Chiang Mai to Chaing Rai

Seriously - those are the names of the cities.

Click here for 1/4 of my pictures from the trip to Thailand.

Jer and I got picked up in the back of a pick up truck (we were literally picked-up) and we road for a couple of hours with our new friends Jeanette and Martin, a couple from E. Germany (he lives in Singapore). We first saw an elephant show which made me sad. The elephants didn't look very happy, though I must admit that I don't know what a happy elephant looks like. It just seems like if they had their druthers they wouldn't necessarily do the things they were made to do.

On to more important things...we arrived at the Chaing Dao (another Chiang - it means town) caves, and got on our bikes after lunch. We biked a bit on roads, visited a local market (including dead frogs) and got off road a bit. We rode about 35 km. We ended the day sort of in a hill tribe village. The hill tribe people here are not Thai people per se, so they speak different languages, and they definitely have a lower standard of living. We stayed in a bamboo hut over night. There were a few remarkable things about this experience.

1) It was Christmas eve, and the guides were SUPER cute about it. They brought us rum, soda, rice whiskey and chocolate cake (none of which they usually do).

2) We did this thing where we lit a lantern with a candle, and we all held it until it was hot enough to raise itself up in the air. We all let go, and it went flying off into nowhere (or Burma to fall down during the dry season and start a forest fire). It was really cool, and it ultimately looked like another one of the amazing millions of stars.

3) They bought and wrapped presents for each of us. After our FEAST of a meal (and a few drinks including the wine that Jeanette and Martin had brought...), we got to open Christmas presents. It was my first Christmas presents since high school, I think.

4) It was FREEZING. If you have been reading my blog since I moved to Singapore, you would know that I am just about NEVER cold. It was so cold (supporting picture to be uploaded soon).

After getting up, we had another feast of a meal and had one of the hardest but most amazing biking days of my life. We ended up biking about 65 km, and about half of it was SUPER hard off roading. I nearly died, but it was so rewarding, and it was SO gorgeous. We rode through bamboo forests, banana tree fields, country roads with amazing views of mountains, through streams, villages, and just about every other type of food and vegetable field you could think of. We had a couple of what my dad would call killer hills, and I must say that Jer and I did really well (obviously he did better, but for me, I rocked). We ate really good pad thai for lunch. We saw another cave with a buddah or two, and we rode on the truck for a bit to reach Tha Thon. Here we stayed in a hotel and I ate pork soup (I still think it's funny when I eat pork). It was freezing there too. Thank goodness for my winter hat.

The third day we ended up biking about 65 km also, but it was more on the road, and definitely less challenging (but still SO HARD FOR ME!!). My butt nearly fell off, but luckily it's still there. We saw some people harvesting rice, which was neat-o. They work so hard. It doesn't look like fun. We also went on a boat ride with our bikes. The driver zoomed us down the river, avoiding rocks and other obstructions by mere centimeters, but with no errors. It was pretty impressive. We also bought a few pomellos (sp?) right out of the field. They were 40 baht for 3 - that's about $1.30. Holy schnikes, right? We rode right up to our hotel in Chiang Rai. It was a totally fine hotel with loud parties next door. We ate good food again.

Today, our last day of biking, kicked my ass. At this point, my thighs were mildly responsive when I asked them to pedal, and my butt was still not interested in sitting on the seat. I definitely did the best I could. We biked about 40 km - up to a few pretty wats and an amazing waterfall (supporting picture to follow). We ate the best meal I have ever had for lunch. It included spicy papaya salad, sweet smashed bananas with honey, sticky rice, fried chicken, green chile paste, cabbage, bamboo shoot salad and a dessert made from cassava and coconut. It was outstanding.

We then rode in the back of the truck back to Chiang Mai. Jer was dad, and he was miserable the whole time, worried that we were going to tip over or get in an accident or something similar. It was beautiful and fine (but he still didn't enjoy one minute of it).

Once we got back to Chiang Mai, I actually decided to try out the Thai massage again (check out my Bangkok posting from July). Since my body is/was SOO sore, it felt amazing. She was laughing at me for how much I jumped when she leaned on my legs. It was $8.

Jer and I just ate a great dinner, and we're off to Bangkok tomorrow, and we finally get to meet up with Matt and Josh.

Wat's up in Chiang Mai

Jer and I are in Chiang Mai. We have basically been watting since we got here. If you have been to Thailand you know what I'm talking about. There are Wats all over the place. Wats are temples. They're GORGEOUS, but honestly, how many can you see? Inside Chiang Mai itself there are 300! That's a lot, and it's far too many for us to see.

Turns out this posting is going to be shorter than I expected. I'm getting eaten alive by dengue and malarial mosquitoes (okay, they're probably not, but I'm my dad's daughter).

We have found the temples to be amazingly gorgeous, and we particularly love the guarding dragons. The wats also have great bathrooms. They're very clean.

We have walked around the city at least 20 times, and we have seen each street vendor at least 40. I think they sell their things in different parts of the city at different times (sometimes even at the same times!). There is actually great shopping here.

Today Jer and I took a Thai cooking class. We made some coconut soup, some amazing curry, some stir fry, some banana cake and some other things that I can't remember.

Our favorite food here is sticky rice with mango and a banana shake on the side.

NO MALARIA!! NO DENGUE!!

Must get inside.

Jeremy in Singapore

Since I last wrote, my brother FINALLY arrived in Singapore. After driving from Ithaca to Buffalo and flying to Michigan, then Portland, then Tokyo THEN SINGAPORE, he arrived at our house last night around 1:30. I almost didn't recognize him in the airport, because his shoulders have gotten more broad in the last six months. Luckily, he stood out, because he was white.

Today was a public holiday in Singapore - it's Hari Raya Haji, which my taxi driver told me remembers Abraham's almost sacrifice of Isaac and also the people who do the Haj. Apparently Malay all around Singapore sacrifice goats at their mosques. Anyway, basically this meant that we didn't have to work.

Jer and I woke up and went to the wet market by my house. We first had some prawn noodles for breakfast along with a plate full of awesome fruit and lime juices. This man and his son invited us to sit with them. He said they don't ever see foreigners in that food court. That's the same food court where my parents met people each time they went. Apparently this is the most friendly food court in Singapore - or at least in Bedok (where we live).

We walked all around the wet market. Some highlights included mangoes, fish heads, SUPER long beans, and some things that we have never heard of (we bought one - chinko or something like that).

We then went to pick up my shoes that were being repaired and visited our first mall of the day. Jer appreciated the Christmas tree in the almost totally Chinese HOT as hell country. We bused to Esplanade and walked all around there and up the river to Clark Quay and then over to Orchard Road (that's a long walk). Jer appreciated the huge "umbrella" over Clark Quay which makes it feel like it's not raining or sunny and it turns colors at night.

We ate great dim sum, walked around malls, looked around a huge Japanese department store called Takashimaya and then headed over to Little India. We didn't do anything too exciting there, but we ate really good food.

Now we're exhausted and headed to sleep, because tomorrow at 4:30 Jer and I are getting up to go to the airport to go to Chiang Mai. I will blog as much as I can from the road.

Four Years and Time is Moving

Yesterday was my brother Kenny's yahrzeit (which by the way was a word in the national spelling bee. Should that be allowed? I think not!). A yahrzeit is a Jewish anniversary of death. He actually died on New Years, but in the Hebrew calendar it was the 7th of Tevet.

It has been four years.

When he died, at this time, four years ago, I was leading a birthright trip of college students in Israel.

The year after I was at my friends, Andy and Leslie's wedding in Indiana (though that wasn't allowed according to Jewish law...it was really important to me).
btw, Marla, I guess I would go to the wedding. I forgot about this one...

