Funk Nasty Plus

Hello all! The last few days have been busy busy busy! Sunday was had a walking temple tour which kind of turned into a walking tour of the different areas, housing, shrines, and food in Singapore! Our tour was led by a friend of Lens, Timothy Pwee. He gave us a lot of information about how Singaporians live their daily lives, their spirituality, religious practices, and other odds and ends about the Sinaporian culture! After a long day of walking he invited us to his house so we could see his house. About 90% of Singaporians live in government subsidized apartment complexes. This is simply because of the small amount of land available in Singapore. Each individual has the opportunity to buy out a 99 year leas on a flat. These complexes are required to have a mix of races. Timothy was telling us that in his building they could have over 80% of Chinese in their building, which is proportionate to the percentage of Chinese in Singapore. We then headed to a local food center down the road. Timothy, his wife, and Len ordered us all the best dishes at the food center! We had prawns coated with something that tasted like frosted flakes, curry, pork pot stickers, a dish with fried yams, chicken, vegetables, and fried rice noodles, bock choy flavored with garlic, and a vegetable stew with an assortment of seafood (including sea cucumber which I tried and DO NOT recommend to anyone!) After we were stuffed we headed down to a small bar that had beer, and MANGO MARGARITAS! After the other Amanda I downed a very large jug of margaritas we headed home and spent the rest of the night with chocolate, wine, and great conversation! On Monday we had a short lecture in the early afternoon! Our plans to lay out before class were disturbed by the rain and lack of sun so we headed back up to our room to catch up on our blogs and talk. Clearly I did the latter of the two!  That night we had class at NIE which is one of Singapore’s largest colleges, mainly for education. We had a diversity class with other Masters Counseling students. We were paired up with another Singaporian student and did icebreakers and discussions on how we, as future therapists, challenge ourselves culturally and how we work to understand and become more aware of our biases and reactions to culture! It was wonderful to actually get to talk one on one with a Singaporian student that is in the exact same position as you! On Tuesday we went to the Tanglin shopping center! I splurged on a beautiful maxi dress. I will post pictures of it soon! Thank you Jennifer for talking me into trying it on! After shopping we had brunch at a little café. The rest of the afternoon we spent talking and hanging out. We are all starting to get a little burnt out. In the evening we went back to the NIE campus where we partook in a group counseling class. We once again were paired up and got to know another student one on one. We then observed how Singaporian classes are run. After a short break we were split into groups of half American students and half Singaporian students to discuss characteristics of a good group counselor! It was so refreshing to have different views and opinions! After class Len took us to the Raffles hotel. This hotel is huge, expensive, and full of very rich people. The Raffles hotel is where the Singapore Sling was created. We went to the Long Bar inside the raffles where we split six Singapore Slings between the twelve of us because they are 30 sing a piece! Yikes! Personally I thought it tasted like cough medicine but I had to try one or else I would dissapoint uncle Al! Yesterday we started off the day with more of the class sharing who they were culturally speaking! I feel like these presentations really make you appreciate each of the individuals on this trip that much more! We then had a two men who run an organization called OogaChanga. Which is a community run program to help support gays and lesbians in Singapore. In Singapore the act of gay relations is still illegal in Singapore although it is rarely enforced. Still, Singaporians have much more resistance coming out if they are gay or lesbian. People, especially teachers, can lose their job or be refused a job if they openly come out. This made me appreciate the steps that America is taking to accept the GLBT community. We still have along way to go but we are making progress! We then had a poolside pizza party, request of Keeton (lens six year old son). We had a little while to lay out and then we headed to the Singapore zoo. The zoo is amazing. The enclosures for the animals are so natural and provide the animals with a lot of space. We watched Len’s kids feed a giraffe and we got to take elephant rides! After a quick dinner break we went a night safari! We road an open tram through different habitats! We were able to get so incredibly close to the animals! We also were able to venture into the flying fox and bat cages where we were being dive bombed by bats the size of cat! Len found this hilarious!  Overall it was a wonderful experience! PS the otters were by far the cutest things ever and I may go back and steal one to take home! Surprise Mom! Today I woke up early and went for a nice long run! The funny thing about running here is that I do not think about anything while I run! My head is so clear! Love it! The sun is out and shinning. We have an off day so we plan on getting all bronzed up!