No, it didn't actually anywhere near cold enough for ice to form (temperatures stayed in the 80s), but I DID get to see Frozen, like I said I would. I really liked it; it was a really cute movie, and while it was flawed I still agree that it's one of Disney's stronger works. While I guessed some of the plot points, there were others that took me by complete surprise.
Anyways, I ended up going to yet another shopping mall in order to watch the movie. Turns out movies in Singapore work a lot differently than in the U.S. You can't arrive at the last minute to buy your ticket (I found that out the hard way...) and you're assigned a seat, like when you watch a Broadway performance. The previews were mostly Singapore advertisements, and they were generally in English, Chinese, or both. Oh yeah, and the movie itself had Chinese subtitles.
Since I missed the 4:55 PM showing of the movie due to the aforementioned issue, I spent time exploring the mall instead. Most of the shops were closed for the Lunar New Year, but I found a HUGE arcade and a game store! Oh, I wish I brought my video camera, but all I got were some lousy-quality pictures I took with my 3DS. I'll put them here anyway for you to see, but they're not very good...
It was cool to see all the Japanese games before they're released in the U.S. (or, in some cases, they were never released in the U.S.). It also seems they sell North American 3DS games, but they're pretty pricey at around S$60-S$70. I think I'll just wait until I get back home to worry about new 3DS games.
Today is the eve of the Lunar New Year. It was almost scary how deserted campus was. Most businesses closed early in the afternoon, some classes were canceled, and the classes that were being held had poor attendance. I think I mentioned this before, but the Lunar New Year is like Christmas for the Chinese. A large portion of the population in Singapore is Chinese, so most students ditched class so they could go home early and celebrate the new year with their families. It was strange seeing the halls of the engineering buildings almost completely empty, especially since I'm used to seeing students walking or sitting around everywhere. It reminded me of a ghost town, hence the title of this entry.
Also as a result of the Lunar New Year, I have no class tomorrow. I think I'm gonna go and try to see Frozen; I don't think the movie theaters will be closed. As for tonight... I might go out and try to see some fireworks. Yep, just like in the U.S., they launch fireworks in celebration of the new year. I'm certain Chinatown's going to be even more crowded than when I went last week, but maybe I can find a spot somewhere.
My third week in Singapore started with me getting up earlier than usual so I could ride on a dragon boat, which was something I signed up for shortly after arriving here. Dragon boats are long, narrow vessels that are paddled by many people at once. They are the basis of the ancient sport of dragon boat racing, which originated in China thousands of years ago. Dragon boat racing requires strength of body and strength of mind, but above all, teamwork is key to success. We learned that dragon boats typically have a drummer in front to help the paddlers keep rhythm, but since we didn't have anything like that, we used our voices. We learned all the basics of dragon boat racing while splashing ourselves and the other half of our group in another dragon boat. At the end, our two boats had a short race, and my team won! It was a lot of work paddling, but also a lot of fun. I may be sore tomorrow, but I doubt I'll regret doing this.
I was thoroughly soaked after that excursion, so I changed into a spare set of clothes before I made my way back. I stopped for lunch in a mall near the MRT station, and while there I spotted a little shop called 320 Below. It's an ice cream store unlike any I've ever seen: they make the ice cream right in front of you using liquid nitrogen! The name of the shop comes from the boiling point of nitrogen: -320°F. As a science buff, I wasn't about to walk away without sampling a little. I ordered the Belgian Dark Chocolate, and while it was kind of pricey (S$5 for a small cup), it was good. The nitrogen starts evaporating as soon as it comes out of the faucet, so it doesn't actually get incorporated into the ice cream. The whole point of it is to flash-freeze the ice cream so it's as fresh and smooth as possible when you receive it. It's a really neat idea, and I'd love to see something like that in the U.S.
I was walking back from class when several Japanese-themed displays in UTown caught my eye. Now, I've noticed them selling things before, but now they had some actual cultural stuff. So I decided to participate in some of the activities they were holding. I bought a Japanese fortune, and to my surprise it said dai-kichi, or "great blessing". That apparently means really good luck, but I have my doubts because I'm notoriously unlucky. I don't put too much stock into fortunes, though; I just find them fun.
The real kicker, though, was I found that there would be a Japanese Cultural Night back at the university. I attended it and brought my camera along so I could film the whole thing. I had to break it up into chunks because the account I use to upload these videos has a 15 minute cap, but oh, well. Be warned that there is a lot of cheesiness, music, and audience commentary.
The instrument used in the following two videos is called the koto, a traditional Japanese string instrument. The KotoKottoN Ensemble, which performs in these videos, use the standard thirteen-string and the seventeen-string bass koto in their performs. Their name comes from the koto and kotton, the Japanese onomantopoeic expression for "moving along". I found most of this info in the playbook.
The next part of the performance is a Japanese rendition of Silent Night, or at the very least Japanese lyrics sung to the tune of Silent Night. I was really impressed.
Next, the NUS Nihon Buyo Club performed performed some traditional Japanese dance moves. I thought the music was a little odd, but it was still fun to watch.
There's a couple more songs in this next part. The first is mournful, while the second sounds like J-Pop.
