Ashley's in Asia: Flat Stanley Takes Singapore

My cousin's son, Braden, a second-grader in rural Ohio, sent my mom a little paper figure named "Flat Stanley." Flat Stanley is supposed to travel the world and send letters and notes back to Ohio for Mrs. Harris' second grade class.

I don't think Stanley realized what we was signing up for, because he had to travel over 8,000 to Singapore.

So far, here are Stanley's letters:

January 9, 2009:

Dear Mrs. Harris' 2nd grade class,

Flat Stanley, or as Braden calls him, Flat Josh, has made his way to the other side of the world! He was spotted just today watching the sunset in Singapore. Flat Stanley took a long 8447-mile airplane trip from San Francisco to Singapore yesterday - it was so far away that the airplane had to stop for gas in Korea!

Singapore is a small island in Southeast Asia where it is hot and humid all the time. There are lots of different kinds of people here, but almost everyone can speak English. In Singapore there are 4 national languages - can you imagine going to school in English and Chinese at the same time? People here speak Chinese, Tamil (a language from India), or Malay (the language of the native Singaporeans, who like Native Americans, spoke a different language than the people who moved to Singapore later).

There are thunder storms every day, but here they call them monsoons. It is always 85 degrees, even in December and January, because Singapore is right on the equator (does anyone know what the equator is?).

Flat Stanley is going to work with me, Braden's cousin, at Google on the 38th floor of a tall building in Singapore.

More to come from Flat Stanley later!

January 10, 2009

Dear Mrs. Harris' 2nd grade class,

Today Braden's Flat Stanley stayed at my apartment in Singapore, on the 26th floor in downtown. There are 40 floors in this building and 8,000 people live within 1 square mile!

Outside the window, way in the distance, you can see Indonesia. Indonesia is a country with more than 13,000 islands! One of the most famous islands is called Java - the same as the word for coffee - lots of coffee is grown there.

You can get to Indonesia on a 45 minute ferry across the water - can you imagine going to another country in 45 minutes? That's less time than sitting down with some candy and watching Wall-e!

-Ashley

January 12, 2009

Dear Mrs. Harris' class,

This weekend Braden's Flat Stanley went to Chinatown in Singapore. He had a great time because it is very busy with preparations for Chinese New Year, which is a Spring festival. This year the festival starts on January 26th.

Chinese New Year is the biggest holiday of the year for most Chinese people, and they celebrate it by decorating orange trees, hanging lanterns and decorations, eating lots of candy and sweets, and spending time with their families. Many of these Chinese New Year traditions are similar to Christmas traditions, and red is even a lucky color!

This year will be the year of the Ox in Chinese culture. There are twelve animals in the Chinese calendar, so this year will be the year of the Ox, and then it won't be the year of the Ox again until 2021! How old will you be then? Next year will be the year of the Tiger.

Flat Stanley will have more adventures as Chinese New Year approaches!

-Ashley