homesick!!!

It's probably no surprise that I'm homesick by now, finally! Not only am I missing my family and friends back home, but also my HK families:my agency, ModelOne, and all the wonderful people I've worked with at Me! magazine.

Everything seems to be changing every time I call home or get an update from a friend, and I feel like I'm missing out. My little brother is probably going to have his license before I ever learn to drive, my best friend's being serenaded by the posh clientele at the restaurant where she hostesses, and everybody seems to be growing closer together, while I'm growing, apart...from the most important people in my life. Not apart from them, but just growing into myself somewhere far away.
By Christmas I'll be home, surely itching to be on the move again, hopefully with some good stories to tell and some newfound wisdom.

Anyways, yesterday was Sunday, aka almost-guaranteed day off; Anna and I found ourselves hanging out with a hong kong acquaintance of mine, Myles, and his roomie Michael. They're cool guys and we made for a pretty good sightseeing group, though by the end of the day the humidity certainly had us dragging our feet.
Oh yeah, if the pictures weren't a dead giveaway, we went to the zoo. chimps, zebras, reptiles of all sorts, tigers, etc. etc. pretty amazing.

sing pride

There's a lot of signage here professing Singapore pride:I also walked one block where all the buildings had singaporean flags hung in the exact same spot under each window...I need to get me a canadian flag and start representin'!
I wanted to post more pics but the internet connection in our apt. is uber slow so it'll have to wait 'til tomorrow...
Basically, Singapore kind of reminds me of Seattle, with a little bit of fake Paris thrown in, making for an interesting mix.

say it ain't so

I picked up a Singaporean Sunday Times paper from the grocery store when I first arrived, and have been dwelling on it ever since. One amazing thing about Singapore is that practically everyone speaks english. Expanding my ability to communicate with locals-clients and strangers alike-and providing me with open access to local media, it's a welcome change from Hong Kong (I can actually READ the magazines!). After reading the ST, however, I'm beginning to wish I'd stayed in the dark on some issues.

Two topics which feature prominently in the ST are 'babies' and 'foreigners.' There was apparently a long period of time in Singapore's somewhat-recent history during which families were discouraged from having more than two children. Not simply discouraged, but forced to pay higher hospital fees, restricted from accessing good schools unless one or both parents underwent sterilization, and sent to the bottom of apartment wait-lists. Now the government has enforced new measures to encourage families to have more children, sparking debate amongst Singaporeans. One writer of the ST rang in on the issue;
" ...I think the Government should not have to pay couples to have children...The fewer children we have, the more foreigners will be encouraged to settle here. That awareness should be a fillip for citizens to have many children. Singaporeans have to procreate without prompting and be responsible for the fate and direction of the nation..." (Gabriel Yue)

Apparently the influx of foreigners to Singapore which has prompted such concern has been "taking place for the past 15 years" (Sumiko Tan), leaving locals feeling uncomfortable, "especially when [they] realise that among the foreigners are those who are clearly smarter, richer, taller, better looking, better educated and hungrier for success than [them]" (ST) According to Tan, 'true' Singaporeans identify themselves as part of a multiracial society in which 'all races are equal, or at least strive to be equal.' The issue seems to be that foreigners are not assimilating thoroughly enough for Singaporeans' liking.

As a foreigner having just arrived in Singapore, picking up a paper containing such articles was a humbling experience. I'll be hard at work trying to make a good impression for Canadians. Which may be difficult with Singaporean men, as a 'dating' article in the ST reports that men want women who are "gentle, demure, and sometimes submissive" and can be "successful but not more so than him."

Foreign, Independent and Ambitious young woman feels unwanted in Singapore. eek!

WELCOME TO SINGAPORE

It may just be my eyes doing funny things after staring at the airport screens for too long (see above), but I feel like there isn't as much to see in Singapore as somewhere like HK or NYC. Hong Kong felt like a city filled to the brim with energy, chaos, color, culture, and inspiration. I'd been warned that Singapore was a lot more sterile, but I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Sterile is certainly the word. Everything starts to look the same along the main 'strip,' Orchard Road, aka shopping mecca for the masses. There's something unsettling about so many new buildings in one place.

