Moving (again)!

      

Well, it's about time I made the official announcement seeing that I'll be on the move in one week (eeks!).  We'll be hanging up our expat statuses and are moving back to Houston!   I'm excited, but things are moving fast over here, and it's hard to say goodbye to friends, organize, and oh I forgot to mention, plan a trip to New Zealand before we leave.  Yeah, we're a little crazy.  

Next Friday, we're heading out to New Zealand for a last hurrah in the Eastern Hemisphere for awhile.  We'll be in New Zealand for two weeks, come back for a couple of days to take care of a couple of administrative things and then fly out for Houston on May 16.

It's been a bit of a whirlwind since we only found out about our move a month ago and received definite confirmation a couple of weeks ago.  Luckily, the company is moving us so I don't have to do much physical work for packing and loading, but of course I'm trying to do a little organizing since we'll most likely be downsizing and putting things in storage.  

Now you may be wondering, downsizing?  That means we're gonna be in an apartment - why not buy a house?  Well it looks like we may be returning to the East in a year or so.  Right now, the plan is to be in Houston for a year or so and then move to Shanghai.  Life is never dull over here!  Obviously things can change (just like how our Singapore assignment was cut short), so I'm just learning to trust God and His plan for us and take life one day at a time.

On top of all that, I've had to say goodbye to many of my friends this week since next week will just be crazy busy.  I've met so many interesting people and had so many great experiences in Singapore, it makes me sad to leave.  But, on the flip side, being back in the states means being closer to family, which is a big bonus.  

Thaipusam

This past week, I experienced another "first" in Singapore.  My first Thaipusam.  During Thaipusam, Hindu devotees carry kavadis (burdens) along a pilgrammage route.

Last year, I missed the parade, but this year, I was determined not to miss out.  So, I called up my friend Adrielle (who is also an expat) and dragged her along with me on this adventure.

The parade begins in Little India and winds through downtown Singapore, ending at a temple near Orchard Rd for a total of 4.5 km.  We decided to go to the source of the parade and took the MRT to Little India.  As soon as we got to street level, we saw yellow barriers marking off a lane in the street.  We picked a street corner to wait at and soon enough, some devotees came parading towards us.

First came this guy:

The paraders had to wait at the intersections for their turn to cross and this guy was dancing around...while carrying this huge kavadi.  It was so crazy, these guys were dancing around while all these spikes and hooks were digging into their skin...

       
Front and back views

Then came this guy:

His friends and family followed along, singing songs and playing instruments.

More guys came walking by:

       

The guy after them must have been rich, because he hired an entire band of drummers to help him along:

Little boy watching the parade

After awhile, we were starting to overheat in the scorching sunlight so Adrielle and I ducked into the nearest mall for some A/C (or aircon as they say here).  We got some bubble tea, and I snacked on some McD's while we rehydrated and chatted.  Refreshed, we decided to hop on the MRT and head towards the end of the parade route.

People lined up to see the paraders near Orchard Rd.

Soon, we heard some drums and yelling in the distance and a few minutes later, some people started walking  (or should I say dancing) down the lane.  It was almost like the last mile of a marathon where people re-energized with the end in sight.  Friends and family were dancing and singing along with the devotees.

This guy had a rowdy posse.

One of his friends started break dancing in the middle of the street

A bunch of other guys rolled on through

There were also a few ladies carrying kavadis:

Milk pot offering for the gods

This was the only woman we saw with piercings

Even little kids were walking the pilgrammage:

Budding drummer

Another milkpot carrier....not looking so hot

As we watched, we started noticing that we were seeing the same guys that we saw at the beginning of the parade!  Guess we rested longer than we thought....or these guys walked a lot faster than we expected.

This was the guy who had the band

This pic is blurry not because of my lack of skills,
but because this guy was spinning around like crazy!

You can't really tell in the picture, but this guy is walking
on a pair of sandals with nails poking into his feet!

Then came some guys in chariot kavadis.  They were attached to these "chariots" by hooks:

I'm not sure if the guy was supposed to be pulling his chariot,
but his friends were helping him out by pushing it along.

Closeup of his back....ouch!

A young kid carrying a smaller kavadi

       

with limes pinned to his back

The Indian lady next to us told us the parade continued until 12 am in the morning!  Neither of us had the desire or energy to stay out that late so we decided to head home.  Another crazy Singaporean adventure - definitely don't see this kind of stuff in the States!  You can check out the rest of my pictures here.

Christmas is Here!

