Off the Beaten Path

At the moment I am typing this up while listening to my amazing new Amr Diab CD, which I bought in Little India the other day for a pretty good price. I got so excited in that store and ended up buying two Bollywood (Indian) movies and some Hindi and Arabic music, things that are quite hard to find in the States, and CDs and DVDs here are cheaper here in general. So hooray for that!

Me and Sathya at Marina Barrage

The past few days have been quite eventful. On Wednesday my new Singaporean friend Amir drove Sathya and me out to this place called Marina Barrage. It's basically this huge funny-shaped thing built on top of a dam, and you have to drive to get there, so it would have been pretty much unaccessable to us if he hadn't taken us there. It has an excellent view of the city, especially at night, and it's just a great space to go hang out and talk with your friends. I felt like by going there we got a taste of what locals really do and I loved that we got off of the tourist track we tend to stay on.

Wow, it's 2:00 a.m. here, but I have so much more to write about! I guess I'll just have to add more tomorrow. Good night!

Monkeyin' Around in Malaysia

Alright folks, brace yourselves, this is probably going to be a long post. I just got back to my room in Singapore, and let me tell you, Malaysia is AWESOME! If you're ever in Southeast Asia, go there!! Even after just stepping off the bus at immigration, I could already tell Malaysia was going to be very different from what we'd grown to be used to over the last 3 weeks. We saw a few pieces of trash on the ground and said "Yep, we're definitely not in Singapore anymore."

Our trip started with a short walk through the mangrove forest down to the southernmost tip of Asia. It was really interesting to see how all along the coast, there was absolutely no beach at all. Instead, the trees held everything down, protecting the land from erosion. There were also cute little monkeys everywhere. I swear, they were like squirrels in Chapel Hill- all over the place.

On Saturday, we got up bright and early to take a tour of the historic areas of Melaka, which is the town in which we stayed. I thought it was cool to see the really old buildings there, because they were built in the 1500's, which is something you're simply not going to find in North Carolina. Then we went shopping (of course!!) at the night market, which is set up every night on one of the streets in Melaka. It had lots of cheap stuff, and the merchants were usually ready to bargain. And with the exchange rate, the prices in US dollars ended up being way cheaper than they looked (1 US Dollar = 3.5 Malaysia Ringgits).

Finally, this morning we checked out of our fabulous hotel (one of the nicest I've ever stayed in) and headed off for our bike ride. I had a chance/obligation to use a "squatty potty," since we were away from the tourist attractions, which really just got me rarin' to go on a 6 mile bike tour! After putting to use my amazing wilder-peeing skills and being so so thankful that my mom made me pack Charmin To-Go, we hopped on our bikes and started down the trail. It actually ended up being more intense than I thought it would be, with hills and lots of really rocky terrain. But I only wiped out once, which was fun (not) and now I'm hoping to be able to go mountain biking again when I get back home. But the most important thing we got out of our bike ride was being able to see the Malaysian backcountry. The people that lived there definitely didn't have a very rich lifestyle, and were a complete turnaround from the Singaporean society. But despite their humble living, they seemed to be so much happier! When we rode by the houses, there would often be people sitting on the porch smiling and waving, or little children peering around a corner (probably to stare at the weird people with big eyes and noses). At one

house there was an elderly woman looking about as happy as she could be, waving and shouting what I am guessing was the only English she knew: "Hello! Hi! I love you!!" These people really just made my day, and they were excellent proof that you really don't need money to be happy. But finally our ride came to an end, and we left with sweat, helmet hair, and big smiles on our faces.

Even though it was nowhere near as clean as Singapore, I found Malaysia to be extremely refreshing. The atmosphere there was just so much more relaxed, and I feel like everyone I came across was so happy to see us. Given the chance, I would definitely choose to spend more time there.

Chocolate, Biking and Skyping

Well, I am in an unusually giddy mood, especially considering it's 2:25 a.m. right now, and I have to wake up at 6:00. But I'm so excited because I just paid $5.95 for a whole month of unlimited calling with Skype, so I can talk to anyone in America as much as I want, much to the delight of all of my grandparents, I think.

This week has been quite good. I'm starting to find dishes that I enjoy, and-dare I say it-crave, which is so nice because there's nothing worse than craving your mom's fried chicken, and knowing that there's no way you can have it for another two months. Also, class discussions are starting to get controversial, which has been especially fun for me recently. Then last night a group of us went back to Max Brenner's chocolate bar for round 2, which was nothing short of fabulous! I ordered the dark chocolate cheesecake, and I think it's pretty safe to say it was the most delicious cheesecake I've ever had in my life. Too bad it costs $12.

