Urban Mantra

Pink gingham top from The Closet Lover | Shorts from Top Shop | Earrings from Lovisa |
Shoes from Charles and Keith | Purse from Coach | Sunglasses from Cole Haan

It hit me recently that this month of August marks three years since I moved from New York to Singapore. In these three short years, I've learned to appreciate kopi, crave gulu melaka pandan cake and ice chendol, makaan on rice and sayur lodeh at the hawker center, adopt Singlish terms into my lexicon (blur like sotong, anyone?), and understood what it's like to be a kiasu parent (scroll to the bottom of the post to see what these terms mean!). I've come to greatly value the ease of living here and being able to raise my kids in a safe environment. What's more, Singapore is such a green city (it was recently named as the greenest city in the world) and that is something to be proud of!

Other things that have made living in Singapore memorable so far...

Personally for me, proximity to family has been a big bonus. Earlier we used to save up our limited vacation days to make the painfully long journey from the U.S. to Asia to see our parents and extended family once a year. Now we can meet them much more often with flights to Thailand and India (where my family is based) being just a few short hours. I love how my children can grow up with seeing their grandparents, cousins, aunts, and uncles so frequently and being able to develop a close relationship with them. The closeness of family ties is undoubtedly among the highlights of moving here.

The ability to travel to different countries is probably something many will list out as a big advantage to living in the Little Red Dot. The connectivity and the relatively short flights to nearby countries like Indonesia, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, etc...allow you to check many a place off your bucket list! My husband and I ourselves have traveled to many interesting places in the past three years - Luang Prabang, Bali, Siem Reap, Langkawi, Phuket, etc and we hope to see more!

Last but not least, having an excellent set of friends has been a big blessing! In fact, my greatest fear about moving to Singapore was whether we would be able to make a good friend circle. But as it turned out, we met and got connected to various different people and formed a great set of friends. That has certainly colored our experience here in a positive way. After all, friends make the place!

On a separate note - I'm loving this pink gingham top from a local store called The Closet Lover. Dramatic, ruffled sleeves are in this season and I love the sweet color and design of this top. Outfit details below!

Singlish terms:

• Kopi: The local coffee in Singapore
• Gula melaka: Coconut palm sugar; often an ingredient used in making sweets
• Ice chendol: A local icy dessert
• Makaan: A Malay word adopted into everyday Singlish referring to "eat" 
• Sayur lodeh: A vegetable curry made with coconut milk 
• Kiasu: Refers to the feeling of not wanting to miss out on opportunities or get left behind; Singaporeans are known to be very "kiasu" :)