Cultural randomness is beautiful!

This title accurately describes my attitude about Singapore! I've never seen any country's citizens, not only accept other cultures and religions, but also embrace them! They have to if they want to communicate effectively and live in harmony with each other.

*sigh*

Such a beautiful thing!
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Backing up to a few days ago...

On Monday, I began the day with 3 missions: find affordable Indian clothing for an actor in our play, meet up with a former student of mine, and buy Ali Baba pants.

I accomplished only the first 2 missions. Bummer. *mixed feelings* :(

Oh well. I had a wonderful day of walking around for hours, mostly b/c I was lost b/c I forgot my map of Singapore at home, but it's all good! That's when I have the most adventures! :)

I need to reiterate HOW INSANELY HOT it is here right now! When I've come the past 2 times to Singapore, it's been hot, but not insanely. Since I've been here this round, I've been out during the day and come back to Joy's at night just DRENCHED in sweat! I come home and just walk into the shower to get wet, not necessarily to wash. I've had ice cream countless times b/c it's so necessary, and I'm totally justified in doing so. :)

Anyways, I first went to Little India to look for some Indian clothing. The narrator character in our school's play, A Little Princess, hails from India and should look relatively Indian, even though she's Chinese. I managed to find some shirts for her that I HOPE fit her! I also found 2 for me that fit, and 3 that don't, so I'll make them into skirts. Yay!

Also, the nice Indian lady selling them spoke nearly- flawless English and was totally fluent in Bahasa with a customer! I love diversity! :)

After Mission #1 was accomplished, I set out in search of the Ali Baba pants that I'd found when I was last here. Since I didn't have my lovely map with me, I could remember only that it was close to the big mosque on Arab St.

In my endeavor to find Arab St., I wandered into some Hindi and Buddhist celebrations. Here are some pretty Hindi decorations that were in front of a temple. (Not sure what they are...)



A very colorful Hindi temple














After the temple, I kept walking, checking the street names.

Still no Arab St.

I saw some festivities on this street, so I kept walking.




Oh good! Chinese lanterns!

The street was filled with vendors selling incense (ick), mooncakes, various meats, and lanterns galore that I thought of buying, but they were either too expensive or looked too kiddish.

I'll just wait til Chinese New Year in February and get one at Hypermart. :-P








Pretty souvenirs!


















Chinatown!












Here's Buddha.

This was my introduction to how Buddhists worship him. Many people waved incense in front of him, touched him and prayed to him fervently, or just walked past and prayed with their hands.

Interesting.















When I finally found the big ol' mosque from the last time I was here, I found 2 birds hanging by a string from the top of it!

Were they going to be a meal? Were they some sort of sacrifice? I have no idea.

(The bird on the left is hanging, and the one on the right is alive and well.)













I went into this material shop to buy some funky, floral material to make cushions for my kitchen chairs.



After 2 hours of walking around in the formidable heat, I dragged my bags and my weary body to a Starbucks, where I literally collapsed for over an hour. (For the record, I hadn't been to a Starbucks for a few weeks.) I drank a venti AND a grande, and I was still thirsty! Craziness!


Eventually, I met up with my former student, Larry! He had been in our school plays and was in my after- school English tutorial. Now, he's in junior college for graphic arts.

He and I ate Indonesian food for dinner, only b/c he misses Indo food, and then we walked around for a bit before I had to go home b/c I was falling asleep.















Larry told me I couldn't come to Singapore and NOT try an ice cream sandwich, so we went to a vendor. He had to cut ice cream from a box, wrap a piece of bread around it, and...









...TA DA!

It's a literal ice cream sandwich!


It was...interesting...


One time for that is enough for me.


Read on to see what I did on Tuesday! :)