Today we went back to East Coast Park, this time as a whole group, and we were able to ride bikes again. It was a great idea, since we're going on our 6 mile bike tour in Malaysia on Sunday, and some of us hadn't been on a bike in years. There was actually one girl who had never learned how to ride a bike before, so we taught her today, and I'm so happy because now she'll be able to join us on Sunday.

Speaking of Malaysia, I am leaving to go there at 7:00 (in about 4 hours; I really need to go to sleep) so I will be without internet access until Sunday, which means there will definitely not be any blog posts for the next couple of days (sorry Arielle). Although after that fun little excursion I should have plenty to share hopefully. But for now it's time for me to pack and take a nap. Goodnight folks!

Coffee Break

Wow, sometimes time really gets away from me and I lose track of how long it's been since my last blog post. But in my defense, I had an essay test this morning, a 4 page history paper due tonight at midnight, and various other assignments due tomorrow. So, since I'm going to be busy for the rest of the night with those aforementioned various other assignments, I thought I'd just throw in a side story about my daily morning routine that I've developed here. Every morning, I leave my room about 45 minutes before the start of class, and go downstairs to the canteen/food court in the basement of my dorm here. And just about every morning, I end up buying a coffee for here, and a coffee to go (or "take-away", as this is all they understand here) and this bread-like thing called prata (basically very very thin dough folded up and grilled until it's brown, flaky and delicious). My dad, who is even pickier about coffee than I am, would probably be appalled at the coffee that I drink here, as they make it rather dark, and when it comes time to serve it they pour it in a glass about halfway, and fill the rest of the glass with water. But each cup is only 40 cents Singaporean, so I give them a break. I have actually developed a real taste for sweetened condensed milk though, which they love to put in/on everything here- so far I've had it in my coffee and on my toast, and both have been quite good. Today, however, I had a sort of interesting ordeal with the not-so-nice coffee ladies. I was running on about 4 hours of sleep, and had a test and class very soon. So I attempted to order coffee without my beloved sweetened condensed milk, so as to ensure that I wouldn't crash from the sugar later. Our conversation went something like this:

Me (trying to order a black coffee to go): Hi, can I get a coffee with NO milk and NO sugar take-away please?
Coffee Lady #1: Coffee wit no sugar no milk.
Me: Yes, that's right.
{Coffee Lady #2 proceeds to make my coffee and add milk to it}
Me: Oh, wait, sorry, but I said no milk and no sugar.
#1: You should have said no milk no sugar.
Me: Oh, yeah, well I know. I mean I did.
#1: Black coffee. You suppose to say black coffee.
Me (thinking I had no idea they would know what 'black' meant): Oh, sorry.
#1: Yeah, black coffee. You no say black coffee, we put sugar.
Me: Oh, okay. I'll say black coffee next time.
#2: Yeah, black coffee.
{Continuous babbling in broken English by coffee ladies about black coffee}
Random Guy in Line (honestly trying to be helpful): Oh, you gotta say black coffee, or else they'll put milk and sugar in it.
Me: I GOT IT, OKAY?!
#1: Yeah, black coffee.
Me: Yes, I understand. Thank you.

Oh, the joys of being in a country where customer service isn't important and they like to pretend that their primary language is English. But it's okay, now I know from now on to order my coffee black.

The Other Side

Alas, I have finally done something I can blog about. This past week has been so crammed with school work that I haven't done much touring for the past couple of days, and I was worried that Arielle was going to go crazy from my lack of posting. Fortunately, we don't have class on Fridays, so tonight is basically a Friday night for me. My friend and I decided to go on an adventure earlier in East Coast Park, which is on the opposite side of Singapore from our school. The park is 11 kilometers long, and it was really a neat place, with bike trails that run along the beach, and hawker stands with guys that grill satay right in front of you. It was just great to be surrounded by nature again. We spend so much time in the busy city atmosphere, and I'd completely forgotten that we hadn't had fresh air in a while. 

But after walking there and biking around we were exhausted, and decided to take a taxi back to the MRT (or subway) station. Apparently the station we thought we wanted was difficult to drive to from there, with a lot of one-way streets involved, so our driver told us the better station to ask for next time so our ride won't be so long (and costly). Then he didn't charge us the full price because we didn't know any better. I was so appreciative of his kindness, and surprised, because one thing I've noticed while I've been here is that customer service doesn't seem to be as important as it is to many businesses in the United States. But this guy was so nice, and just by saving us a few dollars, he really made my evening.

Tomorrow we'll be heading to the Ministry of Home Affairs for a presentation, and while I'm not entirely sure what that will entail, it should be very interesting.