Zouk, HDB, MOS, and Drift

After visiting the Buddhist temple and getting some food at a new hawker center as well as a new drink: soursop, we headed back for afternoon classes and then got ready to go out to Zouk, a world recognized club where on Wednesdays they do "mambo night", a Singapore dance style that consists of acting out the lyrics of the music which is being played. Not having been into clubbing, it was quite the experience and the amount of people and all the crazy lights were an impressive sight. Thursday and Friday Consisted of morning classes again with a continued focus on Burma in our UNC prof's class and a Singapore focus in our NUS prof's. On Thursday afternoon we went to the Housing and Development Board HQs in the newly renovated area of Toa Payoh. The area is beautiful and it serves as the showroom for public housing in Singapore. The presentation was, as most official presentations have been, government gratifying and particularly biased. Nevertheless getting to see how citizens register to get public housing as well as the HDB museum and show flats provided better insight into the process, which seems to work almost flawlessly and provide for all of the population without expendable sums of money to invest in private housing. Particularly neat was a pin elevated skyline (as seen in the picture) on display. The board currently makes 4 types of flats: 2,3,4, and 5 bedroom flats which they sell to families on a scale based on income. ONe of the neatest parts of the system is that they incorporate all sizes of flats in the same building and even the same storey, but on the outside appear to be equal. Another interesting position is a compulsory quota system and subsequent resale guideline that requires quotas of each of the three main ethnicities for individual buildings. It is a large issue on contention in Singapore because it forces in many cases each ethnicity to sell only to buyers of the same ethnicity thereby discriminating against the minority ethnicities. Thursday night we went out to another nightspot called Ministry of Sound, a famous chain out of the UK, for hip hop night. We got into the club as members which allowed us to access private member rooms which basically were just super nice lounges with a much chiller atmosphere. Overall another good night. However, even getting 6 hours of sleep each and a 2 hour nap i woke up on Friday not feeling so well and after a 4 hour nap on Friday afernoon I took some meds to feel better. I was okay to go to the Singapore Arts Festival performance which the program bought us tickets to go to and I really enjoyed attending. The performance was at the Drama center the National Library of Singapore and was a mandarin play w/ subtitles about Singaporean identity. It was very artistically intensive, had a lot of amazing background film accompaniment and centered around a cast member who stood 8 feet in the air on a platform for the entire play, never moving, never speaking, yet constantly present.

BBC Asia Postponed

So I'm super late in getting all of this out to everyone. Over last weekend we had our homestays with local Singaporean families, I was feeling a bit under the weather, there's been a lot of birthdays and we have been travelling as a group in Malaysia with no internet the last two days. Overall.... things are incredibly different. To pick up where I last left off: wednesday we were supposed to see the recording of a BBC Asia broadcast but BBC instead decided to cover the US election, thanks to Hilary Clinton's expected withdrawl from the race. Dissappointing, but I went and explored a new part of the city with Patrick. First we walked around the area a bit and then found a small cafe on a corner and tried the SE Asian equivalent to nutella (in popularity, not in use) called Kaya. We also came across a beautiful Buddhist temple that was ornately decorated and contained a holy relic tooth of Buddha! We had to wear sarong type covers because we were both in shorts, which added to the experience. There was also a roof at the top with a rotating meditation wheel in a room with 10,000 Buddhas as well gardens that looked out onto the city. Again it is so amazing to see such traditionalism mixed in with the urbanity.

