Well the wedding is about 2 weeks away.  We are still working on all the little details.  My mom will be here in Singapore in a week from today.  My dad will be in the Philippines in about a week and a half.  Frankie and family will be in the Philippines in a little over a week.  Time really does fly by fast.  So we are just busy finishing things at work so we can take our long leave.  We are also very busy finishing the wedding stuff and preparing for our visitors.  Then when we get back we ...
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Okay so it isn't the first Christmas ever or even the first Christmas we knew each other, but it is our first Christmas together in person and our first Christmas as husband and wife.  So here is how we celebrated the best holiday of the year.

We decorated our room in the beginning of November with a tree and stockings.



Here is the tree with the gifts under it.  We bought lights and lots of cute decorations for the tree.  We actually bought most of our decorations including the tree in the Phil...
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Ronna and I just wanted to wish our mother a happy, happy birthday.  Today, October 7th is her birthday and since we couldn't be there in person we are doing everything else that we can to let her know how special she is and how much she means to us.  So enjoy your day mom and again HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

With lots of LOVE from ScRonna. :)
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So if you read my earlier blog about the super special anniversary on September 14, 2011 that was actually our civil wedding day here in Singapore.  That was the day I became the luckiest man on Earth when Ronna said "I do" to marrying me.  It was a very small affair and we enjoyed it very much.  However, we are also looking very much forward to the big church wedding in the Philippines and our US wedding in the future.  One thing I have learned in life is that there are very few people you c...
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Hey all.  Sorry it has been so long since my last blog.  Nothing new is really going on over here.  I have been working for about a month now and today is my first day off in 18 days.  I work very long hours over here, but the work is very easy.  So I can't say I work hard, but I definitely work a lot.  I basically work 13 days and then I get 1 day off.  The work ethic here in Singapore is to work a lot of hours.  I find it to be ridiculous, but that is the way it is.  Of course I am looking ...
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So MOM approved my employment pass application to work as an assistant Manager at Tony Buzan's Learning Centre here in Singapore.  So MOM does like me after all and I am not talking about my biological mother.  She has to like me, actually she has to love me.  I think it's a law or something.  Anyways, MOM is the Ministry of Manpower and they are the governing body here in Singapore that approves all work permits.  So my work permit application was approved and I should have it in my hands so...
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Yahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I finally got a job.  I signed the contracts last night.  My only obstacle left is getting the job approved by MOM (Ministry of Manpower).  MOM is the government agency responsible for giving out work visas.  So if all goes well MOM will approve my job and give me a multiple year work visa.  Then I can start working.  We are hoping I will begin around August 15th.  MOM's job is to make sure that all immigrants are adding value to the community.  T...
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So in case you haven't figured it out.  Ronna said yes to my proposal and we are engaged and actively planning our wedding at the moment.  Here is a picture of the ring as promised.



This is Ronna giving me the finger................the ring finger that is.  :)  Anyways, here is a close up of the ring.



The 3 rings (engagement and 2 weeding bands) are all white gold solitaire style and the engagement ring obviously has a very nice diamond in it.  The rings are very simple, yet very eloquent.  We ...
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Last night I arrived back in Singapore.  Ronna met me at the airport even though I didn't arrive until 12:45am in the morning.  We smiled, hugged, and kissed each other when we finally saw each other.  I was very happy to be back with her.  I had her engagement ring in my pocket and I pulled her aside in the airport to a quieter spot and we just talked for a few minutes.  I was stalling to find the right moment to propose to her.  I was planning on torturing her for a week or so since she kne...
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Tonight Ronna made my favorite Filipino dish for my birthday dinner, Calderetta.


 
Calderetta reminds me a lot of bistek ranchero.  It is stewed beef in a tomato based sauce with potatoes, carrots, and bell peppers.  It is usually served over rice.  And all the housemates were off tonight so they were able to eat dinner with us.  Here is Ronna cooking the calderetta.



