Today, a woman sat on me in the MRT.

Hello my dearest accomplices,

It will delight you to know that yesterday I found out I had been attending the wrong lecture for three weeks. Apparently, nation-building doesn't really have all that much to do with landscaping. I probably should have gotten the hint when neither the readings nor the posted lecture notes had anything to do with the lecture itself. Go figure.

So besides begging my classmates for lecture notes and having strange women mistake me for a chair on the subway (and then proceeding to pretend it never happened), I've been having a quite a lot of fun here. The woman at the vegetarian hawker stall in the arts & social sciences canteen loves me. She greets me every day with a big smile, a wave, and an inquisitive "You want brown rice?" I love her back. Those huge mock-meat meals for 2 Sing ($1.50) get me every time.

Chingay parade was great! Different communities, social service organizations, schools, universities, government sectors, local businesses, military wings and others took part. There were floats, dances and performances all along the streets of the civic district, and it seemed like all of Singapore had come downtown to take part in the celebrations. At the end of the parade, there was a fireworks display, and everyone seemed slightly less pushy and slightly more cheery that evening.

I went for a walk around the area afterward, enjoying the beautiful night scenery and blocked-off streets. I went down to Boat Quay and browsed the restaurants and bars, and the river looked really nice that night. While trying to find a club that was having a show of local indie bands, I stumbled upon a random show in the street of two dancing dragon costumes. The best part of the night had to be the massive linedancing that went on throughout the parade path. I've never seen so many people dancing to Mandarin country and disco hits, and they all knew the moves!

Later on, in front of City Hall, was City Alive, the biggest dance party of the year. They import DJs, mashup artists, dancers and performers and basically let Singapore's young adult crowd mix and mingle. I went with Zak and Umer, two friends who could sufficiently entertain me for hours. They're both pretty good dancers, and Umer got especially excited when Punjab the MC was spliced into some American hip hop.

The only problem with dancing outdoors in Singapore is that it gets unbearably hot. I went to a drink vendor and asked if I could have some ice; he tried to tell me it wasn't safe to drink, but I demonstrated my lack of interest by dumping it on my head. He thought it was hilarious. I make friends easily here.

The next day, some friends and I went to Sentosa to relax on the beach. Singapore has recently been "reclaiming" (building) islands around itself to use as resort-type areas, and Sentosa is the poster child for their new campaign. Imported sand beaches look surprisingly real when placed next to a jungle-like area, some gardens, hiking paths, bars and a hotel/spa. We played some volleyball, swam, and lazed around for the day.

At night, Sentosa turns into party central, with lights everywhere and lots of firedancing shows. The beach bars become quite active, and the shady-looking hot tub gets even shadier. Oddly enough, a lot of parents decide that this is a wonderful place for their infants and toddlers to be late into the night, so there's an interesting juxtaposition of drunk people in their 20s-30s and sleeping children. Awesome parenting.

The Esplanade, Singapore's version of the Sydney Opera House, has an arts and music festival for Chinese New Year called Huayi, so I decided to try that as well. Lovingly referred to by locals as "the durians", since their shape closely resembles that nauseating fruit, the Esplanade is really nice inside and has a few outdoor theaters for periodic free concerts. I listened to a Chinese jazz and pop singer on the river, saw a traditional Chinese puppet show (which actually turned out to be both impressive and hilarious), listened to a string quartet play Chinese New Year songs, and saw an amazing percussion group that used their drums as instruments, climbing blocks and toys.

By the time Friday rolled around, I was very ready for Shabbat. I went back to Magen Avot for services, expecting the same crowd as last week followed by dinner alone in my room. Apparently, however, there is an Ashkenazi minyan and Shabbaton once a month, and there were a ton of people my age. I stayed for dinner and quickly introduced myself to the table of twenty-somethings that already knew each other.

Besides the Lubavitch boys who were there with Chabad, there were several others who were Israeli, French, American, Canadian, South African, Tunisian and some other nationalities I'm forgetting. Some were in Singapore on business, some were studying here, and some were simply passing through. Dinner was delicious, and the singing was even better. It turns out that the young crowd loves singing and gets pretty animated for it, especially after some Shabbat shots of whisky.