Wala Wala, Puto and Hwa Chong

So. Another 4 days have flown by, and again I have so much to comment about. On Saturday night we went to see some live music at a venue named WALA WALA! The band played three sets filled with tons of cover music and we had an absolute blast. Our Singaporean friend Yong Min knows the lead singer and frequents the venue so we got in despite the 20 and up age limit. The music was really good, the singer had an amazing voice. Unfortunately I don't really have any pictures from these last few days because of scheduling and not being able to take my camera and so forth, so I can't show you any of the last few places I've been. On Sunday we visited Little India. I had a tasty meal I believe is called Opathallappam, which is a really thin pancake wrapped with an interesting curry potato and onion inside. We then broe off into smaller groups because the streets of little India are really crowded, seemingly with migrant workers. The streets are also unlike any others in Singapore and are much dirtier and less maintained. I found a few locations I had been looking for, that i did not expect to find where they were which is always a nice surprise when in a big city. I also purchased a traditional Punjabi suit which is quite beautiful. On Monday classes resumed and in the afternoon we watched movie entitled Singapore Dreaming to accompany our history lecture. most of our lectures in that class seem to turn into Q&A sessions with the professors which at times, given the proper topics can be great, but when we get on topics such as Singaporean gansters, it can be a tad less productive. That night we went to the National Stadium to watch Singapore take on Uzbekistan. Uzb. had a flag which was literally the size of half of one side of the stadium (44,000) as well as a dedicated group of fans with large drums and loud cheers. It seemed to work for them because they kicked our butts 7-3, however seeing the nationalism and learning some malay curse words for a pansy (puto). Today the big to-do was to visit the best school (accepting only the top 2-3% of students) in all of Singapore called Hwa Chong. The school is huge, with over 4000 students ranging from grade 6 to grade 12. They are an independent school, which means they operate somewhere within the greys of private/public. It was made very clear the drive and pressure put on these young students that has fueled the growth of Singapore. Until next time....

It's Humid and Rainy

Well, life is definitely quite busy in Singapore. So far, we've done so many things around the Island. On Wednesday, we took a bus tour around different parts of the city seeing tons of different stuff. First we took the bus to the top of the second tallest mountain in Singapore, Mount Faber where, despite the thick haze/fog and clouds you could see out across the city hundreds of tall buildings obviously ranging from public housing flats to many corporation headquarters. Afterwards, we went to a tiny quaint Chinese temple deep in the heart of the business district where the skyscrapers stood so large overtop this the tiny sanctuary. The rooftop was adorned with tiny figurines that told stories, placed there for the uneducated to read. The temple comprised of two rooms with many religious icons. the tmeple was particularly interesting because it incorporated aspects of Daoism, Buddhism and Confucianism. The temple was a historic landmark and therefore had been preserved while the city built up around it. Next we went to the Arab quarter which I had been really wanting to go to since I first heard about it from one of the NUS exchange students studying Arabic at UNC. The mosque was beautiful and was located among many streets with vendors selling both touristy souvenirs as well as Arab linens and other middle eastern items. We tried some ginger tea, a malaysian drink specialty where they pour the drink from a full arms length in order to cool down the tea. Afterwards we proceeded to a Hindu temple which simlar to the Chinese temple was ornately decorated. From the Hindu temple we went to our final destination which was at the Esplanade to eat(commonly known as the Durian) which is the big theater/ cultural center with shops and restaurants by the bay that looks like a spiky fruit (I personally haven't gotten any great pictures yet). The food we ate is called Peranakan and it is mix of malay and Chinese cusine which comes from a tradition of Chinese miltary men being stationed in Malaysia and marrying women there. We ate with some of the professors from NUS and the food was as always quite good! The last two days we have been going to classes, eating in the canteen early in the morning then heading off to class from 9-12. Classes are as expected, phenomenal since our professors from UNC are great. the professor from NUS teaches history and is rather subversive, which pairs well with the propaganda we are fed from government sources. On Thursday we went to Parliament which was really neat, but since the government is comprised mostly of one party which controls 82 of 84 seats, there is rarely actually anything going on and besides our tour guides information we had no real first hand experiences. We walked around the touristy areas of town, saw a Beatles go Baroque free performance, sought out some vintage shops and tried some ridiculously spicy green curry as well as the first thing I haven't liked: a sour plum drink. Friday afternoon we toured the Asian Civilizations museum which was chalk full of information and interesting artifacts. The museum, and our tour, centered around the different cultures that came together in Singapore and foccused on the history of the surrounding Asian areas. We then took a beautiful boat ride along the Singapore river. that night was the UNC alumni diner which is when all the UNC alums who live in Singapore host a big dinner for all of us, this time at their ritzy Brittish fashioned country club. The food, as usual was amazing, its so interesting that both in high class and from the hawker centers you can get such great food. After the dinner we went to the Arab quarter agian to hang out for the night. We shopped a bit at some of the nice boutiques and I found a neat record shop where I found out some great info about venues and radio and local music. then we hung out in the street on a nice oriental carpet smoking hookah. We found the little corner shop where we had gotten the ginger tea and got some more. It was getting late so I asked the shop owner the best place to get a taxi. We were rolling 10 deep, so he instead went across the street and asked his friend who during the day is a private van driver, if he wanted to take us back for $50. He agreed and we got a nice ride for a mere 5 bucks each. For lunch today we went to an Indonesian restaurant with all the NUS students who have studied at UNC and all the ones who are coming next year for exchange or joint degree. I got to meet some really neat people and found out who my homestay friend will be which was particularly exciting. Finally, and I have only a couple of minutes, we went to a very neat Vietnam festival this afternoon where we saw traditional lion dancing and an amazing group of muscians who played rocks and leaves among other strange and neat instruments.

