Airplanes and Happiness

I arrived back into the United States of America on April 16. The trip was awesome, especially since it was my birthday!

I woke up like...1.5 hours later than I had planned to because my plane left at 6 AM. Luckily, I was staying overnight in a house about 5-10 minutes away from the airport, so I ran in and talked to all the right people.

My combined weight of my luggage weighs more than 70 kg (~155 lbs). I am amazing.

I know that it's bad if I work my curves, but I totally did because there was no way that I could manage to pull my luggage off the carousel by myself. (I struggled for a while to come up with the words 'luggage carousel' while talking to someone else who has recently moved back to the US from Singapore.) I LOVE the fact that guys hit on me even when I came off the plane looking terrible with absolutely no makeup and messy, messy hair (and honestly, pretzel breath).

My first flight was from Singapore to Narita (Tokyo), I sat next to a very nice and intelligent businesswoman, and we talked about everything - from television, to the state of the US economy, to politics, to religion, etc. It was fabulous. I love LOVE LOVE the fact that I could use my vocabulary (which has accumulated dust while being in Singapore because the education systems differ in the emphasis on building a large vocabulary).  It was great. I also learned that Texans talk about people from Louisiana just like anyone from a northern state will talk about Canadians. I love it. Hilarious!! ("coon-asses" or "Cajuns")

Then on the way from Tokyo (after a quick bite of sweet beef udon) to Houston, TEXAS (HOORAY!) I got the best seat in the entire plane. I talked to an American couple who have lived in like, Ecuador, Japan, Nepal, etc. as volunteer (or paid) English teachers. They were extraordinary and quite atypical as far as Americans go, but since they were English teachers, I could pull out my vocabulary again. Hooray Latin and etymology classes! 

From Houston to Indianapolis, I got to sit in 1A (hip hip hooray) - but I wanted to sit shotgun in the pilot seat. That would have been sweet. You see, pilots get free flights, but they have to sit in the equivalent of a "flight mec" seat - the one behind the two co-pilots. I would have loved that. I even shared my Singaporean cookies with them, hoping that my sacrifice was enough. They laughed at me, and the flight stewardess closed the door (which silently mocked me throughout the entire 2 hour flight). I talked the entire time to the flight stewardess (who actually went to pilot school and is working on the accumulation of the necessary hours). We had SUCH a good time talking about movies, books, economy, hilarious stories about being a stewardess, etc. We e even talked about Mexico.  I had so much fun, and my stuffed frog was so happy (Vincenzo). He was a little excited and tried to hop on the escalator, but I had to run after him and rescue him after he became very frightened.

So then I walked to the baggage claim in the new Indianapolis airport (which is nice and clean, remiscent of the Changi airport in Singapore), only to find my mom and sister looking for me every which way. I tend to be clever and sneaky, so I made them scream from surprise to a cliche "boo!" But I enjoyed myself, and I love being back home.

I can't wait to go shopping later today with my best friend (and my sister). YAY! SHOES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OK, well I guess I'll reflect more about my year spent abroad at another time.  I love the United States. I LOVE ALL OF THEM. 

I miss Singapore, but my overwhelming feeling of elation just trumps it for now.

Sakae Sushi Madness

Soo.....yesterday I went to Sakae Sushi with Felix and Xav, and while I was enjoying my big bowl of beef udon, they decided towards the end of playing stack the empty plates to be adventurous and try something on a blue plate (which are S$1 or USD $0.75)

So Xavier takes the first bite. He didn't even take a complete bite. He just sort of put it in his mouth and took it out immediately. He says it's gross.

Felix says something like, "Should we put it back?"

But the damage has been done, so Felix and Xavier each put it in their mouths.

Felix puts his hand on the table to stabilize himself and not fall victim to the gag reflex. He turns red trying to finish the unknown type of sushi.

Xavier finishes, but unable to hold back, grabs his ear lobes and flaps them around.

I laugh like crazy.

I ask the first waitress what it is, and she tells me "hard shell," but I think that she says something else and Xav tells me not to be mean. Like I can be mean on purpose! At least, to a stranger.

Then I ask the second waitress, and she tells me that it is SNAIL.

Felix laughs until he turns purple while I am laughing so much at both of them.

To get the taste of SNAIL out of their mouths, they order a RED PLATE (ZOMG...the premium plates.) of cooked scallop (which was delicious) and go get some ice cream from New Zealand Natural Ice Cream (I had English toffee yum yum).

