Singapore: Day 55

Today, I didn't go into lab because I ended up sleeping at 7 AM and was too tired. I've also been a bit emotionally vulnerable lately due to a certain chain of events.

I met with Michael at 3 PM to check out Singapore's museums. We originally planned to visit the Red Dot Museum at Tanjong Pagar only to find it closed. We wandered and happened upon the Singapore City Gallery. Entry was free and the demonstrations were beautiful! It was the perfect closure, because the gallery had several small imitations of Singapore and it was nostalgic pointing out all the places we visited.

Singapore City Gallery

Last night's destination!

Afterwards, we walked around to find the food centre. We found one, and Michael was elated to discover a new centre, until I pointed out that it was the Maxwell Food Centre. Even with that disappointment, we were both excited to try Tian Tian, the stall that won against Gordon Ramsay in the Singapore Hawker Cook-off. We ordered the famous chicken rice.

Tian Tian

As expected, the chicken rice was delicious. It was rich and flavorful, and it made me wonder how it was humanly possible to pack such deliciousness into something as plain as rice. The chicken was tasty, but not astounding as the rice was. The rice had an amazing flavor, and I hope I can reproduce it when I return to the states (unlikely, but an adventure nonetheless). After our meal, we decided to grab dessert. I ordered a black sesame soya milk, and Michael and I talked to the stall owners for a while about what it was like to run a hawker stall and live in Singapore. The both of us like to interact with the locals in Singapore and are open to conversing with strangers, so it was definitely a great experience to meet Singaporeans with a friend. After our conversations, Michael hunted for dessert and eventually ordered a strawberry soya bean curd (which was delicious and later convinced me to try my own bean curd.)

Black sesame soya milk

After we finished our desserts, we made our way back to PGP. Those of us that were still in Singapore gathered for dinner at 6 PM, and Michael and I made it right in time to meet with them. From there, we headed to Orchard to eat at the Asian Food Mall in Lucky Plaza. I ate at the Filipino stall, Lutong Pinoy, and ordered the arroz caldo/goto with egg. It tasted like the porridge I usually ate at home, but it was chewier and also came with a lemon. It was my first time having Filipino food, and it was definitely tasty and interesting at the same time. I will need to have more experiences with Filipino food in the future!

Arroz caldo/goto with egg

 Afterwards, we grabbed dessert. I was beyond full at this point, but I wanted to try the desserts, so I split one with Jessica. It was delicious and contained shaved ice, ice-cream, corn, jelly, fruit, etc.

After eating, we watched Pacific Rim at Shaw Theater (still in Orchard.) The movie was interesting, yet uncomfortable for me. I disliked the character that the Asian female presented: she fulfilled the Asian stereotype of being quiet, obedient, characterless, etc. On our taxi ride back home, we picked apart the movie to its bones, which was a great experience. I definitely missed analyzing movies for the two months that I've been away from the states, so it was refreshing to do so again with friends. When we returned to PGP, Michael, Laney and I washed our laundry. Michael gave me the remainder of his Royce chocolate (he was leaving for Bangkok on Saturday and could not finish it) while I shared some of my contact solution with him.

While in the laundry room, I bumped into one of the graduate students I met a few weeks before. We talked a bit and he asked for my number so that we could meet up next week. While I waited for my laundry, he stayed with me in the lounge and chatted away. All I can say is that it was an awkward experience.