Time for Another Post

I know it's been a while, so it's time for another blog. Hopefully, I can keep 2 and a half weeks into just highlights.


Chinese New Years

I had to work on CNY, but I still got to see plenty of fun. The rumor was that Singapore shuts down during the three and a half days (holiday over the weekend, plus public days). Luckily, there were plenty of places still open, like the fantastic Nepali restaurant we go to. Back to the point, the coolest thing the happened occurred while watching How I Met Your Mother. Alex and I were watching and all of a sudden we hear the really loud drumming. Outside my apartment, this group comes with the dancing dragon. It was awesome! This dragon crew comes and gets rid of the bad spirits at people's apartments-so cool.

CNY Barbeque

My friend Kanchuya hosted a really nice CNY barbeque. It was really relaxed and had great food, highlighted by the guacamole. I got to meet some more really nice people. The pool was nice as well. All in all, a great time and another one of those lucky to be in my position moments.


Bintan

Well, Tamar and I finally made it to Bintan and had a great time. We took a day trip to the Indonesian island, which maybe would have been better if we spent more time. Still, though it was such a relaxing day. First, we took the ferry over, about an hour ride in total. The waves were really choppy, which meant quite a few people were sea sick around us. We got to the island and took a shuttle to the beach resort. You give them twenty bucks and they let you use their section of the beach and give you a towel and extras. We couldn't do any of the waters sports because it's monsoon season. So, instead we just decided to have a super relaxing day on the beach. We both brought books and I had some cards in my backpack. It was a nice time. The resort had a nice breakfast buffet as well-mmmm omelettes! The best part without a doubt though, was the water and the waves. The water was warmer than any ocean/sea I've ever been in. It was fantastic and the waves were big, but not too big. We had a good time just sitting and chatting in the water, bouncing off the waves. The day was very well spent and I came back with quite a nice sun burn. That cloudy day is kind of tricky (which I've always known).


Arab Quarter

On Tuesday, my friends and I met up for dinner on Arab Street. I hadn't been down there yet and it's really awesome. It's yet another part of Singapore where you have to stop and think, man am I'm in the same country? We went to this great restaurant with beautiful atmosphere, great couches and very nice food. After, Alex and I met some friends at a bar nearby. It was really chill and turned into a great night.

Winter Olympics

At work, I get to watch and cut lots of Winter Olympics. To be honest, the WO has never really been my thing except for hockey and figure skating (manly, I know). The sports are really interesting. For example, how about biathlons where part of the event is skiing and the other part is rifle shooting-what? I'd never even heard of this. The ski events are awesome and there's so many different types. Plus, the US beat Canada in hockey! It wasn't the finals, so we'll still have to wait and see. Still though, I'm trying to remember the last time it seemed so many people were interested in a hockey game. The names are definitely not the easiest to pronounce overall, but still, it's exciting to find the story lines and explain the sports a bit. Southeast Asia is definitely not a winter games hot spot, so it gives me a little more leeway with my writing.

So, those are the highlights. I've been to lots of great food places. At work, for breakfast all my co-workers laugh at me because I eat rice with soy sauce and noodles for breakfast haha. They say it's not adventurous enough, but I hold my own :) I like it and that's what counts.

Adventuring

Alrighty, we'll keep the new format for this blog

Singapore Adventures

MacRitchie Reservoir

Last week, my friend Tamar and I realized we had similar off days. So, on Tuesday, we decided to grab lunch and then we'd do a Singapore touristy thing. After a delightful lunch at Brewerkz, we went to the MacRitchie Reservoir. The main goal there is to go on the treetop walk. When we got there, we went the wrong way, but still got to see the beautiful water there. After asking people which way to go, we found out we were probably too late to go on the treetop walk. Still, we figured it'd be a good trail to go on. The people were correct, we didn't make it to the treetop walk in time, heck we didn't make it to the treetop walk at all. However, we got to see monkeys and lots of them. In fact, we stopped a couple of monkeys from, let's just say, creating more monkeys. It was hilarious to say the least.


