Me holding an unopened "sweet" durian -- apparently this one is from Thailand. It was really pointy!
Hello everyone! It's been a while since I've updated so I've got a lot to talk about -- they keep us busy over here in the Garden City. On Wednesday a few girls and I went to China Town to look around for some good shopping deals. The Great Singapore Sale is going on, which means that a lot of merchandise is anywhere from 20-70% off -- still, that's not very useful if you do not fit into the "free size" dresses designed to be worn by much, much smaller people. Although I was unsuccessful at finding anything I actually wanted to buy, it was an interesting experience nonetheless.
Wednesday night everyone went to a club called Zouk. Wednesday is officially Ladies Night in Singapore, so we all get into the clubs for free. The guys have to pay a $25 cover charge, but since there are 20 of us girls on the trip and only 5 guys, we just made them pay $10 and split the rest among us. We then proceeded to dance until 2:00 or so in the morning to fantastic 80's and 90's music. The strangest thing about the club was probably the groups of people who danced the entire night with synchronized hand motions. Sometimes the regular dancers (like us) would just follow them, although I'm pretty sure we just looked silly.
On Thursday I finally went to Little India! A group of us had lunch there and some were adventurous enough to try the "fish head soup" and even fish eyeballs (yuck). I stuck with a small vegetarian meal. I like it when my food does not still have a) eyes and b) teeth still in tact.
While we were in Little India, my group also conducted some research for the presentation we're giving on Thursday. I'll be working on that a lot today, in addition to the paper I need to write for Dr. Quek's class, and studying for the open book test that I have tomorrow... I think I'll really be grateful for the weekend after this week!
On Friday I had an interview with an NUS professor about the topic my presentation is on and then met with Nadiah and a friend of hers for lunch with some other students. We then proceeded to go to the Ministry of Home Affairs where a nice lady talked to us about "CEP" -- some organization that's designed to promote racial harmony in the event that there is ever a national (terrorist) crisis in Singapore.
For those that didn't know: Singapore has a population that is majority Chinese (or rather of Chinese descent -- many do not feel "Chinese" but "Singaporean"). The Chinese constitute about 75% of the population while Malays are about 14%, Indians 9% and "Others" a mere 2%. Singapore's pretty big on promoting tolerance and dispersing tension, and they do that through various iniatives (like the CEP, I guess?) and other techniques that seem completely foreign to me. For example: the government housing (HGB) has quotas on the number of individuals from various ethnic backgrounds that can reside there, in part because the government wishes to promote "greater understanding" of different cultures, but also as a preventative measure. The government doesn't want to see some parts of towns turn into slums with any particular ethnic group predominantly living there.
On Friday we also visited the Harmony Centre, a cultural centre devoted to teaching about the practice of Islam and opening up discussion between 10 religions represented in Singapore. They tour was very informative and a got to see a lot of really neat and beautiful things (and then eat some really, really delicious food that they provided for us!) Needless to say, I was already a bit tired before the group of us (almost all of us) went to Zirca (another club -- this one is mainly techno and R&B music) with our Singaporean friend Yong.
Monique, Hanna, George and me outside the Peranakan museum near the City Hall interchange!
Saturday was our homestay! Rather, it was our home visit -- George and his parents were kind enough to show us their home and then show us around town. Saturday consisted a lot of EATING. I am convinced that this is the favorite activity of Singaporeans. Between about six of us we put away a plate of fried chicken rice, a HUGE dish of beef kway teow, some oyster omelette, fried tofu and brocolli and mushrooms. We then proceeded across the street to a fruit stand.
Later George's parents left us and we continued to walk around, visiting a museum and later attending the annual "Rock the Sub" concert at the Sub-Station, a music venue. "Rock the Sub" consists of about 16 Singaporean up-and-coming artists who play alternative/indie music, so that was exciting!
There I tried durian again. This is an opened portion of durian. It was pretty tasty this time, since apparently durian comes in "bitter" and "sweet. It is known as the King of Fruits.
The Queen of Fruits is Mangostein! It's very sweet but almost impossible to get in the U.S.
Dragonfruit is pretty, I think.
On Sunday I didn't do too much... mostly read and read and read and read. Nadiah was also kind enough to host all of us (including Dr. Steiner, his wife and three children) at her house for dinner! We owe so much to her hospitality and organization!
Keep me updated on life at home! Miss you all.
- Allie
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