The year after that I was in Chicago. Matt and I had just gotten engaged, and we were celebrating that and my birthday with our friends. We went to some bizarre minyan there to say kaddish.

Last year I was leading a volunteer trip to the north of Israel. The amazing people on that trip, though SUPER late at night and so tired after a really long day, made a minyan for me, and I said kaddish. I think we even threw together a morning minyan.

This year, we met a friend for brunch, we played tennis with our other friends, and we ate salad. I guess it all feels really far away. I'm not in Israel which always reminds me of death now (for many reasons). I'm not in the cold, which reminds me of a cold funeral. I'm just still living in June, and I don't really have people around me who will/are able to remember with me. I'm not sure if this means moving forward or just spending a few years outside of my support network.

On another note - I am REALLY hoping that my (other) brother can get around this mad snowstorm. I don't really want to wait longer than Wednesday night, and our trip to Thailand definitely won't wait for us! Please - Jer - just drive to catch your flight out of Oregon or Washington or wherever it is!!! You must make it!!

Prostitutes

Tonight we went out for a friend's birthday. It was at a super fun/good food/great atmosphere restaurant downtown. We had a great time with her and her friends.

On the way home, Matt took me into a place called Orchard Towers. Apparently at night, this is one of the two places that prostitution is legal and regulated in Singapore. I am extremely inexperienced when it comes to prostitutes. Considering I have only seen them pretty much in the movies, I have to say that these were especially hot. They were gorgeous ladies! It was an office building that had a lot of closed stores, a few clubs, and a few open restaurants. The restaurants were filled with ladies.

When we walked away, we saw two walking ahead of us, and they were basically going after each white guy who was alone on the street. They didn't just give them looks, they also reached out and tickled their bellies (like Elmo) or dragged their fingers across their arms. I didn't see them succeed, but it was super interesting to see this in action.

If anyone knows any good books about life as a prostitute - memoirs or what not, please let me know. I'm totally intrigued.

My Brother is NOT Here

Jeremy was supposed to come today. I was going to meet him at the airport at 7:15 am, and we were going to come back to our apartment, drop his stuff off, rest, shower, relax. Then we were going to have a great day of light touring in Singapore. We would have gone to the wet market next to our house. We would have eaten great food and probably gone downtown, and then we would be back early for him to pass out, since he would be jet lagged.

But. Nope. No Jeremy.

He was flying out of Syracuse, so he took a shuttle to Syracuse from Ithaca, and when he arrived, he found out that his flight was canceled. He didn't make his flight out of NYC, and he did not make it to Singapore. Singapore Airlines basically said, sorry, but we can't get you on a flight until 14 January. He is getting the money back for that ticket, bought another one (which was $1000 more expensive!), and he will be arriving (HOPEFULLY! or b'h for the frummies) on Wednesday night, late. He had to make it back to Ithaca in the snow, then he has to figure out how to get to Buffalo, stay the night there, since his flight is at 6 in the morning on Tuesday, and also, he didn't get to be HERE for the weekend!

We are meant to leave next Friday morning, early, for a 2.5 week trip in Thailand. I am seriously hoping he makes it here before then!!

Instead of my great day, I had a fine day. Ran errands (including finding Go Lean at the store!), picked up a repaired bag, did laundry, ate, played online boggle, and lazed.

Unemployed No Longer

Tomorrow I will start my new job at Moody's Singapore. Today was my last day, completing a week and a half of unemployment.

I did a good job of being a housewife today - I cleaned a lot, worked out (getting the saddle ready for four days of biking in Thailand), went to lunch with a friend, had coffee with another friend. I bought some things. I met another friend for dinner (REALLY good Thai). Of course I enjoy it on my LAST day!!!

Unfortunately, nothing more to report yet...

The Big Splash

It has happened three times in the past two days that I have gone out and said, "wow - it's only drizzling. Thank goodness" and then it starts to POUR. When it pours here, it's not like in other places where it lightens up. It just keeps pouring. They do have some pretty amazing drainage systems at work here, but I was a victim of the big splash.

You may recognize it from the beginning of Sex and the City where the bus drives by and totally splashes Carrie? Well, she looks super cute in her little white too-too. Not me. I'm in work-out clothes, but it's damaging to the soul. The water went in my ear, covered my glasses, potentially hurt my ipod, totally made my butt and whole backside soaked. If this happened in New York, I probably would have ran home and jumped in the shower without touching anything. I remember once I stepped in a puddle at 96th and Broadway, and I felt disgusting the rest of the day and washed my shoe thoroughly. In Singapore, it's so clean, it was like taking a shower! Other than the water all over my body, I could come home and forget the shower I had planned on!

Not too much going on here. We had a very busy weekend. Went to a Jewish community dinner for Shabbat and Hanukkah on Friday night. It was super nice. We love that community. We got to hang out with a friend from Matt's who was in from NYC. We played at least 10 games of Settlers on Saturday (but I only won one). We played five of them with my friend Tenley whom I met at my first job here. She and her husband are here with the US Navy. They live out in Sembawang, which was a $35 cab ride away. If you go to google maps and put in Sembawang, Singapore, you'll see that it's basically in Malaysia. It looks TOTALLY different than the rest of Singapore. They live in a house that was built by the British in the 30s and they used it for the British military until they left Singapore. Then, the Japanese used these houses when they invaded in the 40s, and now they're used by a bunch of anglo military families. It was such a cool house!! Gorgeous high ceilings, wood floor, mango smell outside because there are TONS of mangoes all over the place. We hope to go out there during the day sometime to see more (though the cost of transport was rough!!). We had such a great time with them. We also really liked their dog.

Sunday we had a nice time at a Hanukkah party of a young couple in the Jewish community. Then we met up with a bunch of Matt's grad school friends. Vinny, who is originally from Jakarta, went to high school in Singapore and now lives in DC (and went to grad school with Matt) came in yesterday, and we got to hang out with her for a bit. She's staying with us until tonight when she will go to see her family.

It's still pouring. Since my work permit hasn't come through yet, I think I will have to watch the basketball game that's on TV (Boston College and Maryland from days ago I'm sure) and the newest Grey's Anatomy (downloading right now). Rough day. :)

I'm the Chopsticks Superstar

I'm back to unemployed Melanie. I wish I could appreciate it more, but honestly, if you don't have kids, what do you do all day? All there is to do is spend money, and I'm cheap, so that doesn't appeal to me too much. Once you cleaned up and got groceries, what else is there?

I even tried to fold the laundry that we hung two days ago, but it's not dry yet...

To get out of the house today I went to the mall. It's pretty close to our house, and they have skim milk, good cereals (I even saw Go Lean, but it was US$7.50 a box...), and lots of other foods that I appreciate every once in a while. I decided to get lunch there. They have this awesome thing (in Singapore - not only this mall), where you can choose a bunch of things, and then they'll put them all in a soup for you. I got bok choy, sea weed, some tofu thing, a fish ball or two, and something else that was green. You have to eat this with chopsticks in your dominant hand and a spoon in your support hand. The food court was super busy, so this cute family of three sat with me. The mom complimented me on my chopstick usage. She said that I was doing it correctly (parallel choppers), and that she wasn't able to do that (she crossed). She was Chinese. I felt proud.

Another observation:
You know how when you're swimming in the ocean, somehow the sea weed always seems to find your legs? It's like in Scooby Doo when the monster wraps himself around Shaggy...Anyways, I have always been pretty afraid of sea weed. Today when I was trying to catch the sea weed with my chopsticks, it was automatically attracted to the sticks - like it would have been to my leg. Reminds me of how pieces of egg shells are attracted to a larger piece of shell.

