Many languages I appreciate...but don't understand.

My fellow residents of the world,

Sorry it's been so long since I've written. Classes and applications for summer jobs have kept me quite busy here, but I'll try to fill you in. Don't worry, you've been on my mind. In the words of LL Cool J, don't call it a comeback.

I spent most of last week trying to figure out my tutorial schedule and get situated in all of my classes. Usually, students here get to "bid" for their tutorial slots online, but exchange students have to go to the individual offices of each department and apply for tutorial slots at the front desk. As you can imagine, it's pretty time consuming.

For my Gender in Malay Societies class, we're supposed to watch 4 Malay films from different time periods and assess how male protagonists are portrayed vs. female protagonists. What my teacher neglected to tell me, however, was that the films have no English subtitles. I am one of two non-Malay people in the entire class, and the other one is a Chinese girl named Shermaine. Ironically, we decided to watch the movies together; so after about 10 minutes of trying to figure out what was going on, we decided to ask the teacher for another copy of the movies. We'll see what happens.

One of the nice things about Singapore is that if I want to do some reading for my classes, but also want to get out for the day, I can just do my homework by the pool. I went with a few friends, and I was getting a little hot so I decided to jump in. After dunking my head in, however, I realized that instead of chlorination, there was salt. I think they just fill the pool with water from the sea, which makes sense, but was a little surprising.

Later on that week, since I wasn't going out of town for the weekend, I thought I'd go to Shabbat services at the local synagogue. There are three synagogues in Singapore, but only one has services every week (actually, every day), and it's named Magen Avot. After getting sufficiently lost downtown and walking in what I think was a 2 mile-long circle, I finally found Waterloo Street. There was a huge Jewish star on the building and some Hebrew, so I knew I was in the right place.

The Magen Avot community is made up mostly of Middle Eastern Jews who migrated to Singapore centuries ago, and a few new Israelis and Americans thrown in the mix; there are also a few Singaporeans who converted, along with the rabbi who is part of Chabad but from Morocco. It's an eclectic bunch. When I went on Friday night, everyone was speaking Farsi (a lot of the members are Persian) and I couldn't understand a thing. They were rushing to get home for Shabbat dinner, so I didn't really get to meet anyone.

When I came back the next morning, it was very different. There were about 3 times as many people, and I got to stay for lunch. It took them a while to warm up to me, but they politely asked where I was from and what I was doing in Singapore. It wasn't long before the woman sitting next to me at our table was pinching my cheeks and telling me I wasn't eating enough, while simultaneously trying to fix me up with her son and inviting me to go shopping. She made absolutely sure I was coming back next week.

After the food, the singing started. I thought my friends at the U of M Hillel were animated singers, but this group was something else. I didn't recognize a lot of the tunes, since they were Mizrachi, but I was able to clap and drum the table along with everyone else. I also really enjoyed the adorable singing coming from the little yeshiva-bocher in the corner. I think it's a requirement for being a Chabad rabbi's son that you have to sing really loudly and in a high pitched voice. Adorable.

After lunch, I wandered around downtown a little bit, checking out the storefronts and skyscrapers. I eventually found my way into the courtyard of the Raffles Hotel, and saw that the remnants of colonialism were alive and well. Named after Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles who colonized the island for the British empire, this hotel is well known as one of the most historic and fanciest hotels in Singapore; they also invented the Singapore Sling. I walked through the gardens and shops, checked out the lobby, and decided that I really wasn't dressed well enough to be there.

Sunday night was the eve of the lunar new year, so a whole bunch of us planned to go see the celebrations together. Before we left, some Swedish students planned a picnic in West Coast Park that was supposed to be like a Swedish Midsummer Party. They barbequed, planned some games, and taught us a little about Sweden. We had several contests, including trivia about Sweden, a game where you run in circles and then try to run back, a game where you carry a potato with a spoon in your mouth, and a game where you pin a pencil to the back of your pants and try to get it inside a bottle. They also showed us a smorgasbord, with 3 kinds of herring, Swedish caviar and crackers, liquor and sweets. The best part of the evening had to be when they sang us a Swedish drinking song that sounded like a mix between a pirate song and a national anthem. I have it on tape.

