I had hoped I could have blogged from Singapore, but didn't have easy email access (and wasn't trying too hard either). So now I'll blog an overview of our trip since I've returned to Oxford. Brian is still in Singapore and is flying home to me on Sunday. He's getting a lot of work done now that I'm home! We've had a fantastic time and are really impressed with the city.
Our place was okay. We stayed in a visitor's guest room on the NUS campus. It was clean, but pretty plain and on the ground floor (which I wasn't so keen on). I would say my biggest complaint was the breakfast - it was a bit sketchy (asian noodles for breakfast?) but you can't go wrong with toast and coffee. And I do have a new fave - they call it kaya. It's a spread or jam with a light green color but it's made of eggs, coconut and sugar. They eat it on toast and call it Kaya Toast. I happen to like it best on French Toast!
The NUS campus was huge, so Brian takes the free internal bus to the Science building where his new office is located. He's in the Center for Quantum Technologies and shares an office with another Oxford researcher named Stephen. Stephen is a theorist, while Brian is an experimentalist. Stephen also is getting the same type of funding as Brian. Since this is a new collaboration for both Universities, Brian and Stephen are the guinea pigs, and so spent a lot of time last week getting paperwork figured out and bank accounts, etc. I went with them to get visas and green cards. So we now have visas and green cards for Singapore! Brian also has a Singapore bank account and will be paid in Singapore dollars. Good thing their economy is actually pretty strong compared to the rest of the world right now. They have been affected somewhat, but not at all as bad as the US, UK or European economies. 
I think the overall impressions we had of Singapore are extremely favorable. First off, the weather is hot and humid. Which I LOVED for a change! The temperature was between 80-90 degrees, with 100% humidity. I lived in tank tops and skirts. I think there was 10 minutes during the whole trip where I put on a cardigan. You definitely have to get used to sweating a lot. I guess it's common that the locals shower two times a day.
The cleanliness of the city is also unbelievable. Obviously the fact that there are steep fines for making a mess makes a difference. It's neat to see how the residents respect keeping the city clean and recognizes that it's for everyone's benefit. I thought maybe it would feel like the government had a strong hand on everyone about this, but it didn't feel that way at all, and that it's just a normal day-to-day part of their society. There are fines for littering, chewing gum is illegal, and it's true that you can get in trouble for not flushing a public toilet!
Speaking of toilets, not to get gross, but I decided that one area where you can really get a sense of different cultures is in their bathroom habits. In Singapore, and I'm guessing in Asia, that it's common for people to go to the bathroom by squatting. In all the women's bathrooms, they would look just like Western bathrooms (stalls with normal toilets) but at the end there would be a stall with just a large porcelain hole in the ground, and grips on the ground where you put your feet. It's so you just squat over the hole to go both number 1 or number 2. Yikes! I also noticed that even on the normal Western toilets in the girls bathroom, the lids would both be up (like how guys leave the lid up). It's again cause sometimes the girls just squat over the toilet bowl and it's easier if both lids were up. The funniest of it all to me though are the bathroom signs they have to tell the public how to use or not to use the toilets. The one that describes how you shouldn't stand on the western toilet and then squat down on it it hilarious. Good lord!!
We thought we might feel out of place, but Singapore is such a international city state. People from all over the world work, live and visit Singapore. I realized that I couldn't assume any asian person I saw was a local. They could either be expats like us or tourists. Lots of Westerners are expats there and work in the city. Of course, the majority of the population are Singaporeans, who are mostly Chinese and from Southest Asia (like Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, etc). Of course, there is a high influence from India and the Middle East as well. This is especially apparent in the ethnic districts in the city: Chinatown, Little India and the Arab Quarter. We walked around each of these areas and tried to have meals in them as well. We probably spent most of our time in Chinatown as it was the largest ethnic area and had a great market. 
Speaking of food, Singapore has amazing asian cuisine and it's really inexpensive. Of course we could go find expensive restaurants if we wanted, but it was so easy to find cheap yet really good and filling food. The local thing to do is get a meal at a Hawker Center. They are definitely a bit sketchy looking at first and are reminiscent of food stalls at the fair. But as it's Singapore, they have high hygienic laws and so you can definitely count on the food being safe - and amazing! We ate lots of seafood, local asian fare, middle eastern and india. 
I would say the highlight of my trip was last weekend. We had been busy with getting things set up, spending time with Stephen and Brian's graduate student Hendrik who also was visiting, that we decided a relaxing weekend just for the two of us was needed. We had heard that an hour away by ferry was Palau Bintan (Bintan island) in Indonesia. We found ourselves a beach resort and bellied up! We had to pay 10 american dollars (funny they requested USD) to get 7-day visas to visit Indonesia. It was incredible! 
I had been hoping we could have gone to Bali while we were there -but the locals told us Bintan is even better as it hasn't been taken over by all the tourism yet. And that is definitely the truth. The first thing we saw on the bus on the way to the beach resort were some wild monkeys hanging out on the road! Instead of like wild deer on the road in Minnesota, it was a bunch of wild monkeys just hanging out! At the beach resort, the other wild animals we saw around were some kimono like dragon lizards, amazing birds I've never heard of, and more monkeys in the trees!
The beach resort was wonderful - our room was pretty simple but nice, and it didn't really matter since we spent every waking moment on the beach (or drinking at the bar next to the beach). The bathroom (ha, again) was funny as the toilet, sink and shower are all in the same bathroom - as in, there is no separate shower stall. The water from the shower just sprays all over the toilet and sink! It all dries just fine. . . :) 
The food again was incredible and amazing prices. Friday night we ate dinner at a Thai restaurant on the deck by candlelight overlooking the beach. Saturday for lunch I had Indonesian fried rice and beef satay (grilled meat on a skewer with spicy peanut sauce). Saturday night we went to an Indian restaurant and they were having an outdoor beach BBQ. So we sat again practically on the beach and stuffed ourselves silly with local indian-asian-indonesian fused fare. Fantastic!
To wrap this up, I flew back on Monday. We were flying on Emirates Airlines, the best airline I've even flown on. Talk about amazing customer service - even in coach. Puts all US airlines to shame (especially Northwest). We had a stopover in Dubai, which was cool to say we were there. Took at 23 hours total from Singapore to our flat in Oxford. But was able to go straight to bed when I made it home - so there wasn't really any jet lag. Now I'm just enjoying my tan before it disappears in 3 day. :)
