singaporisms

greetings from sweatiness central -- abe, i chose this particularly flattering photograph especially for you!! normally i'd have a sufficient sense of self preservation not to put a pic like this up but i am currently in the aftermath of the depicted glory... yes, i engaged in a 'singaporism' = late night jogging outside-- as you can see this is not for the faint of heart... you step outside and immediately you are covered in sweat....although i have to say it was a lot easier than i expected! (go figure)Jenn is arriving here for her weekend of fun in s'g and instead of doing school work (sigh) i thought i'd share with you some cultural 'highlights'......
1. 'la': much like 'eh', 'la' can be added to the end of just about anything... essentially it means, right? for example, Q: can i break a 50? A: ok-la
2. if people walked any slower here they wouldnt be moving - perhaps evolution and oppressive heat has just gotten the better of everyone
3. moving out of the bus occurs in both directions (yes, imagine how much longer this takes) moving onto the subway does not require one to wait for other people to get off-- its way more fun if you just plow into them...
4. ladies first? not likely when it comes to lines or seats (but they have free booze on wednesday - sandra i'll have to tell you those stories sometime later ;) )
5. anything you want, someone will agree to give you -- but they never mean they are agreeing...real life example: Tanya: i dont want soup, i want noodles vendor: ok-la result: tanya gets a take-away soup (repeat this in every situation- lesson learnt: make sure you specifically point out what you want!)
6. if you want something done simply or efficiently - forget it.. there is one way, it must be done that way
7. although the city is approximately 45 minutes to drive across and many times smaller than the niagara region (thanks, vlad) no cab driver has any clue where they are going --- EVER.... my dad thinks this is a ploy to make more money...i am more convinced they are genuinely clueless
8. if you have a boyfriend (or girlfriend) you must be touching them at all times during your life... you must lean on them on the shuttle bus, you must sit on them in the study rooms, makeout at the bus stops or in a swimming lane of the pool.... example, if your man goes on the treadmill, you should stand next to it to keep him company (for the record i almost got of mine due to the revulsion i felt at this true life scene)
9. if you are on the subway you must fall asleep - preferably with your mouth open (what is most impressive is that people magically wake up at their stops!)

ok, so thats an odd number but these are the ones i can think of right now!!! maybe it will help you to imagine life here!

on a roll....

yes i realize this is post two in one day but technically it is two days where you are so whateves... i attempted to take an 'of the moment' pic of myself to share with you -- but as per usual blogger isnt letting me upload it.. which is too bad, i thought it really captured what i'm doing here (aka nothing)

i may or may not have mentionned to some of you that recently i have been feeling a little 'fed up' of singapore- i will elaborate on this when i write my bit on 'singaporisms' but for now i will recount a bit of my day that i found redeeming

i went to the pool this afternoon to swim my painfully short distance (450m- laugh if you will, but it gets me tired enough that sometimes i try to breathe underwater - which, for the record is quite uncomfortable not to mention impracticable!) when i was leaving one of the peeps at the gate brought to my attention that my front crawl happens to be "all wrong" (i suppose i shouldnt be surprised) anyway, after giving me several tips on my stroke, 'Ken' and i had quite a little chat about life, love and work.... here are some gems from ken

1. true love is hard to find - if you find it once, no matter how long it is, you should consider yourself lucky
2. life is like a train - you get off at different points, decide which path to take and this repeats itself over and over - there is no use dwelling on things- just accept them as part of your journey
3. ideally, do a job that could double as a hobby
4. this being said, divorce lawyers in singapore make some serious coin, read: up to 38,000 per month (his advice - that i relocate here! ... too bad i never took family law!)
5. plan to be independent and able to support yourself
6. society owes poor old people basic necessities - like drugs, for example, they've paid their dues already
7. 13 year old girls are hard to raise
8. you decide whether or not to be happy in your life, and you get just one life, so confront your emotions and decide to be happy - no excuses!!!

not bad from a 3o minute conversation at the side of the pool, eh? (my friendly face does it again)

after my pool jaunt i headed accross the street to a canteen - while i was eating 'Umar' came up to me and introduced himself-- from Ghana, he was interested to know where i was from (not too many of us africans running around NUS) ... turns out hes an economics phd student who just finished writing and submitting his phd in economic models for business and monetary policy... we had a most interesting conversation about economics, development and democracy - here's what we reflected on:

1. whether there is hope for africa ... given the lack of infrastructure or a foundation of honest politicians or informed citizenry, Umar fears that there is not
2. is democracy the be all and end all? democratic ideals might work well in the west where most people at least have 3 regular meals - but does it matter if you can demonstrate if nothing compels your government to action? the answer might just be no....
3. this leads to ideas that governments much like singapore's (i.e. strong 'dictators' with rigid policies and little room for political dissent) might be a better model for african countries ... some have began to study this -- he used the term 'looking to the east'

this discussion interfaced nicely with a documentary i watched this morning on singapore (loving this internet tv thing) which discussed the social policies of the government here... i found myself wondering about how bad it is that people here dont have much of a say against their government... and maybe for singapore the time has come for people to challenge the status quo... but i hadnt considered that maybe for other countries in the world, this place could serve as an example, at least a more relevant one in terms of lifting people out of poverty....

so my trip to the pool led to some very interesting conversations, quite different from the crazies that are typically the only people who approach me at home... nice work, singapore!

ok, so i know its been two weeks!

blogger as usual is messing up -- so you'll have to check out my pictures link to see evidence of my latest adventures :) -- i dont know why i am having so much trouble with it, but alas, of course i cant hope to fix it!

last night i just discovered 'nusnet' -- we can watch television online on the school server -- things are about to get really dangerous, i fear... i just watched a documentary on singapore and now they have moved on to christopher columbus -- less interesting but you know how tv starts to suck you in.... alas, i will try my best to fill my time with something else!

so last week i actually did some work and completed a draft of one of my 3 essays... this was on wednesday and i promptly shut off my brain for the rest of the week!! i wrote my essay on the sex trade in Thailand and how government policies and complacency has led to a situation where the country is known world wide for its sex trade, women and children are being trafficked and AIDS is on the rise... its a pretty sad situation really... i initially had wanted to do something on tourism in south east asia and its impact on the people who live here- but unfortunately there wasnt enough material... but it really got me thinking about the impact of my travelling on the places i go to -- for example: the high amount of natural resources it takes to fly, the strain my consumption of electricity and water puts on already taxed infrastructure, how tourism helps to entrench gendered roles and limits the choices of the people impacted.... anyway, before you all fall asleep- its really interesting stuff! i swear!

on thursday night we went to New Asia Bar which is on top of the Swisshotel -- happy hour is from 3-9 (not bad eh? kind of compensates for the 20 dollar drinks - which are half price during this time!) checked out the view of singapore -- sure that you'll find it pales in comparison to hong kong--- its mainly just endless rows of apartments that everyone here lives in!! it was good fun though- dressed up and most of us had some nice cocktails--- i say 'most' becuase i was greatly amused by the one called 'gentle testicles' (ridic!) and of course had to order it-- and it was AWFUL -- take a look at my pics for my genuine reaction... serves me right, i guess :(

friday anna, tanya and i went to luke's place for a party - luke also goes to western and himself, his girlfriend, and two other people share an appartment- which is AMAZING -- the apartment itself is really nice and fairly big, and the ammenities! they have a pool, a gym, a sauna, a hot tub, tennis courts and even a mini putt!! imagine! it was dark but i took a bunch of pictures and couldnt stop gushing --- what difference compared to the halls of prince george's park where i spend my time! and as for the party (hahaha) it was very good, spent the evening out on the patio by the pool chatting and having some drinks...

at the end of the week, tanya and i decided that we wanted to go to a beach for the weekend - given our poor planning skills we didnt actually leave for this excursion until sunday!! we ended up going to pulau sibu in malaysia from sunday until wednesday... its this tiny island (1km by 6km) and there was pretty much no one there! until tuesday, it was tanya and i and this older couple and a group of 20 kids and their teachers from some private school in KL (pretty nice school trip if you ask me!!) normally you'd think that 20 kids would just about ruin anything but to our great surprise, we hardly noticed they were there! this is partly because they had activities seemingly all day everyday but also because they were ridiculously well behaved! we pretty much never heard them- even during their free time!!! come to think of it, it was actually kind of creepy! (LOL) ... so for a couple days all i did was eat, sleep, swim and (gasp) school work! (its way easier to do without distractions-- case in point is the fact that i am writing this entry instead of working this right now!)

