Changes, transitions, adjustments...you name it

On 16 April 2006, my hubbie and myself boarded onto SQ16, departing from Singapore, to San Francisco via Seoul. It was a long 17-hr flight but it cannot be longer than our temporary move or stay in the Bay Area (which in the meantime we think might be 2-3 yrs).

This was a big transition for me, and for him. Indeed, bigger for me as I left my stable job in Singapore and decided to join him here. Due to visa regulations, I am not allowed to work in the U.S. But few months back in Singapore, we(or I) have already gone through so many "painful" decision-making processes that I do not want to dwell on them anymore. Yes. Though I will not be working for a while, I have many things that TIME, simply did not allow me to do while in Singapore. Doing my own blog is just one example... something I cannot imagine I could have done if I were still in Singapore. In Singlish, I simply say "Where got time !"

For the first two weeks after touchdown, we stayed in Larkspur Landing Hotel at Sunnyvale. My comments ? Good, clean and comfortable boutique hotel. And for these two weeks, we anticipated lotsa work to be done, including but not limited to choosing which city to live in, "house-hunting", getting orientated, commuting to work(for my hub.)...etc.

We searched around Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Cupertino for apartments to rent. Fortunately, back in Singapore, we have diligently done our homework for rental apartments , with the help of websites such as Rent.com and Apartmentratings.com. It made things easier as what we have to do is take along our Excel spreadsheet of apartments-to-view, make our way down to each leasing office, requests to see a "showroom" (if any) and the utlimate question "how much to rent?". I am not sure about other portals but for those who in fact rent a place to stay, via Rent.com, please remember to claim your $100 reward. It worked for us! Go to their website and read more about it. In short, this eBay-based company acts virtually like your housing agents. Yup. Virtual housing agents. Smart. Clever.

Well, we already knew that rental is going to expensive since the Bay Area is known of its high cost of living. Sales tax in Santa Clara county and the cities/districts within, is 8.25%. You pay that on top of your bill when you dine out, do shopping for any products (except for groceries and fresh produce), almost everything. Do the math, please.

Tag: bay area, sunnyvale, singapore