Arrival

I arrived in Singapore early this morning (I am 12 hours ahead of Boston time) at around 1:30 a.m. on Monday, July 12. It has been a long day. I was tempted to join the throngs of supporters I saw walking to bars to watch the World Cup final when I arrived at my hotel, but watching from my hotel room seemed to make more sense since the game started at 2:30 a.m. local time and I had just completed 30 hours of travel.

It made sense that the Netherlands tried to intimidate the ball-control-happy squad from Spain, but I thought they took it too far with all of those fouls. Actually, with the exception of maybe four close-calls before the game-winner, I thought the match was dull. Both teams played tight (except for the two goaltenders, who both played well and stopped what I thought we sure goals) and the game play was choppy and sloppy, with numerous stoppages of play for the English ref to give Holland yellow cards and for players to receive unneeded medical attention for nicks and bruises. The Netherlands had at least two golden opportunities and blew them, so they did not deserve to win. However, that was one of the more boring soccer matches that I’ve ever witnessed.

Enough about soccer. I am writing this post from an internet cafe a few blocks from my hotel. I chose not to bring a laptop because I will be travelling around SE Asia for a few weeks after my conference/convention/school visits here in Singapore, and I did not want to lug it around of leave it behind. I did bring my iPod Touch, and the hotel has free Wi-Fi, but curiously, it only works on the first six floors. I am on the 7th floor. I was able to use it last night, but not this morning. Apparently, the signal penetrates more of the building at night.

I got a few hours of sleep last night after the game, but I did not want to sleep for too long and get on a bad sleep schedule. I remember two summers ago it took me a few days to get used to the time difference after arriving in Beijing, and part of the problem was that I slept too late initially. As a result, I am tired now, and it’s 8:30 p.m., but this is good, as I should get a full night’s sleep tonight and then be well rested for Tuesday.

I spent the past few hours exploring Singapore’s Chinatown, which is quite large. Singapore’s is a melting pot of ethnicities from the region, including Chinese, Malaysian, Indian, and many more. I left my hotel, which is in the Heritage District (according to my Knopf Mapguide) and took the subway to the nearby business district, which borders Chinatown. I could have walked the whole way in about 30 minutes, but I wanted to check out the subway system and buy a pass. It turns out they don’t see all-inclusive weekly or bi-weekly passes, so I bought a refillable card with ten Sinaporean dollars (the conversion rate is roughly $1 = 1.35 Singaporean dollars) of credit on it. It amazed me that the entire station was air conditioned, and like everywhere else in Singapore, spotless.

Chinatown was full of markets and restaurants and I ate at the Maxwell Food Market, which is three rows of outdoor food stalls.

Maxwell Hawker Center in Chinatown

One of the “hawkers,” Tian Tian, supposedly has the best rice chicken in Singapore, but it was closed so I asked the kind proprietors of the fruit stand where I bought a strawberry-banana milk what the next best option was. I ended up getting rice chicken at a nearby stall, and it was good. I had overslept breakfast, so it was nice to eat again.. The man at the fruit stand told me to make sure I tried a fried banana from a stall around the corner. He said what made it great was what they fried it in. I was intrigued. The banana fritter was quite good with a lightly fried golden shell and a creamy inside. I think the secret ingredient was a lot of butter. A mango and kiwi shake later I was roaming the street markets of Chinatown, and I nearly stopped to get a few gifts for people, but there will be time for that. I stumbled upon two older men with a crowd of even older men around them. They were playing some sort of game like checkers. The older men were oohing and ahhing and whispering strategic plans to one another after each move. I would have stayed to watch how it ended, but everyone was smoking, and I couldn’t take the smell.

I walked back to my hotel along a bridge road that crosses a river, and the views were nice. There was some sort of spaceship-looking thing in the distance on top of three separate towers.

Strange Building in the Distance -- It's a hotel and casino!

It looked like you could take an elevator to the top of the building on the far right, enter the spaceship, and walk across the structure until you reach the top of the building on the far left. Fascinating. I’ll have to get a closer look at that, and possibly go to the top of it.

So far my impressions of Singapore are that it is hot and humid, full of tall buildings, and it almost seems like a model city that isn’t real. There are many cars on the roads, but there is little traffic. There are many people around, but there are wide sidewalks and lots of open space, so it does not feel crowded. There are many towers, and much constructions ongoing. All of the cars are new and nice. The streets and sidewalks are spotless. The few people I have spoken to thus far have been extremely friendly. I am looking forward to every meal here. Tomorrow, there is an opening reception after registration for the conference, so I am not sure about my dinner plans yet, but I am looking forward to exploring Little India, which is just north of my hotel (Chinatown is due south).

Tomorrow I plan to go for a run along the river all the way to the harbor. The registration for the 5OSME conferenceand convention is at 5 p.m., so I’ll have more time to explore. I received the schedule for the origami folding convention on Friday and Saturday this morning. The classes range in difficulty level from simple to complex, but there is only one “simple” class offered: “Simple Box.” I think I’ll stick to mostly “lower intermediate” classes and hope I am not left in the other’s dust. At first glance, I may attend classes entitled, “Rat,” “Blue Whale,” “Cube and Octahedron,” “Modular Brick,” “Starburst Ornament,” and “Four Wheeler.”

Before the folding convention, there will be two days of the 5OSME conference, where I will attend workshops linking origami to education and math (see my prior post).

It’s approaching 9 p.m., and I want to have a full day tomorrow (and not miss breakfast), so I will sign off. I look forward to sharing my day tomorrow with you.