thoughts

been a while since the last post, life has been slow. most exciting thing in the last week or two is i went to look at a gym that i’ll probably join, it’s right next to work, it’s really nice, it’s cheap compared to america, it’s perfect. the plan is to go in before work for like 30 minutes, and they have really nice showers there. just bring a change of clothes. easy.  we’ll see how long that keeps up.

so here’s some stream of consciousness instead of a blog.

one of the things i never thought about before leaving is there’s no one to tell stupid crap to. example: i have 6 perfectly symmetrical bug bites on my body right now, ankles, shins, and that flap of skin between my pointer and thumb. what are the odds of that? 20 things like this happen every week and it kills me that there’s nobody to talk to about it. 

the job starts in exactly a week. could. not. be. more. excited. a man can only look at apartments, watch the wire, try to learn chinese, and beat old ds games for so long before ennui sets in. it’ll be realllly nice to have purpose again. this long with no real reason to hop outta bed in the morning is makin life boring. 

kevin’s free time

today we’re talking about I do when I’m not off on adventures.

if i’m chilling out at the hostel, i can usually be found in the kitchen or in bed, watching the wire while looking at one of a billion apartments.  i’m into season 2 now, so far it seems good. mcnulty’s still an asshole, crimes are still happening, i guess that’s all that matters. so i look at apartments and watch some tv, when that gets old i go talk to ice and explore the city or look for new restaurants.  Speaking of, i’m writing this at mary jane’s pizza, home of the dopest pizza, drinking a corona and waiting for a pepperoni and green pepper pizza to come out.  i have high hopes for this place. actually as of right now this is going to be a review of mj’s pizza.

note: taking out a camera and taking pictures of food while wearing nice clothes immediately gets you better service if someone sees it.

oh my god, this is better than most of the pizza I’ve had in america. ugh it’s crispy, fresh, the pepperoni is spicy, the cheese isn’t stringy, everything’s amazing, especially compared to the pizza i’ve had in this country. and it’s even big, most pizzas here are tiny and overpriced, this was only like 7 bucks and filling.

meal was so good I’m getting dessert. round two, panna cotta:

okay, seems like flan with a caramel coating, i don’t actually know what panna cotta is but i do know I like it. it’s creamy, sweet, and really light. melts in your mouth. all this for only 2 dollars. i love this country and mary jane’s pizza, this joined my list of 3 other places that are the best at what they do in taiwan.

life update

inspired by katie doyle and like 4 other people’s facebook statuses. see video for insight into my life.

ever have one of those days where everything is just perfect? you can do no wrong and everything breaks your way? even the bad decisions you make luck out? that has been my last 3 weeks.  if something awful doesn't happen soon i might start gettin a little cocky.  i guess i could learn to deal with that.

back in taiwan

okay apartment hunting is giving me problems. i called like 4 people today to go see places I’m kind of interested in, and not a single person speaks more than a dozen words of english. this might be a challenge.  edit: i was talking to joey today and it reminded me of the wus (his relatives that i stayed with for a few days), i’m probably going to call them to ask if they can give me a hand with this. 

It’s been nice to be back, everyone I know here was in the hostel when i got home, so it was easy to catch up with people.  and ice even put me in a slightly nicer room, isn’t she great.  but yeah, back in taiwan, looking for apartments, setting up job stuff, startin my life.  second meal back was mcdonalds. it’s as good as i remember it being lol.

singapore summary

best trip of my life.  I had more fun in a new place over the last couple weeks than on any other solo trip.  certainly vegas and cruises and things like that were amazing, but what made this special was that i didn’t know anyone well when i came out and still had a great time.  for anyone who will get the reference about, this was like “the best weekend ever.” it’s like meeting new family you never knew you knew.  i sincerely hope to keep in touch with everyone i met this week.  so much gratitude to angel and sophia  for being amazing hosts and to jimmy for bummin around with me, havin good talks, and getting me in with so many great people.  I’m really glad this all worked out.

one of the most interesting things about this trip for me was that it challenged my preconceptions about people in the finance industry.  i had opinions, based mostly on movies I’ve seen (which obviously makes me an expert), and this just shot those all to hell. i would now consider a career in that field knowing that it’s completely possible to keep your integrity and personal beliefs. 