the staff there was pretty nice too -- we ended up talking a lot to the cook, who regaled us with stories of reality tv and, later one evening, his one night stint in jail for masterminding ripping off some credit card!! i also went swimming at night - which was really awesome because i am totally scared of water at night and also of all the bloody crabs that were out chillin for the evening--- funny part is that i went with some english dude that worked there who i didnt realize was hitting on tanya and i when we were on the shore -- until i was out in the water with him and he started talking about how lonely it is on the island and how girls have treated him bad in the past -- tanya of course had had the sense not to come into the water-- so there i was, being all sympathetic and at the same time marvelling at my stupidity.... lol... one day i'll get it

we came back to singapore yesterday afternoon and then went to a graduation dinner for law students here... it was really nice... we got all dressed up, and the food was fantastic! it even made me a little nostalgic about the end of my law school days... and not being at home to finish them!! it was nice nonetheless and i'm happy that at least i started to feel some of that - given that sometimes it feels so far away from where i am now- and it was fun to have a dinner to commemorate graduation, even if it wasnt with my class! .... on a side note, one of my profs stopped me when we were going into the dinner to ask me 'whether i had time for such an even given my school work'... i'm not so hot on this prof because has sent me a couple relatively rude emails and also insists on calling me rachel despite the fact that i dont even call myself that! of course i gave my 'polite girl' answer... but then, guess who ended up at our dinner table!! ridic- it figures! he's even in a pic with me and jo - taken just before he started asking us what we think of singaporean guys - eek! i'll save my answer for my next entry where i plan to outline some of the highlights of 'singaporean' culture as i see it.... since i'm here all this weekend... rest assured this will come sooner than later!

holla.

this should go below the picture... but blogger keeps messing up!

yesterday i turned the big 2-4 --thanks for all the birthday wishes from home! it was the best 36 hours of birthday i ever had ;)

this pic of us is at cafe iguana- which is in clarke quay -- a strip of clubs and restaurants and such along the riverside here in singapore -- very nice to eat outside by the river-- and the food was mexican and (surprisingly) excellent! afterwards we headed to a local club 'attica' and hung out for a bit- breathing on the dance floor was like smoking a cigarette so we mainly stayed out on the patio -- none of my usual dancing antics (proof i suppose of getting older!)

i have been here in singapore since we got back from vietnam and have had the pleasure of writing a 48 hour take home exam on material i had no clue about this past weekend... my only hope is that my ramblings were sufficient to pass (they should be as they were taken in entirety from the professors book!)

as jenn is coming at the end of march and chris at the beginning of april, i am attempting to force myself to do work (3 essays) so that i will be able to more fully devote myself to dicking around for the last 5 weeks of my exchange... this plan is not working well -- this week i:

1. slept most of monday (because i spent sunday night making up for procrastinating throughout the weekend)
2. went to a photo exhibit at Alliance Francais on monday night (instead of working on a paper with a friend) and then because i didnt have enough free wine, went to this bar called 'Loof' which is a play on how asians say 'roof' -- its on a roof too and its pretty chill - nice patio, not too loud music- and the singapore standard- steeply priced drinks! (read 78 sing dollars for a bottle of house wine!)
3. slept most of tuesday - save a half hearted attempt at working in the mid afternoon with jo-- its like having a fever, its so hot here mid day (say about 40 with the humidity) and then your bod goes into shock in the air con (which i swear is like 10 degrees) -- no happy medium, therefore no happy student!
4. wednesday was my birthday -- no one works on their birthday -- plus i ate chicken at the thai place in our canteen for lunch, because i do really like green curry -- and figured that one cant contract bird flu on their birthday -- but i've been feeling sick since then...so i'll update you on the results of that theory
5. today jo physically dragged me to go study with her at the business school... i spent at least a third of the time stretched out on a bench napping (oops)
6. tonight i went out with my law buddy and one of his friends, wai lai (prob spelt wrong) for dinner - we went to holland village - which is this trendy, kind of ex pat little area not too far from the school -- we had noodles and Marc (my buddy) ordered his with pig intestine - just so he could force me to try it --- if you are wondering about this- it is NOT good - it was a little sour and i just couldnt help myself from remembering what intestines do!!!

