best part of my day.

http://www.ted.com/talks/jeremy_rifkin_on_the_empathic_civilization.html

My Day In Photos:

this is where i get my daily prayers

stopped in for some exotic fruits, mmmmm...

she followed me down the street. but not far enough to find a treat

then i stumbled across a surprise ritual in a makeshift temple

i have never seen so much incense in one place

finally i made it to little india

where i found a little indian

and a rather large elephant.

the day ended by having tea with an old singaporean

and his friends.

a home, a movie, a book all about toilets

today i slept in. I mean I really slept in. I woke up at 10:30. The best part was, while everyone else in the hostel was getting ready I kept thinking how rude it was that they were up so early and making so much noise.

when i rolled out of bed i received a text message from some lady to come view a room in her flat. while it is on the higher end of my price range, it comes with a swimming pool, gym, koi pond in the living room, and a family all built in. it is also 2 busstops from work, and roughly 30 minutes from the center of town. i move in on monday (only because i pre-paid the hostel through sunday night). it is going to be an experience... there is a maid. i'm pretty excited to learn about the singaporean way of living, and what better way than to live with a family.

i had planned to go skating but returned to the hostel to do a little reading of a manual all about the different kinds of toilets once can construct. it includes climates and population density in the description. it is magical. now i know why i was told that i could only take it if i promised to return it; the thought of smuggling it out to ponder and admire for the next 50 years is titillating. i killed two pens while taking notes.

while sitting outside a movie crew suddenly set up and out of nowhere appeared this asian-vampire-james-bond-rock-star-japanese-super-model all rolled into one. after what felt like ages waiting to see what precisely he would do, it turns out it was about 15 seconds for a children's t.v. program. he was the villan and had succeeded in turning someone into a chicken (I KNOW!).

tomorrow i have sworn to find the place to skate, and this afternoon i settled on a yoga studio. i'm pretty excited about life here. i think it will be quiet, perhaps even a bit lonely at times. but i also think i am going to have the time to work on myself physically, spiritually, and mentally. also there are lots of beaches.

tales of tail less cat

my bag has finally arrived. a short 27 hrs after i made it. as much as i pretend to be uninterested in stuff, spending 3+ days in the same dress was starting to become bothersome (to say the least). and let us not even talk about knickers (or lack there of...)

last night i wandered around the arab part of town, and today was spent in little india.  i am amazed at how westernized everything seems to be here.  part of me questions if that 13 hr plane ride actually took me to the other side of the planet, or if we just flew back and forth across the u.s. and were dropped off in some unknown city.  restaurants consist of kfc, long john silvers, hooters... and there are more 7-11s here than i have ever seen in my life.  i found the LARGEST electronics store I have ever seen in my life... it was 5 stories, maybe more and filled to the brim with gadgets and gizmos.  the iphone has saturated the market here, however there are no apple stores.  how do you do it steve jobs??  i love my little nokia phone.  it reminds me of the first phone i ever had, but better.  i. pretty sure its the katorchi (literally "little light") from my uganda days. and it comes with games, whatever happened to free cell phone games?!  my hostel is spitting distance from a mosque which is super sweet, especially since it is Ramadan. i forgot how much i enjoy hearing the multiple calls to prayer everyday.  it's far easier to adjust here than it was to adjust to uganda. i'm not sure if that is a plus or a minus.

i have spent a good portion of the day looking for a room to rent, and yoga classes.  surprisingly yoga is almost twice as expensive here as it is in the states despite the plethora of studios (wouldn't micro-economics dicate that would drive the price down?)

tonight i went to see the wto offices.  I CANNOT WAIT TO START WORKING!  there isn't much to them really, but its all about the nitty gritty development.  afterwards i went to grab a bite with my supervisor and her fiance+friends.  all together there were 2 greeks, one italian, one indian brit, one spaniard, and two americans.  singapore is filled to the brim with ex-pats, but few of them seem to be american so it is a whole new kind of foreign exchange.  following dinner we went and grabbed drinks at this ultra plush hotel, (we went to ride the technicolor elevator) and were lucky enough to be entertained by a singaporean lounge singer. no joke. we also spent some time discussing beer serving monkeys. for your viewing pleasure i wanted to include the youtube clip, but it really screwed with my page layout. to be honest i am considering re-routing my trip through japan, just for the experience

a farewell love letter in three parts

1. to the lady who loves and leaves and loves again:
            leaving is the hardest part. the jumping point. tearful good byes, or quiet departures its all the same in your heart.

2. to the beauty of becoming
            i am a be becoming being.  moving, going, growing.  what exactly does an asian-african-american look like?

3. to the one that feels like home
           one might say i have arrived. ready to put my feet up and eat a local meal. if only you were here to share it with... and perhaps eat it backwards.