Long time gone.
Friends,
It has been QUITE the summer. It is so hard to believe that this time a year ago I was adjusting to the 12-hour time difference and eating rice at least twice a day.
Some of you may have been wondering what I’ve been up to. AS YOU SHOULD BE. Life has been eventful, to say the least.
I spoke to the Rotary Club of Dunwoody a few months ago. It went swimmingly and it was so great to say thanks to people who were so supportive of me from the moment I thought about applying to this scholarship over two years ago. I am also helping in the formation of a Roteract club in my area (our first meeting is Monday…more details later).
But right now and for the past two months I have been working as the director of the leadership school at the summer camp I went to growing up. The school strives to instill not only leadership skills but also self-confidence in 16-17 years old girls. It has been a fabulous few months and meal times have been filled with girls sitting at my table asking for stories about my time abroad. I’ve told them about the python, diving in the great barrier reef, seeing the sunrise at Angkor Wat, and the year-long summer climate. One of their favorite stories is hearing about how strangers went about taking my picture when I was just walking down the street or touring a temple. They laugh for hours.
one of the many signs in camp
I would like to share a story with all of you that was on our local news last night. 11 Alive came and visited our camp a few days ago and took some footage about letter writing. It was such an exciting day for all of us. I know some of my friends in Singapore had all these questions about how an American sleep-away camp operates and hopefully this can shed some light on those questions.
Just click on the link and ENJOY!
Who says you can’t go home?
Ah yes. Some of you thought it was over, didn’t you? It’s ok. You can admit it to yourself. I’ll forgive you. After you “aww” at this picture.
My dog greeting me after 11 months of separation! It brings tears to your eyes, right?
I have been home for almost a week and I believe I am about to hit reverse culture shock. I will keep all of you posted.
I also am speaking at the Rotary Club of Dunwoody, tomorrow. I’m sure there will be a blog post about that as well. See, so much to look forward to!
To reward all of you for checking back to this page (I mean you, Netta!). I will include a video to illustrate the above photograph.
From sea to shining sea
Friends!
I leave the motherland for the homeland tomorrow. That’s right, in 24 hours I will be touching down in Atlanta. On the agenda: haircut, doctor and dentist appointments, walking my dog, dress fittings, laundry, attending a wedding and speaking at the Rotary Club of Dunwoody!
I will be seeing all of you very soon.
And roll credits…
I am about 2 hours from leaving for the airport.
As my classmates finish up the Valedictory Dinner, I can only reflect on what an incredible year it has been. A year filled friendship, cultural immersions, late-night discussions, travel, service, and reflection.
There is a special place in my heart for everyone here and one day I will tell my grandkids about the time I said “can la” to a taxi driver who laughed at me for the entire 20 minute ride or the time a dead fish stared at me while I ate it and I still swear it blinked and grinned at me.
So, in true Hollywood fashion, we let the credits roll.
“Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.” -Dr. Seuss
HAPPY EASTER!
I hugged a giant egg.
And ate brunch, after church.
With Crystal!
We know we look exhausted. ‘Tis the finals season.
But before finals reared their ominous head, we had a class dinner.
And the boys suited up. They clean up so well. Too bad I can't say the same for this image quality.
It was also my last week. But that requires a post of its own. Kaya cake was involved. And we all know how I feel about the kaya. I must do it justice.
This is me making promises of more posts after my second final on wednesday. Assuming I survive this final.
things are a changin’
Friends,
I have been quite skimpy on the posts recently. Although my excuses can in no way make up for the incredible boredom you must feel from not reading about my recent explorations and general mischievous tendencies…I’ll just attempt to make amends.
So here’s a video of me eating actual durian. For the first time.
It’s over 3 minutes long. You’re welcome.
The durian came from this stack
you always know when you pass a durian stall because of the smell
Just to illustrate how bad they smell…you are not allowed to take them on a subway or a bus or else
you get fined...and it's bad news if they don't list a number.
And this is how they open it for you after you buy the durian. Cause you would have to be certifiably insane to try and do it on your own
Ok, well you're just going to have to believe me when I say that they take this huge machete knife thing to cut it open. Since, clearly, I am not quick enough to take a photo. But they do have to wear the monster taming gloves.
When opened it looks like this
The girl speaking in the background of the video is one of my Singaporean friends who is, clearly, awesome since she took me out to get durian AND
Frog Porridge
It came in 2 pots
marinated frogs
rice porridge
Let’s see….what else has happened?
O yes. Tony Blair spoke at my school. I got there a whole hour early so I had an awesome seat.
