My grandparents live in a hilarious neighborhood. It's one of those in Florida with a gate, all of the mailboxes are the same, they have a certain number of trees allowed in their front yard, etc. I'm sure you've seen them. When we go there, it makes me laugh. Each complex has its theme, and none of them has a personality. My grandparents' is called Pontevecchio - yup, just like the bridge in Italy.
We live in basically the same thing in Singapore. Ours is called Casafina. I had posted a few pictures before on this post. It has palm trees. They're real, but they don't look like they are, and they're certainly not primary growth forest. The whole place is cleaned each day, and there is never any litter (other than the lambchop). We have at least three pools, over 20 fountains or places of public running water, and we have strict rules for the tennis court (but not as strict as Florida - and no angry 70 year olds enforcing them). It was all digestible until last week.
Last week, they put up a SUPER tacky sign on the guard house that reads, "Casafina" in white neon lights - arched like cheap word-art. It's really ugly.
In other news - I'm really scared the Splinter has left this world. She hasn't come to visit us since breakfast Thursday morning. In fact, I didn't see ANY cats in our complex for two full days. When I left to go out this evening I saw some of the cats had returned, but it's now been more than two days, and I really hope she's okay. I hope that they didn't take all of the cats and kill them. It would be okay if they took them all and killed them - except Splinter.
In addition, Matt and some friends went to Johor Bahru right across the border (it's like Windsor to Detroit) for Christian's wedding. Right when they left, I turned on the dining room light, and I heard a pop, and now none of the lights are working. I'm writing by dim lamp light. The fuse box is in Maria's (the imaginary maid) room, but we have a desk, a kitchen table, a tv stand and about four other things in between me and the fuse box. I think I will wait until Matt comes back.
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Yiddapore
I had a meeting with my President, and the first thing I asked before we started was, "do you know what chutzpa means?" She didn't. I told her that's basically the definition of what I was doing...
I asked the other girls at work if they knew what chutzpa meant, and they didn't.
Then I read Time Out Singapore, and it mentioned schlep - TWICE - and it mentioned nosh once. No one at work knew those words either. Who's writing this magazine? Are Jewish words infiltrating a country in Asia surrounded by other countries who hate Jews?
I asked the other girls at work if they knew what chutzpa meant, and they didn't.
Then I read Time Out Singapore, and it mentioned schlep - TWICE - and it mentioned nosh once. No one at work knew those words either. Who's writing this magazine? Are Jewish words infiltrating a country in Asia surrounded by other countries who hate Jews?
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Everyone IS out to get me!!!
Maybe it's because I'm the grandchild of Holocaust survivors.
Maybe it's because I'm the daughter of the child of Holocaust survivors.
Maybe it's because I myself am paranoid.
Whatever the reason, I'm paranoid. I'm pretty sure that people are trying to cheat me, rob me, and get me into trouble - left and right.
When I'm driving in a cab in a city I don't know, I follow on a map.
When we first moved into our fifth floor apartment - in the back of a brownstone, in NYC, I wouldn't leave the windows open during the day.
I check all bills and credit card statements with the assumption that they're trying to get money out of me that I don't actually owe.
It's kind of my personal goal to always stop someone from cheating me.
The truth is that it almost never actually happens.
When Matt and I first met, this was one of our biggest problems. It hasn't really improved. (Luckily I'm not religious anymore, so now it can move up to number two or three).
I arrived in Singapore, and I saw that Asians don't wear their shoes in their houses. Our apartment, as most do, has a shoe rack between the main door and the main gate. I was really nervous to put my keens there. I was moving from NYC, and we are now living on the first floor (and I'm paranoid - see above -), and you want me to leave my expensive sandals outside for the world to take? Matt made super fun of me, and finally, I gave in - only so that when they got stolen, I could tell him "I told you so."
They didn't get stolen. I then began to trust the world. I really felt like nothing in Singapore could touch me - it's so safe here! We even have security in our complex!
Until...Matt and I went to play tennis on Monday night, and he noticed that his brand new, white as white, beautiful tennis shoes were STOLEN! They're totally gone!
I didn't tell him, "I told you so," but that's mostly because when your stuff is stolen, it never really helps when your wife says that. The building management assured us they would "get to the bottom of this." I'm sure they will...(yeah right)
In other news:
Matt and I DID play tennis on Monday night (he wore old shoes), and he WON! He beat me 6-4. I'm pretty worried that his win was the beginning of a new era in our relationship.