Yesterday I went to a movie, and it was freezing. I got back home, and it had been raining for about 37 (prime number) hours. I couldn't warm up. I wore long pants, a long sleeved hoodie AND socks! I couldn't believe it.

Unfortunately today it's hot again. My walk to East Coast Park has been nixed. Too hot.

Yay Monsoons!

It's the monsoon season in Singapore.

I know that monsoons have ruined people's livelihoods.
Monsoons have probably killed lots of people - maybe even whole communities.
Rain makes some people depressed.
Let's face it, NO ONE likes to have wet feet...

But honestly, I love monsoon season so far. The temperature has really dropped. The sun isn't totally beating down, and it seems as though the humidity has gotten better as well. Yesterday I went running at 11:30 am! If I would have done that before November, I probably would have melted and died.

Today I was cold outside. I don't think I have sweat (other than when exercising) in two days. Amazing.

I have taken a picture of the rain outside of our apartment. I bet you can't really see that it's pouring and that the sidewalk area is totally soaked. You can just take my word for it.

I am still not working. My permission still hasn't come through. I have basically been running errands and doing things I haven't had time for in the past four months. This included taking my mother's diamond earrings to find out how much it would cost to get them reset in white gold. The woman cleaned them, and now they're super sparkly and pretty (they might not even need to get re-set, since they're so pretty now). I had dinner with two former co-workers. I looked for bags that are big enough to hold my shoes, a book and my lunch box yet not too ugly (no luck). I got new "we're not ready for children" drugs. I met a friend for lunch. Right now there is someone fixing the lock on our kitchen window that has been broken as well as making the water go down our sinks. In addition to all of this (and most important) is that I have watched seven Grey's Anatomys in the past three days. I absolutely love that show. I got nervous when Meredith died and came back to life, because I thought that was SUPER stupid, and I thought the show was going downhill, but the writers must have been sick for that episode. The rest are great. I love it.

Hopefully my permit will come through today. Otherwise I might have to suffer and go see a movie tomorrow.

Today I am a Woman

Okay, I got my first period many years ago, but today I became a woman.

I was supposed to start work today, but my letter of consent didn't come through from the ministry of manpower (yet). I didn't know what to do with my day. I walked all over Orchard Road, but I'm a bit bored of shopping. I tried to find some fun "going out clothes," but I am really too lazy to shop. There's just no other excuse. I look for ten minutes, and then I think, "well, I don't REALLY need anything - I'll just wear the ONE hot top I have..." and then I leave.

I then went to the Jewish community where I was interrogated before they let me in to buy some hanukkah candles. Then I went to get some good American food at the ex-pat grocery store (bagels, tuna, cereal), but on the way I saw an eyebrow threading place. I don't have very much eyebrow, but I thought that it could stand to be cleaned up a bit. Cleaned up is my 'brow. Looks good, if I may say so. This was my first womany thing.

Then I got some groceries and made my way back to Bedok where we live. I then got a pedicure. My toes are pink (pedicure AND pink toes - womany things two and three...). Unfortunately I smudged one, so I had to get it fixed, and the whole deal took nearly two hours, but I read my book.

I hope I get to work soon. I'm not so good at not working (remember my first two months?!).

Rabbits are Rodents, Right?

We have had a pretty exciting weekend.

Saturday Matt and I relaxed, played tennis, and I fell asleep in the sun (acquiring a sunburn on half of my neck, face and one arm).

We went out to dinner with two great couples. One we have met through the Jewish community. The man actually works at JPMorgan with Matt. They were superb. They also invited their friends who were also outstanding. They're all really interesting and REALLY nice people. Meeting people that we connect with isn't something that happens everyday, so we were pleased.

I know I have written a lot about this, but here goes again...non-kosher eating...

I know that eating all of this stuff is a stage, so I kind of feel like I should take advantage of it. For nearly my entire life, when I looked at a menu in a restaurant, I always had two or three options that were vegetarian, and because I'm cheap, I would simply choose the cheapest choice. It was a simple task, actually.

Eating everything has changed that whole experience. I look at a menu, and I have so many options. (I have also worked hard on not being so cheap, so I'm trying to not look at prices too much). Last night I decided to try rabbit with some sort of bacon thing on gnocchi. I have NEVER had anything like that.

All was fine and well until the food was served, and a conversation commenced about whether or not a rabbit could ever be kosher. Well, someone said, "I think it's part of the rodent family, so...I mean, I think that it probably can't be kosher." That REALLY grossed me out. I couldn't stop thinking about those HUGE, GROSS rats in NYC subway stations...Then I was thinking about cute little rabbits, and then finally I kept thinking about the cute little kitty that we have befriended. I felt like I was eating her. I ate up all of the pasta (and the bacon), but I left the rest of the rabbit.

My mom was reminding me that I became vegetarian (for five years) after I saw a family of shrimp on a plate (heads and all...). This could be happening again...

(I must be really Jewish, since EVERY time I typed rabbit - I actually typed "rabbi" and had to go back to put the "t." Clearly this eating style is a stage.)

Today we went on a great walk. We met Etan, who is in town from Chicago, at the reservoir here, and we had long hike. The beginning of the hike was uneventful, and it was actually filled with people. We reached the HSBC Treetop walk, and that was actually pretty cool. We then walked on and saw a bunch of neat lizards and things like that, and then the monkeys were everywhere. We walked to Bukit Timah Nature Reserve - it was about 10km total.

I don't know if I'm going to get arrested, shot or fined by writing this, but we'll see if there is censorship with this blog...

Stupid me - where there was no garbage can around, I decided to eat a banana. I thought I would just hold the peel until we saw another garbage (it's Singapore, there have to be garbage cans everywhere!). It took quite some time, and I had walked with it for about a half hour. It was mushy, brown, and getting grosser. Then we ended up seeing the monkeys. Some of them were cute, just watching, or sort of doing their own thing. Some, though, showed their teeth and got mean looking. The banana peel kept getting squeezed tighter into my hand. We saw signs all over the place that had a picture of a monkey's smiling faces with a banana and a line through it - and it said "fine $250."

What are the chances that I would think to eat a banana on a hike with monkeys, while it's illegal to feed them (bananas particularly), and there is no garbage?

At some point, though, we were walking on a bridge, and I felt cornered in. One of the monkeys started walking towards me (with teeth and all), and I freaked out and tossed him the peel and ran away. I was really scared - and I broke the law, which in Singapore is a really big deal.

I will never again eat bananas near monkeys.

We had really good Indian food as a reward afterwards.

Then I convinced Matt to play two-man Settlers of Catan with me a few times. Matt killed me. I think the tides are turning in our relationship. I usually kill him.

Last Day

So this was my last week at AWARE. For legal reasons, I am documenting that I actually haven't been working there this month - I have been volunteering, in order that I can apply for a pass to be able to work at my new job...

I haven't blogged much about my job. Though I was only there for four short months, I learned so much, and I feel like the experience impacted me more than four months worth! I absolutely love the people I have met (seriously - they are the greatest women!), and I learned so much about Singapore.

I had amazing lunches with my co-workers and sometimes some of the volunteers when we talked about differences between life in American and Singapore or about religion, cultural norms, etc. I have learned more about Singapore in AWARE than on the streets!

Though I tried to bring my lunch at least three times a week, I did have two things that I loved to buy from the hawkers right near the office. There is a woman who makes and sells Malay food, and it is outstanding. My favorite part of it are these peanuts mixed with dried (?) little fishies. I feel bad, because I'm probably crunching on full families of fish, but it's so tasty! In addition, I love the woman who sells me fish ball noodles. She's so cute and funny, and her fish ball noodles are very satisfying (fishball=mix between matzah ball and gefilte fish). I told her I would come back to visit just to get her fishball noodles.