He outlined his talk into 10 lessons on global governance which came from his experiences and his speculations on the future. He was able to tie in this funny anecdote about his son knowing more about his iPad then he did and the first time he made a call on a cell phone since he wasn’t allowed to have one while he was Prime Minister.
Tony Blair with our Dean. He likes the diet coke (well, they call it Coke Light here...same same but different).
NOTE: Special thanks to my friend Berno who took these amazing shots of Tony Blair. They seriously put my images to shame. And Berno has a super nice camera and an amazing talent to boot. AND I figured you guys deserved to see the best! You can check out other photos Berno has taken on his Flickr Stream: bernardoh.
kaya cake
I’m not sure if I have mentioned my love affair with kaya on this blog…so let me rewind to many moons ago when one of my roommates took me to get kaya toast one morning for brunch and a party broke out in my mouth. So ever since the initial brunch it has become a weekly tradition for our flat to go out to grab kaya toast at one of the hawker stalls. I would mention my favorite hawker kaya but I am afraid of the internet creepers who get way too much press, and I will admit to being swayed by the PSAs. So you all must be left in suspense as to which hawker stall has THE BEST kaya toast in all of Singapore.
I’m sure at this point some of you are confused and are all, “Rachel, I have no idea what this sweet nectar of the gods (Morris & Austin, 2007) even looks like.” Well, let me enlighten you.
stack of delicious. you don't even need a side of awesome.
and the inside looks like this
- that’s cold butter and kaya. It is imperative that the butter be cold (practically frozen) so that it doesn’t melt on the hot toast. Kaya is best explained as coconut jam.
Fabulous, right? but it gets better. My awareness to kaya CAKE came about when Crystal came back from Vietnam and told me that she saw this glorious dessert (my kaya toast fetish is widely known-I made my mother try it when she came to visit). Kaya cake? those are two of my favorite things! And you say I can have them together? I became obsessed.
Unfortunately, I had not come across kaya cake on any of my travels. I asked around…to no avail. I was so close. It had to be somewhere closer than Vietnam, right? I was getting down on myself.
- o Hyperbole and a Half. You always know how to draw what I am feeling.
And then at the Rotary Club meeting of Pandan Valley…there it was, sitting on the dessert table.
- your green goodness is more amazing then I could have ever imagined
That is the story of how I got my cake and ate it too.
Special thanks to Hyperbole and a Half for having THE funniest blog on the web. Somedays I don’t know what I would do without your animated hilarity. Hyperbole drew the pictures used on this blog post, make sure to check out her post titled The God of Cake to read about her love of cake.
Singapore Rotary shenanigans
Interweblings,
The past few weeks have been quite hectic. Think of a sitcom that has been abruptly canceled and then the writers attempt to cram all their planned plot lines into two episodes. That’s my life at the moment.
A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of speaking at the Rotary Club of Jurong Town. Which, like the Rotary Club of Queenstown, also meets at the Tanglin club.
discussing the the Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship
Then the following Saturday I was invited, along with a few of the other Rotary Scholars, to celebrate the Rotary Club of Sentosa’s second birthday.
the Rotary Scholars and Sentosa members
There was so much including raffles, dancing, fog machine, wine, fabulous friends and, of course, food.
marinated jellyfish. I ate it. It was gummy, slimy and crunchy at the same time.
and…
chocolate fondue. love. it.
And, naturally, there was
Birthday Cake!
A few days later Jan and I spoke at the only Rotary E-Club here in Singapore
- The gift from the E-Club was a calligraphy piece done by one of the members-it’s mandarin for happiness.
Then, the next day, I spoke to the incredibly energetic Rotary Club of Pandan Valley with Sharon.
- exchanging flags.
The whole club reminded me of this improv group in college called Contents Under Pressure. You knew whenever they put on a show you would be left in stitches.
Thanks again to the Rotary Clubs of Jurong Town, E-Club and Pandan Valley for letting me present. And a special thanks to the Rotary Club of Sentosa for inviting us to their fabulous party and giving Bryan (another Rotary Scholar to Singapore from the US) one last hoorah before he left last week.
A durian in puff form?
I told my Singaporean friend Denise that I wanted to try durian before I left Singapore. So she made the arrangements and I will try the actual fruit, hopefully, tomorrow. But today she gave me a trial run with a durian puff. Which is like a cream puff but with sugared up durian. It’s supposed to taste better than the real thing. If it does, I am in serious trouble tomorrow.
I tried the puff during our 10 minute class break. Denise armed me with water and napkins (in case I wanted to spit it out).