Lots of people are pregnant. They're coming out like migrating geese. Remember in August when five babies were born within a week or so? Well, it's going to happen again in April. My friend Yael is due somewhere there, Shana is due a week later, and then Emily (Seth's wife) is due three days later. Why does everyone seem to conceive at the same time? I wonder if there was a study about which months in which years had the most births. I can say that most of my friends (born in 1978) have summer birthdays. (Except Marla who is turning THIRTY tomorrow!!! - HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!).
Maybe it's because I'm the daughter of the child of Holocaust survivors.
Maybe it's because I myself am paranoid.
Whatever the reason, I'm paranoid. I'm pretty sure that people are trying to cheat me, rob me, and get me into trouble - left and right.
When I'm driving in a cab in a city I don't know, I follow on a map.
When we first moved into our fifth floor apartment - in the back of a brownstone, in NYC, I wouldn't leave the windows open during the day.
I check all bills and credit card statements with the assumption that they're trying to get money out of me that I don't actually owe.
It's kind of my personal goal to always stop someone from cheating me.
The truth is that it almost never actually happens.
When Matt and I first met, this was one of our biggest problems. It hasn't really improved. (Luckily I'm not religious anymore, so now it can move up to number two or three).
I arrived in Singapore, and I saw that Asians don't wear their shoes in their houses. Our apartment, as most do, has a shoe rack between the main door and the main gate. I was really nervous to put my keens there. I was moving from NYC, and we are now living on the first floor (and I'm paranoid - see above -), and you want me to leave my expensive sandals outside for the world to take? Matt made super fun of me, and finally, I gave in - only so that when they got stolen, I could tell him "I told you so."
They didn't get stolen. I then began to trust the world. I really felt like nothing in Singapore could touch me - it's so safe here! We even have security in our complex!
Until...Matt and I went to play tennis on Monday night, and he noticed that his brand new, white as white, beautiful tennis shoes were STOLEN! They're totally gone!
I didn't tell him, "I told you so," but that's mostly because when your stuff is stolen, it never really helps when your wife says that. The building management assured us they would "get to the bottom of this." I'm sure they will...(yeah right)
In other news:
Matt and I DID play tennis on Monday night (he wore old shoes), and he WON! He beat me 6-4. I'm pretty worried that his win was the beginning of a new era in our relationship.
Lots of people are pregnant. They're coming out like migrating geese. Remember in August when five babies were born within a week or so? Well, it's going to happen again in April. My friend Yael is due somewhere there, Shana is due a week later, and then Emily (Seth's wife) is due three days later. Why does everyone seem to conceive at the same time? I wonder if there was a study about which months in which years had the most births. I can say that most of my friends (born in 1978) have summer birthdays. (Except Marla who is turning THIRTY tomorrow!!! - HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!).
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Melaka
Matt and I went to Melaka this weekend with two friends - Arkadi and Margo. Arkadi you might remember from my diving certification trip, and Margo and Matt were in Peace Corps together.
First - a little prelude. I manage the membership database for the progressive Jewish community in S'pore. I got all of the updated membership data (in hard copy) this week, and I spent about six hours going through all of the forms, updating addresses, marking who has paid, organizing the data afterwards and making it look beautiful. Friday night, around 11:30, I finally finished, and I sent it off the the important people. Then, I couldn't sleep. I got out of bed around 12:30, and I came back to make the spreadsheet even prettier. When I opened it, it had reverted back to what I had on TUESDAY, before I had done any of the work. So, I stayed up until 3:30 finishing that again (it was faster the second time). Somewhere in the middle of that, two weird things happened. First, I started eating some dry corn flakes. Splinter was really curious and wouldn't leave me alone (she doesn't usually care about the food that we eat). I had put some in a bowl, which was on the floor, and when there were just a few left, I let her smell it, and then she ate them. We have only fed her cat food, and when we try to give her fruits and veggies, she's never interested. I thought her crunching on corn flakes was really cute...until she became uncute very quickly. She brought a lizard into the living room, put it down, and then she began torturing it - she would hit it, and then when it would run away, she would corner it, or just bug it. Finally, she ended up cutting off the tail (which was going nuts, even after its separating from the body), and then she chased the rest of it around the house for a very long time. This was really not cute.
