Tis the season

Christmas is less than three weeks away (what?!), so I've been trying to get in the holiday spirit over the past few days.  Singapore definitely has no shortage of Christmas decorations, which is ironic because most Singaporeans only associate Christmas with sales and not anything else...

The theme on this section of Orchard Road is hot pink...

Obviously, the lack of cold weather is kind of distracting, but I've been trying (successfully) to drink as many peppermint mochas in red cups as possible.  I watched Love Actually the other night, and I've also tried to do a little online shopping, but it just isn't as fun when you also have to figure out the logistics of how to get items from America to Asia...

One thing that I thought would really help was going to see The Nutcracker!!  For those of you who don't know, I took ballet for a lot of years when I was younger, so I love going to the ballet, and I especially love The Nutcracker!  (Warning - I am about to get super ballet nerdy on you guys...)

A group of girlfriends and I bought tickets to go see the Singapore Dance Theater's The Nutcracker last night.  The show didn't start until 8, so a few of us met for dinner ahead of time.  The walk over from the office the restaurant was short, which was good because the storm clouds were rolling in!

Even during winter, the sun doesn't set until 7pm.

Thankful for a covered rooftop patio!

After a few shared tapas, it was showtime.  Given that we only paid S$28 for our tickets, I was impressed with our seats! 

So... it was an interesting interpretation of The Nutcracker.  First of all, it was set in Shanghai.. so the opening scene where usually it is all the families walking through the snow to get to Clara's house... yeah, that was a bunch of people shopping at a Chinese jewelry store located next to the Anglo-Shanghai bank... ok, interesting.

The first act was a bit disorienting.  I couldn't really tell who was meant to be Clara, as there was one really young girl who basically did nothing, and one older girl who was dancing with the Drosselmeyer's nephew (who traditionally becomes the Nutcracker).  The Nutcracker doll was never broken, and tons of the dancing got cut out of the party scene, including the two big dolls!  Drosselmeyer's nephew was also accompanied by these other four dudes.. and I could never figure out exactly what they were supposed to be each time they reappeared.

During the bit after the party when Clara (she was the younger girl, as it turns out) is supposed to go check on the broken Nutcracker doll.. well there were mice, but the toy soldiers and the Nutcracker Prince were replaced by the nephew and the four dudes. Clara doesn't throw her shoe, but the nephew defeats the Rat King, and then Clara (with Drosselmeyer by her side) faints.  There were no angels, but snow was the close of the first act.

The second act had more dancing, which was fun, but it still had so many gaps in the story!  Clara shows up in dreamland by herself.  She is basically sitting on a loveseat alone, and Drosselmeyer just stands next to her as all the acts do their dances.  And not all the acts were there!  Candy canes is my absolute favorite, and they weren't there.  Neither was the Arabian dancer or Mother Ginger and the Polichinelles.  The Chinese tea act was two girls with ribbons, Marzipan and the Shepard Girls was a pas de deux instead, and there were Flowers but no Dewdrop Fairy.  But the four dudes were there....

Alright, ballet nerd rant over.

For those of you who are still reading (probably just my mother), here is something that has nothing to do with the holidays...

Today's lunch at McDonald's was the Kampung Burger!  From time to time, they have these random special features, and I will usually aim to try them - just to see what they are like!  I would say that the Kampung Burger is probably my favorite one that I've tried so far.  Kampung means village, but this "burger" featured fried chicken, lettuce, cheese, barbecue sauce, and a slice of pineapple.. all on an English muffin.  It sounds a bit weird, I know, but actually it was really good!!

So I'm off to Cambodia tomorrow evening.  Going to check out some more temples!  See you guys later!

Thanksgiving weekend

Can you believe it's December??!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving holiday.  I was lucky to actually get some turkey to eat this year!!  A group of friends and I went out for dinner on Thursday night after work, and we enjoyed a delicious dinner, even if there was no green bean casserole.

