What more can I say about this amazing place but delicious meals and tasty desserts… Casual, efficient and nostalgic. This place seems to have magnets that pull you in. The busier hawker centers seem to be always packed with people yet the stall owners deliver their fresh hot foods with absolute efficiency. It’s something about this place that makes you come back again and again (the price perhaps), but to me it’s a place of memories with family and friends…the family dinners or just a lunch that blends into an afternoon-long chat. I’ll leave the food part for future posts =)

My most frequented hawker centers:

1. Blk 726, West Coast, Clementi
2. Blk 448, Clementi Central
3. Seah Im Road Food Center, Harbourfront
4. Blk 69, Geylang Bahru

My most memorable hawker centers:

1. Blk 726, West Coast, Clementi
2. Blk 207, Bedok Interchange
3. Blk 270, Albert Center, Bugis
4. Tekka Center, Little India

Whether in Vancouver or in Singapore, there’s always loads of laundry to be done.  I’ve never really been involved with the laundry before other than contributing clothes, loading or unloading the machines, and carrying the basket.

So I washed my own clothes for the first time when I lived in Sheares Hall (one of the many things I learnt if I hadn’t learnt any in school).  There it was, the laundry room down on the dingey ground floor of our 7-storey building, with 7 washers and 4 driers.  First thing I noticed, they are free of charge, now where else in the world can you find this!  But beyond that I was quite lost.  I didn’t really know where to put the detergent, or what detergent to get as a matter of fact.  Some seniors advised me on this and told me to get softener as well (I thought about it but ended up not getting down to it so my clothes went without softener for 10 months).  The washers were slow. Very slow. Apparently the front-loading washers were slower than the top-loading ones.  But this was about 2 hours compared to about 40 minutes with the one at home.  Oh well, I guess I can always slee…I mean study while I wait.

Then there was the drying part.  This is the worse part.  First, you can’t leave your clothes wet in the washer for too long because it will start to smell after a few hours (no exact timing but sometimes you go into the laundry room having to hold your breath hoping it isn’t your clothes).  If you are lucky and no one is using the driers, you can transfer them onto the driers.  If not, you would wait again.  I never risked once hanging my clothes outside.  For one, the rain could hit while I am out and ruin the whole purpose.  Then there was the problem of the bird that would sit on the ledge for the fear of it doing its business on my clothes.  Finally, there’s always the risk of them blowing away.  So most of my laundry ended up shrinking, which didn’t matter anyway due to my body size.

Oh, and flicking your tees out straight before you dry them makes it less wrinkly to avoid ironing!

This is probably a lame post on weather phenomenon but…I really have to tell you about the two extreme types of rain:

Vancouver:

[Day 1] Getting cloudy…maybe it’ll rain soon.
[Day 2] Hmm…the skies really are getting very dark…oh, did I just feel a drizzle?
[Day 3 Morning] Oh my god…it’s raining…wanna sleep in and skip class!
[Day 4 Afternoon] It’s still raining…WTH
[Day 5 Evening] I think the rain is stopping…where’s the sun…?

Singapore:

[Hour 1] Sunny Singapore
[Hour 1.5] Ahhh my notes are flying away (wind picks up while studying outside)
[Hour 1.75] Here comes the downpour!!! Run for the nearest dry table.
[Hour 2] It’s over already?? I wish it lasted a bit longer to cool the air down more… =)

Picture of the National University of Singapore campus when it’s raining.  It probably was sunny just an hour ago and will be again soon.  The blue-top orange buses are the shuttle buses that take people around the campus.  Service not affected by weather.

Stay dry my friends…rainy season coming up in both cities!

You think Canada’s green and full of trees? True, but not in the cities. Singapore’s actually a lot greener inside the city. Okay, they planted the trees I know, but at least they are decent enough to provide shade and cool the city. And don’t you think these particular trees are such impressive plants? This is just one section of the East Coast Parkway from Changi Airport that the taxi I took drove through after I landed. What a great first impression!

Thinking back, this was to be one of the last sunsets I would see at home for a long time to come. Last May, I flew off into Asia for a year of life lessons, travel adventure, and food indulgence. I was leaving behind friends and family but I was excited for what was to come all the same. The feelings are always mixed when one leaves or arrives at a place, and this was no exception.

This is a blog dedicated to the memories of all my travelling experience during my year abroad in Singapore 2007-2008, to begin with.  As I have never been a very dedicated blogger, hopefully (this time) I will be able to get in 1 or 2 posts a week at the very least.  Perhaps the best way to approach this is by story telling.  I think a chronological approach would just become tedious and boring so I’ll just pick out random stories to tell.  Most importantly, any comments from anyone (but friends especially) will probably be my greatest motivation to continue.

Now let’s get started!