After the festivities, we headed down to Marina Bay for Chinese New Year. People were all along the riverfront, and everything was lit up. There were floats of the Chinese zodiac, lit up gardens and bridges, and even a mock set-up of the terra cotta soldiers. All night they had performances by Chinese singers, dancers, acrobats, gymnasts, and other artists. The host spoke mostly in Mandarin, and I didn't really know what was going on, but I've never seen anyone contort themselves or balance themselves the way these performers could, and it was absolutely amazing. At midnight they had a countdown in Mandarin and set off a huge firecracker show.

Chinese new year lasts 15 days, but schools and work are only cancelled for the first two. On Tuesday, as part of the celebrations, the President opened up his palace grounds to the public, so we decided to go. We had to wait in line for a while and go through security, but pretty soon we were allowed into the Istana (Malay for palace). The grounds were gorgeous, with rivers running through and performances and activities set up on the lawns.

Once we got into the actual palace, we weren't allowed to take pictures, but everything was stunning. On display were gifts the president had recieved from foreign dignitaries, and let's just say the gifts from the US weren't looking so great in comparison to the ones from Kuwait. We saw the banquet halls, press hall, sitting rooms and lobbies, and maybe I'm a geek but I thought it was really cool.

On the way out, we struck gold. Stationed at all times in front of the palace are guards from the Singaporean military, but they're not allowed to move, not even their eyes. I had a field day. We all took pictures with them, tried to amuse the crowds standing nearby, and probably made complete fools of ourselves. Nobody from security seemed to mind, and the guards never said anything about it. They never said anything at all.

I spent the rest of the day hopping from museum to museum, since they all had free admission for Chinese New Year. I had a nice balance of historical art, contemporary art, and displays of artifacts. I went to the Singapore Art Museum, the Asian Civilizations Museum, the Peranakan Museum, and didn't even make it to the National Museum of Singapore. I got to walk along Boat Quay, see City Hall, Supreme Court and the Parliament House, and even stopped by the historic statue of Sir Raffles (see my Blogger profile picture).

After all this, I went to Jie Bin's house for a steamboat dinner (traditional Chinese New Year meal). I must have had 15 different kinds of sweets, a lot of tea, pastries and nuts, and a lot of good conversation. Steamboats are giant pots of broth where everyone puts in different vegetables, fish, tofu, noodles and meat, and when they're cooked, they float and you can take them out to eat with some rice. Jie Bin's mom knew I keep kosher, so she even made me my own separate bowl of broth! She gave us two mandarin oranges to symbolize good wishes, and a red packet of money to symbolize success and prosperity. It was a really nice dinner, and after some drinks and games, I headed home.

The next day, after classes, I went to see a Neil Simon play that was put on by a student acting group. The performance centers at NUS are amazing, and it was hard for me to rush inside and stop myself from admiring the architecture. The play was very cute, and I met up with some friends at Clarke Quay afterward.

Yesterday, I was invited to another steamboat dinner by a friend. I thought it was just a random group of students getting together, but a little while into the evening I found out that it was actually an activity for a student group called "Campus Crusade for Christ", and they call the members "crusaders". I don't think they understood the full historical significance of the word, at least not for Jews. Me, having dinner with crusaders. My Zayde (grandfather) would turn in his grave if he knew.

I was a little uncomfortable, but the people there were really nice and made sure that we had enough to eat. The staff advisor heard that I didn't eat shellfish, so she asked if I was a Jew. After an awkward moment or two, I said yes, and she gave me a polite smile. Like I said, it was a little uncomfortable. It turns out that she applied to Michigan for her MBA, so we were able to carry on a little bit of conversation after that.

We also had a dish where you pour different noodles, vegetables, nuts and crackers into a bowl, and mix it all together. Each of the ingredients symbolizes something, and everytime you pull your chopsticks out to mix, you're supposed to yell a word of good fortune and try to get the food as high as you can into the air. It was really fun, really delicious, and really messy. By the end of the night, we were well-fed and very tired, so we headed back to the dorms and watched a movie.

This weekend, I'll be going to Chingay parade and some concerts, so I'll make sure to update you as soon as I can! Gong xi fa cai!
Until next time,
Lizzy