One week later - 2

I didn't get to finish my post last night, so I will start where I left off...

Start this blog by asking yourself a simple question... 'Have you ever felt what heat exhaustion feels like?' If you answer was "no", that’s good; if your answer was "no, but I sure would love to!" then do yourself a big favor and just book a flight to Singapore. After running and doing the China town thing Chris (another R-R expat) and I headed to a bbq at the hotel next door. This might normally be a good way to relax after a long day, but that Saturday night I was given a healthy dose of Singaporean heat sickness. There were a few issues that led to this fate. One, the long day; two, the fact the walls around the pool blocked all notions of a cooling breeze; three, instead of nice bbq drinks like cool-aid, coke, or water, all they had was beer. Beer is just one of those rare things that can be both a blessing or a curse depending only on when/where you drink it. In this case, drinking beer for 6 hours in a sauna is both the wrong place and the wrong time Lesson learned = water is good when you have been sweating bullets all day, beer is good when you haven’t...

Well, after a whole ass ton of water (which for you engineering folks is exactly three metric shit loads) and about 10 hours of sleep it was time to get back at it. Next stop, Sentosa, Singapore's very lame answer to Disney Land. About 2o years ago they decided to turn an old military base into a man made resort play land. Pretty much take Disney Land, replace the castle with a merlion, all the rides with crap attractions, and the carnival midway with man made beaches *sic* and you have Sentosa. Actually, it was fun but just not as great as the tourism board makes it out to be, here are some pictures.

From 2) China Town...

This is the MerLion. Its name comes from a portmanteau of a mermaid and a lion; which is to say, its half of each. Its a pretty cool symbol for a city that you would like to trace generations back to some historic legend. Unfortunately in this case, you can trace it back to the tourism board of 1968; oh well, still looks good enough. This one in particular is about 80 feet tall and you can pay 8 bucks to climb up into its mouth. Nice, but I will keep my 8 bucks.

From 2) China Town...

This shows an old WWII fort with a wild peacock in the window. I think that speaks for itself.

These next few pictures show why Sinaporean beaches leave something to be desired, not to mention an oil slick all over your body.

From 2) China Town...

From 2) China Town...

These pictures sort of make you think "A-2, miss; A-3, hit; B-3, hit; C-3, YOU SANK MY BATTLESHIP!" There really is no escaping it though, in spite of all of the beauty of this town, it is still in transportation super-hub. There are ships everywhere you look out to see, and not small ones either. The Container ships are the most impressive as they are unbelievably huge. Anything that makes a cruise ship look mundane is impressive in my book.

One week later - 1

Well, I'm back after my first real weekend here. So far so good I must say. Last week was pretty uneventful other than just getting in the swing of things. I have found moving here much easier than moving to Ohio. Meeting expats has been easy, the city is easy to get around, and everything seems to be at your fingertips. Everything here is remarkably similar to home but different at the same time. This really makes just walking around fun. Here are some examples.

From 2) China Town...

This is a dragon fruit and a ginormous beer. I had never seen a dragon fruit before, but apparently you can get them in the U.S. They taste kind bland but look crazy because they are white as snow with little white seeds. The beer speaks for itself, it is freaking huge. One of these days, I'm just going to drink it and see where the night takes me.

The next few pictures are from the weekend. The first one is in a place called Clark Ouay on the river.

From 2) China Town...

This where I went out with a bunch of Brits Friday night. Too many beers later we ended up at this club that had a pretty good vibe about it, one of probably 20 at Clark Quay. The only bad part was that it felt not unlike a Tech party, too many dudes. Oh well, still a good night out.

The next morning I went on a run at the botanical garden which is about a mile away. The picture below is a tree in the garden that is not unique by a long shot; just an example of one of many huge trees that are all over town. The garden is wonderful though with man eating plants around every bend.

From 2) China Town...

Next comes China town in the following picture.

From 2) China Town...

China town is exact thing you should expect from a china town; cheap trinkets, lively atmosphere, good food, "message" parlors, and medicine shops filled with dried sea creators and the like. The one exception is that Singapore's largest Hindu temple is located in China town. It looks crazy with the God statues all over every surface. Too bad no one was running across coals, aparently that was last month...

From 2) China Town...

Houston, we have a W

Plane ticket - $2,500
Hotel - $140 per night
Cup of noodles - $1
Orchard Towers Prostitute - $50
Being 5,000 miles from the US and being able to look out your hotel window and see George W Bush’s entourage dropping him off for a hugely anticipated speech – priceless.

I would take pictures, but they would probably shoot me...

Like a Virgin...

…propositioned for the very first time. That’s right, I’ve been in Singapore for about 36 hours and a prostitute and two pimps have already propositioned me. The first one said “I’ve got your Russians, Europeans, Chinese, everything” and the second just asked me “You need a lady”. The actual prostitute actually looked quite respectable, someone I could even take home to see mom (clearly taking here all the way to Nashville would cost a lot more than a single night of sexy time). The best part is all this happened within about 200 yards of my apartment. This sort of gives you an ego boost, then you realize they want your wallet, not you… Oh well.

I really hesitate to start this blog with the above paragraph because I would hate to give this place a bad rap based on a total of 30 seconds worth of experiences, especially when the rest has been so good. My first impression after we landed Saturday was the HEAT. It is HOT, any holy crap the humidity is insane. It then came as no surprise when the cab driver told me on the way to the hotel that it is the wet season. Wet season here has a different meaning in Asia. I think wet season I think April showers, not the rainfall that woke me up from a deep jetlagged sleep later on Saturday. This was the type of rain you look at through a window, then you look at your shirt and its soaked from just seeing so much water, yea, that much rain. It turned out good that it woke me up, good reason to get off my ass and go do something.