Thank you baby for a wonderful birthday with lots of wonderful meals and surprises.  I love you sooooooooo much.  This was truly t...
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Today for lunch I met Ronna and some of her office mates for a birthday lunch.  We ate at Pastamania which is a big pizza chain here in Singapore.  They even bought me a cake.  We had a very nice lunch.  It is also interesting to note that it was a very diverse group.  From left to right in the picture we have a Chinese, Filipina, American/Mexican, Malay/Indian, Singaporean, and Thai.  I don't think I have ever been in such diversity before.  Anyways, I noticed the diversity during our lunch ...
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Ronna surprised me with this cake at midnight.  SHe said she needed to go to the bathroom and when she opened the door she was holding a birthday cake for me.  It caught me completely off guard.  What a nice surprise.  This is turning out to be the best birthday ever.  Not only do I get a birthday surprise, but she sent me home to see my family.  I am definitely the luckiest guy in the world.  Not only do I love her soooooo much, but I can feel her love too.  She makes me feel sooooooooo spec...
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Yay for Ronna!!!  She just got a promotion at work effective July 1st.  She used to be a Junior Accountant and now she is a Senior Accountant.  And of course with a promotion comes a raise. :)  I am very proud of her.  She works so hard and definitely deserves the promotion and raise.  She will now have a small finance team that will work under her.  She is at the top of the supervisor chain for finance.  Her next promotion would move her up into management.  So anyways, I just wanted to cong...
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So it is almost my 32nd birthday and this will be the first time I have ever been outside of San Diego or away from my family on my birthday.  But if you think about it I will still not be away from my family as Ronna is now a part of my family.  In fact the two of us are now a new family unit in our family with her and our family unit being my priority in life.  So I guess I will be with family on my birthday.  But to make it even better Ronna has bought me a ticket back to San Diego for my ...
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Hey all well I have good and bad news for you today.  I think I will start off with the bad news first.  Ronna was denied her US tourist visa this morning.  So what that means is we will not be visiting in September after all.  They denied her because they said she didn't prove to them well enough that she is coming back to Singapore after our trip.  Basically they think we are going to illegally stay in the US once we are there.  So while it is sad it is not the end of the world.  It does no...
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Ahhhhh!  Back in Krabi again.  So the second side trip with Ronny and Marisa was to Krabi, Thailand and this time Ronna came with us.  We actually made a long weekend out of it.  I said hi to all my friends and they did remember me.  There was a few new faces and a few old faces were gone.  On our first day we booked our tours and explored the town.  We had lunch in the town of Ao Nang and walked around a little bit.  We then did the monkey trail, but unfortunately the monkeys must have been ...
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Yahhhhhhh!!!  I finally got my iPad 2 after months of waiting.  I decided around Christmas time to get an iPad, but I wanted to wait for the iPad 2 since it was coming out soon.  Well in March it came out in the US, but not in Singapore.  So I had to wait some more.  Then in the beginning of April Apple announced the iPad would be available in Singapore in April sometime.  Well they announced on Thursday morning that it would be out on Friday.  So I lined up at EpiCentre (a premium Apple rese...
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Yahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!  I just got my one year social visit pass (SVP) today.  So I can now officially stay in Singapore for one year.  The pass is an ID card and whenever I leave the country going through immigration should be easier.  My next step is to find a job.  So far everything is going good.

Only 5 days until the next set of visitors arrive.  :)
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So here is a few of the pictures with the first set of visitors.  We did lots of stuff everyday.  In fact I kept them so busy I can't even remember all the things we did.  I was completely exhausted by the time they left, but we had a great time with the visitors and we know they had a great time too.  So here we go.  This is a picture at night along the waterfront near downtown.



Pictured is Ronna with Koreena and Nicole.  Next is Nicole and I hiking through the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve.
 


We ...
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Whew!!!  Since the visitors arrived a few days ago we have been running around Singapore non-stop.  So far we have gone to like a thousand shopping malls, Buddhist temples, Hindi temples, Muslim mosques, Sentosa, Little India, Chinatown, 2 shows, the night safari, hiked in the rainforest, and rode the flyer.  I promise to post some pictures of all these things as soon as I get some free time, which will probably be after they leave.  So stay posted for some great pictures.
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I normally meet Ronna for lunch on Tuesdays and Thursday (that way she can still spend time with her friends and colleagues on the other days like she used to before I came here).  We always eat near her work.  Usually at the nearby MRT station (there's a Japanese resto we like a lot there) or at the Amoy St. hawkers center (which we just call Amoy).  Every once in a while we will go somewhere else but 95% we go to one of these 2 places.  Today we ate at Amoy.  There are lots of options there...
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I have just received two great pieces of information today.  First, I have been approved in principle for my one year visa here in Singapore.  To get the long term visit pass I just need to get a medical examination and submit my paperwork that I already submitted online.  I have my appointment with immigration on April 27th.  So the visa is as good as mine and I will officially have it April 27th assuming I run into no problems (which I shouldn't).  Second, I just got notice that my student ...
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Last Sunday we took a walk/hike along the southern ridges here in Singapore.  There are actually a bunch of trails that all connect to form a long path (about 6 miles) through the southern ridges.  Before we left we packed a lunch and some water so we could stop and have a picnic along the way.  The whole trip took us about 5 hours, but we also took our time and enjoyed.  It could easily be done in half the time or even quicker.  We took the bus to Vivocity, which is a mall that is also the g...

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Hey all sorry for the delay.  I am having technical difficulties with the website.  I can see the website fine, but I am having trouble loading the sitebuilder website.  I am working with support from the website, but I don’t know if I will ever get it fixed.  So by now you may be wondering how I am blogging right now.  Well these new blogs were written on Ronna's laptop.  I completely forgot about her laptop as we always use my since it is faster.  I also wanted to say thanks to my dad...

