1, 2, 3...Mousedeer!

The last few days have been busy busy busy! On Friday I woke up and early and went for a run. Afterwards it was still cloudy and we were feeling lazy so we all went back to bed until 11:15 when we were forced to get up and shower for class. We went back to NIE for lunch in their cafeteria and then we had class. In this class Len interviewed Dr. Benny Bong (cool name, right?). He was another therapist nominated by his peers as a master therapist. He had some great commentary on self care. He basically said that at the end of the day you just have to say to yourself, “I don’t care” and leave work right where you left it! After the interview we were put into groups of three Americans and four Singaporians to discuss our top three characteristics of therapists. We then compared what the singaporians nominated as their top three and what we nominated. We found that we all had pretty common factors across cultures, which was encouraging and helped the whole class see that we really have more similarities then differences. After class half of the group went to the Marina Bay Sands casino. We decided to pass because really we just wanted to go to the top but the class was going more to check out the casino. So we came back to our apartments (after a 45 minute cab ride, the traffic gets horrible at rush hour), we had “dinner” which consisted for pretzels and nutella along with some Pringles! We then headed to Chinatown where we shopped excessively! I found some great things for my family and myself! I’m so excited to show everyone when I get home! It is the start of the Chinese new years celebrations so Chinatown was packed and there were twice as many vendors than when we went last time! They have such great deals and beautiful things to buy! After we spent close to four hours there and most of our disposable income, we headed back on the MRT! The MRT is so clean and it is such an easy system to use. One trip is usually around two sing. If you return your ticket after your ride you get a dollar back! Awesome! We stopped at McDonalds on Orchard on our way home to get Mcflurries! So so good after a night of shopping! Yesterday was a long, hot, sweaty, tiring day. We met down in the lobby at 8 a.m. where we got on a bus with Len and his family for a day trip to Paula Ubin. Paula Ubin is an island (about an 8 minute boat ride) off the coast of Singapore. It is essentially what Singapore looked like in the sixties before the government stepped in and turned it into a business hub filled with concrete! It is mostly wilderness with a few small houses, shops, and restaurants. There are dogs and cats that run around the small village and are taken care of by shop owners etc. After a quick look at the small village we took a bus back into the forest. Vilma D’Razario and Andrew who is a friend of Karrie and Len’s. They are nature experts! They lead us out onto the rocky shores of Paula Ubin. These rock structures were granite, which was mined for quite some time on Paula Ubin. We then went on a long boardwalk around one side of the island. It was breathtaking! The ocean, the sandy beaches, the mangrove trees with their roots exposed, the mudskippers and fiddler craps! Absolutely wonderful! We headed back into the forest where we spotted a wild boar. This wild boar, however, was really not too wild. It must be used to being fed and approached by people because it had no problem coming up to us and the kids to get a closer look! This whole time Andrew and Vilma had great commentary about the flora and fauna of Paula Ubin. They pointed out wild animal tracks and took us up to a perch that was easily 5 stories high! This perch looked out over the beautiful forests, beaches, and ocean! During the entire tour Len's Daughter, Emma was attached to my hip! She is such a wonderful, smart, precocious little girl! We had fun talking about mousedeer, wild boars, her pink bedroom, and many other things that came to her wonderful imagination!  We then had lunch at a small restaurant on Paula Ubin. We had chili pepper tofu, Lemon chicken, rice, a spicy seafood noodle dish, vegetables, chili and pepper crab! The chili and pepper crab are big hits here in Singapore! After we successfully managed to eat our body weight in food we all zonked out, mentally and physically. We decided to head back to Singapore and since we had to wait another hour for our bus to come pick us up we went down to the beach, collected shells and sea glass, and just relaxed! We then headed back to Treetops where we all sat around and watched MTV for four hours before calling it an early night! It felt great to get 11 hours of sleep! I guess I really needed it! Today we are going to Chinatown, Little India and Arab Street with our class. We plan on touring some more temples, shopping, seeing the Chinese new years celebrations and eating so