Travelling and the first two days.

Well, we all got here safe and sound. Our friends who flew from San Francisco were delayed for takeoff there and therefore didn't make the Hong Kong connection. They got here yesterday at about 1:00pm as opposed to us who arrived about 12 hours prior. We flew RDU to JFK to Hong Kong and then on to Singapore. The JFK-HK flight was 16 hours and interestingly we flew up over the Arctic, which was particularly neat since there was a mounted camera on the bottom of the plane which you could put on your personal TV and watch icebergs and mountains and such. Most people barely got any sleep, but I also felt that most of us have not been particularly jet lagged. When we got to HK we were all so pumped, only to find out we had about another 4 hours of flying before we got to Singapore. Customs were really easy and we got to the university without a hitch.
We are living in Prince George Park residences on the NUS campus. The rooms are a perfect size with a bathroom attached, 1 bed, a desk and some drawers. Luckily we have air conditioning and a fan, if we didn't it would be unbearably hot. When I got to my room, there were no sheets or towels or anything and we had been told that we'd be provided with such amenities, but since it was so late I just threw the top of my backpack inside a t-shirt and slept on the mattress and drip dried from my shower, later finding the maintenance office and requesting a set of sheets.
I only nabbed about 5 hours of sleep and got up early. I went exploring a bit, finding the "canteen" and eating a cheese and egg burger- basically an egg Mcmuffin on a hamburger bun- with spicy ketchup and a green tea/mango drink w/ chucks of real aloe in the bottom. I also ate a little cheese Prata with some others later when everyone else came down.
We went on the bus and the MRT (metro) to a Hawker's station at Clementi, one of the little burbs in Singapore. It was an outside market complete with an outer ring of shopping, an inner ring of food vendors and a center market. I had fresh orange juice, this fattening meal called soemething Teow.... and some fried bananas, also managing to try some bean curd drink and also cane juice. We went exploring the market and tried a mangosteen and I later made friends with a fisherman who offered me an apple after seemingly badgering me about why I was in Singapore, what I was doing there, how old I was only say " you're 18! I'm 78! Do you want an apple?!" (still holding the knife used for cutting the heads off fish he'd been motioning with at me).
Afterwards we went to the Jurong Bird Park which was very touristy, but also filled with some really neat birds. I watched penguins be fed, entered the largest enclosed aviary in the world, saw the largest man-made waterfall and watched a birds of prey show.
We finally went a local mall to buy some necessities and eat. I got a Spicy and sour soup with dumplings as well as some shampoo and soap.