I traveled to Chinatown with my international student buddies for dinner and touring. I don't have much footage because I forgot to charge my camera and its battery was dying, but I still think I did a decent job. First, we had Vietnamese cuisine at a restaurant called "Yummy Viet", I think the name was. My student and buddy got caught in a traffic jam while riding the bus to Chinatown, so we got there late and we were very hungry. One of the students let me eat her beef pho noodles while she ordered something else. The broth was sweeter than what I'm used to, but I enjoyed the dish. The beef was tender and tasty, unlike another soup I've eaten that had beef that resembled shoe leather in both taste and toughness.
Afterwards, we toured around Chinatown. We passed by numerous bars (though we didn't drink) and explored the night market. Gosh, that place was packed! There were so many people that I was bumping into someone else constantly. Even so, it was fun to see all the stuff people had for sale. Chinatown was also lit up like Christmas Eve because the Lunar New Year is next week. There were tons of horse decorations and lanterns that lit up the streets. For the Chinese, the Lunar New Year basically is Christmas, so that makes sense.
We stopped for dessert at a tiny little restaurant that specializes in local desserts. We got to try dessert soup, yam pudding, and some sort of jelly cake. I didn't like any of those, but I did like what I ordered: mango snow ice. Snow ice is made by freezing milk and other ingredients and then slicing the blocks into thin shavings. It kind of reminded me of a smoothie or slushie, but colder, and you eat it with a spoon. Mine also had chunks of mango on top. The dessert basically solidified mango as one of my new favorite fruits.
Once dessert was done, we headed back. I kind of wish I could have filmed more, but that was my own fault.
I went to Jurong East to check out the shopping malls at the suggestion of my student buddy. There's apparently three big malls there, I toured two of them. The only things I bought were my lunch and some badges, but it was fun to look around. One of the stores, called Comic Connection or something like that, was even selling some cute Pokemon plushies and other anime merchandise. But the plushies were so expensive... None of them were very big, and the smallest were about S$17. The larger ones were about S$30. They had Pikachu, a bunch of starter Pokemon, Keldeo, and all the Eeveelutions except Espeon and Sylveon. No Clefairy, unfortunately... They probably don't even make Clefairy plushies though. I was tempted to buy the Keldeo or a Snivy or Turtwig, but the price drove me off.
Anyway, on my way back home I made the mistake of trying to find my way home from the Dover station instead of going to the Kent Ridge station and riding a shuttle from there. I got so terribly lost that I was wandering around for well over an hour. I eventually did find my way back with the help of a map, but I was completely exhausted when I finally reached my room. I was so tired that I'm actually writing this the morning after that little adventure. I suppose getting lost is only natural when you're in a new and unfamiliar place, but it was not fun.
I went to Little India with the same group of international students from the other day. Boy, it was a long day. First, we visited a Hindu temple which was practically covered from head to toe with carvings of dozens of Hindu gods. We had to remove our shoes before we could enter. I think it's because shoes are considered dirty in many Eastern cultures, and the temple is a sacred place that shouldn't be sullied by the dirt outside. Anyways, I saw little Hindu children with shaved heads running about and playing, and the adults were performs prayers, rituals, and offerings. One of these offerings involved brushing your hand incredibly close to a flame. I get nervous around heat and fire, so I'd never be able to do that.
Next, we stopped at a fruit stand and bought some coconuts. These don't look anything like the ones you buy in the U.S. They're large, green, and smooth. The people at the stand use giant knives to cut a hole in the top of the coconut and then give you some straws to drink the milk inside. Despite the name, coconut milk (at least in these coconuts) is clear. I didn't like it; I found it too sweet. After you're done drinking the milk, the people at the stand with break the coconut apart so you can eat the flesh. I liked the flesh of the coconut more than the milk, but I found it a bit slimy.
We walked around for a little while, stopped by a mall for a bit, and then visited a mosque. A new member of our group, a young man from Pakistan, explained how the mosque works. We couldn't go inside, but I was able to fit my camera through the gate bars and see a bit of what was going on. There were only men in there; women are not obligated to pray at a mosque. Like at the Hindu temple, people have to take off their shoes before they can go inside. Next stop was lunch. We went to an Indian restaurant in order to try some traditional Indian fare. Now, in Indian homes you eat everything (even rice) with your fingers, but we had some plastic utensils to use. The only thing we ordered that I liked was the bread, especially the garlic naan bread. Everything else was too spicy for me.
With lunch down, we next headed to a marketplace. There were all sorts of things here, from clothes to fruit to meat. There was a "wet market" here, which is kind of like a farmer's market, but meat and fish are sold instead of fruits and vegetables. There's ice to keep everything cold, hence the name "wet market". The U.S. Food and Drug Administration would never allow something like that in the U.S., so it was interesting to see. It was pretty smelly from all the fish, though. While here, we tasted some local fruits. There was a type of mango that looks a lot like the Magost Berries from Pokemon. It tasted a lot like peach to me, so I liked it. I wasn't too fond of the other two fruits we tasted.
The last major place we visited was selling some Indian sweets and other things. Here, I bought a pashmina shawl and a new bag because my purse is a bit too small to hold a water bottle (which is basically a necessity in Singapore). Pashmina is known as cashmere in the states, and the shawl I got was apparently handmade by the seller's father. Of course, there's always the chance I was duped, but the shawl was just so beautiful and so soft that I was completely won over. I figured I could wear it if I got cold in class.
It was a long and tiring day, but I had a good time. I'm looking forward to more trips in the future!
