BR apt)

Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie Ice Cream (per 'little container' - 1 pint)
U.S. - $4.00
Sing- $9.91

1 lb of Ground Beef
U.S. - $4.50
Sing - $8.75

Now, there are some stuff that is cheaper here in Singapore mainly seafood and vegetables. I hate seafood cause that is just gross. If you don't believe me, just look at the Octopus picture Jenna is eating below.

Lastly, for those of you who do not like to read blogs but just looks at pictures (...Moe), I came across this today. It just goes to show you how others view you versus rest of the world. It is an interesting perspective on how 2 people can differ in opinion but still be correct -- it all depends on the perspective.

This is an Australian Map of the World

(for the bigger picture click the link)

http://flourish.org/upsidedownmap/rotatedmap-large.jpg

Vacation Squared

So why did I name our title "Vacation Squared"? Clark and I thought the name suited well because Singapore is a vacation to us and so was going to Indonesia! Don't you like going on a vacation while on vacation!?

Clark and I loved going to Bintan Lagoon Resort in this past weekend. Its great working for a company that owns the place! We arrived on Friday and ate some grub...a huge burger I might add then we headed to our deluxe room and went to sleep (we had a long day along with an hour ferry ride).

Saturday morning we got up at 7:45am...yeah our cell phone clocks were wrong (sorry Clark for waking you up so early). We headed to breakfast and then to the beach where it was gorgeous! I wanted to snorkel since it was really cheap so we signed up and went out for an 1 1/2 hours! We saw so many fish that would even eat out of your hand. I saw one jelly fish (thank goodness) and a eel looking thing that pops it head out of the coral to eat fish. The ride back on the boat was so fun because the sites were great.

Mark, the Club Manager, let us take a golf cart out to ride around on the Jack Nicholas course! The course was sooo beautiful and the ocean in the background made it just breathtaking.

Later that night we were eating at the buffet and I decided I would be daring and eat a baby octopus...yeah it kinda tasted like rubber. Clark tried the vanilla ice cream...wait I mean pineapple ice cream...wait I mean CORN ice cream! GROSS! Haha Clark was like what is this...!!! I enjoyed the tasty strawberry and chocolate deserts instead.

Sunday morning we ate breakfast and headed to Pasar Oleh Oleh, which was a few miles from the resort. It was a very touristy place but we didn't mind. We walked around and looked at all the wooden sculptures and fake prada, gucci, and dooney and burke. Clark bought 2 nice Polo shorts for a total of $7...you can be the judge if they are real Polo's. After Oleh Oleh we headed back to the beach and pool to soak up some rays.

The end of our vacation had come...back to the ferry we went. How was it that the only people who blew chunks on the boat just happened to be the people that Clark and I were sitting next to?

All in all it was a great vacation getaway, or as I call it, a great late anniversary present! I can't wait to go back again!

If you want to see more pictures from our trip then click here.