Robin's Exploration: And they say Americans are rude.

This has been peeving me since I got here but it's bordering on a neurotic annoyance now. No one moves out of your way on the sidewalk. You know how if you're walking on the sidewalk and someone's walking towards you, both parties move just a little to the right to account for the space. No one does that here. Literally, not a soul. No moving over, no angling your shoulder back for some extra space, they just keep on plowing through. I don't know how people aren't bumping into each other all over this town. And it is driving me nuts. I'm working on a theory where I also don't move. We play a little game of chicken and just keep walking striaght towards each other. Inevitably, I am the one to chicken out but this week, no more. I'm just going to stop right in front of them until they move and see how that goes. Or maybe I'll start throwing some bows. OR maybe I'll just run up to them screaming like a crazy person and they'll get out of the crazy Angmo's way. It's just so rude.

Singlish Word of the Day: SPG - Singapore Party Girls. They are mostly local girls who dress and act provocatively and solely date white men. You would think in a city this uptight, they would not allow some asian chicks to stand on the corner and pick up white dudes, but they do. They are on my corner, every night. And I live in a shopping district!

Amazing Advertising Learning: So they have these escalator/moving walkway things in the malls here. This is the longest one I've seen yet and it was in the Grocery store. Smartest thing they've ever done was to put chips along the way. Now these things don't move fast like the tricks they use in Twilight, it is a sloooow moving train. And you're staring at chips alllll along the way. Brilliant.

Dumb American Moment: I was talking to Kris and Viktoria about what to wear in India and was asking if I had to wear a sari and cover my head and everything. Viktoria looked at me and said "Muslims cover their heads, not Indians." Oops!

Housekeeping has reached an all-time high. In order to explain this, I have to admit something that I don't think I'll ever hear the end of, but I'm going to do it for the sake of blogging. I have a blanket. A blanket I've had since birth that often makes trips with me and wouldn't miss this one for the world. {pause here for everyone to make fun of me...it's ok, you can do it...even my mom does it and she bought the darn thing for me}

Point being, every morning, before I leave my room, I stuff my blanket in my pillow case so as Housekeeping doesn't have to deal with that ratty mess...blanket is on it's last leg and really doesn't need to be touched more than necessary. And I guess housekeeping picked up on that. Because last Friday, when I was rushing out the door, I guess I forgot to put my blanket in my pillow. When I came home, my blanket was folded nicely and PLACED INSIDE MY PILLOWCASE. They are so smart.

Side note: Jelly shoes are back. I missed that memo but I am PUMPED!

So Kris has this uncanny ability to spot a caucasian from a mile away. I have no idea how it even came up in discussion but we've deemed it White Vision Goggles (get it? It's like night vision goggles...ha!). They haven't really served a beneficial purpose yet other than to make me laugh (he cups his hands around his eyes and adjust it...it's funny!) but they really do work. Spotted Viktoria while we were waiting on her for lunch. Spotted some Frenchies at the club the other night. Yes, yes I went back to the nz, nz, nz club again. I'll have no friends when I come back b/c you've all disowned me. This does NOT mean I'm spending my Saturday nights at Opera. But seriously, we did talk to some French pilots who fly into Atlanta every couple of months so we may have some visitors in October...ha!

Speaking of Kris, I lost a bet so you can ignore this next story. He bet me that if he made his ball of trash into the trash can from 15 ft away then I had to post it on the blog. He made the shot. But only after hitting some poor student on the first shot. So this is all he gets. Asians hate Canadians now. Sorry Brian, hope word hasn't gotten up to China yet.

Saw Asian Chris Bayle on the street the other day. I would have taken a picture but couldn't pull out my camera fast enough. Then again, if I could have pulled the camera out that fast it's not as if I would have stepped in front of this guy and snapped a photo. I can't wait for 2011 when I can snap a photo in my head and immediately upload it to Facebook. The future is so cool.

On Saturday I went to the Singapore Botanic Gardens. This is Botanic Gardens Part 1 as this place is a BEAST. It's huge. And it's hot. It took me 2 hours and I only did half of it but it was beautiful and really relaxing. It was at this time I was really wishing I was Jeri Singeltary b/c I bet she would have taken way more artsy photographs than me but I gave it a shot. I took over 70 photos but just posted a few to give you a taste. Botanic Gardens Part 2 will come later.

Botanic Gardens Part 1: