Moving In

I'm now officially living in the condo and so far, so good. I will get photos up on facebook eventually.

I moved most of my stuff over on Tuesday night with help from the Koch's. I only have two suitcases, so it's not like a full day of moving or anything. After we dropped off the luggage, we headed out for dinner. Knowing that I'm a little timid at going into the more local places, my adventurers knew they'd have to take me to a Hawker Center for me to go. If not, I probably would have avoided them for at least another couple of weeks. The places are clean and look nice, I just have no idea what to order when I go there. Anyways, as we were driving, Paul realized we were in the area of the Adam Road Hawker Center, which is one of the more famous in the city. We were able to find parking and went in. A lot of the stalls there are Halal-which is good because that means no pork. Anyways, as per usual, I told them, whatever is ordered will be just fine. We ended up getting some very red looking foods (a tad scary, because the red normally means pretty spicy). The three dishes were nasi padang (I think that's right), which is a rice dish with chicken, a lamb dish and then another more interesting lamb dish (more on that later). I also tried sugar cane juice to drink...it's not for me-I'll stay with lime juice. The third lamb dish was the real treat, although I was too scared to try it. Before I came here, I saw a No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain episode where he goes to Singapore. While there, he eats this lamb bone dish where the real treat is the marrow inside the bone. As I told people before I left, I eventually would force myself to try this. This was just not the day. I'm pretty sure this was the same place Bourdain went, if not, looks just like it. Paul seemed to really enjoy it, and I was proud of Raye for giving it a go.

After our food adventure, they dropped me off at the synagogue where they were having a young people get together. On the roof of the community center, the Chabad boys organized a little Channukah party. It was really nice and lots of young people there, at least fifteen. I met some people who are studying here for the semester (sadly, the semester is about to end, so they'll be off soon) and some more young people working here. There was latkes, falafel, a chocolate fondu fountain, drinks, really the works. After hanging out and chatting with everyone, we lit the menorah....but this was unlike anything I'd ever done before. The menorah was at least five feet tall and made out of LEGOS! It was very cool and nicely done.

I went back to the hotel for one last night. Unfortunately, I woke up in the middle of the night with a bad headache. Luckily, it went away in the morning. Moving on. After checking out of the hotel, I went in search of the National Museum of Singapore, but I didn't end up going there. I ended up taking a wrong turn, but stumbled upon the Peranakan Museum and went in. Here is a quote from the museums website:

"Who are the Peranakans?
For centuries, the riches of Southeast Asia have brought foreign traders to the region. While many returned to their homelands, some remained behind, marrying local women.

The Malay term ‘peranakan’ which means ‘locally born’ also refers to other communities that developed in Southeast Asia like the Chitty Melaka and Jawi Peranakans."
For more, http://www.peranakanmuseum.sg/

I enjoyed the museum quite a bit...definitely a nice way to spend an hour and a half.

I went to the condo after and started unpacking. I made the bed in the guestroom, put clothes in drawers, etc. After, I got hooked up to the web and started cracking away. I put up a new facebook album, must have made comments on way too many walls and did my best not to be too annoying, but it was a treat to have full use of the Internet. I also watched the last HIMYM and Office episodes--both very funny.

Later, I met the other guy living here (the one leaving in January, thus the reason for the room opening). He is very nice and pretty funny as well. He is moving back to Germany and is actually getting married to a girl he met here. Very nice. After, I went to the mall and had dinner at a western pizza place not to be mentioned. I looked around and saw what the mall had to offer and to my surprise, there was a grocery store in the mall. I picked up a few things and came back. Nothing really exciting after that, just watched television with Felix.

Today, I've been farely lazy. Had some time to chat on skype which is nice. It's just nice to be in a real place and not the hotel. On the docket today, I'd like to go to Little India and check on a television price. Also, I want to go get some snack food in preparation of my first real shift. Tonight starts my 3 AM - 3 PM shifts. Hopefully, I'll be able to get a couple of hours of sleep in. We'll just have to see.

Toodles,

Michael