I think that the work that AWARE is doing is so important for Singapore. These are women who are fighting for laws that were passed in the 60s in America. They're fighting for anti-discrimination laws. Right now a woman can get fired if she announces she's pregnant - and this is legal! In addition, there are very few circumstances when a woman can file a rape charge towards her husband. There are a lot of backwards laws (I think they're backwards), and AWARE women are researching, writing and doing all that they can to get them changed.

AWARE was instrumental in breaking the quota for women in medical students (I think this was only about five years ago!), for making it legal for women to have employment passes and have their husbands be dependents (before that they couldn't imagine a man being a dependent, so it was literally impossible for a family to move here for a woman's job), and so many other things. The women talk politics, they stand up for what they believe in, and they're great leaders in this country. I do feel lucky to have met them, worked with them, and have been a part of such an important organization.

I was supposed to start my new job on Monday, but my Letter of Consent (the pass that allows me to work) hasn't come through. That's quite a shame. I hope to start at some point next week.

In other news, I had a really really busy week. I had a meeting for family Jewish education on Monday night (and an excellent salmon dinner included...). I had a major event for work - a volunteer appreciation event at a fancy shmany restaurant on the pier and the annual general meeting for the progressive Jewish community on Tuesday. I was voted in as secretary of the community. Wednesday Matt and I met our friend Margo (Matt's friend from Peace Corps, studying at INSEAD, and you might remember her from our trip to Malacca) for dinner. She is leaving Singapore in the next two weeks, so it was essentially good-bye to her. Last night we went out with our friend, Arkadi, who is moving back to Germany. You might remember him from our diving trip to Malaysia as well as our trip to Malacca. We also met up with someone who is in town for work - we overlapped at camp one summer, and I always thought he was great, but we never got to know each other too well. He will be in town for the next couple of weeks, so hopefully we'll do some fun Singapore things.

I'm looking forward to a relaxing night of eating homemade food (I HATE going out this much!) and doing nothing. The only problem is that I met my friend Lauren for coffee this afternoon, and I had WAY too much caffeine, so I'm a bit shaky, and there's no chance that I'll actually have a relaxing evening. At least I'll do nothing...

Shabbat Shalom!

Dad's Appendix

He doesn't have appendicitis or anything like that. I'm just talking about appending his blog entries.

He wanted me to mention that he forgot to say that Chiang Mai is in Thailand.

Also, he wanted me to post a link to his video of rafting in northern Thailand (it's cool!). There are a few free crack shots as well (incentive enough?).

Feet

In addition to bagels, Matt and I went shopping for lots of other things yesterday. I am starting a new job next Monday, and the dress is "business - business formal." You might know that I really appreciate informal-ism, and I do NOT have very much clothes that fit this profile. We weren't only disappointed by the poppy seeds...

I need shoes. I went in about seven or eight shoe stores, and the largest size that any of them had was a 40, but they really didn't even have any of the shoes that I liked in that size (and I actually wear a 41). I am not the biggest person, and normally I don't think of my feet as abnormally big, but I guess most Asians don't have feet this big! I thought about this before I left, and I did get keens (which everyone should own, and I will start a fund so everyone can afford them - they're AMAZING) and one pair of nice shoes that aren't nice enough for my office. The only store that HAD my size was Aerosoles. They're also the only store that charged an arm and a leg for their shoes, but I guess I'll live.

Luckily I haven't had to look for bras yet. What's going to happen then! Asians and Jews have very different size chests!!!

Friday night we went to hang out with our friend, Maria. She's sort of from Russia, kind of from New Zealand, and her parents live in the UK (and she lives in Singapore). She went rollerblading and fell, and her wrist guard broke her arm. She had to have surgery last week, and they put in a bunch of plates and screws. Totally nuts. Luckily she likes Settlers of Catan, so we got to hang out with her AND play Settlers. Good night. :)

Speaking of Settlers of Catan, we had a new person start at AWARE a few weeks ago, and she's excellent. She's the wife of a US Military man who is stationed in Singapore, and she has told me lots of interesting things about Military life. Sad to say that this is the first person I have had contact with (though I haven't met him yet...) who is in the US Military. Is it weird that I know at least 100 people who were in Israel's army? Hmmm... Anyways, turns out that this amazing woman and her husband also play Settlers. I couldn't be more excited.

Last night Matt and I went to a Thanksgiving dinner. It was held by one of Matt's colleagues. She's Philippina, and we were the only Americans there! I think that some of them might have spent time in the States, but it was pretty funny. It was all Philippinos and two Chinese Singaporeans (and us). They even had turkey - and sushi and spaghetti!! It was really nice.

This is our first weekend home in three weeks (Cambodia, Vietnam), so we're appreciating it.

Poppy Seeds

Matt and I went to buy bagels today. (There ARE good bagels in Singapore - only one kind, though, and we can only find them in the centre of town...). We had the choice of raisin, wheat (yeah right), plain, and sesame. No poppy. Poppy seeds are illegal in Singapore. Drug risk.

If You Were Gay...That'd Be Okay

So I'm a pretty political person. I say political things, think political thoughts, and I even act political. I have to be careful with that in Singapore, so I have really tried to steer away from it particularly on this blog. Unfortunately, for this posting, I cannot.

When we signed up for the Singapore Straits Times, which is the daily newspaper here, we got to choose another magazine to get for free. I chose Women's Weekly, thinking that I will be working at a women's organization, and it would be great to know about the issues facing women from a different perspective. I didn't know anything about it. (I judged the magazine by its cover).

I received my first issue this week. It's essentially hundreds of pages of ads of things to make yourself more beautiful. If you know me, you know this is not exactly (or remotely) my thing.

I think I will take a few hours and add up the cost of all of the products they're trying to sell in just one issue (not including supplements).

There was an article about what you should do if you find out your daughter is gay (this is one of VERY FEW articles in 280 pages). There is a little blue box in the corner of one of the pages, and I must relay what it says:

"Professionals are not sure if genes, upbringing, society or a complex mix of all these elements make a person more likely to become gay. So far, research on all sides remains inconclusive. But in several international studies, there are clues that a person's genes may at least partly influence his sexual orientation, says Dr Spencer Lee, President of The Association of Christian Counsellors of Singapore, registered member of Singapore Association for Counselling, Family Life Ambassador of MYCS.

"If your child announces he or she is gay and you are at ease with this, then naturally debate does not arise. But assuming you are not happy...then what? Dr Lee suggests you start by talking through your options, without condemning. He adds, "Highlight that he or she has the power to choose. It is okay if he or she feels attracted to the same gender, but he or she does not necessarily have to go into a relationship."

"Some professionals also suggest contacting both anti- and pro-gay groups for differeing views to help you make up your own mind, in your own time."

I don't even know where to start, but I have to be a bit mild, otherwise I might get kicked out of this country (no joke that happens).

"make a person more likely to become gay" ?????
"a person's genes may at least partly..." ??????
"assuming you are not happy..." ?????
"he or she has the power to choose..." ?????

I mean come on!!! This is dated December 2007. It is shocking to me that this is published nowadays. I can't remember if I wrote about what was happening with gay legislature here (probably not), but briefly, about a month ago, there was a discussion in Parliament about repealing a law that makes it illegal to have anal sex. This was exciting for this country on a few levels -

It was organized on a grassroots level.
The general public (or at least the young ones who might be a LITTLE bit politically interested) spoke openly about a political issue.
People were pretty captivated by the debate.

Basically, they did not repeal it, though the Member of Parliament who spoke about it gave a GREAT speech. Check out his blog - he's great. Then the Prime Minister actually explained why it's not passing, and his speech was good too. Matt feels differently.