So I got up, and discovered that my apartment is a 3 minute walk from Orchard Road, which is sort of like Michigan Avenue mixed with the Vegas strip. They say it is the shopping capital of Singapore, and from what I have seen I certainly will not argue against that. The street is several miles long and has shop, after shop, after shop. The most notable thing at the moment is the Christmas decorations. They are everywhere and quite beautiful. It is strange seeing traditional wreaths and garland strung across the road with very Asian looking gold banners and tropical birds hanging from them. Christmas is a very big deal here, but it is apparently a very big deal with a decidedly Asian flair.

As I was walking amongst all this shops I found a place called the “Food Republic”. Imagine a place made up of independent and culturally diverse countries united to a common goal, sort of like the Allied forces in WWII. The only difference is that instead of a united effort to dislodge fascism the countries of the Food Republic are united in a great effort to fill my belly. So far I have done battle with only one, the Koreans, and it was good. I had a large hot plate of spicy chicken, made in front of me, and for about 2.50 US dollars. This is my kind of place. By the time I leave, I will have concurred all of the independent states of the Republic one, or maybe two, at a time. I did go out for a beer that night, but it was uneventful besides the solicitations discussed above and the $8.00 beer (damn it that’s expensive!).



- This is a picture of one of the many arches that span Orchard Road. It really is a cool effect as you walk around, there are lights absolutely everywhere

Sunday I woke up and went for a walk, a long walk. I figured I would check out the historical district of Singapore because everyone that has lived here for a while has probably been there and probably isn’t excited to go back. There is a lot to see that is probably best talked about in pictures; lets just get started on that.

From First Week in...

- This picture was taken from right outside the subway station. The large building is the former City Hall. It would look right at home next to any large European government building. I just like the palm trees out front and the skyscrapers in the background, there is definitely no mistaking that you aren't in Europe.

From First Week in...

- This statue is of Sir Raffle’s statue, the guy who founded Singapore in the early 1800s. This spot is apparently where he landed and is now home to Boat Quay, which includes all sorts of riverside restaurants and bars. I happened to be there for the start of a big dragon boat regatta, as seen below.

From First Week in...

- These are the dragon boats, which are sort of like huge canoes. All of the 3 story buildings on the other side of the river are the restaurants that make up Boat Quay.

From First Week in...

- Who ever paddles into the lobby of the black building first wins.

From First Week in...

- Keeping up with the Ausies must be hard, they build a bad ass opera house, so Singapore has to as well. Apparently this was designed by the same guy that did the Sidney Opera House.

From First Week in...

- This is a famous fountain that “protects” the harbor. The lion fish is the symbol for Singapore, and you would think that this is some old design that dates back 10,000 years. If you thought that like me, you're wrong; it’s the product of the tourism board of the 1970’s. Still looks freaking sweet though.

From First Week in...

- The Raffle's Hotel where more famous people than I care to count have stayed.

From First Week in...

- This is an tree that grew up over an old fort. If everyone left the city the whole island would look like this in 20 years, kinda crazy.

From First Week in...

-This translates to "Don't dance like a robot, or we will kill you!"

From First Week in...

- The city built in the middle of a rainforest.

If you click on any of these photos there are more on my Picassa site.

From First Week in...

See ya!

This post may be the last meaningful (sic) thing I do while in America. I suppose because of that you sorta view things a little differently and some things that might not be ironic normally for some reason are. Here are a few examples.

1) This week, I have eaten Chinese twice, about 6 times as much as normal. This may seem strange since I am going somewhere that has ~70% Chinese population and is known for its food. I suppose this is a good thing, if I am in the mood for it now I just hope it doesn’t get old while overseas.
2) I am sitting right outside my gate and already feeling really white. As I look around I only see 2 white people, out of probably 50. Now I’m not saying that this is a bad thing, just different. I do wonder how Americans are perceived in Singapore and Asia in general. I don’t think I will notice a difference professionally, but I might when I go out and try to meet people my own age.
3) I still think it is crazy that it is this time tomorrow in Singapore.
4) I didn’t bring my cell phone with me for obvious reasons. It is strange walking around the airport without it. My hand has brushed up against my pocket at least 5 times and my heart skipped a beat every time it wasn’t there.
5) I just got a new digital camera a couple weeks ago. I wonder; do Asians have jokes about American tourists taking lots of pictures? If so, I am about to be cliché.
6) Smoking was just banned in all public places in Ohio, a good thing I think. If you smoke in Singapore, and you throw you butt on the ground, they execute you Judge Dread style; that is awesome.
7) I am totally screwed trying to pronounce people’s names. The keep paging people over the intercom and they are names like “Whopping Tae”, “Zooming Zang”, and “Whoflung Poo”. I hope it isn’t completely rude to mispronounce names because am really going to struggle with this one.
8) Singapore Airlines flight attendants are hot, seriously.

Well, I should start packing up and getting ready to go, only 45 min left before the 18 hour flight. Woohoo!

C-Bus

From Halloween

Well, I wanted to show a picture of my town as it is when I leave. This is High Street looking south about 1 block from my house. High street is sorta the backbone of Columbus with most of the older city developing around it. Looking towards downtown is the Short North, an area with tons of great bars, restaurants, and art galleries. In the left of the photo is two of them Bodega, a great little bar with a large beer selection, and the Meghan Gallery which just opend a month or so ago. Those arches over the road are what gives Columbus its nickname "City of Arches" (screw you St. Louis). The lights on the arches have never worked, but when I come home for Christmas they should be back in action, already looking forward to seeing them for the first time. Directly behind me in this picture is a few more bars and two music venues, both of which have good music from time to time. About a mile behind me is Ohio State University (sorry, haven't picked up saying THE in a very arrogant way yet). This is a fun place to live; I will miss the fun times, certainly the people, but not the cold.