Singapore Zoo

On Friday, Tamar and I decided to go to Bintan-a small Indonesian island that's just a 50 minute ferry ride away. Well, we didn't get there in time and it really didn't make much sense to take the ferry as we both wanted to get back early. So, we were left with a couple of hours and really no idea what to do. We decided to go to the Singapore Zoo and boy was that a great decision. If I wasn't such a fan of the Night Safari, I definitely was at the zoo. It feels less like a zoo, and more like you are getting to see the animals in their element. It's a much more open zoo than most are I feel. The highlight was easily RIDING ELEPHANTS. For only 8 bucks, you get to take a ride on an elephant, and both of us were lucky enough to get the front seat. I actually was able to ride the elephant alone-truly an amazing experience, unlike anything in my life. There's a picture at my Bubba's of her riding an elephant and I used to look at it and never really think twice, but now I know why she was so proud of it.

Barbeque

Saturday night, I went to a friend's barbeque and had a blast. It's hard to explain, but I really felt like I was back at a college party-pushing myself to be outgoing and to really meet people (of course, that's one of my favorite things to do, so it wasn't too hard to get motivated). Funniest story of the night easily was me falling into the bushes. What happened was, I tried to move my chair so another person could come sit, and I backed right into the bushes. So, I was stuck with about 25 people laughing and I thought, well, I have two choices: be really embarrassed or have fun with it. So, I got up and introduced myself and said that's how I wanted everyone to remember me by haha. I met a great group of people and after, some of us went to a cool area called Robertson Quay (down by the river).

Super Bowl

I'm very happy the Saints won. I like Peyton Manning and all, but New Orleans winning is a much better story. My general perception is that Singapore football fans were pulling for the Saints-right choice. For the first half, I met some work people at Chili's. It was nice, the tv there was getting the feed from CBS in the US, meaning we got to watch the commercials. At halftime, I met some friends at Brewerkz. Both places were packed with Americans. The only problem was that at both places, the feeds stopped at critical moments in the game. Still, I had a great time and that's what is important right?

Work

Last week at work, I had voice training which was very helpful. It was a bit of a reality check and truly humbling. It's all to get better though and that's the main goal. I'm always learning at this job and this was just another example of that.

Food

Not so much food talk this week. There are a couple of things though. My friend Alex hosted a wine tasting at a Himalayan restaurant on Sunday. It was a four course meal and was really delicious. The Indian style food here is soooo good. I never thought I'd like it so much, but I think I just love the constant hit of spices.

For dinner break at work the other day, we went to a local restaurant and I had really good chicken rice. The tender chicken, plus the great soy sauce and chili were delicious all together. Last night, we ordered in at work-I had a Thai Chicken with rice dish. It was pretty spicy, but really tasty.

That's all for now kiddies,

Michael

Walking the Week

It's been a week since my last post and as suggested, I'm going to switch up how I write this blog. It's going to be more topic based, as opposed to simple chronological order. We'll see how it goes.

Singapore Adventures

I really had no goals as to what I wanted to see this week, and yet I really enjoyed both of the experiences I had.

Night Safari

On Wednesday afternoon, Raye sent me a text asking if I wanted to go with Paul, her and Raye's friend (visiting from the states) to the night safari. It was a great opportunity for me, seeing as Wednesday and Thursday were my days off (so Wednesday night was kind of like a normal person's Saturday night). To be honest with you, I wasn't crazy about the night safari. I enjoy going to zoos, but this was like going to the zoo and barely being able to see the animals. We walked instead of taking the tram-kind of safari like-which was nice. I just would have enjoyed actually seeing more of the animals. In the end, we got to see a tiger, a flying squirrel (very cool), large cats, mousedeers, otters, giraffes, zebras and an assortment of other animals. Maybe my expectations were too high-Jordan had told me how cool the zoo was, so I figured this would have been just as awesome (they are different parks).

Strolling through Singapore

Today (Sunday), I was planning on being pretty lazy-thankfully, Amanda reminded me in the morning that it's important to take advantage of each day. So, I got myself up and out the door.

After a quick stop at the bank, I headed to the MRT unsure of where I was going. The original plan was to go to a shopping center where they sell used golf clubs (I'd like to start hitting again). Well, I couldn't remember where that was. I did however recall it was somewhere in the Orchard area. At Orchard, I went two malls, Wisma Atria and Ion. I really just walked around, went into the different stores and indulged in a little bit of window shopping. At Wisma, I went to their food court and got a snack (more on that to come).

After walking aimlessly for a bit, I decided to go down to Raffles Place-quickly levelling with Clarke Quay for my favorite Singapore spot. The skyscrapers down there are really impressive. Because I'd been to the Merlion last week, I knew the Esplanade was pretty close by (Singapore's main theatre, opera house). It was a simple walk across the bridge and I enjoyed every step-a beautiful view of the business district, the colonial district with city hall and the supreme court, plus the marina. Esplanade was really impressive. It's built to look like a durian, which is a very popular fruit here (most expats I've met can't stand the smell of them). It's beautiful and super modern.