Anyways, I think the general society here isn't at the same place as me in terms of equality for people as well as sexual orientation issues. I know this mentally, but when I read something like I read in that magazine last night, it enrages me.

That's all I'll say.

AND...it's the fourth anniversary of my brother coming out to my parents. Happy anniversary!!!

And, Happy Birthday Ellen!

Ho Chi Minh City

Matt and I just got back from Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), Vietnam. It was a good weekend. Matt went to Hong Kong, Hannoi and HCMC for work, and I hitched along for the last part.

HCMC is nuts. It is a city of about 8m people, and apparently there are between 3 and 5 million motorcycles. My second day there I had spent hours walking around, and I was exhausted. I could not handle crossing one more street. The crosswalk has no effect on any of the motorcycles, so it is QUITE a fight just to cross the street. There was one intersection where it took ten minutes, and at one point very near the end, I was caught in grid lock, and I was literally pushing people's motorcycles off of my feet and yelling at them to just let me walk across the street.

Apparently the food is supposed to be amazing there. Somehow we didn't really find that food.

I went to see the Cu Chi tunnels, which is where there was a lot of guerrilla fighters fought the US and S. Vietnam and defeated them. They had a whole system of 220 km of tunnels so they could live underground and not get killed. We got in a car accident on the way there, so we were delayed. There must be thousands of accidents each day. The driving was NUTS (no joke).

I also went to a museum called the War Remnants Museum. Basically it just showed how we totally messed up their country - from how we treated civilians to the gases we used and how they made thousands of people bear children with deformities, to how those same gases totally destroyed all of the trees and growth in certain areas. It showed the weapons we used. It was really terrible. We really messed up this country. It reminds me of Iraq a lot.

I went to another anti-American exhibit in another museum too. When someone asked where I was from I was temped to say "Singapore," but I thought they might be suspicious, so instead I whispered "USA."

Matt and I went on a Mee Kong River Delta tour yesterday. It was the most touristy thing I have ever done, but we did get to see the Mee Kong, and it's a big river (third longest in Asia) and has a lot of economy flowing from it. It goes through China, Vietnam, Laos, Burma, Cambodia, and I think even Thailand. One anti-highlight for me was this "row boat" ride that we took from one tourist attraction to a tourist boat. For a second I thought it was cool, and even pretty, but then we started passing the same boats coming back in our direction without passengers. EACH person paddling the boat (there were two on each - and we saw over 20 boats for sure) said, "Give money" or "tip money" letting us know that we should be sure to tip the people taking us on the river. It was SO annoying, though, that it was every few seconds, and it was really impossible to enjoy the ride. We had planned on tipping more when we got in the boat. After all of that we gave less. If you're ever talking to me on the phone (or even in person!), ask me what it sounded like. The voices added to the annoyingness of the experience, and I'm happy to do an impression.

I thought it would look more like Cambodia than it did. In Cambodia, the houses were on stilts, and in Vietnam they were not. The people were way less poor and simple in Vietnam. They actually wear those bamboo rice harvesting hats - really a lot of people wear them!

Overall, HCMC was great. It had quite a vibe and LOTS of energy. People were generally nice, and getting around was easy (other than crossing streets). We would be happy to go explore other parts of Vietnam - in fact I think we will for sure.

The airport was terribly annoying. I don't know if this is the result of it being a new airport or because it's a communist country, but they only had one choice of cafe/restaurant to get food, and a sandwich with a piece of cheese (ONLY!) was $7 US!!! A bao that costs $.50 Sing (about $.33 US) and even less in Vietnam cost $5 US! I couldn't deal with paying that much, so though I was in the airport for most of today, I chose to not eat for nine hours because I'm stubborn (and cheap).

We came back to Singapore (Matt in Singapore Airlines business class, and me on the budget jet), and unfortunately the kitty (who remains nameless to me, but one of the kids in the complex told me is named snowball) has a problem with her mouth. It looks like she has some sort of infection or something. Hopefully she will feel better soon. She's a sweet one (but I don't love her - don't worry).

Sandeebeee Guest Stars Again (due to popular demand)

Melanie's dad gets to write again.
Sue and I got home today. Cold feels good after sweating so much. House was 49 degrees F.
I last wrote about Singapore. This will be about our travels since then: Thailand's north, a southern island, and then Bangkok. Mel and Matt met us in Siem Reap.

It's very nice to be welcomed at a strange airport with your name on a sign. We landed in Chiang Mai for a 3 day trekking adventure which was to start the next day. The person picking us up offered to arrange, and we took him up a 6 hour tour of city and temples. Amazing. $60 for guide and car. Overdosed on Buddhism. One temple not to me missed (there are 700 in this city of 250,000 ) is Doi Southep.

We got picked up early the next morning. We were in a group of seven. You've probably heard the story about how if you're in a room full of people that includes Bill Gates, the average person is millionaire? Well, the average age in our group was forties, but the other five people were in their twenties and young thirties. This amazingly interesting adventure was one of the hardest of anything we've done in our lives--yet still recommended. I don't know how the 4 French trekkers and 1 Spaniard could understand the English speaking guide. Sue did some translating.
Day 1: long drive in back of small truck (see photo). Stop at waterfall.
Ninety minute uphill hike by geysers, through bamboo forests, bananas on trees to isolated Karn (spelling?) village. We could see the distant border mountains of Myanmar (Burma). Karn people speak a different language, not that it mattered to us, but our guides were Karn. (I think I read someplace some of these villages were so isolated that they were stuck in the sixth through eleventh centuries.) We climbed up the rickety steps of an old bamboo hut that accommodated our party and could have held twice as many. The floor was woven and moved anytime anyone in our group moved. Like being in bed with 7 people. Village had one solar-powered light. Guide cooked excellent meal. We loved watching the stars, people, chickens, pigs, dogs, rice field. Our guide warned us that roosters would start at 4:20 for twenty minutes. Actually they started at 4:00 and continued for an hour. Day 2: Had filling breakfast that prepared us for five strenuous hours of hiking on wet trails. Mostly uphill. Or so it seemed.
Lunched at another Karn village, replenishing water.
Then elephants met us for our last 90 minutes of travel (see photo in Mel's last posting). We were in seats with our backpacks also strapped to the animals. Trying to hold on when going downhill was a challenge. Two per elephant.
The next morning we left on our newly made bamboo raft for a 4 hour adventure through class I and II rapids. I was dreading the length of time, but ended up enjoying it all. I'll try to put the video on YOUTUBE. . Our journey back to the hotel included a stop at an Orchid Garden/Butterfly Farm. The night bazaar back in town was fun.

You can eat very cheaply here. I don't know what our hotel cost because it was included in our 3 day trek. (3 days trekking and 2 nights in very nice hotel cost $500 for two people). Intrepid Tours contracted with UPT Travel & Transport.

Left early the next morning for island of Ko Samui.
KOH Samuii. “Koh” means “island.” 80 minute flight was ontime.
This time there wasn’t anyone holding a sign with my name. We called to remind him. Entire island is only about 90 square miles. Coral Bay resort was a luxurious treat for these 2 worn out trekkers. Flower petals on our bed and shelves with a waterfall style shower. Each hut has its own porch with an ocean view. Splendid.
Sue had read about a more isolated beach with friendlier snorkeling water at the south end. We planned on and did move there for 2 days. I think we were the only people staying in the 28 room hotel.
Its origins go back to hippie times and it had a Michigania style manual and flavor. This place was in need of fixing up, but was clean still ended up being heavenly. The hotel next door had lots of people so we ate there.
We arranged for a 6 a.m. ride to airport. Our driver spoke no english. He started on the main road we were familiar with, but then took a turn through isolated streets. Then we continued through secluded palm/bamboo forests. For many miles we (okay, I) wondered if we were going to get to the airport.
He didn’t answer my questions. Then we saw the back of the runway. Never mind.

