Happy National Day!

Today is Singapore's National Day. Singapore has been a country now for 47 years. We've had 2 days of work and now a nice little holiday in the middle of the week. Been back in Singapore for 2 weeks now and loving the life. Since it's Singapore's b-day, I'm going to name my favorite things about living here:

1. Safety- I love going for morning runs in the dark feeling incredibly safe. I can walk home from the MRT station at 2AM by myself and not be in danger of anything happening. Low crime doesn't mean no crime, but I love how much freedom I have to do things.

2. The Food!! You can get a good plate of chicken and rice for $3 at the local Hawker or go out for gourmet dinner costing over $300. There's just every kind of food from around the world and you know how I like to eat.

3. Public Transport- Not only is it super cheap, but really efficient. I've got an App on my phone that tells me what buses are coming to whatever bus stop I'm near and how long until the next bus gets there. The MRT arrives every 3 minutes at each station. With taxis also being very cheap, there's no need to get a car.

3. The weather-  Every day is summer. My wardrobe is the same. Dresses, skirts, shorts, tank tops, sandals, all year long. That means every day after work you can just lounge by the pool soaking up the sun.

4. Travel- Where do you want to go? Singapore probably has a direct flight there. Our flights to Langkawi, an island in Malaysia, were $150 for both of us roundtrip. Our flights to the Perehentian Islands were $15 each. If you've got a flexible schedule, you can find some amazing deals. Our flights from Canada to the States this summer were $700 EACH. Asian airlines rock!

5. The parks- Singapore has done a really good job creating park space within a concrete jungle. You can get out on your own in a rain forest pretty quickly and not have a single person in sight. Lots of monkeys, lizards, turtles, birds, etc. Also, I love the Botanic Gardens which are gorgeous to walk through.

6. Shopping- Stores from all over the world. It's more usually more expensive than the US, but if you need anything, you can find it. Some of my faves are Zara, H&M, Gap, Banana Republic, Cotton On, Pull &Bear, Aldo, Sephora, and Esprit.

 7. The diversity- We live next to a Bible College and 3 other churches of different denominations which for some weird reason this shocks people when they see how many churches there are in Singapore. There's also a Buddist Temple and Mosque down the street too. So many different religions and nationalities living in harmony. In my class of 22 students, they are from 14 different countries.

THIS Video is pretty funny. The govt here has been really promoting local families to have more kids. They want to increase the population of Singaporeans.

Facts you probably didn't know about Singapore:

• Singapore is among the 20 smallest countries in the world, with a total land area of only 682.7 square kilometer. The USA is about 15,000 times bigger.
• Apart from Monaco, Singapore is the most densely populated country in the world, with 6,430 people per square kilometer. Total population is about 5 million. However, it very rarely feels crowded.
• The Bukit Timah Nature Reserve in Singapore contains more species of trees than the entire North American continent. You can walk around this nature reserve somedays and not see a single person. 
• Singapore consists only of one main island and 63 other tiny islands.