Happy New Years!

Only an hour away, but I'm exhausted.

To continue: Shreyas was back when we came back from lunch,  so we went over to the Chinese and Japanese gardens, which were really pretty and nice, but very hot.

 We came back after a while chilled until his cousin came back. Then we went to dinner at a "healthy" hawker stand (brown rice instead of white) and then came back and chilled again before Shreyas, his cousin, and his cousin's roommate left for a big New Year's Eve musical party/festival.  They had gotten tickets, but Gabe and I went to the mall instead to see what it was like. It was big. Like every non-American mall we've been in.

Pineapple fried rice - mmm

Vegetarian mutton something or other (Gabe's)

Shreyas's food - I don't remember...

Anyways. We move into our new long-term hostel tomorrow. It's apparently really super close to the school, which is good.

Goodnight-la.

Updates

While I was standing in my cold shower this morning, I was thinking about things...

One of the great things about Singapore is the fact that you can take a cold shower and still be sweating before you even get dressed. Also, clothes are warmer off the body than on. And the food is unrecognizable. And it's going to be summer for all five months... So maybe those things are not so great. But I am really enjoying being here.

It's a great big city with lots of different cultures and it's definitely cool.

Gabe said that dinner was uninteresting last night, he went somewhere and got something spicy and it was good. He went to bed as soon as he came back.

This morning we checked out and headed over to Shreyas's cousin's apartment since the hostel will be full, and tomorrow we'll move into our long-term apartment. We went and got food from the near-by hawker stand, and neither Gabe nor I finished our lunches. Mine was a weird flavor of ramen with wontons and he got fish ball soup, which, oddly enough, tasted of fish. (He doesn't like fish...) Then we came back and met Shreyas and I think we're going to head to a mall soon.

I presume most everyone is sleeping, so, goodnight-la.

First day

I promise I'll have better post titles in the future. It's 1AM here and I just woke up, having fallen asleep around 6:30....

Today (yesterday?) was pretty cool. We got up around 8 and we had breakfast at the hostel - coffee or tea with toast and fruit.

The fruits here were normal except for one; watermelon, oranges and dragonfruit. Dragonfruit is white with black seeds, having both the texture amd taste resembling a kiwi. We alsoo had toast with mostly normal items. Peanut butter, jam and butter were offered, as well as a green jam sort of thing that we both have forgotten the name for but is some sort of leaf mixed with coconut, I think. (Update: it's called kaya.) We walked down to Little India and found Mustafas, where we changed money but didn't shop at yet. Instead, we went in all the little shops along the road. They kindof reminded me of Belgium around Grand Place. We had agreed to meet Shreyas at the hostel for lunch, so we headed back, but only after stopping in a few tailor's shops first...

The first place we stopped was in a shopping open air market sort of thing. The second was across the main street in its own little building/storefront. The first said $350 or so and the second gave Gabe a ten mminute lecture on how the price of a suit depends on how you make it and the quality. The guy was nice, and we learned a lot, and Gabe is now going to research suits and fabric amd everything.

We came back and found Shreyas and headed back to Little India. We ate at our first hawker stand, where Gabe and I had lamian with dumplings and Shreyas had green curry chicken. Lamian is essentially ramen, as far as we can tell, and it was hand-made in front of us right before we ate it. Very cool.

We kept going and got to Mustafas, which is about seven stories covering two city blocks... it's massive and has everything. It seemed fairly expensive for some things (electronics) and cheap for others (everything else). We kept walking through Little India after spending a couple hours at Mustafas, finding an awesome Hindu temple and another shopping place called Tekka. I got a dress/shirt top thing that was really cute and we also got some food. Gabe got a sugar cane juice (yuck) and I got fried Indian bread called buhtan (maybe? Shreyas needs to confirm). We walked back from there and stopped at City Mall, which was fairly western. Burger King, Micky D's, Subway, KFC, Long John Silvers and some other places, as well as a ton of Asian and Indian food. We stopped at BK and got a taro turnover that was really good.

When we got back to the hostel around 6:30, we were both exhausted feom walking around so much and being in such sweltering weather. I was going to take just a nap, but refused to get up when Gabe wanted diinner, so he went alone and was back when I woke up just now. I'll ask him to write in the morning. I'm going to find something to eat and go back to sleep.

Goodnight, world.

Hello, Singapore!

Well, where do I begin?

We left Chicago at 12 Central and just got into Singapore at 12 this time (there's no real name for this time zone) and we're 13 hours difference from Charleston. So. Wow.

The Changi airport is AMAZING! There are plants everywhere and it's super clean.  Even at night, everything in Singapore glitters and shines. The streets are wide and clean, but it has an air of London, which as my past readers know, is not a particularly good thing. I'm sure in the morning things will look nicer. We're meeting Shreyas and his cousin tomorrow morning and going shopping in Little India. His cousin met us at the airport, which was super nice and very helpful. The hostel isn't bad, but it's like walking into a sauna when you go outside. I am in bed writing om my new nook since my computer died and I can't get to my converter. Sorry for any typos.

The flights weren't bad. Chicago to Tokyo was 13 hours, and Gabe and I watched Reel Steel (good) and One Day (bad), slept, read, and that's about it. It was an old-school plane, so one movie at a time and no control, but it wasn't so bad. The flight from Tokyo to Singapore was 7 hours on the same plane, but we had to get off and clear security. It was also nice airport, and we wished we had yen for the drink machines. I slept the whole flight. Immigration was easy and we got to our hostel fairly quickly. Photos will be on facebook tomorrow. The time difference is throwing me off, but it's time for bed.

Goodnight, world (until I think of something better).

On our way

Well, I knew there was something I was supposed to be doing.... Oops. We have to get on our plane soon.

Us leaving from the airport at 5AM. 

Gabe and I are in the President's Lounge for United/Continental.  Talked our way in, but free food and internet.

Super early morning, but we're about to leave for Singapore. Twenty-four hours! Twenty-two of those on a plane! Yay! (Not...) I already miss home, but am excited to be traveling again.

We'll meet Shreyas in Tokyo, and then we're staying at a cute little hostel in the heart of Singapore.  The problem with my camera is that it's too big to carry around and therefore we've started taking pictures with Gabe's cell phone.  The Chicago airport is really nice - big and open with lots of windows and really clean. The walkways have cool lights on the ceiling and I think I've heard "Fireworks" by Katy Perry about five times.  But there's one huge problem - there are NO OUTLETS!  Makes it hard to charge things before we leave. Also, Gabe's got a lot of static for some reason though, and keeps shocking himself and his computer and me.

Anyways, time to pack up and ship out.

Someone needs to recommend a new catch-phrase... "Goodnight, world" was for my last trip.