First Summer Five for Friday

Hello from Singapore! Has it really been a week since school ended? Seems like so long ago. But I'm very excited to share my first summer Five for Friday! :)

1. I officially turned in my classroom keys on Monday, marking the end of another school year.

Did I also mention that I'm moving grades and classrooms next year? Good thing I've only been teaching for two years! Haven't accumulated much stuff yet (emphasis on the yet). Packed up around 8 boxes which I have left in front of my new classroom. Most of those boxes have books from this classroom that were categorized by months so most likely I will be returning back to the classroom once I get a chance to see what my new classroom has to provide. 

2. Major news to share...

I am officially done with BTSA~! Woohoo! All I need to do now is turn in the final paperwork to HR and credential will finally be cleared! :D

3. On Tuesday, summer vacation officially began! What did I do? Leave on a jet plane (actually, two!) with my mother and brother to Singapore! Total travel time...20 hours! @@

First plane was United Airlines from SFO to Seoul. I had a window seat without a window! (~11 hour flight) 

Made it to the Seoul airport to transfer planes. (~1 hour wait)

Next plane from Seoul to Singapore. Was on Singapore Airlines this time so we had our own entertainment system. Their entertainment system has EVERYTHING. (~5.5 hour flight)

Finally made it to the Singapore airport at around 10pm!

4. One of my good friends from high school happened to also be in Singapore at the same time (her family lives in Singapore) so she has been taking us around Singapore for the last couple of days. It was good to see her since she has been working in Chicago since graduating from college so we rarely get to see each other.

Unfortunately, Singapore is suffering some major pollution due to uncontrollable forest fires in Indonesia. It's been super hazy every day and the air is basically not healthy for breathing. Most locals are staying inside but as tourists with only a limited number of days here we don't have a choice but to go out. So to keep from breathing in hazardous air we have to walk around looking like this.

Me and my lil bro looking like creepy tourists.

The haze at it's worst. Apparently this year's pollution is a record high.

5. Even with all the pollution, it still didn't keep us from doing some touristy things (mainly indoors, of course)! Below are some picture collages of food and places we have been to these last two days of touring.

The Merlion...national symbol of Singapore?

Panaroma picture of the Flower Dome inside Gardens by the Bay.

Gardens by the Bay - Cloud Forest

Some local dishes.

And that's my trip so far! Funny how this week started at one place and ended in another. 1.5 more full days of Singapore left before we head over to see the relatives in Taiwan! Can't wait! :D