Free Money

Every evening, there is a long line at every ATM in Singapore. In the MRT stations, outside, all over the place, people are lining up. The only reason I can think of for this is that they give out free money.

Today I was walking in "downtown" Bedok, and I saw a sign that advertised a place that rents books. It's $.40 to rent a book. At first I thought, "what a great idea! I should go there." Then I thought, "well this should really be free if they want the population to be educated!" Then I realized that I created libraries.

Finally, tell me what's wrong with this picture...

Shake It

I'm a little nervous to post above my Lambchop posting and my Signs posting. They are my two favorite postings yet. If you read this, please scroll down and read those too. They're way better.

Picture it: a 70 yearish old Chinese man. He's dressed in a wife beater and short shorts. He is standing on a children's playground with his feel shoulder length apart. Knees are bent. Back is straight, and arms are out in front of him. His pelvis is moving in circles. Serious circles. It looks a little like some sort of sex thing, but it's not.

I see this man doing this everyday as I'm walking into my office.

In addition, today there was another dead person set up outside of our office. This time it was a man.

Last night I had dinner with the President of the Reform Jewish community here (and her mother), and she was wonderful. Good news that there ARE nice Jews in Singapore.

A small Splinter update - she has been hanging out in our house every night, and she even comes in in the mornings. It's getting difficult now, though, because she is interested in staying in the house when I leave. So in the morning, when she knows I'm about to leave, she hides under the bed. She also has a hiding place IN a reclining chair in our living room. The back has a velcro flap, and somehow she gets IN it, and she doesn't come out unless I really shake the chair hard (and it's heavy and hard to do!). This is a stubborn cat, but she's really so cute.

She might be mad at me, though, because tonight when I came home, she didn't follow me home. I only got a "meow," and then she went back to sleep (on an air conditioner).

A Lambchop?

Yesterday Splinter hung out in our house all day. When we played tennis (and I won...), she slept on our rug. When we ate outside, she slept on our rug. She slept all day. When we went to bed, we kicked her out, as usual.

I couldn't sleep, so around 12:30 I got up to get my book (The Power of One - SOOOO GOOD - thanks, Jill!), and I wanted to check and see if Splinter was still laying outside of our door. I opened the door, and I saw a lambchop!!!

It could be that Splinter wanted to bring us a treat. Maybe she thought, "Oh, they let me sleep on their comfy rug all day. I think I will bring them a LAMBCHOP!!!"

Maybe someone (another cat) was hiding it there.

Where did they get the lambchop? Who knows.

Deeksha, my friend at work, said that in India if you find raw meat, it means that someone has been performing black magic on you. I got worried. Hopefully this is not the start of something bad.

Meanwhile, Splinter is acting pretty normal, and the rug is in the washing machine.

Signs in Singapore

(I have to apologize that I CANNOT figure out how to make this posting look normal...)

So, you ask, what is Singapore like? What does it feel like there? Nothing can describe what Singapore is like more than these signs. This is the blog post that I have been compiling and waiting to post. I wanted to wait until I got a good collection, and I think I'm finally there. They are in order from least ridiculous to most ridiculous. Enjoy!

Bus Stops

The bus stops in Singapore are so much smarter than they are in New York. They don't think or talk or anything, but they're just designed better. In New York, you sit on the bench and end up facing the middle of the road. If you're waiting for a bus, you have to turn your head to the left, and if you wait for a while, you might hurt yourself. In Singapore, the bus stops have a few rows of seats that are all on an angle. When you sit down, you're automatically facing where the bus is coming from (right over here, not left), and there is no risk of injury.

Other than thinking inconsequential thoughts about bus stops, not much is going on with us. I have been working and learning, and Matt has been working and writing. I have meetings each night this week (other than Mandarin on Monday), so I don't have too much to write about.

One disappointment is that we saw an ad for the NEW season of Grey's Anatomy. Unfortunately, it is on right now, and it's last year's new season, and I have already watched them all. Sad for me, but it's okay for Matt, because he ended up missing a bunch last year.

We're also working on planning some trips. My parents are coming in one month's time. We are looking into going to Cambodia for a long weekend. My brother and Josh are coming in Dec/Jan, and we're looking into Thailand and maybe other trips also. Exciting stuff.

Also, the cat is cute. She's like Jelly - a velcro cat, When I go to the kitchen, so does she. Then she meows for attention, but then she'll just fall asleep on her rug. Her rug is in the middle of the house. We don't know where she is tonight.

BE 100M no legal sue!!

Matt and I just got back from Mandarin class. We actually learned how to say, "BE 100M no legal sue! All fall in law of casualty Remember and stick to it., invite." I typed that exactly as it was on my sheet. It was in the context of learning numbers.

That's how bad our teacher is.

We had a fun, relaxing weekend. Ran some errands in the rain on Saturday. Went out with a bunch of SAIS people on Saturday night, including one of the crew's professors. It was Matt, John, Boon Yian, Christian, Dan and Chem.

Sunday we slept until noon. I don't think I have ever done that. We planned on playing tennis and swimming and enjoying the outdoors, but it rained all day (no complaints here), so instead we played Settlers. John and I kicked ass. We went to a GREAT south Indian restaurant on the water on Sunday night. I liked it.

We had a new person start at work last Thursday. Another new person started today. Did I already say that 5 out of the 6.5 staff people are leaving or left? They are/did.

We got tickets to come to the States in April. That's good news. I hope burglars don't read this blog and know where we live...Dad - you made me so paranoid.

Reform Flavor Shabbat

Tonight Matt and I went to the Reform group for services and shabbat dinner. It was a little different than we were used to, but it was super nice. People were nice, and it was a great vibe. We ended the night talking to two ladies in their 90s. They both are from Romania. They both live on the 10th floor. They both have one kid. They both have twin grandchildren. They both have birthdays in October. They were really excited about all of those things.

Last night I finally met Marc. He's a friend of a few friends of mine, and he is superb. He is a trailing partner (as opposed to a trailing spouse). His boyfriend is doing a semester at NUS (National University of Singapore), and he's here for about 5 months. We had a great time with them.

We're trying to book tickets to come back to the States in April. Hopefully that will work out.

MAZAL TOV TO MATT AND ALONA who got engaged yesterday! We're so excited for them, and we hope to see them before their wedding next year in Israel! We need to meet this woman.