It's just green beans - no cream of mushroom, no French's fried onions

Two of the people we ate with had never had Thanksgiving dinner before, so it was fun to introduce them to our American traditions!  We had a fun discussion about pumpkin pie, Thanksgiving leftovers, the definition of "pudding", and Flavor Flav haha.  Good times with good friends is something to be thankful for anytime!

Thanksgiving dinner was a nice break from an absolutely manic week at work!  I totally thought that it would be a light week due to the Thanksgiving holiday, but it was insane.  I hit a big deadline on Friday afternoon, and I couldn't have been more relieved or more exhausted.

Totally off topic - One of my friends gave me some Taiwan pineapple tarts!!

Friday night, I went over to a friend's house for a laid back night of catching up over dinner.  As I've mentioned several times before on this blog, I don't have a fully equipped kitchen, so I am always super envious of people who do!

Fajitas!

I had intended to wake up early on Saturday and go for a run, but I ended up sleeping in late instead - I'm a firm believer in just listening to your body, and my body was tired!  I had made plans with friends on Orchard, so I headed over to the mall for lunch.

Yong Tau Foo - I used to eat this all the time when I first got here!

It rained basically all day Saturday, so a bowl of noodles and soup was exactly what I wanted, followed by a movie!  We saw Catching Fire, and I absolutely loved it.  Even though I've read all the books and already know what will happen, I still thought the movie did a great job of creating drama and holding my attention.  Too bad the third movie won't come out for years!

Saturday evening, I braved the rain and went to a housewarming / Thanksgiving party for a new friend.  The only person I knew at the party was the host, so it was a great chance to meet some new people!  This is one of the things that I have loved about living abroad - not only the chance to meet new people, but the willingness to get out there and meet new people.  Two years ago, I would have never gone to a party where I only knew one person - let alone if it was raining haha.  

At both of the Thanksgiving dinners that I went to, we all opted out of the tradition of going around the table and saying what we are thankful for, so I thought I'd share with you guys.  This year, I'm thankful for the places I've been able to travel and for all the cool experiences I've had.  I'm thankful for my hometown and my family and friends - in the two trips that I went back in 2013, I was always greeted with a full calendar of people to see.  I'm thankful for my job - not only for the income and professional experience, but also because I have a great support system of people to lean on and talk to when I have to make decisions.  I'm thankful for all of you people who read my blog - sometimes, living away is hard because you are so far from so many people you care about, so I appreciate you guys for reading and for reaching out.  

We wore matching shirts

Hello friends!  I am having a super productive Monday.. shocking, since Mondays after a weekend away are usually really hard for me.  But this morning, I was in the office right around 7:15.. I knocked out a ton of work.. hit the grocery store and the treadmill after I left the office.. and now I'll publish a blog post before my 9pm conference call!

This is going to be a super photo-heavy post, but I have a lot to share!  I just got back last night from a weekend away in Yogyakarta.  Most of you may have never heard of Yogyakarta before, but it is an Indonesian city that is home to some awesome cultural sights!

We flew in on Friday evening and headed out to our first hotel.  The most popular attraction in Yogyakarta is to go see Borobudur at sunrise.  On the recommendation of a friend, we drove about an hour from the airport to the temple grounds and stayed at the Manohara hotel, which is right at the entrance to Borobudur.  We checked into our room and then headed to the hotel restaurant for dinner, where we enjoyed some tasty Indonesia cuisine and some Indonesian entertainment.

Our three little beds haha

This satay was actually not that good.. so I just ordered another dinner because it was so cheap anyway!

Saturday morning, we woke up shortly before 4am so that we could head over to the temple for sunrise.  Borobudur, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was absolutely spectacular.  Definitely worth the early wake up!

It is huge when you walk up to it.. the pictures really don't do it justice

These bell shaped structures at the top of the temple are incredible

Sunrise!

You can see some of the other tourists around the temple in this picture.  This was the only downside - there was a lot of unnecessary chatter that kind of spoiled some of the serenity...

