Around the world in 30 days

The "other" side of the Pacific, California

Loving the cold in California with my little sis

I'll be home for Christmas...with Mom and Mel

California winter sky - I missed you.

My newly decorated bed (bedding and curtains from Chinatown in Singapore, candle holders from Thailand, silk wall painting from Vietnam, paper cutting above the bed from Sydney, live orchids from the Fair Price grocery store)

Chinese New Year orange trees to decorate

Clever marketing in Singapore - flyers by a bikini waxing parlour.

Singaporean breakfast - Kopi (coffee with oil in it, Malay style), poached eggs with soy sauce, and toast with sugar and tropical fruit paste

Clarke Quay, the day before I left for California - right between monsoons

Skye, and her beau, Adrian (a Romanian flight steward for Qatar Airways), teach me how to play Mahjong during one of Adrian's short layovers in Singapore

View of the quicksand jungle of doom from my window on the 26th floor.

After posting my last entry, I enjoyed a bad case of the flu until I headed back to California for the month of December.

Now it's January and I'm back on the other side of the world. The weather is better than it was when I left (as little as Singapore's weather changes...it's about 5 degrees cooler with more breeze and fewer monsoons). I was longing for a cold Christmas, and I had a wonderful month of snow flurries in SF, foggy and rainy and crisp, clear, cold days in Northern California. I needed my eskimo coat most of the time because I got used to always being hot - and I loved every minute of retreating into my powder puff, fur-lined coat. Alas, (I realize a Swede or Alaskan, or resident of Boston would kill for this) now I'm back in the land of perpetual summer.

I've fully moved into my new apartment- a master bedroom (with private, attached bath) in a 3-bedroom new public housing building in downtown (in a neighborhood called Tanjong Pagar, next to Chinatown in the middle of the city). I am living with a French guy named Augustin, from the town in the South of France where fois gras originated. I plan to practice my French, think about Descartes and Sartre, and develop a true taste for fine wines :). I might even start rocking out to Satie and Debussy if I'm not careful (I'm already rocking out to Poulenc).

My other roommate has started moving in today, her name is Shabnam and she's half German and half Iranian. She's already lived in Singapore for a while and is moving closer to work, so I'm hoping that she will give me some tips on the best places to go. Sounds like she has already explored a lot of Singapore's unique areas, since she has a skate board and a surf board (Maybe she is an honorary Californian ;).

We will be a mini-UN here in Singapore. Plus, I am now getting the experience in foreign policy I need to run for vice president, as I can see Indonesia from my window.

We're right above the docks where they are loading and unloading crates 24-7. I can walk to work in 10 minutes, and to Chinatown in 7. Can't beat the location! I didn't move to Singapore to live in the suburbs, so I'm glad that I'll have this unique experience living in the downtown of a major city. I'm on the 26th floor! It makes it more exotic that unidentifyable fruit and chinese new year orange trees are for sale downstairs.

There is a little park next to the building with huge tropical trees and roaring sacedas. I went for a walk there today to explore and started sinking into the ground! Quicksand in the middle of a major city - only in Singapore.

I'm slowly getting a totally different feel for the city living in downtown and walking everywhere - suddenly the geography makes a lot more sense than when I was taking the MRT (subway) everywhere. There is also a bus stop right outside my apartment, which means I'll be doing a lot more above ground public transport.

The city is bustling with Chinese New Year preparations. I've been to Chinatown twice this weekend - it's like I'm in Asia! There are sweets and lanterns and mandarin trees for sale everywhere, and decorations just like christmas but with difference symbols and Ox's all over them (its the year of the Ox).

I think I'm going to get really physically fit walking everywhere, I've already ended up carrying lots of heavy bags half a mile home from the grocery store - no need to join a gym! Now if only I could figure out how to keepthe suffocating humidity from drenching me in sweat every time I go outside, maybe I'll be in business.