Anyways, after one hour of sleep (I couldn't fall asleep until six!!!), Matt and I got up to go to our luxury bus to Melaka. We were in huge, wide seats that leaned all the way back. Most normal tour buses have 54 seats in them (yes, I have led trips before). Ours had 24. Though our first bus had more, since it was double decker. We went smoothly through the border and ended up in Melaka around 1.
Melaka is a small city that is on the west "coast" of main land Malaysia. It was about four hours on the bus. Basically, what I understand is that it used to be a major thoroughfare, but at this point, it's just sort of a place for tourists, and a place that they're starting to make a bit nicer. It is on
the water, but there isn't yet anything of interest on the water, so we didn't spend much time around there. It has a nice river runnign up the middle of it, and we did enjoy that.
We stayed at a place called the Baba House, which is an old house - sort of colonial architecture with amazing Chinese woodwork. Our rooms didn't have windows, but we just pretended that the curtains were just drawn really tight (and they did have air con). We ate a lot (though that was challenging, since there's still a week left of Ramadan). We walked around everywhere, and that was my favorite. The buildings are just so interesting. The Portuguese had the city from the 1500s until the 1700s or something like that (no time for Googling right now), and then there were Du
tch and British that came along also - so there is a lot of European influence, but it also looks amazingly beautifully Asian. We saw two really old mosques - one from the 1720s and one from the 1740s. We saw a church from the 1500s, a replica of a palace that was there in the 1400s (wood and no nails), and lots of windy roads. It wasn't the most pedestrian friendly place, but we did all live.
I'll upload a few pictures, but click
here for the full album.
First - a little prelude. I manage the membership database for the progressive Jewish community in S'pore. I got all of the updated membership data (in hard copy) this week, and I spent about six hours going through all of the forms, updating addresses, marking who has paid, organizing the data afterwards and making it look beautiful. Friday night, around 11:30, I finally finished, and I sent it off the the important people. Then, I couldn't sleep. I got out of bed around 12:30, and I came back to make the spreadsheet even prettier. When I opened it, it had reverted back to what I had on TUESDAY, before I had done any of the work. So, I stayed up until 3:30 finishing that again (it was faster the second time). Somewhere in the middle of that, two weird things happened. First, I started eating some dry corn flakes. Splinter was really curious and wouldn't leave me alone (she doesn't usually care about the food that we eat). I had put some in a bowl, which was on the floor, and when there were just a few left, I let her smell it, and then she ate them. We have only fed her cat food, and when we try to give her fruits and veggies, she's never interested. I thought her crunching on corn flakes was really cute...until she became uncute very quickly. She brought a lizard into the living room, put it down, and then she began torturing it - she would hit it, and then when it would run away, she would corner it, or just bug it. Finally, she ended up cutting off the tail (which was going nuts, even after its separating from the body), and then she chased the rest of it around the house for a very long time. This was really not cute.
Anyways, after one hour of sleep (I couldn't fall asleep until six!!!), Matt and I got up to go to our luxury bus to Melaka. We were in huge, wide seats that leaned all the way back. Most normal tour buses have 54 seats in them (yes, I have led trips before). Ours had 24. Though our first bus had more, since it was double decker. We went smoothly through the border and ended up in Melaka around 1.
Melaka is a small city that is on the west "coast" of main land Malaysia. It was about four hours on the bus. Basically, what I understand is that it used to be a major thoroughfare, but at this point, it's just sort of a place for tourists, and a place that they're starting to make a bit nicer. It is on
the water, but there isn't yet anything of interest on the water, so we didn't spend much time around there. It has a nice river runnign up the middle of it, and we did enjoy that.We stayed at a place called the Baba House, which is an old house - sort of colonial architecture with amazing Chinese woodwork. Our rooms didn't have windows, but we just pretended that the curtains were just drawn really tight (and they did have air con). We ate a lot (though that was challenging, since there's still a week left of Ramadan). We walked around everywhere, and that was my favorite. The buildings are just so interesting. The Portuguese had the city from the 1500s until the 1700s or something like that (no time for Googling right now), and then there were Du
tch and British that came along also - so there is a lot of European influence, but it also looks amazingly beautifully Asian. We saw two really old mosques - one from the 1720s and one from the 1740s. We saw a church from the 1500s, a replica of a palace that was there in the 1400s (wood and no nails), and lots of windy roads. It wasn't the most pedestrian friendly place, but we did all live.I'll upload a few pictures, but click
here for the full album.
Friday, October 5, 2007
Jewish Thoughts (and a Lizard)
Random thoughts...
