Toneless, Singapore, Home

Friday's class was a bit rough for me. Normally I can hear other people's mistakes (and sometimes try to help them understand). But this time, it was me making a mistake and I just couldn't hear it. I could understand the teacher's explanation but didn't think she really gave me enough detail to understand how to fix it. The drill was to say everyone's name. Their Chinese name. Maria's is Guo1 Li4 Shan1. And try as I might to get the 4th tone, Zhang Lao Shi kept saying I was doing 3rd tone! Aye-ya! It was incredibly frustrating. One is because I couldn't hear it - I swear I was doing 4th tone. If I said it slow enough I could get it, but who takes 5 seconds to say a person's name? When I tried to speed it up Zhang Lao Shi said I was changing it to 3rd tone. She made me say it at least 20 times, of which 18 times was wrong. The other frustrating part is that I always thought 1st and 4th tones were easy - it was 2nd tone that's hard. Now I go messing up one of the 'easy' tones. It's hard to write about tone experiences - I really need some audio recordings.

Anyways, other than that, class was ok. The other Japanese girl didn't show up -- but I had seen her downstairs before class, so I don't think she was sick - she must have switched classes. Then another Asian American girl came in, but left after half the class. So it looks like it might just be the 5 of us: Luo2 Ke4 Rei4, Guo1 Li4 Shan1, He2 Kai3 Nian2, He2 Pei Qi, and me.

I rushed off after class to catch my flight to Singapore on JetStar. They didn't give me any trouble about my luggage - the website says limit of one carry on item limited to 7 kg. I was truly borderline and had my laptop in a separate bag, and they let me take both without even checking. It wasn't a full flight by any means and I had a full row to myself, which was nice to lie down in.

We got to Singapore about 20 minutes ahead of schedule. I got through immigration in just minutes and then caught the last MRT into downtown. I met Shaykat at his hotel just off Orchard. Very posh. So different from my last visit with Christina and Indhu staying at a hostel. We caught up a bit (I arrived after midnight) and then got a bit of sleep before needing to get to the field by 7:15!

When we woke it was raining and surprisingly cold with the breeze. Everyone sat under tents waiting to see if the lightning was enough to call off the games. Luckily there wasn't any thunder and so we were safe to play. Games in Singapore rain mean lots of turnovers and lots of mud. I'm glad it was raining Saturday b/c today the sun was coming full force and I felt like a roasting chicken.

Roberto, whom I had met in March at the BKK hat tourney, hooked me up with his Hong Kong friends so I could play with them (the Taipei renegade team didn't put in a bid - though the Chinese Taiwan team did). Bummer for Roberto he hurt his shoulder so we didn't get to play together again. But the mixed team I was on had a great captain (Tim) and some really fun players. It was a nice experience to play a team tournament in Asia.

Saturday night Shaykat and I checked out Chinatown so I could get a cha siu bao and he could get har kau (prawn dumplings). We stopped by Jing Jing Cafe, where Christina and I had enjoyed amazing desserts last time - but it had turned into a Huo3 Guo1 place! Gone was the 100 selection dessert menu. I was so disappointed. Next to seeing Shaykat and playing ultimate, that restaurant was probably the number 3 reason for me to go to Singapore. Aye ya!

One complaint about the tournament: not enough food or water. Perhaps I've been spoiled by North American tourneys with the abundance of bagels, cream cheese, animal crackers, and fruit throughout the day. And I know that I've been spoiled by the BKK hat, with their fresh cut pineapple, watermelon and other tropical fruits (not to mention sideline massage pads). But I was expecting a little more from the Singapore Open - like some breakfast and lunch and more water! Especially in this heat. To their credit, we did get a free disc, towel, dinner and drinks. And it was pretty awesome to get that many teams in one place. Talking to the HK folks, field space is at a premium there, and so the HK tourney next month will only be able to field 12 teams...not the 27 teams that came to the Open this time.

Another highlight of the tourney was seeing a bunch of people I had met earlier in the year while traveling - including some Vietnam folks (Jeigh, Anne and Lester) and some Hat folks (Dan, Rachel, and Jeff). And of course, I met a bunch of new people, including the Perth folks that Shaykat picked up with. A lot of people have spent time in Taiwan and knew some of the people that I met at pickup 2 weeks ago. One guy even said that Mikey (one of the nicest guys I've met in Taipei ultimate) taught him how to play the game years ago.

I left the fields early to catch my flight back. I did a basic rinse of the mud off my legs and arms, but I'm afraid I still smelled something awful. I didn't really notice it myself until I woke up after napping on the plane - then the smell of mud and other icky bits really hit me strong. I can only imagine how miserable my row partner must have been. But that's ok, because she stretched out and touched me with her feet - I'm going to call it even. Oh, on the Singapore end, JetStar made me check in my bag (which weighed in at 8.9 kg with my laptop in it).

