I arrived in Singapore last night (Saturday) around midnight. Finally! I can’t believe I’m finally here! I’ve been dying to come visit my friends for the past 2 years! Yay! So exciting.

The thing that sucks… is that I’m a little sick. Sick in Singapore. So lame. Not like, stay in bed sick, but like, my head feels the size of Russia and I pretty much have lost my voice and I can’t breathe much through my nose. I was really excited that I had made it through Taiwan without getting legitimately sick, especially because my last week, something was going around… a ton of kids and teachers had fever at the least. I managed to make it all the way to the company apartment Friday night without getting sick at all. Saturday morning, I woke up, feeling ok, just a little tired… I went to the nearby shopping center to use internet (since my flight wasn’t until 7pm), and as I was sitting there, whatever it is all of a sudden hit me. Definitely fever. Some chills… I hurried back to the apartment to take some medicine and a nap. It didn’t help that much, and it’s been downhill from there.

My voice is basically gone… I sound like a croaking frog or something ridiculous 😛 Could be a sinus infection… but who can be sure… I have some antibiotics to take for general sickness that could be helped by that, but A. I’m kind of anti that kind of medicine unless I absolutely need it. And B. there was a huge warning like 3 places in the box that said if you take it, your tendons might weaken and rupture (like your achilles tendon). Um… WHAT? Now, I’m not a worrier, but I think if I take that stuff, I will be super paranoid about my tendons rupturing… whatever that actually means… especially with all the walking I’ve been doing. Ha. So, I’m gonna give it another day or 2 and see if I get any better on my own.

So anyway… when I arrived, my friend Adelyne met me at the airport! Awesome! I’m staying with her and her family. So nice of them! Their house is great, and they have a maid who makes breakfast, and also a really cute yellow lab dog named Congee (the name of a chinese dish). Here, almost all households (of actual houses) have a maid with her own room. Also, it’s really common for a family to live with grandparents… Like, here, it’s my friend Adelyne and her immediate family. And then her dad’s parents also live here. It’s technically their house. They lived here when her dad was growing up. Kind of a cool system. Would never work in the states in our culture. But kind of cool.

This morning I went to church with her, and afterwards she and her friend, Timothy, took me to a cool place for lunch that was really cheap. I can’t remember what we ate, but it was good.

Actually, this is a really funny piece of culture shock for you… So, the first floor of the church, is just this open air place with tables and bathrooms and whatever… Upstairs is where there’s an actual church. But it’s not just one church. There was my friends Presbyterian church, but also a Chinese speaking church, adn I don’t know what else… So after church, I needed to use the restroom. After seeing that there was a line (or a ‘queue’ as they call it here), Adelyne said she’d just wait for me outside. No problem. Well, as I’m standing in line. All these tiny old little ladies keep coming up, and pushing in front of me. Well, not just me… Everyone else too. I’m like ‘what?’ No big deal, but I mean, I really had to go… And these old ladies just kept coming. And I can only imagine that this is one of 2 things. Either 1. It’s like Russia and you just have to push and be aggresive to get somewhere. or 2. It’s a respect thing where the elderly get dibs on toilets. I decided it was more likely option number 2, because, well, this is Asia, and they respect their elders a lot. But they just kept coming. And shoving their way quite forcefully in front of me. And I just kept thinking, ‘Oh my God, I’m never gonna get to go, they just keep coming”… Finally I did. After 10 or 15 minutes of standing awkwardly by the sinks, I started to inch my way towards a stall… letting old ladies go first, but essentially ‘calling it’ for if there was an old lady not paying attention. I’m a horrible person. Haha.

Adelyne said it was a pretty normal thing. The old ladies figure they’ve lived long enough to earn the right to do whatever they want. Haha. Kind of true. Kind of funny. and Kind of annoying.

We rested for the afternoon, and for dinner we met up with almost the whole old ‘L-Sing’. Aka me plus the 5 from Singapore that studied in Texas in Spring of 08. So fun. Me, Frisca, Yessy, Adelyne, Liptong… Alex, my “Asian brother” was the only one missing. (He’s working extra hard since he took off 2 weeks to travel to Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos with me). We walked around Marina Bay after dinner and saw the newest Singapore attraction… this huge casino. AFterwards, we had Chinese dessert. Pretty good stuff.

Tomorrow I can’t remember what’s on the agenda. But sleep late for sure. And at night, we’re going to a night safari… like a night zoo. Sounds really cool!