This week, Christmas arrived in the form of a UPS box.  My in-laws sent us a little Christmas package since   we're missing the annual Christmas festivities back home.

Like excited kids, we opened up our box


and found it filled with wonderful presents!


Me and some of my Christmas goodies

The next day, I started my morning off with a cup of my new Peach Momotaro tea (one of the presents my mother-in-law sent me).  It's a hand-tied bouquet of tea leaves and flowers that are dried into a little ball.  When you put the ball in hot water, it opens up like a flower.

 

Of course I had to enjoy it in my awesome snowman cup

I spent the quiet morning sipping my tea and browsing some blogs and came across this post from iheartfaces.com.  It's a really neat tutorial on how to create shaped Christmas light bokeh.  Bokeh is basically that blurry, dreamy, out-of-focus look - like what you see behind the snowman in the picture above.

Following the tutorial, I cut out a circle a little bigger than my lens diameter and then cut a little star out in the middle.  I was too lazy to create the cylinder part to fit around my lens so I just held up my little circle to the lens and centered the star in the middle.  Here's what I got:

Pretty neat huh?


I tried one with a heart too, but it came out a bit distorted, not quite sure why...

A few other pics I took around the house of what I love about Christmas:


This will be the second year that we're spending Christmas abroad, and though it's not quite as hard as it was last year, it's still hard not to miss being home with family for the holidays.  But to take our minds off all we are missing, we're taking a trip instead.  We'll be having Christmas dinner in Hanoi and ringing in the new year in Ho Chi Minh City!

And one more thing - Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Makan Session

Wow, I was uploading pics from my camera today and realized that I totally forgot to post about a very unique Singaporean experience Andy and I had a couple of weeks ago.

SMRT, the MRT (subway) company in Singapore, was running a drawing, or "lucky draw" as they call it here, to promote the grand opening of the new Circle Line MRT line.  The prize: Makan Sessions with famous local food bloggers at eateries nearby various stations on the Circle Line.  Makan means "to eat" in Malay and is used regularly in Singlish vocabulary.  You know I'm interested in all things regarding food so I entered and won a spot at the Makan Session near Buona Vista station (which is only two stops away from our station) with Dr. Leslie Tay from ieatishootipost.  It's a great blog that reviews Hawker food and other local cuisine establishments.  I was so excited because I had actually heard of Dr. Tay before - I'd seen a TV segment about him and his blog when I first got to Singapore.  And, what's even more awesome is that I was able to get a spot for Andy as well!

The location of the Makan Session was kept secret until we arrived at the MRT station.  Dr. Tay brought us to Spice Peranakan, which specialized in....you guessed it, Peranakan food.  Peranakans were the native Singaporeans and were the elite of Singapore back in colonial times.

Chatting with Dr. Tay before we line up for some food

The spread

The line, or as they say here, the "queue"

While eating, we got to listen to a little info session on the origin of Peranakan food

Here's what we feasted on:

Papaya Titek - green papaya and dried shrimp soup

Ikan Tamban - fried sardines

Chap Chye - mixed vegetables

Ayam Goreng - fried chicken

Satay Ayam - chicken curry

Fish curry

Kueh Salat - coconut glutinous rice cake (my favorite item in this meal!)

My delicious plate

Afterwards, Dr. Tay held a little photo shoot session where he gave us tips on food photography.

Dr. Tay giving away free codes for his iPhone app - too bad Andy and I have Android phones

SMRT also hosted a little contest to win some prizes.  We were each passed a quiz with about 10 trivia questions about the Circle Line.  A combination of speed and accuracy determined the winners.  Among the prizes were a few copies of Dr. Tay's book, The End of Char Kway Teoy and Other Hawker Mysteries.  Andy won first place!  I was so excited because I expected he would win a copy of the book for us.  Here he is with Dr. Tay and his prize....

which turned out to be Churp Churp the mascot of the company that was sponsoring the event with SMRT.  As you can see, Andy was thrilled.  Every grown man needs a stuffed animal called Churp Churp.

But, the excitement wasn't over yet.  Coming into 5th place was....yours truly!  The 5th place prize was...

The book! I'm actually excited, unlike Andy who was probably thinking what you are thinking....1st place gets a stuffed animal and 5th place gets an autographed book?  Well the great thing about being married is that when one wins, both win.  So we got our book, and one of Andy's coworkers got a cute stuffed animal for his baby.

Another great Singaporean experience for us.  We'll definitely be back to Spice Peranakan in the future to try out the rest of their menu.  Bonus that it's so close by too!