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....