Hey Guys!
I’ve been sitting here writing posts about how I’ve been packing for my recent travels and my various London city guides and realized I haven’t explained what I’m up to!
For those of you that don’t know this about me (but I do mention it a lot because it legit is an FAQ) I’m half Singaporean and half Canadian, my mom is from Singapore and moved to Canada where she met my Dad, got married and then had me. I grew up in Canada around my Dad’s side of the family and went to Singapore every year or two to spend a holiday with my Mom’s side. Then high school and university happened leaving very little time to make to trek across the world and resulted in us not going for that whole period of time.
After 8 years, both of my maternal grandparents passing, and a sense that I was losing touch with my Asian side I pretty much put my foot down and said to my parents that we are going to Singapore no if and’s or buts. This makes me sound like a spoilt brat but I genuinely wanted to go back so badly, so for Christmas 2016 we went to Singapore, Cambodia and Thailand, and that was the first or three trips I made back to Singapore from December 2016 to January 2018 (I pretty much went back every six months).
On that first trip back I went on a date with my now significant other Raden, and on my second trip back in July, we started publically dating. As things progressed and we got more serious we began to plan how to spend less time apart, balancing his class schedule (he’s a masters student in London) and my class/work schedule. Since we both knew we were going to be back in Singapore we knew that we would be able to spend some time there together, and because London is a route possibility flying from Singapore to Toronto we would be able to spend time in London together either before or after Christmas. Timing and pre-Christmas being what it is, we opted to spend time together in London on my way back home to Toronto.
Spending time in London with Raden has been for two main reasons, the first is to hang out and spend time together and second to figure out how we work as a couple. In the months between both of us being in Singapore, we saw each other three times; in August in Toronto, in November in Toronto, and November in London. Before that, we saw each other in July (Singapore/Bali), twice in March (in our uni town) and then our first date last December (Singapore). All in all, we haven’t spent a significant amount of time in person and each time we’ve seen the other it’s been really hectic trying to fit in friends, family, sightseeing and time for just the two of us. We always felt like we were running out of time and couldn’t devote enough time to anything. Being in London for this extended stay has alleviated the “rushing” and feeling of running out of time. It has allowed us to feel less pressured to do things, meet up with people and allowed us to just be us. In figuring out how we work as a couple, because I’m staying with him, we are living together… talk about zero to a hundred REAL FAST. We knew that we wanted to put ourselves in this position and figuring out if we can co-habitat and what that looks like because we are faced with the less conventional situation of not knowing where Raden is going to get a job after graduating from his Masters and we may move in together depending on where that job is. Know the immediate question of “why wouldn’t you guys just live in the same city but not together” may come up, the answer is simply that’s the decision we’ve come to and what we think will work best for us.
Besides getting to know my boyfriend better and figuring out life together, I’ve been touristing around London, blogging, studying and enjoying my time! Make sure to stay tuned for more London content!
xoxo Steph
