'Where have you been?' I hear you cry...

Hi! It's been awhile - we've been busy! Here's a quick update on some of what we've been up to...

Apartment Hunting/Finding!

We began looking at apartment options at the beginning of October, visiting quite a few different places. It was really interesting to see the range of options and a bit difficult to get used to the high prices! We looked mostly at HDB apartments - apartment blocks built by the government and then sold to Singaporeans. Once the owner has occupied them for at least 5 years, they can rent them out.
After a week or so of looking, we found a renovated, 3 bedroom HDB we really liked - and also managed to find some housemates that we also really like! A fellow St. Olaf grad, who also works at Duke-NUS, and a Duke-NUS student. We signed the lease (at a McDonalds, no less!) and handed over a fair amount of money, and will move in November 17th. A few pics:

Living room and dining room.

Kitchen - still no oven, but it looks really nice!

One of the bedrooms

AND it comes furnished - with a piano!! That pretty much sealed the deal!

Pit Orchestra in a Musical at the Esplanade

Jacob had a rigorous start to October - from the 3rd through the 14th, he rehearsed for and played in the pit orchestra for the musical National Broadway Company. The show was written and put on to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the durian-shaped Esplanade Theatre. Such a short rehearsal time meant lots of long nights - I think most days Jacob had 8-hour rehearsals, on top of his teaching, and he rarely got home before midnight for 12 nights in a row! However, it was a good gig and a great place to meet lots of well-connected musicians. I got to attend the show (comp ticket, holla!), and while I have to say I didn't necessarily 'get' all Singapore references and humor, the dancing and the music were really great.

My First Meet-Up Group

For the past 2 Mondays (and tonight will make 3), I've been going to a running Meet-Up group (found via the Meet-Up website, which turns out to be a really handy tool!). The Singapore Shuffle running group meets at a public track on Monday nights for a speed workout. In the past I've learned that runners are some of the coolest people I meet anywhere, so it's been great to meet some new people and get in a good sweat. Workouts consist of a short warm-up, some drills, and then 2-3 miles of intervals (usually 400s and 800s). It's been great to run with people again, and to remember (fondly) some of those crazy track workouts from college (though there is a 0% chance of getting snowed on here!)

Durga Puja

Last night we headed over to Little India and met up with some friends from my work to celebrate the Indian festival of Durga Puja, remembering the triumph of the Goddess Durga over the demon Mahishasura. We watched as various goods were offered to idols of Durga and her children, accompanied by drums and a ringing bell. And then, typical of most festivals I can think of, we ate a lot. We ate southern Indian cuisine, complete with roti, naan, briyani with mutton, butter chicken, paneer curry, a cauliflower dish, and more rice - and finished off with fresh lime sodas and mango lassis. I'd be lying if I said I didn't eat too much...

From left to right: Chandima, Kumar, Amudha, Zach, Reshmi, Jorge, Jacob and me.
Apart from Kumar and Jacob, we all work at or go to school at Duke-NUS
(and we typically eat lunch together too!)

And that it what we've been doing! Also, I've recently spent a significant amount of time sitting by the pool (or standing IN the pool) and reading Game of Thrones - one book down! It rained a ton this weekend, but even so, I sat out under an umbrella for something like 4 hours yesterday - joy!!

Also, had my first sighting of massive cockroach. Didn't scream. Did stand up on the couch and then jump off and run away. We'll fight that battle another day (and by 'we,' I obviously mean Jacob with a baseball bat...)

Slice of cake, slice of life

Hello, dear readers!

Just a few things I came across today and thought, hey, cool - I should blog about it!

Several people have asked me what we eat, and if we are cooking a lot (like we used to). To be honest, no, we are hardly cooking much of anything! Factors leading to this include: a) There is no oven in our condo (or most apartments in Singapore); b) Jacob and I usually don't get home until close to 7pm on a normal night, so we tend to either throw together sandwiches or easy food at home, or are lured out to the nearby hawker center for yummy and relatively cheap food; c) It is flippin' hot in the kitchen, even before turning on the stove! Does not make cooking experiments as enticing...

However, I couldn't let Jacob's birthday go by without a cake! So, taking a tip from a coworker, I made a cake out of cake batter flavored pancakes, from a recipe found here! And then I piled them up and frosted them with homemade chocolate butter cream, flavored with Milo (the hot chocolate drink mix) and cayenne pepper - because, after all, the cake was for Jacob "Chili Peppa" Dalager!