In Bangkok the sign with our name was a warming sight. (Though I think it ends up meaning we pay twice the going rate.) Sue had found a fabulous guest house for us. (baanchantra.com) The owner was most helpful.
We sampled the various neighborhoods & temples (crowded and interesting), tasted the foods (not as good as Singapore), rode the taxis and water taxi’s, but were told to avoid the Tuk-Tuk’s here. We didn’t love it.
The city has ten million of Thailand’s 65 million. After 2 nights we rode to the airport for our early flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia.

After arriving at the airport we found out our flight was canceled. The people ahead of us got rebooked on a flight 30 minutes later. WE weren’t so lucky and had to wait 5 hours. But, it took half that time to make a call to Cambodia to tell the kids about our delay.

The sign with our name also missed us in Cambodia; we taxied on our own.
We met up with Matt and Mel and had 3 days of guided temple ruins, a boat trip to a floating village and people-watching. 50 cent beers while playing Euchre at an outdoor table of a restaurant will be memorable for me. Melanie will write more (I hope) about Angkor Wat and Beng Mealea (she already did!! YEAH!!!! (okay - this is Melanie editing...). I’m tired. My impression: extreme poverty, yet smiles by all. Aggressive tourist hunters (though not nearly as scummy as the Bangkok tourist sharks). Poor begging children rips at your heart. So many men without limbs from the mines.

I asked Sue if she wanted to add anything. She said Siem Reap was amazing and that the people are resilient. As to Bangkok, she said, “oy, big. Didn’t love.” She said Koh Samuii was now the way Acapulco looked many years ago.

In all the places we visited there were some Israeli’s, lots of Europeans, some Aussies, but very few Americans.

All in all, a memorable trip.

Back to Singapore for one night, more Laksa , more sweating.
6 hours to Tokyo (Sue got to order Starbucks during plane change and loved to hear her order in Japanese). 11 hours back to DTW. Sue did great job getting seats (bulkhead and expanded room seats on the other flight).
Back in Detroit...no one waiting with a sign with our name.
We didn’t need it.

See 'em Rip

This past weekend Matt and I and my parents went to Siem Reap, Cambodia. It's a city that's in the middle of the country on a big lake (that they said is the second biggest in the world, but I have to google this...).

We had an excellent long weekend, though at first we weren't sure we were going to share it with Sandy and Sue. They were meeting us there from Bangkok, but their flight was canceled. Somehow they showed up at the hotel. That was good news.

We went to a floating village on the lake. It's just the beginning of the dry season, so the homes were still pretty close to the land, but apparently when the lake dries up, they float their houses far away towards the middle of the lake. The greens that are sticking their heads up on the lake become mangroves - real trees, and roads appear. Pretty crazy. We saw many floating houses, two floating churches, a few floating markets, a floating school, and some other floating things. Overall, it was cool.

We found a bar in town that had draft beers (Angkor, which was actually quite good) for $0.50. We drank a lot of beers there. We also had excellent Cambodian food including curries, noodles and vegetables, and fish amok, which is their national dish.

Friday we templed. We went to four temples total, and they were all outstanding. We saw Ta Prom, Banteay Srei, (Angkor Thom) Bayon, and Angkor Wat. Ta Prom had lots of cool trees growing out of it, Banteay Srei was pink, Bayon had amazing faces and carvings, and Angkor Wat's size was just unbelievable.

These temples were built by kings between the 800s and the 1200s. They were a mixture of Hindu and Buddhist, and their size was just amazing. All of the artwork that survived was also pretty unbelievable.

Saturday we went to a temple called Beng Melea. It's basically how it was when it was discovered, so it hasn't been rebuilt or restored. My dad and I crawled all over the temple, and we all basically took a tour through the craziness. I can't imagine how cool it would be to discover something like that - like what if you were walking down the street, chasing after your pig or something, and then you ran into a 100 meter long serpent. How cool would that be?

We also had a chance to visit a market, and stop in some of the villages to explore a bit. Wow. Serious poverty. These people do not have clean drinking water. The lucky ones had wells, and others just caught rain water. Kids were super dirty (but really cute), and they had very few things.

One thing that did surprise me was that many of the houses had nothing except a television inside. They have batteries that they recharge, and apparently the battery lets you watch tv for a few days (no electricity).

We drank and ate more, and that was about it. All in all, we all had a great trip. Matt and I decided that after we're through with Singapore we will move to Cambodia.

My parents left this morning (at 4:30!). I think they had a good time, though it seems like they would like to come for a shorter time next time. They were gone for more than three weeks, I believe. Pretty nuts. They did do some cool stuff in Thailand, though (check out the elephants!). I am posting a few pictures from out trip, but you can click here to see all of them (or most anyways).

Pretty bummy that Michigan lost. Pretty excellent that OSU lost.

I have no patience for crooked walkers. You know those people who walk next to you, and then they start edging into your personal space (DAD!), and then you have to readjust your line. Finally, they make a quick cut right - DIRECTLY in front of you, and you have to actually stop (make a face) and turn in another direction.

These people are totally unpredictable. Thank goodness they're not behind the wheel, because just when you expect them to keep up their pace, they totally stop and look around as if they're lost (but they're really on the platform for the MRT). They are dangerous if you're zoning, and they're just annoying.

In New York, other than Times Square where there are just too many people and tourists, when you're WALKING, you stay left, and when you're slower or lost, you move to the right. Overall, it's pretty well organized. In Singapore, there are crooked walkers all over the place! I try to move to the right, since they drive on the left here, but that doesn't work. I say, "excuse me. Excuse me." But that's not that effective. When I actually nudge people, I don't even think they notice. What's the solution?

On a totally different note...Matt and I were walking home from a totally delicious and fun Thai dinner with friends, and we heard a really loud noise. As we walked more and more it got louder and louder. Finally we stopped, and we noticed that it was coming from the gutters underground! It was LOUD ASS frogs!

The little kitty is growing on me. Tonight when I was petting her, she kept crawling into my lap and sitting cutely. It's cute when something crawls into your lap. There is just no one who can disagree with that.

Tonight starts Deepavali here in Singapore (and in most places with Indians...). Deeksha, my (ex)co-worker was explaining that they all get dressed super nice, clean their homes, light a lot of lamps and eat special foods. I wish we were going to be around to celebrate it. Next year...

Low Crime is not no Crime

So, for the last few months it was dengue, and now it's crime.

The government goes on campaigns, and then they put up crazy signs, and then we all do our best to prevent _____ (fill in the blank).

With dengue, there were the signs "If they Breed, you will Bleed," which were pretty scary. There were also full-page ads in the (gov run) newspaper that had a picture of a happy family, and one person - usually the mom - was sort of watermarked. It says "We never thought it could happen to our family. Dengue Kills." It was really terrible.

Now, they're onto crime. By my work there are signs that say "Low Crime is NOT no Crime." That's true, but let's be honest - Singapore is so super safe. I have not once worried about walking down the street at night, I haven't held onto my bag especially well, we live on the ground floor, and our door is open quite often...I really don't worry about crime here (and I'm a worrier!). Granted I moved here from NYC, but still - this crazy campaign might be taking it a bit too far.

