Puts the Super in Supermarket!

Hello, dear readers!

Well, I did not go to Malaysia this weekend, as I thought about, so sorry about that. It's probably really good that I am doing this blog, because I feel this pressure to do cool things in order to have something to blog about. Because "sat in my room watching Moulin Rouge on my laptop...again" is not a good blogpost (although full disclosure-tonight I did just that. Is there a sexier date on a Friday night than a singing Ewan MacGregor? I submit not.)

Big news-I am going to Hong Kong next weekend! Yay! My friend Priya wanted to go, and I just joined on to her trip. It's interesting being here alone (as in, no one from Georgetown here besides me) because every group is going on one or two trips this semester. Since I do not have a "home" group, per se, I just go on everyone's trips! It is pretty cool. I just talked to my best buddy Tally, and she made me think about how lucky I am to be here. It's true-I feel like I won the lottery. I wish that every last-semester 3L had an opportunity like this. I have been making the most of it, so I feel proud of me for doing that, but it's hard not to make the most of it when everything is so incredible. So, to Georgetown Law, my parents, and everyone who made it possible for me to come on this trip-thank you all from the bottom of my heart. It's everything I hoped it would be and more.

Yesterday and today I was in Little India. A bit of Singapore history here-there are four main ethnic groups here, Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Caucasian. When Sir Raffles (the founder of modern-day Singapore) arrived in the 1800s, he segregated the different peoples into different quadrants of the city. This used to be the subject of considerable fuss, because it looks an awful lot like segregation, but nowadays it's less wealth-based and more like people have little enclaves where they can be proud of their heritage and traditions. "Racial harmony" is a big deal here, and I have to say the brochures are actually accurate. Everyone is so proud to be Chinese or Malay or Indian, but more than that, everyone is proud to be Singaporean. There's a lot of trouble in a lot of Southeast Asian countries, and Singaporeans count themselves lucky to be safe and prosperous. It's very cool.

So, Little India is the Indian area (I bet you never would have guessed that, huh?). It was blistering hot as I set off there today. The good news is that the rainy season seems to be over. The bad news is that it is ridiculously hot. I've been drinking a lot of Slurpees lately, because they're only a dollar and 7-11s are everywhere. Seriously they're on every block! They're sort of a hub of modern commerce-you can pay bills, charge your phones, get a bus pass, all at 7-11. There are elaborate directions on how to fill your slurpee cups, and I'm thinking, "listen, I'm not sure if you noticed but I am American. I come from the land of the free, home of the brave and Slurpees are my birthright. I do not need fancy directions, thankyouverymuch!" It makes me chuckle when I see them.

The first thing you see when you get off the MRT is the Sultan Mosque. It is very, very big and impressive. Right when I arrived, the call to prayer was starting. It gets broadcasted on very large speakers. It was very cool to hear the chanting, rhythmic and otherworldly to my ears. It's very soothing and beautiful. As I walked past the mosque, I passed a cafe where Frank Sinatra was crooning out of their speakers. What a wild, wonderful, weird place this is!

As I ambled around the area, I realized that, unlike Chinatown, there is not a ton to see here. I am used to attacking cities with checklists, armed to seek out, photograph, and move on, but in Little India that is not really the point. What you're supposed to do in Little India is just be-see and smell and hear.

My first experience with Little India was actually yesterday. It was the Hindu festival of Thaipusam, which is the birthday of the god Murugan, or commemorating something else (there's a bit of miscommunication somewhere-people I spoke to are split over what the festival is for.) What the festival is for is not nearly as interesting as what people do during the festival. Men make giant kavadis, which look like a cross between metal birdcages and something out of Julie Taymor's Lion King. They are covered in peacock feathers and supported, get this, by metal spokes, which are inserted into the skin of the man carrying them. It's this self-mutilation ritual that the men do (carrying the kavadi) to dedicate themselves to a god. For instance, if a man's son was sick, a man could pray for healing by dedicating the carrying of a kavadi to the healing god. I realize that my explanation sounds a bit weird, and that's because I am woefully uneducated about Hindu religion. I asked a ton of questions, though, so I am learning. It is just so neat to see the men lined up carrying these huge things. They do a kind of dance as they walk, and although they must be in a lot of pain, the mood is very festive. It was something that I could have NEVER seen at home, and I felt lucky that I got to witness it. It was really different, and therefore thrilling.

Afterwards, I had Indian food with my new friends, which was cool. I had only had Indian food twice, and it had gone very badly for me in the past. Since these gals were Indian, though, they could tell me what to try and what to avoid. I actually enjoyed it! I had masala tea, which tasted like pumpkin pie in a cup and was delicious. I made sure to get some tea bags today at the grocery store.

Speaking of which-the grocery store in Little India, Mustafa Center, is...there are no words. It's a 24-hour grocery store/department store. It's multi-story and ridiculous. Like really, really ridiculous. There are so many people and just about anything you could ever want. Remember that old tv gameshow, supermarket sweep? I felt like I was on supermarket sweep in Hell. There were twelve aisles of cookies! I felt like the things I needed were nowhere near each other, and the store was not logically arranged at all, and it was just incredibly frustrating. At Cold Storage, where I usually shop, if I can't find something, I just assume that they don't have it. Here, I KNEW they had to have it (because they had EVERYTHING from EVERY country!), it was just not where I thought it would be. I ended up spending way too long in there. It was very dangerous. Plus, although they had Dr. Pepper, they did not have Diet Dr. Pepper. When I spied the Dr. Pepper across the store, my heart started beating faster, like it does in anticipation of a kiss. It was a visceral reaction to the possibility of D.D.P., and I was more than a little bit embarrassed (although not too embarrassed to keep it out of my blog, of course).

I did break down and get a toaster. Lisa had been talking about wanting one, and I discovered that I really wanted one, too. Tom and I ate a lot of toast (when I mentioned this to him, he said he didn't think we had a lot of toast, but I didn't really have it before we started dating) and I associate it with peace. Like, a nice piece of toast with butter and a cup of tea after a long day...yummmmm. I just tested it out, and boy, it was worth every cent of the $12 I paid for it! No matter how much I love Singapore, sometimes there's just no substitute for the sweet creature comforts of home.

That's it for me, everyone. Until next time, sionara, suckers! Love you all!