Happy 25th Birthday Jacob!! Our roommates, Abdullah and Tanja, gave Jacob purple socks (because it is his favorite color) and chocolate!

Tonight after work I went to a view a few apartments - we are hunting for our next place - and grabbed a quick dinner at a hawker center nearby. I got one of Singapore's most famous and beloved dishes - Chicken Rice. It is simple but delicious, and people can get very serious about their chicken rice. This time I got roasted chicken rice - but you can get it steamed and even fried in some places. You eat it with a rich, black sauce and a chili sauce too. This whole meal, including the 100 Plus, cost S$3.60 (about US$2.90). And the other awesome thing - when you're done, you just get up, leave your tray and dishes, and walk away! Talk about luxury. Add that to my list of reason we cook less: d) dishes pile up a lot faster when you don't have a dish washer!

Soup with thin slices of corn on the cob floating in it - strange but tasted good. Roasted chicken rice, with accompanying sauces, and 100 Plus (a refreshing grapefruity soda).

This was just a funny thing I saw when crossing the street:

Press For Green Man!? He has a NAME, GOSH!

And this happened to me in the mall: I was passing through on the way to the MRT (remember, there are malls just EVERYWHERE), and decided to check out a clothing store and try a few things on. I grabbed my usual medium size and headed into the dressing room. It wasn't until I had the blouse halfway over my head that I felt the fabric tighten and the seams lurch in protest that I had the thought: "Hannah, you're in Asia. Do you think the sizes might be just a little different here?"
Well, I'm not saying I actually got stuck in the shirt...nope, you won't hear me actually admit it. But I will confirm that, yes, sizes are smaller - and are designed with a rather 'svelte' body in mind. I did cave in and embrace the mall culture though, buying a cute brown blouse (size large for sure!).

That's it for now! Selamat malam! (Good evening/night in Malay)

Gum in Singapore: The Juicy(fruit) Details

Free Candy!!!!

When we began telling people we were moving to Singapore, we got an overwhelming number of warnings about chewing gum. It seemed as though this was the one detail about Singapore that has really stuck (pun always intended) in the minds of Americans. We can’t name Singapore’s president (I still can’t, oops), we don’t know much about its history, and might have trouble picking it out on a map (unless you’ve read this blog), BUT it is accepted knowledge that “if you chew gum you’ll get caned on the behind (or shot with a bazooka).” I’ll admit, we poo-pooed this notion a bit, assuring many of you that, actually, chewing gum is legal as long as you don’t spit it on the ground, etc. etc.

SO it really burst our dubble bubble when we found out that chewing gum IS, in fact, illegal in Singapore! Well, almost illegal - one may chew gum for ‘therapeutic value’ but since bringing gum across the border is illegal and it is not sold in the country, I’m not sure where this therapy gum is acquired.

But in fairness, those who warned of caning were a chicklet-bit wrong too. The only penalties for importing or chewing gum are fines.

But how did these rumors commence to orbit the globe? How did fiction come to eclipse the truth?

Hubba Bubba!!

First, a brief history. The gum ban was put in place in 1992. Though gum littering had been an issue for some time, when the new Mass Rapid Transit trains went into service, the issue came to a head. The government wanted to keep these beautiful new trains in double-mint condition, but vandals began sticking chewed gum to the door sensors. The bubble tape caused train problems and delays. That gave the new Prime Minister, Goh Chok Tong (left), the extra push to implement the ban. Later, Wrigleys fought with Singapore and got the ban amended slightly, to allow for the chewing of gum for therapeutic and dental health reasons.

The international broo-ha-ha began in 1994, when Michael Fay, an American teenager and delinquent, was sentenced to caning - for spray painting cars and stealing road signs, not spitting gum. Fay received 4 cane strokes, reduced from 6 strokes after the US plead for leniency. Interesting side note: only men are eligible for punishment by caning. Women, men over the age of 50, and those 'medically unfit for caning' are exempt. High 5! Excuse, I'm going to go vandalize some cars now...

And I'm back...
Journalists splashed Fay's case on the front page in big red letters and everyone went mentos. We then began to hear reports on other startling Singaporean laws - including my new personal favorite: mandatory flushing of public toilets. (HUZZAH! And there shouldn't have to be a law people...)

And now you know the truth, as presented by Wikipedia and re-chewed by me.

This last part of the tale is unverifiable, but the story goes that on the eve of the ban’s taking effect, crazed citizens could be seen stride-ing through the streets, waving tridents and screaming, “They may take our gum, but they will never take our Freedent!!!!!