from a not sissy-girly-feelings standpoint, it was also a really fun trip where I got to try things I’ve never tried before and still would not have tried if it weren’t for the generosity of others. amazing meals, fun touristy things, seeing clubs and places i wouldn’t normally visit, etc.  everything i wanted to see in singapore got done. little india, china town, arab street, sentosa island, the view from the marina bay sands hotel, the night safari, the shopping plazas, and even toured around a few fancy lookin buildings.  it was a super cool island, i don’t know any place like it. there’s a ton of diversity, a really interesting society and a novel government policy. the fact that it’s gotten where it is now in like 60 years is amazing. the weather’s nice too. very hot days, but you get used to it and it’s like a constant reminder you are in a ridiculous tropical paradise.

okay so conclusion, awesome trip, thank you one final time to everyone involved in this trip, hope to see you soon. bonus thanks to i think kathleen who let jimmy know I was headed out there, way to get the ball rolling.

singapore food

that was an amazing week.  amazing. one of the nicest times i’ve ever had with some of the nicest people i’ve ever met.  my last night there was a relaxing one, jim, angel, sophia and i went out to dinner at a little place that used to be british barracks. it was literally the best dinner of my life.  3 courses, of i believe beef brischutto (that’s probably wrong, i’ll look it up when I’m not on an airplane), followed by rack of lamb, and finished with crème broule. which is also probably spelled wrong. if it wouldn’t have been tacky and bourgeois jie, i totally would have taken pictures of every course, it was like art.

and now you guys get an in depth summary of every course so i remember it when I’m old and wrinkled and hungry.  sit down. round of champagne. amazing champagne.  sittin and chatting, very nice.  bread comes out, little croissant looking rolls served with oil and vinegar. the breads all crispy on the outside and just flaky and soft and amazing inside, and the vinegar was really good. appetizer: like a layer of pepperoni lookin beef served with a garlic paste garnish and a small salad with sweet tangy dressing. the beef was salty and then sweet afterwards, and it had some parmesan on it that just made it even better. and the salad was great. this was paired with a light white wine that I don’t have the vocab to describe, but it tasted great and what else matters.  main course: rack of lamb with strips of roasted eggplant and a cauliflower kind of bread, it looked like something made of potatoes, almost like a little cake. the lamb came on three bones, and just almost fell off. it was extremely tender, seasoned fantastically, cooked to a bright pink center, and made me regret not eating lamb every day for the last 23 years.  with the eggplant and cauliflower cake the consistency was even better, and the salty meat was less overpowering. was paired with a red wine that was also perfect. dessert: crème broule with a side of lychee sorbet.  the crème broule had a soft shell and just melted in your mouth with a creamy sweetness that I’ve never experienced, it was hot and comforting and filling and when you followed it up with the cold sorbet (which was also great, how have I not had lychee either) it was refreshing and sweet and light.  there was dessert/post-dinner drinks of sambuca with 3 coffee beans, which was amazing, especially if you actually like licorice like me. i didn’t even want to drink it it smelled so good. sigh… amazing.  gonna be tough to go back to mcdonalds and street food. not that that doesn’t have its own charms. but they don’t have rack of lamb at burger king.

chintzy tourist stuff

so the last couple days have been really nice, during the day me and jimmy have gone out into the city checking out the chintzy tourist stuff.  we hit up everything, sentosa island, arab street, orchard street, a mall or two or thirty, all the big things. then at night it’s dinner and drinks with angel and maybe sophia down at a nice restaurant, and sometimes other chintzy tourist stuff like the night safari, which was really cool. i’ll anecdote that one, it was a good time. get ready.

the night safari is basically a zoo at night.  i was a little concerned the whole thing waas going to turn out to be a scam and just be lions tigers and bears asleep haha thanks for the 40 bucks, but it turned out most everything was awake and doing exciting stuff.  highlights include the servit, the prettiest cat ever, and the fishing cat, who looks just like an ocelot but hangs out by his little river full of fish and coils up to spring at anything that comes vlose but nothing ever does because there has been a fishing cat on that side of the river for years, we’ll stay over here thanks. we watched that stupid cat for like 10 minutes waiting to see him actually jump, and the whole time it’s just sit, get excited, no wait nothing, jk guys. as exciting as real fishing.