Mommy and Daddy, please don't watch this

EVERYONE ELSE!!!!!!!

WATCH THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's the 223rd post, 2 days after April Fool's Day

It's sort of crazy, looking back at random posts and thoughts that I went through these past months. And now, I am quite sad to say, that I have begun to make my arrangements to return to the United States (though I am quite keen to see my family again). I will be in transit for about 25 hours until I reach home in mid-April.

Speaking of April Fool's Day, I came across two great articles, one about 2009 pranks and then one about the top ten pranks of all time.

Only one person tried to prank me (well, one and a half because one of my friends is pretending to be a relationship for the duration of the month and I intend to bug him about it) saying that Britney Spears is in Singapore at Orchard MRT Station. Pleeeeeeeeeease. I am very aware that Britney is on tour in the US because I follow PerezHilton everyday. So if you ever want to prank me, think of something infinitely more believable. I was even slightly annoyed that someone would even THINK that I would fall for that. Serious.

A few quotes from the previously mentioned articles:

Scientists aren't exactly friendly toward Alabama's efforts to push intelligent design in schools, but one hit below the belt when he published an article in the April 1998 issue of New Mexicans for Science and Reason suggesting the Alabama legislature was tampering with Pi. The article, penned by physicist Mark Boslough writing under the pseudonym "April Holiday," suggested Alabama was redefining Pi as 3.0 instead of 3.14, to keep it closer to the "biblical value." State legislators were swamped by angry callers beseeching them to leave Pi alone.

Fantastic.

Well, I'm returning to the United States soon enough and can't wait to get back to Fazoli's, Arby's, Buffalo Wild Wings, Cracker Barrel, Olive Garden, and my room overlooking the backyard.

I can't wait to see all my family and friends again.

I'll still chronicle my time left in Singapore, but I just wanted you to know that this chapter in my life is about to close (with a few strings flailing about with new friends).

On My Way to Find Bak Kut Teh

I'm sorry, I snuck a picture of this girl because she is JUST TOO THIN. Click on the picture to get a better look. TOO THIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The rest of the pictures are taken from the bus (except the restaurant and ice cream) on my way to find Famous Bak Kut Teh.

This is the automated system that allows you to just scan a card that you add value to in order to pay for your bus and MRT (train) trips.

Some random church

These are houses that are quite expensive. Even though they are connected to each other, they easily surpass the S$1 million (US$750,000), depending on their square footage.

They put advertisements on their buses as well. There are both single and double decker buses, and since I haven't seen lychee flavoured non-alcoholic (0.5% alcohol) soda before, I thought I would take a picture. Two birds, one stone. Score!

They drive on the left hand side and the driver's seat is on the right. I'm worried about when I resume driving in the US, so I always tell myself that Singapore is weird. When I went to London though (which has the same system), I told myself that Americans were better. ^.^

Look familiar? Shell Gas station. Sold in liters (litres) and much more expensive than in the US.

Esso is quite well adapted to Singapore as well, and though there are plenty of 7 Elevens here, Cheers is their biggest competitor (in my opinion).

Quirky little fruit stansd and ghetto-looking restaurants are everywhere.

House of Seafood 180. I suppose this probably sounds better in Chinese, but when I look at it, I just want to go to the next seafood restaurant to eat. (There are plenty of seafood restaurants in Singapore, and it's quite famous for its chili crab. I thought that the chili crab would be more...peppery chili crab, but it's actually more like American-chili-without-the-beans on top of crab.)

HDB (Housing Development Board) has created enormous buildings they call HDB flats. You can tell which ones are older by the amenities (elevators, gardens, etc.). The first level is just a common area, sometimes with tables or sometimes even a mini mart.

And then...we arrived at this Founder Bak Kut Teh Restaurant, which is where plenty of local celebrities eat. You can sort of see the wall inside the restaurant, which is plastered with large pictures of supposed Singaorean celebrities (I only know like....4 Singaporean celebrities but still may not recognize them if they slapped me in the face.)

After Joey treated me to this famous bak kut teh (which really was quite nice, but I failed to get a picture because well....it's not much to look at anyways. Soup, rice and pieces of pork with bones in them...and they expect you to rip the meat out with your teeth. So not my style.), he treated me to Ice Cream Chefs on East Coast Road.

Even though I could walk to this restaurant, I still got lost. Sorry Joey. :)

Koko Crunch and Hershey's chocolate chips into a mixture of Hershey's chocolate and Peanut Butter ice cream (all freshly made, of course). It was lovely!