A Special Expat Welcoming - Tara Romoff

Tara Romoff is an avid rambler and world explorer. She was born in England, lived in Portugal as a young child, and then moved to Toronto, Canada where she lived during her school years. After marrying her high-school sweetheart, she relocated to Chicago and raised her two kids. She and her husband recently moved from Singapore to Atlanta.

When we moved to Singapore over a year ago, a friend from Toronto put me in touch with a couple of people who lived here. I reached out and called one of them - a man named Haas. Hass kindly spent a couple of hours sharing everything he knew about Singapore with me. Since then, I have relayed many of his exciting tidbits to everyone who will listen.

He followed up with various websites to check out, apartment listings, hints, and articles he hoped would make our relocation easier. He even offered to front us some money at one point when we were having banking issues.

We were incredibly touched by his generosity of knowledge, time, and assistance. Hass had lived here for over 15 years and had a plethora of helpful information. He reached out every few days to see if we needed help with anything, and then a sweet invite arrived one day.

This wasn’t just any invite; it was for Thanksgiving Dinner. Since Singapore was still in lockdown and you could only have a limited number of people over at a time, we felt like the chosen ones. At first, I was confused since neither he nor his wife Sarah is American; however, they do have a few excellent friends who are, and Sarah is a sucker for all things turkey. 

We accepted the invitation willingly and spent the next couple of weeks feeling like we were about to go on a first date. I thought about what I was going to wear. I even thought about what my husband Joff was going to wear. We weren’t sure what was appropriate as it had been a while since we had had Thanksgiving dinner in the tropics, let alone about to meet people for the first time for a special meal.

A loop was running through my head. Would it be awkward? Would they like us? I reminded myself that our toes had to be presentable since shoes are strictly removed before entering someone’s home here. This is a bummer since footwear greatly influences my outfit choices.

I offered to bring dessert because we were still in temporary housing and had limited cooking capabilities. Plus, I needed to learn how to use our Asian kitchen appliances. I had recently attempted to cook a steak in a microwave/oven, which was a disaster.

I assumed there would be pumpkin pie, so I searched for something else. I set my sights on finding the perfect cake. After roaming the ridiculous amount of bakeries and pastry shops, I settled on a lemon cheesecake from a lovely little patisserie down the street. I ordered it and arranged for it to be ready on the morning of the big date. 

When I arrived to pick it up, they had packaged it up nicely in a box and tied it up with a pretty ribbon. As I stood at the counter contemplating grabbing a taxi for fear of the cake melting before I got home, I was assured there was no need for concern as the cake was carefully and securely surrounded by special cooling packs is customary here. 

After much primping and the switching of outfits a few hours later, we set off with the cake, a bottle of wine, and our freshly pedicured toes to Hass and Sarah’s. We reached the floor of their apartment, found the right door removed our shoes and added them to a huge pile, and hesitantly knocked on the door. 

We were the first to arrive. The pile of shoes was all theirs. When I handed over the cake box, a huge smile spread over Sarah’s face, and she explained this was the same bakery that made their wedding cake. She called Hass over to show him the box, and you could tell both were transported back in time. So far, so good. 

Following many compliments about the choice of bakeries, we were then greeted with hugs and questions that made us feel so incredibly welcome. 

More guests arrived and were welcomed similarly, and then we enjoyed a sumptuous meal and copious amounts of wine. We ended the night just short of 2am, exchanging numbers for future get-togethers. Note this was a school night because there are no days off for American Thanksgiving in Singapore. 

Since then, we have had many dinner parties and outings, including another fantastic Thanksgiving dinner. 

I hope to pay this kindness forward someday to someone new moving into my hometown. Until then, we are forever grateful for that initial introduction and the incredibly warm reception we received at dinner.