Hi friends! This post actually doesn't have anything to do with Germany or drinking beer. It just means that this is a summary of the weekend October 23-24 (and a bit of the following week) and I didn't have a better name. Last weekend was CRAZY! And this week wasn't much less busy. Let's start with the photographic evidence, shall we? The first stop was a Durga Puja festival. This is the biggest festivals for Bengalis in the Northeaster part of India, and so my good friends Shreya and Indrajeet invited me along to see the celebration put on by the Bengali Association of Singapore.
Durga Puja celebrates the 5 days out of every year that Durga, the mother goddess, gets to leave her in-laws home (I don't think Shiva the Destroyer's family sound like they would be very nice!) and hang out with her parents. Every year she journeys in a different fashion, and this year it's in a boat. Hence the boat set-up.
Me and Vasugi and Shreya. Oh how I wish I had purchased my Indian-style garb in time! Darnit.
Priests sitting and burning stuff to the goddess up on the boat. There was also a big prayer session right before we ate--kind of a breaking of the fast type of thing. You're not supposed to eat until after it's over, around noon or 1 o'clock, and then you're supposed to only eat vegetarian food.
So my journey there was VERY eventful. First, I stepped off of a ledge kind of funny on my way there, and my shoe broke. But I was already late and 10 minutes walk away from home and didn't really have time to go back and change shoes--so I improvised.
Lucky I had a spare ponytail holder with me! And in a semi-corresponding color, too!
I know, not the classiest thing. But it was surprisingly functional. Although I'm still kind of sad, because I really liked those shoes and I wore them a lot.
I also lost my keychain and card holder on the way there. Thankfully I realized pretty soon and went to the front desk and had them call the other station and they found it and kept it for me! That's twice in one week that you saved my butt, Singapore. I will do my VERY BEST to make sure it doesn't happen again anytime soon. I must have something on my mind making me extra distracted or something.
The next day I went to church with Hannah (Xiao-Zhen) in the morning and we at lunch at Fish and Co--we had fish and chips because we're both addicted to french fries--and then we went to a conference on migrant workers' rights. Hannah's a social worker, so she was actually interested in coming with me, not being dragged along! We talked about a summary of the migrant rights situation that is going to be sent to the 2010 UN Human Rights Review. We looked at the summary and then broke into groups and gave our opinions. A lot of the workers themselves were there and that was really cool.
Then later that night I went to a dance show with my friends Hiram and Yao Na. The first part was Japanese dance. It was slightly boring, but this lady had an AWESOME bow on her back.
And they asked for volunteers to go up at the end and learn part of the dance, so Yao Na and I did it. There's me in the green shirt and Yao Na on my left, your right.
Then there was the Cambodian dance section, which was way cooler. When I was describing it to my mom, she said "That sounds like that scene from the King and I..." I only vaguely remember that scene, but I do remember monkey dancers, and monkeys definitely figured prominently in this dance. And it would make sense that it would be a similar dance, because Siam is the old name for Thailand, which is right next to Cambodia and has a LOT of cultural similarities. So they didn't make that dance up, they got it quite right! Nice to know. Yay for Rodgers and Hammerstein.
They also had some adorable little kinds in it, and the kids were SO GOOD! Look how tiny they are! Especially considering that those grown-ups are REALLY small. Like, barely adult size. Southeast Asians are not known for their height...
Afterwards, there was a line dancing demonstration by the Line Dancing Association of Singapore! Basically a bunch of Singaporean women dressed in cowgirl outfits, line dancing to modern country music--liek atechno version of "Country Roads". Didn't know that existed? It does. But then there was an audience participation part and we did it and they taught us 30 counts of Hello Dolly! Boy was that an experience! My musical theatre training did not fail me, I picked up the steps right quick. :) Here's some of the line dancing (and two adorable little girls semi-following along)
I must have overexerted myself that weekend, because this is literally what my hair looked like when I woke up the next morning:
Ahhhhh!
So that's all the pictures I have for you. But I did continue to have a week chock-full of awesomeness. Wednesday was my first Salsa dance class (I get to start in Beginnger 2 since I have some background), and Thursday was my first POTTERY CLASS! It was awesome. While I struggle to look graceful or sensuous when dancing, I seem to be somewhat of a natural at the wheel, or so the instructors say. Maybe they tell that to all their students, haha ;) But it was an emotionally difficult week, so that was much-needed pick-me-up. I really liked it and I was happy with my progress and I can't wait for my next lesson! Hopefully I'll learn to be less messy along the way, because I had clay ALL OVER ME when I left last time!
On Friday night I went to Kathryn and Chris's house and helped with some delicious Quiche Lorraine. We also began hand grinding cloves for a spice cake because we couldn't found ground cloves at the grocery store, only whole ones! It was a nice, relaxing evening. Saturday I slept until 2 and proceeded to get sick throughout the rest of the day. Today I'm still sick, but I went to church with John and Hannah and ate fries again!--among other things--for lunch.
I have lots of good material for a Singrish post, so keep your eyes peeled this week. I think it's actually going to be an "interesting things you would only see in Singapore" post, as opposed to just Singrish. You'll see what I mean when it goes up.
Sorry for my long absence. But then again, I'm sure all you faithful readers are used to it by now :) Love!