--> as usual i learned some new 'tidbits' - here is the most interesting:
we went to different places to try some 'singaporean desserts'.. at one of our stops we each got a different dish -- mine was this brown liquid with nuts and barley and dried longun -which is supposed to make me feel better in light of my recent food poisoning/brush with bird flu
another one was made of beans in a thick syrup with fried dough on top -- simple enough, but
the fried dough is done in rows of two -- this is because once there was a chinese admiral who was murdered by a man and a woman who were traitors (of the government), the frying of the two rows is symbolic of frying the murderers and apparently at the grave of this admiral there are statutes of the man and woman (one on either side) that the people who visit the grave spit on!! imagine ... and i thought fried dough was just tasty fattiness!

and that, my friends, is all i got...

24 in the 'pore!

the pic i was referring two in the entry below- i've been trying to post that entry since tuesday, so when it started to work, i just went with it- and quickly! :)

vietnam

some preliminaries:
thank you kevin and abe for your 'comments' i apologize for not having updated this sooner - you were right in that it is going to take a hell of a bit of time to blog now that it is all over (and so, lucky reader, vietnam might just be a two part entry)
thank you puster, for providing somewhat timely advice and for trash talking me to all those who would listen -- perhaps in the future i may travel with you, and provided we dont kill one another, i might learn to get it right...

ok, to vietnam!

we flew out on saturday (18th) evening to hanoi - when we got off the plane it was like stepping out into a different world - unsure of where to find the airport shuttle we went to the information desk and were given a blank stare and '$12' as a response... undaunted we went out into the night and randomly saw a rickety minibus that turned out to be the shuttle -- welcome to vietnam!

the bus drops us off in the middle of nowhere and instantly we are swarmed by about 15 men all asking us to go with them to their hotel on their bike or in their cab.. overwhelemed tanya and i latched onto a pair of german girls who actually made a reservation and went with them to their hostel (thinking safety in numbers) -- for $8 US we had the pleasure of sleeping in what was essentially an ash tray that opened up into the alley (ok, so the back door was raised about 10 cm off the ground!!) needless to say we found another spot for the next night, which was probably the best place we stayed for only $2 more!!

in hanoi we saw ho chi min himself (or uncle ho, to those who regard him with affection) you may ask yourself - did he not die almost 40 years ago? - and you would be right, but luckily they have preserved his body and he is lying in state in a mausoleum with dim orange lighting, a faint chemical smell and surrounded by guards -- believe me, its more than a little creepy!

walking around the city we also saw 250lb preserved turtle - which finally gave me some insight into why puster loved the city so much- they are really into turtles, something to do with a story about a turtle in the lake in the middle of the city keeping a sword safe or something.. which was also a story we saw acted out in the water puppet show we saw-- very cool

from hanoi we did two day trips: one to the perfume pagoda and the other to halong bay

perfume pagoda: because it is just after the lunar new year, many local people make a pilgramage to this pagoda which is named after the strong scent of incense that surrounds it... after driving for a couple hours 18 of us got into a really small boat rowed by someone in the back and in the front--- seriously, the boat was floating just above the water- i'd say not more than 10 cm... initially i was not cool with this because i was sitting on the end and we all know about how i swim (and obiviously safety is not an issue for those administering the trip!) but since the boat ride was about an hour and the scenery was so nice and there were sooo many other boats, eventually i forgot about it! the pagoda itself was about 4km up a mountain side which was essentially a bunch of loose dirt and rocks lined with stalls of people selling an insane variety of things... when you finally make it to the top, you descend into this cave which is where the shrine is and it is packed with people praying, picnicing and trying to catch water dripping from the ceiling 'for prosperity'!!!

