Sunday Church

Last Sunday we didn't go to church, so this week we decided to visit Singapore's largest mega-church, called City Harvest Church. [On the web at http://www.chc.org.sg/eng/index.php]

They offer 4 English services on a weekend. I read that they have 700 cell group leaders. We went Sunday at 10:00 for a two and a half hour service. The service was in an Exposition Hall that seated thousands, I don't know how many were there, but a lot. Everyone was very friendly, but we must have stuck out for sure. I had a hard time seeing anyone that looked like they were over 30. It was cool to think that Singapore has a whole young generation of lively Christians. I liked the music, but didn't know any of the choruses. The special speaker was a lady from Florida, Robin Harfouche, who is a charismatic type. Her life story involves being healed from being paralyzed 25 years ago. I think I would have preferred hearing a Singaporean preacher.

Not a good picture, but you can get an idea of how big it was.

After, we took the subway to a Muslim area of the city to have lunch and visit a famous mosque. I know that's bit weird, Christian church and a mosque all in the same day. As we were wandering aimlessly and trying to find an AIR CONDITIONED place to eat, 3 friendly and helpful ladies said "Follow us, we are going that way". I have been amazed at how nice people have been here to us 2 strangers, patient when we don't understand and willing to explain how things work. It makes me feel positive about the human race.


After we ate, we walked down the pedestrian only street towards the impressive Sultan Mosque. Visitors can only go in the first part, and you have to take off your shoes outside. Let me just say that I don't feel all that comfortable leaving my new sandals outside on the sidewalk. Will they be there when I get back? But they were.


By this time it was after 4:00, threatening to rain, and we were hot and tired. Just before we left, I bought a tablecloth from this lady right in front of the mosque. I really love all of the fabrics here (more about that later).

Little India

On Saturday when Jim was in class all day, I decided to visit Little India. First time on the subway-- I felt proud of myself for figuring it out. I had read about Tekka Market and it was amazing. The guide book said there would be hacked-apart-while-you-wait meat and scaled -on-demand fish, and it was all true.

Chopping up the goat meat with a cleaver

Which part of the chicken would you like to buy--the feet?


I never knew there were so many kinds of fish!

I spent several hours wandering through Little India. I think I may have overdone it in the heat. I caught a glimpse of myself in a mirror at one point and my face was really red. I thought people must be staring at me. You know you're hot when you stop at stores in which you have no interest in the product just because they have air conditioning or a great fan. But I had fun, did a little shopping (an outfit for Dorothee, of course) and ate lunch at a South Indian vegetarian place. Came home hot, tired, and with a blister on my big toe. I felt like I had been to India and back all in one day.

Flower garlands for sale (real flowers). They are used in weddings, but more often to put on statues of deities as prayer offerings.

A busy vegetable stand - some even look familiar.

Sentosa Island

For Jim's day off we planned a special overnight outing to Sentosa Island. It's only about a 15 minute drive to get there. The island is half rain forest (with possible wildlife) and the other half is developed land with all kinds of touristy things (Universal Studios is just opening, and a casino.) It also has a strip of beaches on the other side. It was nice to get out of the city and see lots of vegetation and trees. The only wildlife I saw was a wandering peacock. Our room had an ocean view, looking out on the south China Sea, with lots of ships sitting out there. Singapore's port is its greatest natural resource and source of income.



We spent some time looking around, but the main touristy thing we did was go to a night show on the beach called Songs of the Sea. For less than the price of a movie you get to see a half hour extravaganza with lights, music, laser show, flame bursts, water jets, fireworks--you name it, it was there. After the show we walked along the beach road and found a cool place to eat called the Wave House. While you are eating you can look out the window and watch young hip people practising their surfing skills. We didn't try it. We missed the last bus and had to take a taxi back to the hotel.



The next morning we relaxed in the infinity pool. It was an adults only pool with only 10 lounge chairs, very quiet. It even felt cool there. The water looked like it was flowing right over the side into the trees. Then it was time to come back to the mainland. The island getaway was over, but it was fun.