there was also a bat house, with just bats flyin all over everything missing you by inches. sophia does not like bats, she was a champ though, and made it through like 3/4 of the exhibit, and then a bat swooped right in front of her and they were in the trees all around us and she just had to bolt out. i wouldn’t have such grace in the “here let spiders crawl on you” exhibit.  then it turns out there are 18 inch tall giant fox bats all over the ceiling, we only found them because one of them relieved itself right next to me. it was like a horror movie; weird noise, jump, turn, see something on the floor, everyone’s gazes slowly go up, omg there are like 50 of them all around you and you’re not getting out of here because they know you’re here and they’re just waiting for you to try to run.

anyway most of it wasn’t horrifying and it’s been a really good time every day here. it’s an exciting change of pace from taiwan, which is fairly consistent.  surprises everyday here.

anyway, no pictures from the night safari, you can probably guess why. they actually got really mad at people for taking any kind of picture involving light, once there was a tapir right by the bus and one guy snapped a pic, they stopped the tram and sent back people to find him. i still don’t know what happened to him.

hangin out in singapore

so i’ve been here a few days, i’ve met up with jimmy, things are going really well.  I was invited to stay with a friend he used to work with, angel, and his wife, sophia.  i could not have asked to meet nicer, better people in my limited time here.  i’m having a great time, everyone is being incredibly nice.  definitely gotta pay this karma forward.  just a quick update, everything’s going great.

also every single part of singapore is malls.  it never stops. you leave a mall, there’s a mall across the street. walk all the way through that mall, come out the other end, you’re looking at a mall. it’s crazy. i’ve started taking pictures of every mall i see.  i’m at about a dozen over the course of a day.

anecdote:

there’s a pool here. morning of day one. wake up, maybe 9 am. sleep in a bit, start the day nice. now what? well geez there’s that pool right down there, seems a shame to put it to waste. just chill in the pool, no rush, hang out for a half hour. showers, throw on some clothes, head on out and run a couple errands.  lunch: down by boat key. except they spell it boat quay, what’s up with that, why they gotta make things hard. we’re full, life is good, let’s wander around.  we stop by the american embassy so jim can get some more pages in his passport. the american embassy is a beast. it’s in the middle of the british and the australian embassy, and i just feel bad for them.  ours is made out of solid gray granite, is two stories taller than the others, and is one of the most intimidating pieces of architecture i’ve ever seen. they wouldn’t let me inside. i didn’t have business there. I also may not have had my passport, but it was intimidating.  the line for u.s. visa applications is outside. not american? you don’t get air conditioning. we left you a fan though, you’re welcome.

then we just walked for a while. been a good couple days. tonight we’re going on a night safari. should be good.

singapore update

okay sorry, I’m back. hostel number one was called wow hostel, don’t have pictures but I hope to be back there sometime, I had to leave after 2 days because they ran out of room, and now I’m in this place called footprints.

wow was right by/in little chinatown, so that was comforting. little changes. food was good, oh and there was a free breakfast every day, all the toast and strawberry jam you could eat, yum.  people were nice, made friends with some cool kids from switzerland, but they left today for indonesia =(

getting ahead of myself, let’s back up. first day: slept in airport until 7. went to hostel, found it with a minimum of lost.  dropped off my bag, couldn’t stay inside until noon. so I took the mrt to city hall, got out and walked around.  it was malls. malls in every direction as far as the eye could see. shops everywhere, all selling things I’m too poor to buy.  fun to walk around in though, and it was air conditioned, which was nice because it’s about 90 degrees and 85% humid. it’s like being home.  oh and everyone speaks english, so that’s nice too.  after looking around the malls for a while, I just walked.  found lots of interesting things, I basically walked around for about 12 hours.  I think singapore actually started when the city had a contest to see who could make the coolest modern building.  there’s also the world’s biggest ferris wheel and the world’s biggest fountain. haven’t seen the fountain yet though. 