I went to shul tonight, and I realized that the holidays this year totally passed me by. They're over now, and I went to shul three times for Rosh Hashana, for Yom Kippur a lot, and that's it (though three shabbats since RH). I barely know it was sukkot, and I didn't eat in a sukkah let alone even have a fake sukkot meal (like we did in NY both years). It's the first time in my life since I have started caring about these holidays that I really didn't do them. It kind of makes me sad.
I realized that having a Friday night/Saturday afternoon shabbat life really added to my social life. Even when I was totally exhausted, I still knew that I would be social and hang out with nice people on Friday night and/or Saturday afternoon. Now, I'm totally exhausted on week nights, and SO tired on Friday nights, and that basically leaves Saturday night (and we know what happened with that last weekend...) and Sunday. I really miss Shabbat social opportunities.
I went to the Ashkenazi service tonight. It was really great, and the people were superb. That's good news.
I was sitting at my desk at work yesterday, and I felt something in my skirt. I then felt it move (it was rubbery and long and thin). Then I furiously shook out my skirt and my body, and a six inch lizard went skittering away. It was the grossest thing ever. I kept shivering all day thinking about it.
Splinter had a sleep over in our apartment last night. When I woke up she had a bit of a pani-meow, and Matt said, "Oh, that's where she was."
I went to shul tonight, and I realized that the holidays this year totally passed me by. They're over now, and I went to shul three times for Rosh Hashana, for Yom Kippur a lot, and that's it (though three shabbats since RH). I barely know it was sukkot, and I didn't eat in a sukkah let alone even have a fake sukkot meal (like we did in NY both years). It's the first time in my life since I have started caring about these holidays that I really didn't do them. It kind of makes me sad.
I realized that having a Friday night/Saturday afternoon shabbat life really added to my social life. Even when I was totally exhausted, I still knew that I would be social and hang out with nice people on Friday night and/or Saturday afternoon. Now, I'm totally exhausted on week nights, and SO tired on Friday nights, and that basically leaves Saturday night (and we know what happened with that last weekend...) and Sunday. I really miss Shabbat social opportunities.
I went to the Ashkenazi service tonight. It was really great, and the people were superb. That's good news.
I was sitting at my desk at work yesterday, and I felt something in my skirt. I then felt it move (it was rubbery and long and thin). Then I furiously shook out my skirt and my body, and a six inch lizard went skittering away. It was the grossest thing ever. I kept shivering all day thinking about it.
Splinter had a sleep over in our apartment last night. When I woke up she had a bit of a pani-meow, and Matt said, "Oh, that's where she was."
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Seven to Eight
Phone numbers in the US have seven digits. A phone number rolls off with a rhythm. I'm pretty comfortable with that rhythm - I've had it my whole life (though with cell phones now, we have a ten digit rhythm, often, but it's still a comfortable rhythm for me).
In Singapore we have eight digits. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to say 01-23-45-67 or 0123-4567 or 01-234-567. I don't know the rhythm, and I think that different people say them different ways. Eight digits is just too much.
In Singapore we have eight digits. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to say 01-23-45-67 or 0123-4567 or 01-234-567. I don't know the rhythm, and I think that different people say them different ways. Eight digits is just too much.
Monday, October 1, 2007
Cohabitating
I'm not talking about living with Matt. That's old news at this point.
I'm talking about the roacher who was sitting on my couch when I came home this evening. It's the same roacher who ran away from my broom and dustpan, and rather than running OUTSIDE, ran further inside the apartment and is now lurking in the bookshelves! How long should you spend looking for a lost cockroach in your bookshelves? I swear I used that broom handle to move each and every book to the side, but I have no idea where it went. It has been making my stomach uneasy (and I'm still recovering from the weekend...), so I decided to change my frame of reference. I decided that rather than looking for this guy to kill, I will simply accept that we are cohabitating (for 20 minutes until I finish my dinner and start hunting again).
I'm talking about the roacher who was sitting on my couch when I came home this evening. It's the same roacher who ran away from my broom and dustpan, and rather than running OUTSIDE, ran further inside the apartment and is now lurking in the bookshelves! How long should you spend looking for a lost cockroach in your bookshelves? I swear I used that broom handle to move each and every book to the side, but I have no idea where it went. It has been making my stomach uneasy (and I'm still recovering from the weekend...), so I decided to change my frame of reference. I decided that rather than looking for this guy to kill, I will simply accept that we are cohabitating (for 20 minutes until I finish my dinner and start hunting again).
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