This is going to take some getting used to. However, considering the Malay, Muslim, Indonesian, Thai, Vietnamese, Western, Japanese, Curry, and Rice & Porridge restaurants which await just down the street (and I mean literally, less than 2 minutes away) from my Singaporean Abode, and the Pure Yoga studio a short walk away (yes, I'm already a member), I think I'll be just fine. Since I've already mentionned the Abode, a few more details seem prudent; 1 supercool room-mate who is a fellow west-coaster and with whom I share a NYC agency (Elite), 1 very nice and hotel-smelling bathroom, 1 small walk-in closet, 1 extra bed. Step outside the bounds of our master suite and there are 6 other roommates, common room, and kitchen to be found. Not too shabby. A few ants in the kitchen cupboards, but apparently no roaches or mould.
WELCOME TO SINGAPORE. ENJOY YOUR STAY. thank you, I'm quite sure I will.

NURI & best of hk

Having postponed my flight to singapore in order to shoot until 1a.m. the other night in winter clothes on the streets of hk, I was ready to fly out early the next morning. And then something happened...for the fourth time since I got here...a typhoon hit. Nuri was her name, level 9 was her rating (highest of the 4 i've witnessed); she cancelled my flight and left me stuck inside all day yesterday. I slept most of the day away, leaving me utterly insomnic last night. Maj and I caught the 4am airport express train to the airport from the city and I am currently camped on a marble slab counting down the hours (three) left until I can stand in line at the flight counter and try to get the next flight out to singapore on ghetto airline Jetstar. Meanwhile, Maj gets to fly on cathay. damn her.

So to pass the time I figured I may as well write a little memo on the best of hk;
eat/drink: Life, Bookworm Cafe, Mix (also the best/only? place to take wheatgrass shots)
sweat it out: the hills of Hong Kong Island (innumerable trails), Pure Yoga (multiple locations)
read: Page One (Times Square in CWB)
hook up to the internet: Pacific Coffee
explore: CWB (shopping, dining), Mongkok (flower and bird markets, cheap, crowded shopping), SoHo (galleries), Sai Kung (seafood restaurants and off the main streets, small-town vibe), Lamma Island (totally chill, good seafood, many artisans reside here), maybe...ALL OF HK
get inspired: Giant Buddha (especially if you go on a rainy day when its way less crowded and just as spiritual...but what matters more than the weather is your attitude and state of mind)
cheapest sightseeing: a ride on the tram ($2 hk, equivalent to less than 30cents cdn)
inhale second hand smoke: D-i on a crowded night, Volar always

p.s. Despite being SEVEN HOURS early for my flight today and the FIRST PERSON to check in, after calling various jetstar numbers a DOZEN or more times, being sent back and forth between terminals THREE TIMES, waiting AN HOUR to find out which gate I was supposed to board from, and FORTY FIVE MINUTES going through security (I attempted to ask for help but the man only told me 'everybody same today everybody same'...as if everyone else's flights were scheduled to leave half an hour before they got midway through the line), I MISSED MY FLIGHT. I was then given the complete runaround by even more jetstar staffers (as if the first five who'd given me faulty instructions weren't enough)and after wasting inumerable HOURS of agents' time from vancouver to hk to singapore, eventually ended up having to pay the full price for tonight's flight out...20 hours after arriving at HKIA. eff jetstar. I'm not a violent person, but I totally wanted to strangle them with their tacky purple neckscarves.

hot hot hot

I thought I was going to burn myself leaning on this car for a shoot yesterday:


both myself and the dude I was shooting with were sweating buckets (30+degree weather, clear skies & humid), but I managed to combat heat stroke with some pocari sweat (for anyone who's unfamiliar, it's basically asian sugar water in a bottle)


the stella mccarneys almost thwarted my goal of survival, but I made it through (pocari one, stellas zero).

Also, I finally figured out how to connect to the internet with the help of a friendly australian I found whilst lurking in my neighborhood pacific coffee, but the connection is quite slow, thus my failure to reveal to all the beautiful sights of Lamma Island. I'll just say, if you go, you MUST check out the bookworm cafe (organic vegetarian cuisine)!!! The whole island has a kind of bowen-island vibe for you vancouverites. Maj and I hiked from the ferry on one side of the island over to Yung Shue Wan and earned our Bookworm dinner. ho ho mei.

what's goin on?

went hiking on lamma island yesterday...AMAZING place!
moved to another crib in cwb, this one does'nt have internet;
i'm at pacific coffee right now using the computer 'facilities'
will post pics when i find a street corner to camp out on where i can catch some sweet wifi waves

also I leave for sing. on friday now, long story, more exciting explanation to come...