Well, I decided I wasn't done with my walk, so upon seeing the Singapore Flyer, I determined this would be the day to get up close and personal with the world's largest observation wheel. It's a modern marvel. I didn't take the ride, but still really enjoyed being there. Best surprise of the wheel was that there's a POPEYE'S chicken right there. How funny is that? You know I love that chicken from popeye's. I didn't have any, but it's cool that it's there.

So after the flyer, I still wasn't done walking. I went up toward City Hall and ended up seeing the beautiful colonial city hall building and the adjacent Padang-home to the Singapore Cricket Club. It was easy for me to imagine a bunch of British statesmen sitting on lawn chairs sipping on a drink, watching a match. They also have a grass tennis court there-awesome. That wraps up the walk- it was so funny because all this stuff was close to the hotel I stayed at when I got here. I just had to get accustomed to the area, but it's kind of funny how I had no idea any of it was right there two months ago.

Food

I'll keep this section shorter. On Sunday night, I went with friends to a Himalayan restaurant. I think it's North Indian food-suffice it so say I loved it. The naan was awesome (especially the cheese one), there was also a spinach and cheese dish, an okra dish and it was all capped off with homemade ice cream. It was all lovely.

Tuesday night was more of a surprise. My friend Alex works in the wine business and organizes tastings in the city. On Tuesday, he was having one at Smokey Joe's Barbeque, so Felix and I went. I'm not a huge wine drinker, but hey, I had nothing to lose. As for the food, my expectations were minimal. Growing up in Dallas, I feel very lucky to have had delicious barbeque my whole life. There was no way it could be good in Singapore of all places right? Wrong. I ordered the brisket and was very happy. The meat was so moist- pulled it right apart...the fries and coleslaw were added benefits. The wine was pretty good, I think the whites were more for me.

Friday night, I went to the synagogue for services and dinner. They had a huge Tu B'shvat dinner, at least 150 people. The food was fine, but my friend Tamar and I found the real treats at the kids' table-the meatballs. Hey, the kids were done with them and they were easily the best item of the day haha.

Through the week, I've been doing a bit of cooking on my own. It hasn't been anything miraculous, but still, it's a step in the right direction. I bought a fry pan and have been making myself pastrami and eggs and eggs with peppers and cheese. I've had some issues figuring out how much heat to use, but I think I've found the right level.

Sunday night, Felix and I met up with my friend Elizabeth at a hawker center. She is here on Fulbright, researching the history and culture of hawker food-pretty awesome huh? I got a ginger and onion chicken and rice dish. It was pretty average, but was good enough.

Today at the food court in Wisma, I had a late lunch of briyani rice and roti prata. The Indian style rice was really good, great spices with a hint of cinnamon. The prata was nice and crispy-just like I like.

Work Week

This was my longer week, but it was really good. On Monday, I was very busy with a lot of American sports. I got to cut both NFL conference championship games, plus post game reaction from players, coaches and analysts. In addition, I did NBA highlights from Dallas crushing the Knicks by 50 and the Lakers winning in Toronto. I had some Scottish football thrown in there as well. I really got in a groove and it felt really good.

The three day work weekend was pretty good. Besides doing football games, my main focus in the early mornings was golf highlights from the European Tour and the PGA Tour. I've gradually gotten more and more into golf. I think doing the story day after day helped me feel out what the important parts were and what the real story was. The highlights were fun to cut, from John Daly's zebra striped pants to Phil Mickelson getting a ball stuck in a eucalyptus tree.

While I didn't cover the Australian Open tennis at work, I got really into it over the week. Felix is a big tennis fan, and I enjoyed watching the matches with him. Roger Federer and Serena Williams both repeated as champs. Federer is really a genius with a tennis racket-it's thrilling to see how he just pulls the opponent like a puppet master.

Movie

I just got done watching "500 Days of Summer," and I absolutely loved it. The movie has a great storyline and is so well done artistically. It's an indie romantic movie. I wouldn't call it as much of a romantic comedy, but there are funny parts. The acting is very good and the story really pulls you emotionally. For Steve's review just go to movie muse. There is a trailer link at the bottom of his review.

Okie doke, that does it for now. Did you like the new format? Any suggestions?

Michael