A Typical? Weekend in Singapore
My friend, Jacob, and I were trying to figure out a time to meet up to discuss our trip to Laos and Vietnam, and we were unable to coordinate anything for over a week. We were both kind of like – ummm, When did we get lives in Singapore? So besides work at school and work at the clinic, these are some of the kinds of things I’ve been doing…
Friday night – Student Art Show Opening
The students decided to call their show “A Treatise on Drunken Ninja Rabbits, Disappearing trays of Milk Tea and Not Having Enough Time”. The two works below are my favorites.** The first time I saw the lights switched on in the five light boxes, I was absolutely blown away. The effect was stunning. The student had taken family photos and used a needle to poke holes in black paper.
**Unfortunately I had to delete these photos because their A-level grades have not been released.
The girls asked me to wear some earrings they made that had neon glow-in-the-dark filling that reminded me of all those raves of my early 20s. At some point during the evening, I touched my neck and realized that my earring had broken, and that I was now covered in fluorescent glow stuff. Yikes! Nothing has happened to me yet though…
Saturday night – Deepavali, The Festival of Lights
As I described in a previous post, Singapore is a melting pot of cultures – including languages, cuisines, and public holidays. Last month we celebrated the Chinese Moon Cake Festival, with the traditional moon cake deserts and dried barbecued pork. This month is the Indian new year, Deepavali, the Festival of Lights. (Deepavali is also known as Diwali). Little India has been decorated for a month, colored lights and decorations lining Serangoon. A bunch of us went down to Little India Saturday night to eat family style, including two ladies who were staying with me for weekend, both posted in Indonesia. I had never met them before but it’s sort of an unspoken rule of PIA to offer your couch to those coming through town.
Oh, but Little India is no longer there because I ATE IT.
Sunday night – The Brollagio presents “I Not Stupid”
The Brollagio is what fellow PIA’ers Dan, Mark, Trevor, (and by extension) Steve have decided to call their apartment. Dan shipped a projector from the US, so about 12? of us piled in there to watch a feature film about the Singaporean education system called I Not Stupid. It was a very entertaining, very funny, very moving film, I thought, and I did end up tearing a bit in between handfuls of Cheetos. It wouldn’t be appropriate for me as a teacher to comment on the education system in a public forum, but I will say that I hate seeing children getting beaten with a cane by their parents for doing poorly in school. (or the dramatic rendering thereof).
Monday – Extra Day Off
I went to Orchard Road, the part of town that you might as well be on 5th Avenue. Mall after mall after mall with Prada, Gucci, Gap, Nike, Borders, whatever. It’s equally nice (when I am missing home) and kind of gross. I ate lunch at this amazing food court called Food Republic, and then went with two girlfriends to see 500 Days of Summer while drinking a diet coke I got at a Subway. So depressing. It kind of makes me think that this is a good time to be in Asia – as these countries are all changing so rapidly. I remember in 1993 seeing the huge McDonald’s in Beijing – at that time it was quite a novelty. In Singapore there are McDonald’s now all over (of course), 7-11 is a big chain here as well, KFC, Burger King, Starbucks, etc. Glad to see we’re taking over Asia, one fast food chain at a time… Ugh.
Love it.