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Hey all.  I am doing great here in Singapore.  I just watched the SDSU Aztec game yesterday morning.  What a tough loss.  But I am so proud of what they have been able to accomplish.  I can only imagine how exciting it must have been in San Diego to watch them.  I am very excited to see what the future holds for the program as it has been getting better and better each year.  So anyways, GREAT JOB AZTECS!!!  Today I will be changing rooms after church.  We will be moving across the hallway to...
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Don't worry everyone.  We are okay here in Singapore.  We did not feel the earthquake and we did not get any tsunami waves here.  We are pretty far from Japan and we have lots of land around us to shield us.  So no need to worry.

Just to clarify things I did not get my work visa yet just my employment pass which is the first step in getting a work visa.  You have to get a employment pass before you can apply for a work visa.  So now I can apply for my work visa and it should take around a mont...
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I just got approved for my employment pass.  I needed to get this before I could apply for my 1 year work visa.  So next week I should get the pass in the mail and then I can continue working on my visa.  I am just happy I passed the first step and I am one step closer to getting my visa.  Other than that it has been a normal week.  I saw a few movies.  The Adjustment Bureau is very good, I Am Number Four is okay, and Red Riding Hood is kind of boring.  I am hoping to see Rango and Gnomeo And...
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No news on the job applications, but it has only been a week.  I don't expect to hear anything for about a month as the job openings don't close until the end of the month.  As far as the work visa goes I submitted some supporting documents, but haven't heard anything since.  I should be getting my employmeny pass any time now.  As soon as I get that I can apply for the actual visa.  Well that is it for now.  I haven't done much this week as we are in the middle of searching for a new apartme...

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I have just begun the process to get a one year work visa.  I have also just applied for 3 jobs at the zoo.  One is a behind the scenes guide for private groups, another is for a junior animal management officer (which sounds a lot like a keeper, but somehow it is different), and finally for a sound tech assistant at one of the shows.  Wish me luck and I will keep you updated on all of this.  I should know about everything within the month.
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I didn't really do anything blog-worthy last weekend.  I saw a movie on Friday night (Friday night is movie night), went shopping on Saturday (went to like 11 malls), and went to church and relaxed all day on Sunday.  Although my girlfriend, Ronna, did make adobo and rice on Sunday.  It was really good.  Adobo is a Filipino dish that is basically meat in a mixture of soy sauce and vingear.  Other than that it was a typical weekend.  Since not too exciting occurred last weekend I decided I wou...
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I am very excited because I have two groups of visitors coming to visit me here in Singapore.  The first group has already bought their tickets and are coming in April.  The second group is about to buy their tickets and coming in May.  It will be nice to see people from back home.  I am very excited.  I hope more people I know will take advantage of the opportunity to travel and stay with me here in Singapore. :)
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The weather has been getting hotter lately, but it has still rained a few days in the early evening.  It has been a typical week.  Although I have started to settle in more.  I finally moved into my temporary rented room and I will move into my permanent room on Saturday.  Well permanent until I change apartments in April.  It feels nice to have place to stay other than a hotel.  I have already started cooking my own meals and even went grocery shopping the other day.  I have also been doing ...
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So I am back in Singapore after my short trip to the Philippines.  The weather has been hotter and no rain, but I still haven't done much here worthy of blogging.  I am going to the night safari tonight, but I don't know if I will be able to get any good pictures being nighttime and all.  But I will try.  Tomorrow I will be going to the bird park.  So hopefully I will have some good stuff to show you in the next few days.  Anyways, I just wanted to show you a few pictures of Singapore.  This ...
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Hey all it has been raining everyday here lately.  It cycles between a light rain and heavy rain pretty much all day long.  I guess this is why they call it the rainy season.  So because of the rain I haven't been able to do much or take any pictures.  At the end of my last trip I ruined my new camera by getting steam in it from the hot springs in Thailand so I am being extra careful this time around.  So sadly I don't have much to report here in this blog.  I was hoping to go to the bird par...
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So after returning to Singapore from Thaipusam I have been a bit sick with a cold so I had been taking it easy.  I have walked around the city a little bit more, but I haven't done much else.  I plan to go to the night safari and the bird park soon.  I am currently planning to go to the Philippines next.  I will be going around Feburary 3rd.  Well that is it for now.  Once I feel better and do more stuff I will blog again.  I only plan on blogging once to twice a week just so you know.  Talk ...
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Hey all sorry for the delay.  It has been a busy first 2 weeks, I didn't have reliable internet until now, and I am a bit sick with a cold.  The next 3 blogs will get you up to date with what I have been doing.  This first blog will cover my first few days in Singapore.  Singapore is a small island nation just south of Malaysia.  The people here Chinese, Indian, or Malaysian (just like Malaysian).  In fact Singapore used to be part of Malaysia, but it separated itself around the 1960's I beli...
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