Of course, a sarong for cover in order to be respectful

Beautiful!

Lots of Buddha statutes everywhere.. this temple is from before the conversion to Islam in Indonesia

I love the bells

After sunrise, we ate breakfast, checked out of the Manohara, and were picked up by our driver.  For a ten hour private car service from Borobudur to Yogyakarta, stopping at various attractions in between, it was about $30 USD.  So cheap.

When I was booking the car service, one of the options that they mentioned was a stop at Merapi volcano.  Merapi actually erupted last Monday (but it was very small.. just spewing some ash), so we weren't sure if it was still a good idea to go visit it, but our driver assured us it would be fine, so we headed over.  When we got there, we decided to rent a Jeep to cruise around the volcano for a while.  (Stephanie and I figured that we've already hiked a volcano, so we may as well tour one in a Jeep.  Little did we know what we were in for!!  We opted for the one hour tour, and the guides gave us helmets and face masks before we loaded into the Jeep with another driver.

Mount Merapi in the distance

Our ride

We are ready!

Our driver was great, but there were no seatbelts!

Lots of volcanic debris and lava

The roads were bumpy!

Beautiful blue skies in the backdrop

Merapi erupted quite significantly back in 2010.  At one point when we were driving through what seemed like a bunch of rocks and dirt, our driver told us that he used to live in the village that was there.  Then we stopped at a make-shift museum that chronicled a little bit about the 2010 eruption.

Everyday objects destroyed

Our driver also took us down to see the bunker where everyone had hidden during the eruption

You could see tons of construction-type vehicles still working on clearing things out

Lava flow beneath us

Steam pockets from the heat of the volcano

This was the on-site bathroom.  We all held it.

Fun times!!!  And Steph and I are both wearing our shirts from the NZ race - woops!  Brian kept saying that we looked like our own sports team haha.

We dubbed our adventure as a "volcano safari" based on our previous experience with a desert safari.  It was an awesome way to spend an hour!  Afterwards, we met up with our driver and headed toward our next destination.  Indonesia is actually incredibly beautiful, and we passed lots of beautiful fields full of crops.  Stephanie works for a farming company, so she knows tons about that sort of stuff - it was fun to learn!!  At one point, our driver actually pointed out a peanut farm and asked if we wanted to stop.  We all hopped out of the car, and he went and just yanked some fresh peanuts out of the ground!  This was obviously my first time ever seeing a peanut farm!

Fresh peanuts

We ate a few right off the plant.. hard to describe!  Not crunchy like you expect them to be because they aren't roasted.. more like a crisp vegetable almost?  Super interesting though.

He also tried to find some fresh soybeans for us to try, but no luck.

We did stumble upon some people harvesting rice though!!

It was a pretty old school machine

 

Old women carrying grains on their backs!

This is what it looks like before it goes in the machine

Then it was time for lunch!

After lunch we made our way to our last stop before our hotel in Yogyakarta - Prambanan temple.  Prambanan is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it did not disappoint!  Unfortunately, it was the middle of the day at this point, so it was REALLY hot, and our visit was pretty short.

It used to be a huge complex of temples, but an earthquake destroyed a lot of it.

Still spectacular to see

These all used to be small temples surrounding the larger temples.  Restoration efforts are ongoing.

Prambanan was a huge complex of structures

Love the bells here too!

There were some areas where you would've never guessed that it was earthquake damage

After handling the heat for as long as we could, we left Prambanan and made it to our final destination.  Once we were at the Sheraton, we never left haha.  The rest of the weekend, we got massages, spent time by the pool, and slept late.  It was bliss!!

View from the room

A typical weekend afternoon

The weekend was a great mix of culture, adventure, and relaxation, but I was happy to get back to Singapore and sleep in my own bed last night.  This week is a full week for us, but I do have a turkey dinner planned for Thursday night!  Hope everyone enjoys the Thanksgiving holiday.  I am thankful for all of you!!