Happy Birthday, Gloria!

Well readers of the blog...

As many as you know Gloria had a birthday the day after her sister Darlene. So, she got birthday wishes from me just after the clock turned midnight on the 16th.

Being here in Singapore was enough of a birthday present, Gloria told me. But being such a great husband, I made sure she got a really nice present she wanted when we were out exploring in Singapore earlier today. Today means Sunday May 16th here in Singapore, of course, and the presenting of the gift took place at lunch after we went to church.

We were at a Middle Eastern restaurant near Arab Street and had a buffet lunch. Gloria wondered if they had tabbouleh salad. I told one of the waitresses about her wish on her birthday and this nice Muslim waitress brought her a free salad, complements of the restaurant.

I know...generous husband.

Cheers,

Jim

Happy Birthday, Darlene!

Just wanted to send out birthday greetings to my dear sister, Darlene, who is celebrating a special milestone birthday today (May 15). I hear she is having lots of birthday cakes and stretching out the fun. So if you see her, wish her a happy birthday.

Dressed for Chapel

I guess Jim already told you that we went to the weekly chapel and he spoke at it. Here is a photo of us dressed for chapel and standing in front of one of our many hotels.


With a total stay here of 15 nights, we have been in 5 different hotels! Length of stay has varied from 1 night to 6 nights. We are getting pretty good at packing up and moving on. We should write hotel reviews. I think we have become a joke around the school. You've heard of "Where's Waldo?" Well, here it's" Where's Jim and Gloria now?" This last hotel (six whole days- bliss!) may be the best one yet, not because it's the fanciest, but because of the great location. It is just down the street from the school, and it has lots of things in the area that you can easily walk to. Some of the other ones were a bit isolated.

Tomorrow I will tell you what we did when Jim had his day off. (Some good photos, too).

Chinese Steamboat Dinner

Our second dinner invitation was from Peh Cheng, another Dean at the school. She took us out for a Chinese Steamboat experience. That means that we each had a bubbling hot pot of flavoured soup that we cooked our food in. It is very much like a fondue, but instead of cooking in oil you are cooking in the soup which you can scoop out and eat later on when it has all the yummy flavour of the things you cooked in it. She explained that in a Chinese family there would probably be just one large pot, but here we each had our own.

The meal was really fun, the best part being that she took care of ordering everything and then explained what it was. Believe me, I was literally taking notes. Here is a picture of some of the vegetables that she ordered for us. See if you can identify any of them before I tell you what they were. Clue: no peas or carrots in sight.


The meats she ordered were thin slices of beef and pork, and prawns. The vegetables and other things were:
lotus roots (crunchy like a water chestnut)
dumpling
fish ball
vegetable ball
salmon ball
bean thread (very thin transparent noodles)
small dragon puff
white radish (you cook it too- she said that the Chinese don't eat a lot of raw vegetables)
Chinese winter melon (it's a vegetable, not a fruit)
kelp (seaweed)
sweet potato noodles
There were a few different sauces to dip things into, and dessert was fried banana chips, some other kind of fried soft dough ball, and watermelon cubes. I tried everything and enjoyed it all!



After we dropped Jim off for his evening class, she took me shopping. We went to a famous store in Little India called Mustafa Centre. It is open 24 hours a day and sells everything. It is large and rambling over 4 levels, a bit like Honest Ed's. I thought for sure we would never find our way back out. I made a purchase--some red Oriental looking place mats with matching chopsticks. We saw a crazy amount of spices and some wonderful fabrics. People are very much in to getting clothes custom made here. Peh Cheng was wearing a lovely blouse and she told me that her long time tailor had made it for her for less than $20.00. She also told me that the retirement age here is 62. Peh Cheng studied and worked in the USA for several years but wanted to come back to her native Singapore. We got along well, maybe because she started out years ago as an elementary school teacher.