I know it’s been a few days..

But trust me, it’s been busy. Thursday we spent the day at home and cooked and enjoyed a thanksgiving like meal to celebrate the New Year.
Friday, we went on a hippo tour, which is a tour on double decker bus, around the city. After, we went on the Flyer, which is the tallest wheel on the world, and took many pictures. We then split up. All of the females went to a place called ‘High Tea’ and the males went off on their own. There we were served teas from around the world and had quite the selection of desserts and food. The desserts ranged from chocolate mousse and truffles to mini cupcakes and cheesecakes to fruit and chocolate dipping. They were all amazing and the food was too. The food ranged from vegetable lasagne and scones to mini sandwiches and build your own salad type deal. We were there for several hours so we were able to try mostly everything at least once. Once we were finished there we all met up again at the Marina Bay Sands Hotel and took the trio up the very top. There we had the perfect view of the whole city and its skyline. It was absolutely breathtaking. I cannot wait to post pictures of that incredible view. After watching the sunset and enjoying the night sky there, we ended up using the MRT system to go to the Little India district. We went to a upscale Indian restaurant called ‘The Bananaleaf Apolo’ or just commonly referred to as ‘Bananaleaf.’ We were served common Indian food like curry and butter chicken and rice with non, which is like a pancake and very similar to pradah, which we had earlier this week. There were many other substances like pastes and dips and potatoes which were all served on our plates, which were actually banana leaves. Andrew, the son of the couple we are staying with, taught us how to properly eat Indian food. (With our hands.)
Let’s see….hm…Saturday…we took a bus to Jem, which is a mall by the Jurong East MRT station. We were there for a couple hours, looking around and such. Mariah and I found a bakery there that was so good (and cheap!! !) that we decided that we would probably go there after school sometime to get dinner. (We also found octopus tentacles in a sushi shop but that’s a story for a mother day.)
We went to the grocery store which was on the basement floor of the mall before walking back to the apartment. We were there for an about half an hour before we took the hour long MRT ride to Clarke Quay where we at at Brewerkz, which is a brewery. They also had really great food and the views were spectacular. We had the perfect seating to admire the Gardens by the Bay and we even saw a drum corps team perform and gondola boats go by as we ate. Of course we were all exhausted on the way home but…it was definitely worth it.
Sunday we attended our new church for the first time. It’s walking distance to Chinatown and is located on the top floor of a mall. It was very similar to the church I attend back in the states so I was pretty comfortable. Before the service started, they served a type of hot chocolate Valle Milo, pastries like pineapple tarts, cookies, and coffee. After we tried Milo and the tarts, we made our way into the sanctuary where a deacon led us through the beginning part of the service. We worshipped with the praise band and listened to a couples testimony. The preacher, who is from South Africa, came up and gave a sermon on looking at the bigger picture and bringing in the new year. After he was finished we took communion and left. We walked to Chinatown and looked at a lot of the shops they had there as well as ate a authentic Chinese restaurant. ( I bought a of gifts there for people back home! )
We also walked to a Hindu temple and explored it. Pictures inside the temple were forbidden. However, I remember a lot of it.
It was an open courtyard with side buildings that were shrines and statues and murals decorated them, depicting scenes from the mythology and just their gods and goddesses alone. There were a lot of parts marked off that we couldn’t go into and since we had to take our shoes off before entering, the sun on the hot ground made it too hard anyway. There was on large statue laying down on platform that was very interesting and I saw a couple of women go up to it and perform some kind of ceremony before leaving. I honestly wish I knew more about Hindu mythology and culture to really appreciate this temple. Meredith said this temple was one of the less active ones and that we could go to a different one to see monks and ceremonies and such.
We also visited a Buddhist temple. This is on is actually quite famous in Asia because it is said to have a piece of Buddhas tooth on the third or fourth floor. However we didn’t make it that far in. Like at the Hindu temple we were expected to take our shoes off before entering, here we were expected to have our shoulders and our thighs covered. They gave me a shawl and a skirt apron thing to wrap around my legs before entering. It was crowed and busy but remarkable. The detail in ever statue, the low humming and singing in the background, the incense and canes floating about. It was a very beautiful scene.
After we left the temple, we actually got to watch elderly men in the courtyard play chess and mahjong. It was very intense and you could tell they took it very seriously. Crowds of people surrounded each game.
After, we walked through the wet market and then spent our evening at home.