halong bay: is a unesco world heritage site (note to self: figure out what that actually means!) we took a one day boat tour that drove us through the bay (you'll have to check out the pictures) it was really beautiful and i can only imagine what it might look like when the sky was not overcast (its spring there, so everything was grey) the trip was really good - and came complete with an offer to go to heaven from our tour guide (i'd explain if i understood) and being swindled by the locals (offered a boat ride into a 'cave' which actually turned out to be just riding under a rock to see exactly the same stuff that was on the other side!)

then we took a night bus to hue - which is also filled with unesco sites and hired motor bike drivers to take us to them because we only wanted to spend one night in the city! i think that vietnam easily has the most motor bikes in the world and they are all careening and weaving through traffic, honking madly and stopping for no one-- although it was slightly less crazy in hue as compared to hanoi or saigon - it was still a crazy ride-- and the air in vietnam- AWFUL soo polluted from the diesel -- i bought the mask in the pic above for jokes since everyone seemed to be wearing one... and then when i was on the bike i actually put it on for real- because the air was that bad! my driver got a real kick out of the fact that i had one!!

the next day we took a beautiful bus ride down to hoi an and chilled out in the nice old town... really good for walking around and relaxing, we also toured the 'old town historic sites' another unesco heritage thing... i also succumbed to having some clothes made-- i guess thats no surprise-- there are more tailors there than you can imagine, lining the streets, imploring you to come in- it was absolutely insane- you could even get shoes made (ridiculous) in the end i got some pants and a jacket- i think they did a nice job... and it wasnt like walking up to a sweatshop which is what sealed the deal for me (except later tanya was like- they are probably on the outskirts of town! - shit! we came to the conclusion that at the very least it was good we skipped the western middle man in getting the stuff made) ... i also was stopped in the street by this random guy who wanted to take a picture with me -- its not easy being the only black person fro miles!!!

then we took an absolutely insane 24 hour bus ride to saigon... i swear to you, i was convinced i was going to contract birdflu!!! like 3 people on the bus were hacking their lungs out the entire night and one of our drivers pretty much left his esophagus out on the road hoarking out the window in intervals of less than a minute (yes, T and i timed it, it was that bad) all i have to say is thank god for my mp3 player- THANK GOD ... it was also really handy when the second driver thought that driving through mountains in the middle of the night was best done as fast as possible (how fast? who knows? the odometer wasnt working!!) ... needless to say, morning was a relief!! dropped off most of the bus in Na Trang (i moved promptly to the back to get away from el horko) and the scenery on the way to Mue Ne was gorgeous (as was the beach, which we sadly stopped at for only one hour-- sigh!!!!)

saigon was way more modern than any of the other cities we visited but just as crazy busy as hanoi was... again we were swarmed by people 'marketing' their hotels and managed to retreat into a back alley where lo and behold we found accomodation! the following morning we went to the Cu Chi tunnels- that the viet cong constructed to evade the americans during the war -- it was truely amazing to see how ingenius the network was -- kilometer after kilometer of tunnels, with kitchens, reading rooms and hospital sections -- it was even several layers deep becoming increasingly narrow to permit only the smaller vietnamese bodies from going through the tunnels!!! they had decoy tunnels and entrances to trap americans and had vents from their kitchens diverted to spots well away from the actual tunnels- it was incredible! we went through a part of the tunnels that had been widened for north americans- it was so small i still had to crawl on my hands and knees and it was pitch black -- a little scarey!

the next day we went to the mekong delta to see the islands and hang out.. had a pretty good tour, ate some coconut candy (which i later found out includes durian- ick! - -- dont worry, am bringing some back :) ) drank some banana wine (you'll want to pass on that)... didnt see any rice paddies tho (apparently that was for the two day tour) but i saw them up north -- interesting thing about them is that there are sometimes graves in the middle of paddies- that is because people had to bury their dead on their own land, and sometimes that is all the land they had!! probably not a bad side advantage to have some fertilizer for the crops!!!

and the next day (thankfully, because my wrist is cramping) we checked out some markets, wandered around a little more and then got in a cab headed to the airport and back to singapore!! there you have it, ten whirlwind days of vietnam - filled with natural beauty, constant hawking of goods and services, tons of air and garbage pollution and people with seemingly endless energy! good good times :)

thanks for reading!

test post- this thing is so screwy -- good news is that flickr is working again (bad news is that blogger is giving me troubs)