Sunday: Relax

Saturday night after the temple, we went to one of the many malls in Singapore (have I mentioned yet that shopping and eating are Singapore's two "unofficial" pastimes?) so I could buy closed-toe shoes, which are imperative for clubs and "smart casual" occasions.

We ate in the food court and then headed back to the dorm. Later we decided to go out to a bar, but the only ones close by were not very big and not very exciting. So we didn't stay out long, and just took a cab back.

We met this girl named...Melissa? Who was having a birthday party and was very excited to meet us. She sang Chinese karaoke. Very badly. It was a bizarre experience :-P

On Sunday, most of the group went with our graduate student coordinator on a pretty intense hike in the National Park. I was way too tired from our busy day of exploration, so I stayed in and did homework. That night, though, our student guide had invited all of us to a student-written and produced play. Devika and I and two other people (Whitney and John) went along, and we had a really great time.

The play was in the upstairs of the National Library (remember that crazy building?) and was one of the such "smart casual" events for which my new shoes come in handy (I hadn't found an appropriate shirt yet, though).

The play was called "In Front of the Yellow Line," and it was quite shocking in Singapore, a country whose government still practices heavy censorship and whose people are generally stereotyped as complaisant. It was loud, boisterous, exciting, subversive, controversial, and frank. It was three "mini" plays that each dealt, more or less humorously, with realistic situations that both played up "Singaporean" humor as well as teased out political and social issues: Chinese family structure, religious superstition, race and class inequality, what it means to be "Singaporean," and, most surprisingly to us, homosexuality.

We all really enjoyed it a lot, and even though the rest of the group was full of wonderful stories about their hike, I was very thankful for a restful day!