first impressions:

people seem taller here. there are 3 kinds of people: regular asians, really dark asians which is like pacific islander or something maybe, and indians.  there are probably more, but I haven’t been to the little muslim/arab part of town, you’re welcome mom.  everything is too expensive.  this was a poor choice of places to visit when I’m still waiting for my first paycheck.  I’m getting really good at finding little hole in the wall local places to eat though, you can find a good meal here for like $5 if you look hard enough.  but just to give you an idea of the price discrepancy between here and taiwan, I’m paying twice as much for a hostel and a beer in a 7-11 is 8 dollars. how is that possible, drinking would be ridiculous here. 

back on point: everything’s in english which is an amazing change of pace.  there are a lot more white people here.  but the weirdest thing when I got to new hostel was I didn’t notice how few white people there were, I was overwhelmed by the lack of asians, I’m so used to being tightly packed in a crowd of asian people that anything else feels weird.

and now pictures!

singapore

okay, plane didn’t crash, everything’s great.  i landed at about 2 am, and rather than pay like 20 bucks for a taxi to the hostel where there was one bed in an 8 bed room where i’d pay another 18 dollars, i slept in the airport for 5 hours. apparently this is common, i joined a group of like 4 other people sleeping in the little kid play area, it had a rubbery soft floor, almost as nice as the plywood with foam topper i normally sleep on.

so at 7, i got on the mrt, took it to my hostel, dropped of my bag, and started exploring.  i’m in starbucks now where there’s wifi, everything’s fine. things seem a little more expensive here than in taiwan, maybe like 20% more, so looks like i’ll be living cheap for a little while.  i’m here until the 15th, so i’ve got two weeks to look around.  i had to stay that long because when i go back to taiwan, princeton review training starts on the 6th and is every weekday so i’d have to make a visa run either on the 3rd or on the 10th, and i definitely want to make as few visa runs as possible on my own dime. princeton review will pay for a trip to hong kong when you need it, and i’ll be working for them then, so i’m hoping if i can get them to like me they’ll reimburse me for the next trip, I already bought the ticket.  so i had to leave here after the 11th or 12th, and the flight on the 15th was about 150 dollars cheaper.  worth it even if singaore’s a little more expensive.  this is probably more detail than you care about, just wanted to articulate it for myself.

jimmy should be here on thursday the 5th, so i’ll probably see him the 6th or something, it’ll work out. 

haven’t really seen a lot of the hostel yet, better description to come.

first singpore impressions:

oh my god, there are plants here, i’ve missed plants so much and i didn’t even realize it, also the air is cleaner here.  there are definitely more westerners here.  also more indian people? i don’t know they might not be indian, just like pacific islander or something. it’s pretty hot here, high of 90 like every day while i’m here, so assumedly it’s sunny, which would make for darker people? i don’t know, i really haven’t done a lot of research on this place yet.  wanted to make my own first impression.  my hostel’s in kind of a shabby looking area, but around city hall and once you get into the downtown area things look really nice.  haven’t seen a lot, only been exploring for like an hour, so this is a very general impression.

okay i’m out

singapore travel adventures

i’m waiting at my gate to go to singapore.  i am here over an hour early. this is due to a combination of luck and planning in vastly unequal amounts.

i originally misread the departure time, 21:00, as 11 pm. whoops. saw that this morning. then nearly missed a bus to go to the airport because i got held up in the hostel with packing other little last minute things. then i got to the airport and discovered that apparently i’m awful at researching on the singapore government immigration site because they won’t let you in without a return ticket, which i have not purchased. luckily, i was able to use the airport internet to buy a plane ticket using my debit card, after my credit card got declined twice, even though i am not nearly maxed out and i used it yesterday.  got a pretty good deal too. but now i’m here, and nothing else can go wrong except that i’m really hungry and there are no restaurants on this side of customs, what were these airport planners thinking, every store here sells basically only booze and ipod chargers.  there is a soda machine, and a coke costs $30. i have $28 in change and a $500 bill, which the machine will not accept. =(

so overall everything went swimmingly, even though this was by far the worst planned trip ever. thank goodness. i have learned a valuable lesson today. maybe two. the second one can be that i should also carry smaller denominations of money.