The first day

In the morning we went on the Wacky Duck and Hip Hippo Singapore tours. We saw many of the city sites. Check the Singapore pics for update pictures of the city sites! We saw Raffles hotel which is named after the founder of Singapore, Sir Thomas Raffles. The Rafflese Hotel runs at about $600 a night and has featured such guests as Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor, and Jackie Chan. Singapore's modern history commenced from 1819 at the arrival of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, a British East India Company officer, who found Singapore as a "British Trading Post". Legend states that when Sir raffles sat foot on the island he first encountered a lion and named the island Singa Pura, Lion City.

An exert about Singapore:

To arrive in Singapore is to step into a world where the muezzin call to prayer competes with the bustle of capitalism; where old men play mah-jongg in the streets and white-clad bowlers send the ball flying down well-tended cricket pitches; where Chinese fortune-tellers and high-priced management consultants advise the same entrepreneur. This great diversity of lifestyles, cultures, and religions thrives within the framework of a well-ordered society. Singapore is a spotlessly clean -- some say sterile -- modern metropolis, surrounded by green, groomed parks and populated by 2.7 million extremely well-mannered people.

Although the Malays, Chinese, and Indians account for 97% of Singapore's population, other ethnic groups -- from Eurasians to Filipinos, from Armenians to Thais -- contribute significantly to the nation's cultural mix. Understandably, the heritage of the British colonial stay is profoundly felt even though Singapore became an independent nation in 1965.

Following the tour we went to the country's highest revolving restaurant to see the city from far above. As far as the eye can see are large sky-scrapers. Most of these are businesses or HD Housing. HD housing stands for High Density Housing which is partially government funded. 85% of the population is housed in this type of housing.

After lunch featured the most exciting portion of the day! Meeting our host families. I am living with the Yio Eng Chiang family in the suburbs of the main city. The area of Singapore I am living is was built by Great Britain to house pilots who worked at the nearby Air Base. Mr. Yio is a retired combat fighter who has traveled throughout Europe and American bases for training. Joon, pronounced June, is En Chiang's wife. She enjoys playing golf with her family and friends at the local Raffles club. Mr. And Mrs. Yio have both won numerous golf trophies. Joon enjoys playing MahJong in the afternoons. I have

The Yio family has twin brothers and one older sister. Calvin and Alvin are currently serving their required military service. We picked up Calvin today as he was coming in from his basic conditioning camp. He will return to camp later tonight. His brother Alvin is at an advanced camp and is then leaving to go to the Singapore National University. Mr. Yio's daughter studied Politics and Economics at Oxford University in London. She currently works with Singapore International Affairs. She has been pictured with Japan and Singapore's Presidents signing trade agreements. It will be interesting to meet her because international affairs is a career path that I am interested in. She also has a one year old daughter.

The house I am living in is a 2 and a half story semi-detached home. Semi-detached simply means that the house is attached only to the next house. I have my own room on the second floor of the house with my own bathroom, large closet, and air conditioning. The house also has a small yard where Mr. Yio enjoys upkeeping his bonsai and fruit trees. Having a yard in Singapore is a sign of wealth due to how limited and expensive the land is. En Chiang also enjoys drinking Guiness Stout and I joined him in having one today. Im not quite the stout drinker as he.

The Yio family also has their own car. Before purchasing a car you must purchase a certificate in an open auction. Once you have the certificate you can then purchase a car. This brings the purchase price of a small car to approximately 75000 US. This doesn't include the annual tax and payment to use the actual roads. The road system is quite different here in Singapore. The British influence is very apparant here, in the way the country drives on the opposite side of the road. It will take some time to get use to getting into the left hand side as a passenger. The British influence is also apparant in the Singapore Accent. Imagine an Asian accent intermingled with the British Accent. Top-Up is to fill something up. Cheers is to say thank you.

En Chiang took me to dinner at a nearby Indian Restaurant where we enjoyed a dish called Roti Prata. This is a sort of fried croissant, originating from south India. The wheat flour that is used makes for a dough that can be tossed and stretched till it is paper thin. Then it is folded over a few times, to create separate layers. The result is a many-layered partly-crispy-partly-soft pancake that resembles filo pastry. The pancake is fried on a hot, oily griddle until it's cooked, and marked with brown spots, then served with a curry gravy. For some who do not like it spicy, instead of eating their prata with curry, they can sprinkle sugar over it and turn it into a savory-sweet pancake. The prata that we had was stuffed with beef, onions, eggs, and topped with mutton curry. It was very delicious!

Following dinner I came home to eat starfruit! Another one of my favorite tropical fruits. The fruit when sliced makes a star shape. We then sat around the TV watching CNN's coverage and talked about America and its international views.

The family is also providing me with a cell phone if you need to contact me please do so at 65 94469873: I have free incoming calls so feel free to call if you have an international phone card!

If you would like to mail me something you can send it express to the following address. If you do not express the package or mail it will take over two months to travel by boat.

6 UPPER NERAM ROAD

Singapore 805970