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.