Returning to Taipei was like a breath of fresh air - or really, of refreshingly cool air. I think it was good to go to Singapore just so I could feel like it wasn't so hot here. The humidity in Singapore is much worse - it feels good to be home.




Erica, Nicky, Frances, Emiko, Elaine, Wilkie, Jin, Barnaby, Nicole, Bay, Stephan
Missing: Jake, Rob and Ryan, Becca

Christina's pictures

I know this blog has been seriously devoid of pictures - luckily Christina went home last week and has since uploaded highlights of Singapore and Malaysia (I joined for the second part of her trip - starting at the KL Tower pictures). More will come eventually!

Addendum
Wow, I never really blogged about anything in Singapore. We were only there a short time. Enough to see some of the fireworks. But my view of the prep in the water was better than that of them in the air going off. Christina and I probably spent more time preparing for Australia than we did seeing Singapore.

We also went to the zoo and saw lots of cute animals...



You could buy ice cream from street carts with options for wafer sheets or sandwich bread!

Singapore - Take 2

So I ended up taking a 2 hour Colonial Tour of Singapore, which was nice. The guide was highly entertaining and informative. Basically showing some historical aspects of the city center around the river and encouraging us to shop shop shop, as there are quite a few malls, all interconnected underground, so if it does end up raining, you don't have to know it. It included a short boat ride on the river, just before it started to drizzle. He pointed out some statues (the famous lion-fish and some kids jumping in), private housing vs government housing, and gave us tips on our short stays in the city.

I flew on to Kuala Lumpur - I managed to sleep briefly on the short flight. The KLIA Ekspres from the airport directly to KL Sentral was amazingly fast and convenient (for 35 RM). I got a budget taxi to Christina's roomate's (Indhu)'s grandparents (further hereby known as grandpa and grandma). I'm not sure where they live relative to the city, but according to one other friend it was 'old posh' - as in, they moved there in the 60's and it was now an extremely nice and expensive place to be. Grandpa absolutely amazed me. He was born in Tamil Nadu but raised in Malaysia. Indhu's dad was born in Bangalore and met her mom (Grandpa's daughter) and they raised Indhu in the states. It was an interesting mixture of culture and countries. It was an easy transition into the household having just come from South India - I had some sambar for dinner, along with pickled mangos. The change was in a bread-upma - an invention of grandma's that was one of Indhu's favorites as a kid. Grandpa shared a lot of his thoughts on religion, politics, healthy living as well as a healthy dose of his sense of humor. Grandma was very caring and thoughtful. At the age of 84, they were surprisingly active and still able to drive around the city. Christina found Grandpa's driving a bit rash, but coming from India buses and auto rickshaws, it seemed fine to me.

I also met Christina's high school friend, Hani, who is Muslim. She and Tarik shared their wedding album - a mostly traditional Muslim wedding. Quite different from the albums I saw of the Hindu weddings from India. Everything was beautiful and they explained the traditions and where they broke from tradition (Hani sat in to watch her to-be accept her father's giving of the daughter). Hani's mother had also just recently gotten a new job and therefore at the last minute had to invite quite a few more guests, including a sultan. Unfortunately, he couldn't make it but sent his son instead. Given his importance, when he was present, he was sitting between Hani and Tarik in all the pictures taking on center attention. I shared a nice dinner with them at Little Penang in the Petronas Towers mall - I forget the name of my dish but it was a traditional Malaysian dish - with noodles and spicy fish sauce.

Later I also met a family friend of Indhu's - Lavinia - who treated us to an amazing lunch - a typical Malaysian (?) breakfast/brunch, made of rice, tofu, veggie-chicken (everyone is vegetarian), eggs, toasted peanuts, an incredibly tasty spicy sauce (what was in it? I need to find out), fried potato strips, fresh cucumbers, and maybe a few other items.

ok, onwards to the next activity. more later.

In transit in Singapore

Checking in with my 15 minutes of free internet access at Singapore airport. I had a lovely flight on Singapore Airlines - my first time on 5 star service - and it was excellent. Too bad it wasn't a longer flight. This airport is pretty posh - with a free movie theatre and free 2 hour tour of the city for passengers in transit. I have a 9 hour wait between flights and I think I will either get my 8 hours of sleep here, get sucked into a movie, or take a city tour. I'm still hoping to hop into chinatown to get some dumplings for lunch, but after the filling plane dinner, I'm not so keen on the hunt for food anymore.