My computer occassionally goes on the fritz these days and it chose to be uncooperative during my tasting session. I uploaded what it got on to youtube anyway. I think the only thing that matters is my reaction.
artistic, no? Maybe my computer is attempting to show me its creative side.
I’ll remember that when it crashes on me at 2am while I am writing a term paper.
I can still taste durian in the back of my throat. Happy Tuesday!
Welcome to Oz.
Friends,
Sorry for the delay in updates. Things have been crazy here on the academia front. As most of you know in academia, a short reprieve from school never translates into anything long term.
But let us reminisce about my week long break from school.
Once I finally made it to Cairns…I was exhausted but excited to see my Mom (whom I hadn’t seen since September) and Jimmie (and I hadn’t seen her since I left in July) again. After Christmas presents were passed around. I got a new digital camera. It’s red. and awesome. We went to bed and rose early the next morning to do this
I found NEMO
Yep, that’s the great barrier reef. And that is about the only movie star I have ever met. Except for that one time when I’m pretty sure I walked by Sigourney Weaver in New York City. But she’s a fast walker…so I couldn’t do a proper double take and I was busy spilling mustard all over myself from the pretzel I was holding.
After our diving day we went and took a railroad ride through the mountainous rainforest.
They specifically told us not to lean out the windows. But they shouldn't have highlighted all of the "picture taking moments".
When we weren’t going by waterfalls. This was our view
We also saw this massive gorge
Which had oddly shaped rocks.
Mr. Lincoln, what are you doing here?
After more spectacular views we made it to Kuranda Village. And what sign was there to greet me?
ROTARY!
Then we made some new friends…of the furry variety.
Wallaby!
Kangaroos. They were quite cheeky.
And I did as all tourists do
KOALA!
Then we did a little trekking through the rainforest
Then we took the sky buckets on the way down.
And while waiting to get on, I found this guy.
he was as big as my face.
We spent the next day roaming the streets of Cairns where I found some less creepy guys.
Jake and Elwood, you're a long way from Chicago.
The following day we went up to Daintree and the beach area and went on a crocodile ride. We were part of a tour so we went around in this
- Hi JIMMIE! this was taken before the air conditioner broke…still fun though.
During the tour we saw this:
- Miss Beach, meet Mr. Rainforest.
And this
and this is what the sand looked like. I believe little creatures had dung out homes and left designs.
Then I followed around this massive lizard to try and get a picture. He did not cooperate.
He moved so fast. He is The Flash of lizards.
Then we went on a boat ride to try and find crocodiles. This was the sign in front of the river
- crikey!
After about 25 minutes we came across out first crocodile
He's in the middle of the picture amongst the plants. Oh camouflage, you ruin all of my pictures of wildlife.
And then we saw another one. Just because you saw one doesn’t mean you have seen them all. Which is why you will all have to look at another picture of a crocodile.
she's even more hidden then the first one. talk about camera shy.
This was our view for most of the ride
After the river cruise we went back to the city and had dinner. Not sure what we ate…but I’m sure it involved gelatto. That was a staple of the trip.
On our last full day Jimmie went back to the reef to go snorkeling while my mom and I went to the zoo so we could finally see a cassowary:
you can't really tell how large it is. But this one was smaller than an ostrich but much larger than a peacock.
And then I finally saw a kookaburra. Finally, a face to the song
clearly didn't get the memo that he is supposed to be sitting in an old gum tree. Well now we all know how he feels about type-casting. But I believe a "Masked Owl" is a bit of a stretch.
After the zoo we walked around some of the beaches
those floating white lines in the water are actually holding up nets that keep out jelly fish and crocodiles (salties). You can only swim within these designated spaces on the beach. And I have no idea what that guy on the right is doing with the pockets of his swim shorts.
The view from the beach
From the pier
To get to the zoo and beaches we took the public bus. Interfriendlings, I got on the bus and I was amazed. It was so tall! They didn’t have those over-head hand strap things that alway hit my head. I LOVED IT. Buses that accommodate tall people…BRILLIANT.
On my final night in Singapore I was invited by the Rotary Club of North Cairns to join the rest of the other Rotary Clubs in Cairns to a fundraiser for polio eradication
They had a brief appetizer and cocktail hour before screening the movie Conviction
And, of course, we exchanged flags
exchanging with President Richard Olearczyk
A special thanks to RC of Cairns North for the thoughtful invite. It was the perfect ending to an amazing trip.
On our way back to the hotel, I had a brief run-in with Singapore.
During my layover in Darwin I came across Rotary again at the airport
Well, that concludes my trip of Australia. Next time (because I fully intend to make it back there someday) I will make sure to have plenty of time to see everything from the outback to the Sydney Opera House. But until then…