(p.s. most of my focus during this post was to include as many gum brands as possible - hope that wasn’t lost on you. How many can you find?)

Singapore - 新加坡 - Singapura - சிங்கப்பூர்

Singapore is considered one of the Four Asian Tigers - along with Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan, it has a highly developed economy and is one of the financial capitals of Asia.

Located on the southern tip of the Malaysian Peninsula, near to the many islands that make up Indonesia

Despite knowing these general facts, before I got ready to move to Singapore, I didn't actually know very much about it. So, if like me, you find your Singapore knowledge a little lacking, I'm writing this brief post on the basics of Singapore. Sure, you could look at the Wikipedia page. That'll work too. But I went through the trouble to make these cool map pictures, so stick with me!

Jacob is getting be somewhat familiar with this part of the world...

Singapore is an island on the very tip of the Malaysian Peninsula. Roughly 80 miles north of the equator, it is definitely tropical. This means that the weather is very constant - highs of 87-90, lows of 74-76, relative humidity averaging about 80% (beating out all US cities), and more or less frequent rain with thunder and lightening. The  main rainy season is Nov-Feb. Oh, and the days are all the same length - which is a weird phenomenon to me! During the whole year, the length of day only fluctuates from 11:46 to 12:11 hours.

I've circled a few of our important places. The colored lines show the MRT (train) routes. Jacob teaches all over, but frequently at the Singapore American School and sometimes at the Brass Store. I work at Duke-NUS.

Singapore is just 270 sq.mi - smaller than Luxembourg, Tonga, and Bahrain, and just a hair larger than Micronesia. Singapore's population of about 5.2 million makes it similar to Minnesota or Colorado - slightly smaller in population than the Atlanta Metro area. In the U.S., it would be the 10th biggest city.

As the title of this blog suggests, there are a variety of languages spoken in Singapore. The 4 official languages are English (language of the government), Chinese (Mandarin), Tamil, and Malay. The majority of residents are of Chinese of Singaporean-Chinese descent, with Malays and Indians making up significant minorities. And the rest is a wide range of expats.

This is a flag.

As for history - Singapore was an English colony up until 1963, when it joined with Malaysia. Then, in 1965, Singapore declared independence and became the Republic of Singapore. It is governed by a unitary parliamentary republic - a one-party parliament.

The government control much here,and also subsidizes a lot of living costs. Most Singaporeans live in HDB flats - apartments built by the government and sold at low-ish prices to citizens. Healthcare is also heavily subsidized and, I believe, universal (and gee, the world hasn't ended!) Jacob and I both feel fortunate to be covered by our employers at no cost beyond the low co-pays. In fact, co-pays tend to be so low, that insurance is only really needed to cover inpatient services. But I'll wait til I have more experience with the healthcare system before I say too much (or perhaps I won't ever have to learn!!)

Featuring Singapore's first president, Yusof bin Ishak.
I like his fetching mustache. 

The currency (below) is Singapore Dollars (roughly US$.80 = SG$1). The bills are in increments of $2, $5, $10, $50 and $100 (perhaps higher, but I haven't seen them!). The bills are colorful and are sized according to value - and several of them have transparent plastic sections which make them really nifty. The coins are worth $.05, $.10, $.20, $.50 and $1. I love the $1 coin, and the fact that there are no pennies! In stores, the prices include tax, so what you see if what you pay. And if the total comes to something like $4.87, it is rounded down to the nearest 5 = $4.85.

I feel like this covers a fair amount - although there is so much one could say about this island! For now I'll leave it at that - but let me know if there are other things you want to know!!

Oh, and in parting, here is the National Anthem (which, incidentally, we hear at 7:28 each morning as the neighboring school blasts it over the intercom):

Malay: Mari kita rakyat Singapura sama-sama menuju bahagia; Cita-cita kita yang mulia, berjaya Singapura. Marilah kita bersatu dengan semangat yang baru; Semua kita berseru, Majulah Singapura, Majulah Singapura! Marilah kita bersatu dengan semangat yang baru; Semua kita berseru, Majulah Singapura, Majulah Singapura! English: Come, fellow Singaporeans Let us progress towards happiness together May our noble aspiration bring Singapore success Come, let us unite In a new spirit Together we proclaim Onward Singapore Onward Singapore Come, let us unite In a new spirit Together we proclaim Onward Singapore Onward Singapore