A little perspective

It is strange how quickly life changes, right?  I've spent some time lately thinking about how much my life has changed since I moved over here, and how different my experience is right now than what is happening at home in the US.  I also have thought a lot about how much my perspective on things has changed!!

Perhaps the biggest shift I've seen is related to the culture.  Singapore has a very (well-deserved) westernized reputation - people often refer to it as "Asia Lite".  And while I definitely agree, adapting to the culture over here has been a much bigger transition than I had originally anticipated.  I joked with a co-worker earlier this week that I've learned more about Asians in the four months I've lived here than I ever learned in my first 29 years of actually being Asian.  It's crazy - I don't know if you can really put a culture into words, but I know that I have a different appreciation for a lot of things, both Asian and American, now.

Also, my social circle is completely different now, obviously.  Like, four and a half months ago, I knew approximately three people in Singapore, and I only knew them on a very casual level.  Now, as most of my friends in Singapore are preparing to go to the US for the holidays, it feels a bit strange to know that there will only be a couple of us around town.  And as I've touched on before, you learn a lot about your friendships when you move away too.

The things that I think are totally normal are also different now.  In Singapore, the most common places to eat are called hawker centers.  It's basically like a gigantic food court, but not in an air conditioned mall.  There are tons of stalls where you can get all different types of foods, and the seating is all open.  My first time a hawker center was a bit overwhelming, but now I am completely used to it.

Hawker center for lunch in Penang

I've also gotten used to sitting on these random plastic stools everywhere haha

So kind of along that same thought pattern, I'm curious to see what I think of Bangalore whenever I do make it back there.  For those of you that don't know, I spent about a week in Bangalore earlier this spring, and while I didn't hate it, I definitely didn't love it.  But when I think back on it, I can't really remember anything that bothered me aside from having to brush my teeth with bottled water.  But now, something like that seems so totally trivial.  I commented to a friend this weekend that I think if I had gone to Ho Chi Minh a year ago, I would've thought "whoa.. this place is... different" rather than being totally obsessed with the place.  Maybe?  Who knows.  Speaking of Ho Chi Minh, here is a picture that I snagged off of Facebook of me actually going into one of the tunnels that we saw.. you can see that these things are pretty tiny!!

Here are some more random pictures of life this weekend in Asia to share with you all.

The current feature at McDonald's in Malaysia.  It looks a bit scary to me though.

Saturday morning cappuccino 

This is the type of stuff people wear out in the middle of the day.  Also, it wasn't raining.

This is the bridge in Clarke Quay, which is near my house.  It's pretty expensive to go out for drinks in Singapore, so tons of people just BYO and come sit along the bridge and hang out with their friends all night.

The Japanese grocery store has a kid's television area so that parents can shop in peace?

Anyway - and now it's Sunday afternoon.  I'm making chili tonight even though it is currently 86 degrees outside.  Then finishing some packing before I head off to Malaysia again tomorrow morning.  Hope everyone has had a great weekend - Happy Hanukkah to those who celebrate!