I got on the MRT go to home tonight, and the WHOLE thing was covered with pictures and scary words about how you have to protect yourself, and we shouldn't be distracted if someone tries to spill something on us. It instructs us that our bags should be slung over the shoulder and then tucked under our arm. It shows a picture of someone stealing someone's wallet in the MRT while she sleeps. It wasn't just on the ad strip above the seats - it was even on the windows and pretty much everywhere. By the time I left the MRT, I DID feel like someone was going to rob me - I had been warned at least 15 times in the last 20 minutes...

Halloween

Last night Matt and I went to a Halloween party. It was at the house of someone Matt met from work at the Fed and with JP Morgan, and we really like her and her husband. Their kids are even cool - they're cute, but they're super smart too. I like smart kids.

Anyways, costumes were highly recommended. It was a pretty funny party, since there were lots of (dressed up and cute as hell) kids there, but there were also a good number of adults and some amount of alcohol. We had a great time, and we met a lot of wonderful people.

Matt dressed up as Batman (we forgot to take pictures, but I'm going to make him put on his super tight costume so I can post a picture). He looked good, and he got quite a few stares as we walked down the street to the party.

I was going to dress up as a volleyball player (since I had knee pads and a volleyball). I have always felt like renting/buying a costume is sort of selling out (and I'm cheap). In America, when I have all of my reserves available to me, I can usually put together fun costumes, but here, we really just brought with us the (sort-of) bare minimum. I got nothing to work with.

I went out with my friends, Marc and Arthur, this week, and they mentioned that Arthur was an iPod when they had dressed up over the weekend. I took that idea and ran with it. I dove into my arts and crafts bin (which obviously is part of the bare minimum that we brought to Singapore), and I made myself into an iPod - really a black iPod Nano. I had a wheel, a screen, some headphones, and I had an apple on my ass. I must say, I looked pretty good. I decided to actually go through with the idea at 5:00 pm, I worked until 6:00, we got there at 7:30, and I won the contest for most creative costume about an hour later. Go me!!! I was flattered, but I give full idea credit to Arthur.

Yesterday we also went to a play called Good People. It was a small theater production right near our house. It dealt with a lot of issues - life, death, drugs, Singaporean tight law, relationships, passion...lots of things. The acting was outstanding, and the story was good. We really enjoyed.

I asked one of my co-workers whether or not the change clocks here - I felt like an idiot immediately after. We are ON the equator, and we have NO seasons. No. We do not change our clocks. I think that means that we will be 13 hours ahead of the US E. Coast after Sunday morning.

GO BLUE!!!

Carlebach in Singapore?

So, just in case you thought I was TOTALLY not Jewish anymore (after my last posting...), I went to shul tonight. They have an Ashkenazi (E. European Jewish) service once a month, and this month they did a Carlebach service. There was LOTS of singing, and it was really really great. I loved it. Turns out there are some parts of Judaism that make me happy - I'm sure this surprises you if you know me. :)

It might also surprise you (if you know Matt) that he didn't go. Rather, he went to the costume shop and rented a costume. What is it? You'll have to wait to see pictures after the Halloween party tomorrow night.

Matt's growing even more attached to the little kitten (who weights 1.1 kg, btw). She is REALLY cute, but she's so scared of the world, it's hard to be friends with her. I generally am attracted to confident people - those like Splinter who just walk up to people and push their head against your ankle. This little kitty (which has continued to remain nameless) runs the other way when the leaves blow two centimeters.

Yesterday the MRT was closed for an hour. They had announcements in four languages, they fixed it quickly, you could UNDERSTAND the announcement (unlike NYC...). I couldn't believe it closed, and I couldn't believe how efficiently it closed and opened.

Crabby

I'm crabby.

I don't mean whiney (though I have been that a lot lately...).

I don't mean Krabi - like the place that me, Matt, Jer and Josh are going in December (in Thailand).

I mean I ate so much crab tonight, and it got all over my body. The crab's body was literally bigger than my entire hand (including fingers). We went out with two of Matt's friends from grad school to a place in Geylang, where all of the legal prostitutes are. Unfortunately I didn't get to see the prostitutes, since we finished dinner too late, but the area looked really cool.

We had a whole family of prawn - three each - and they were so fricken good. This was one of the first times in my life that I pulled apart an animal and ate it. I even touched the crab's eyeball (but I didn't touch the prawn's eyeballs - they were grosser). It actually tasted really good. The last time we went for crab I felt like it was a lot of work with very little reward, but this was just really tasty. Selina (one of the friends) said that they're Sri Lankan crabs. Maybe they make them tasty down there (over there?).

Don't judge and Indian by her hair colo(u)r

My ex-co-worker (I have lots of those at this point) told me that in India, you don't really describe a person by how they look. In America we might say, "you know, the Indian woman with the long hair" or someone might describe Matt as "short, light brown hair, blue eyes, skinny, about six feet tall" (btw - the short described his hair, not his length). Anyways, Deeksha, the co-worker, said that people find other ways to describe people by their skin color, their hair color, their eye color, etc.

It was fun to have my parents in town. We/they toured on the week, and we relaxed a lot on the weekend. We ate a lot (did you get that from my dad's posting?!). They're in Thailand right now. Lucky them.

In other interesting news, Splinter has not come back. It's been 20 days.

Matt has become quite attracted to this little kitten in our complex. I'm sure I have written about her. There were two black and white kitties, and one that looked exactly like Splinter. They also had a mom. The kitten that looked like Splinter disappeared (aka died) a few months ago, and then when Splinter disappeared, the other kitten and the mom disappeared as well (hopefully not aka died). The remaining kitty is very helpless and very cute. Matt has taken to feeding her and watering her. She has developed a limp, so we took her to the vet tonight. They did an ex-ray on her little leg, and they said that it's broken at the top of the femur, and it's totally facing the wrong way. Poor kitty. They said we can amputate it or just leave her alone, and that in a few weeks she will learn to walk without it bothering her TOO much. I hope she feels better soon. They gave us some calcium stuff to squirt into her mouth. I don't want her living in our house though, and I WON'T give her a name, because that means I might love her, and then she will leave, and I don't think I can handle that again.

Also, Marla got married this weekend. I was really sad not to be there. It's so hard not to be at major events of people you love and grew up with! Sad. MAZAL TOV!!!

Happy Halloween. They don't really do that so much here, but Matt just saw a few kids going trick or treating. Thank god my dad left some m&ms in our apartment...

Guest Blogger - Sandeebeee

Melanie’s father is writing today.

Sue and I arrived in Singapore 6 days ago.
If Mel or Matt have given you an invitation to visit them do take them up on it! They have lots of room (compared to Manhattan) and things are very interesting here.
Some observations:

1. Everyone told us to fly first class. We didn’t. We survived. Easily. Lots of hours, with a rushed change of planes in Tokyo. Sue could’ve practiced her Japanese, but didn’t.
2. Some things are expensive here. Our suitcases were loaded with requested peanut butter and a ton of books.
3. Starbucks all over, but Sue is enjoying local coffee shops. 1/5 the cost and just as much caffeine.
4. Melanie has written about how well the country works. Clean, safe. Don’t need car. Is that really English they’re speaking?
5. Have visited lots of places here. Saw Matt’s workplace—no photos allowed for security reasons. Very impressive. Visited Asian Civilizations Museum—excellent. Lots of malls—way to stay cool and see things. One huge mall even has multiple theatres with performances by internationally acclaimed entertainers. David Copperfield just canceled. Go figure.
6. Went to Pulau Ubin. (Melanie probably wrote about this). Natural beauty island not far away. Saw monkeys, wild pigs, neat fish, huge lizards. We hiked, rather than rent broken down bikes.
7. Spotting lots of iPod ear buds on the street. Jer, hold APPL.
8. Have eaten in many different restaurants. Great Indian food. “Street food” (from hawker stalls) very tasty and amazingly cheap. We order by looking at pictures because we don’t know what any of the names mean. Lots of variety. Dinner for 4 for less than $20. Yet in a nicer waterfront restaurant a soft drink is over $4 US. Same restaurant/bar priced beer based on what time you buy it. Four different prices from $5 to $14 for a pint. Alcohol taxed heavily.
9. I bought 89 cents worth of bananas and was only charged 85 cents. To eliminate pennies they round DOWN.
10. Soft drinks available in cans and on street for about 60 cents US. We’re enjoying the lime juice. Tried sugar cane juice. Some drink places have soft drinks for 20 cents less if you get them WITH ice.
11. I had read about the foul smelling fruit called durian. Once, when I was really warm I saw a popsicle for sale that was durian flavor. I decided to take a chance—how bad could it be? I had 2 bites. Couldn’t try any more. Burped once per minute for the next 3 hours. Tasted like diesel fuel. Melanie says it’s an acquired taste.
12. Lots of dental offices here. Prominent signs offering whitening in all of them. Have seen many people missing several teeth—especially older, poor-looking people.
13. Played (rooftop) tennis twice with Melanie. Each time, the heat shortened our outing. She’s getting good. She tells me Matt’s getting amazingly good. Sue’s resting her knee, getting ready for upcoming Thailand trek.
14. Just outside our condo door is the huge swimming pool. Very refreshing.
15. Matt and Mel are living very “green”. They rarely use their air conditioners. (Sue keeps repositioning their fans to fully cover the chair she’s sitting in.) They shower turning the water on and off intermittently. (Their showers have “flash” hot water heaters.) They turn off electrical transformers for devices not being used. Before I left home, I turned off my cable modem so my neighbor would realize she’s been using my internet WIFI.

All in all, very interesting. As I’m finishing this, (watching game 4 of the World Series), Sue’s talking to cousin Judy. Sue says she loves the way our kids have adapted to living here. And then she adds, “it’s really hot.”

B'holtzes in Singapore

First, I have to give credit to Ruthie for giving me the idea to throw an "e" in B'holtzes. I always apostrophied, but I like this better.

Sue and Sandy arrived on Tuesday night late. I had a rough time, since two people from my work life and I went out for drinks and dinner (and drinks) before they got here. I had woken up at 5:45 to go to work, and we got home from the airport at 2:00 am. I would have been complaining more if my parents hadn't just flown around the world for over 24 hours to come visit me.

They arrived in jolly moods from Jeremy and Terese's wedding in Cali. They had a great time, and they saw many people that Matt and I love. We were so sad not to be there. We were also thankful that the Malibu fires didn't displace their wedding, since they are/were raging right where the wedding was - five hours after it ended. So terrible.

Yesterday I took the day off of work, and we ran all over Singapore. We first checked out the local Starbucks (which was the most important thing in my mom's life, but she later realized that local coffee is as good as or better than her beloved Starbucks). We went to my new job (which starts in Dec - I'll write more about it another time) to drop off some papers, and then we walked down Orchard Road to get some very good dim sum and see all of the malls.

The dim sum was very good.

We then took the MRT to go see Matt at his office. He took us to the 37th floor and then the 18th floor and we could see a few views of the city. We then went to one of the hawker centres and got a bunch of fruit. We walked and saw a Chinese temple, Chinatown, Clarke Quay, lots of areas. We ended up in Little India, where we saw lots of colors, since everything is decorated for Deepavali (Nov 8th). They tried roti prata, which is a Singaporean speciality, and then we had super good food for dinner.

Today they ran all over town again. My mom said that she will guest blog this weekend, so she'll write more.

Tonight we met for a Singapore Sling, which is a SUPER sweet drink, at the Raffles Hotel which is just a gorgeous building. It is soooo beautiful.

Then we had Laksa, which is another Singapore specialty - we have no idea what's in it, but I think I wrote about it back in August or July. It was good. Then we tried some chicken rice. That was really good too. Now we're crashing...Pictures soon.

No word on Splinter. :(

Don't Say Anything at All

My mom always said - "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all."

I would suppose that's why I haven't blogged in the last almost-week. It's been a rough week. Work is pretty rough (though I really try to not write about that at all, since you never know who reads what), and I've been really down about the cat. Her presence in our lives made me really happy. I loved coming home, and as I was walking to our apartment, she would trot up next to me and then run ahead up the stairs and wait for me to open the door to our apartment. Every morning, I would open the door to get the paper, and she would run inside. She was such a cuddly, sweet, loveable cat. :(

Basically, we haven't seen her for a week and a half (Thursday morning LAST week). At first we were sure she had been taken, because there were signs up that they were collecting stray cats. Matt called the management office, SPCA, and a couple of companies that do that sort of thing, and we pretty much confirmed that they had not come to our complex, and that she hadn't been taken away. Matt even went to SPCA to check. He has emailed pictures to different places too.

We heard that she might be in heat, off having sex somewhere, or she might be exploring the world. We hope that she decides to come back and wasn't taken away...

We met Ruthie's friend, Rachel, and her two sisters and one sister's friend (make sense?). They were all great, and we had a fun time with them last night.

We played tennis today - Matt WON again!! Bad news...

Mom and dad are coming on Tuesday night, so that will be fun.
Our house is clean, so that makes me happy too.

Christin and Lee Fong's Wedding

Last night we went to Christin and Lee Fong's wedding in Johor Bahru, which is right across the water from Singapore in Malaysia. It's seriously like Windsor to Detroit.

Matt was a "brother" in the wedding, so he actually was there for the whole of Sunday, which sounds like it was quite an experience. Lee Fong is Chinese, and grew up on JB, and Christian is Filipino and grew up in Athens, Georgia. The wedding was a Chinese wedding.

First, Matt went to the Gate Crashing Ceremony, which is like the Jewish B'deken. Christian and his brothers showed up at LF's house, and they had to do a bunch of tasks before he could get let in. Here sister and friends were "keeping the gates." It sounds kind of like Double Dare. They had to hit some badminton strokes, they had to put on a certain pair of underwear, they had to put on lipstick and kiss each other...it all sounds pretty hilarious. Finally, Christian gets let in, and he got to see LF in all of her beauty (she's really cute), and he had tea with her family. That meant they were married.

I took a cab to the hotel there with a few of the SAIS (Matt's grad school) people. We ended up staying by the pool and talking and playing euchre for about six hours. We also got to watch Missouri and Oklahoma, which was a pretty exciting game.

Anyways, the wedding was a mad feast of crazy amounts of food. We had about eight courses. It was really nice - they had friends there from Hong Kong, Bangkok, Borneo, Jakarta, and people came in from the States...Lots of SAISers.

At Jewish weddings people dance. At this wedding it was all singing - karaoke city. People were singing with background music, and it was awesome. They were no joke - really good voices! They had two emcees, and there were even a few slide shows.

They also do this thing where everyone puts their glasses up and together and calls yam seng. But they don't say it like that. They say it like, "yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam seng." And the "yam" is really loud and sometimes painful.

A highlight for me is when I went to wash my hands in the bathroom, and this woman came out and said, "be careful - there's a man in there." There was an old man puking in the women's bathroom. Did I mention there was a lot of alcohol at this wedding?

Congratulations to Christian and Lee Fong! Check out photos here.

In SUPER sad news - we are pretty sure that they took our cat away. It seems as though the complex called an extermination company to come and collect the cats, and we haven't seen her since Thursday morning. I'm REALLY sad about that. She was really a part of our family, and she made coming home so nice and exciting. I miss her. Matt's going to call the company tomorrow and see if there's any chance she's still alive, but I seriously doubt it. :(