A For Alex

All homecooked goodness… Fruit Corn on the boil, Mangoes, Yesterday’s lunch of mushroom sandwich and Alex’s Apple Pie.

It’s getting cold here in Wuhan… Typical of the weather here, the temperatures just suddenly posted a drop from the nice cool weather we had been enjoying here for about a month. It’s about 7 degrees during the day now and I guess the worst part is that it’s raining so it makes you wet and gets everything else wet at the same time. We were standing along the road by the East Lake yesterday and I couldn’t tell if the water droplets landing on my face fell from the sky, bounced up from the road or flew over from the lake. All equally gross prospects. This is where a scarf comes in handy.

We went to Show Cafe yet again, which is this nicely decorated cafe near the main gate of the university. Just when I despaired of ever finding somewhere nice to chill in Wuhan, Alex brings us to this place and yeah, it’s become a regular hangout. The food isn’t too bad…(28yuan for a set dinner including soup, salad, chicken filet, dessert and a cup of ‘wine’) but what we’re really there for are the couches! It’s nice to just chill and talk there. I’ll miss that when I go back to Singapore; the accessibility of friends (all my intl friends are 5 min walk from me) and the luxury of time to just relax.

What’s coming up in the week ahead are… a sushi eating competition tomorrow with Masa and Shogo (from Japan… Shogo knows only a little English so it’s hilarious when out of nowhere he shouts, "Fu*king japs!"), Hanum (Korea) and the usual Americans and Dane. The same Huang Shan group will be going to Guilin as well on Monday night (train ride! and karst peaks and cycling and rice terraces!)… will definitely be fun and I’ll come back with plenty of photos.

Also, I went through this period where I was getting worried about the job situation, but I released everything into God’s hands and stopped worrying. But He is good, He brought a phone interview my way on Monday..

I’m being a selfish ninny but I can’t help feeling some level of dismay when I read that Canele will be opening a branch in Orchard. I know there are plenty of good things that result from its increased accessibility: more people will know about it, give it more business, it does well, stays in business longer. But at the same time, that certain illusion of exclusivity dissipates with its move to Orchard Road. It’s no longer this great little place I have up my sleeve to whip out when people don’t know where to go for desserts, I can’t astound anyone with my knowledge of little eateries if they are right smack in Orchard. The irony is that I found out about these places through websites and magazines anyway so there wasn’t any exclusivity to begin with.

I want to find great, unspoiled places off the beaten track that other tourists know nothing about when I travel, I guess the same applies when I eat.

I know good things are meant to be shared but well, can’t help wanting to keep some good things to myself. Haha.

Sanctity: We need to find a place of our own!!

Argh. All that slacking earlier this term has culminated in this: 3 individual theses; 2 in Mandarin, 1 thankfully in English. I’ve started on one already… and I’m praying for supernatural filifala Chinese abilities to see me through! I’ve never written a Chinese essay 4000 words long. But it’s a challenge and in some weird way, I’m looking forward to it.

… that people can sleep with a stranger and yet only hold hands with people they care about?

It was a really, really long weekend filled with curious Chinese people, endless amounts of muah chee, peanuts and bak kut teh, ji gu pa and very little sleep. We had the International Cultural Festival over the weekend and boy, it winded most of the foreign students. Singapore was represented with a booth manned by three very tired Singaporeans but I think we did good despite the hiccups along the way and people enjoyed it.

I was in charge of the muah chee given out free to people who stopped by and I can say my little muah chee spiel on command. “这是我们本地的小吃，叫做麻薯或是muahchee。这个小吃是用糯米粉做的，加花生和糖。”Sorry to everyone who doesn’t have Chinese software. But yeah. It’s fun making muah chee once, but once you dug up your 349th piece of muah chee and said that pre-recorded voice message yet again, it’s rather tiring. But at least pretty much everyone who ate it liked it. I like that we gave it out free, rather than charge for it like some of the other more entrepreneurial countries.

I put my ambassadorial skills to good use by giving a ‘tour’ of the different aspects of Singapore using the photos around the booth. It started innocently enough with an introduction to Deborah and Jun about Singaporean food and morphed into 1.5hours of non-stop talking and fielding questions with the Chinese crowd that came by. Heh.

Sunday was the same thing again, exceptwhen we ran out of muah chee, we played ji gu pa to give away the goodies that STB had sent to us. That was draining but at least that it was fun. The Chinese people felt that the game “很有意思” haha.

All in all I’m glad for the experience and for the chance to correct the notion that Singapore is just a police state. Heh.

1. Shell peanut
2. Skin peanut
3. Grind peanut using mini mortar
4. Add sugar
5. Repeat ad infinitum, or at least until 4.5kg of nuts are done.

but because I’m empowered to be.

I’m not principled, honest, patient, full of faith, kind because I have it in my nature. The experiences over the past weeks have shown me that my confidence in displaying these qualities should not come from what I think I naturally am, or what people tell me I am but rather, I’m all these things that are good, that are desirable because the Holy Spirit lives in me, and He empowers me to be all these things and more. Amen!

There’s a International Cultural Festival coming up this weekend in WuDa and we Singaporeans have been gearing up with preparations. I’ve been tasked to make muah chee tomorrow as a dry run for the actual event… I’m also in charge of the photograph display, in which my shot of Tian Tian Chicken Rice is going to be blown up to A4!

My US friends have a stall called "America - The Booth!" and they are gonna be serving apple pie. Alex and Debra came over to my place on Saturday to dry run their apple pie. Alex was using the recipe that his grandmother taught him and while it was very yummy, the rest of us felt that a crust that used some butter would taste better (you know, betty bought some butter to make her batter better? If it works for Betty, it sure works for me) and so, this resulted in a bet/challenge - would pie crust taste better with butter? We ended baking a second pie after dinner and we only finished washing up at 1am. Haha. While the buttery pie crust could be improved, I think that it tastes better than Alex’s version. But since it’s his stall, and he wouldn’t have his grandmother’s blessings otherwise, without butter it shall be.

I’ve been hunting for photos to display at our Singapore booth for the cultural festival coming up soon; all part of an effort to correct the widespread notion that Singapore is a police state. The most extreme opinion that I’ve heard so far is that an alarm rings with litter falls to the ground. And while I laughed hard at the time, it makes me think that Singapore needs to do a whole lot more besides just exerting its "uniqueness" in order to make people come and visit.

Honestly, I don’t think that Singapore really has a whole lot of worthwhile attractions, certainly not enough to justify more than a few days’ stay. But, with a local to take you around, it can potentially be fun and you’ll definitely be full going around.

PS: I heard that Singapore is considering banning smoking altogether… is that true??