One of the girls from Paris named Carole asked me where I was staying, and once she figured out that NUS was pretty far from the shul, she invited me to stay at her apartment. I graciously accepted, and enjoyed the rest of the evening before crashing at her place. The next morning we went back for services and lunch with the community. Again delicious, and again a lot of singing. Afterwards we had a text study of that week's Torah portion, which was really interesting, and a nice reminder of home. We took a Shabbat nap, came back for dinner and Havdalah (concluding services), and since it was a full moon that night, we did Kiddush Levanah outside. It was really nice.

The next morning, a bunch of NUS students got up early to go to Little India for Thaipusam, a Hindu holiday that's mostly celebrated by Tamils. It's held on the full moon of the month of Thai, and is a thanksgiving festival to Lord Murugan. In order to show their thanks and devotion, people will pierce themselves all over their bodies and carry heavy objects or pull carts with shrines using their piercings.

We started at Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple on Serangoon Road, where the 4.5 kilometer walk begins. Inside the temple, people were offering fruits and incense to the gods and dancing around the devotees. There was a lot of music being played on traditional instruments, and a ton of people. Everyone was being friendly and taking care of one another, especially those who were being pierced.

They had hooks or bars all up and down their bodies, carrying fruit or reigns to a cart. Some were even wearing bracelets or shoes with more needles in them. Most had a giant dome-like contraption with pictures of the gods and waving feathers that would attach to their piercings. Most of the men had their heads shaved, and some had further decorative piercings. A lot of the jewelry and decorations had what looked like a Jewish star on them, which I guess is also a Hindu symbol.

Most of the men were in a trance and looked like they couldn't feel anything. One man we came across, however, looked like he was about my age and in excruciating pain. He was praying quickly under his breath, tears streaming down his face, just trying to hold everything in while his peers sang around him and other community members continued piercing him.

Just as it looked like he wanted to give up completely, a man who was much older starting dancing over to him and looking him straight in the eye. This was one of the most intense exchanges I've ever seen - the two were communicating completely with their eyes. The young man was wanting to give up, and the old man kept his eyes wide and forceful, encouraging him to go on and push through the pain. The young man eventually did, and danced his way into the processions.

After watching more of the ceremonies and being thoroughly impressed, we stopped for lunch. Little India is by far one of the best places to eat in Singapore, and that's saying a lot. Plus, I can eat vegetarian food in good confidence that no meat or seafood traces snuck their way into it. My friend Dana sometimes makes fun of me for being so vigilant. "I'm a level five vegan," she'll say. "I don't eat anything that casts a shadow."

Later that week, I met up with Melanie, a family friend who's living here with her husband and going to business school at INSEAD. We went for dinner to a Thai restaurant downtown. Upon meeting me, her husband Matt, who went to school with my older sister, couldn't believe how much I resembled my siblings. It was nice to find that little connection to home, if only for a few seconds. The food was great, and they both shared some valuable and hilarious information about life here.

The next night, I met back up with Carole at the Blu Jazz Bar on Arab Street for some drinks. A whole group of people I had met at Magen Avot were also there, and I had a great time. Ladies night this week was spent at St. James Power Station, a huge building that used to be a power plant, and after it closed down, was gutted and turned into a multi-story bar complex. You can basically wander from place to place and meet people, while getting to listen to very different kinds of music. All of the bars are really nice, and it was actually a pretty cool place.

I'm all loaded up with vaccines now, and tomorrow I'll get my visas from the Vietnamese and Cambodian embassies, all in preparation for our spring break trip. I'm really excited, but in the meantime, I'll have to buckle down and do some serious schoolwork!

Here's a couple more albums I've uploaded:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2522873&id=2253943&l=e25d7
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2524622&id=2253943&l=a8141

Enjoy,
Lizzy

For your viewing pleasure

I've posted 2 new albums to Facebook! You can view them here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2522856&l=9f138&id=2253943
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2522873&l=e25d7&id=2253943

Hope you like them,
Lizzy