back to school

My third day in Singapore was fantastic. Andrea teaches at the Singapore American School and invited me to talk to her fourth graders about Antarctica. I was a bit nervous as I have very little prepared, but had a simply marvelous time telling these kids about McMurdo Station and the science projects going on at the bottom of the world.

The kids were super, though. They knew a lot about Antarctica already which was more impressive than most adults I talk to! I only had one polar bear question from the 22 of them! They even asked questions about what currency we use and "I heard you have an ATM machine." Others were interested in the science and some others the shopping. After my presentation of some pictures and short videos and lots of questions, I hung out for lunch with some of the teachers at the school and answered a couple of their questions as well. Going back to school was a lot of fun!

From the school, I took a taxi to the bus station and caught the bus to go to Malaysia. Since I was so close I figured I could spend the afternoon in another country. The bus is a mess of dropping everyone off on the Singapore side to get an exit stamp and then picking everyone up again, driving across the bridge and then letting everyone off into the maze of a Malaysian customs building on the other side. I filled out lots of cards and asked lots of questions and finally found myself in a mall in Malaysia. I wandered around a bit, bought a couple items, walked outside on the street and snapped a photo for proof. A couple hours later, I hopped back on the bus and did the entire customs mess all over again.

I met Andrea at her condo and we turned around fairly quickly for dinner with her friend in the Arab Quarter. I thought I would be waiting until I was further into my trip to hear the Islamic call to prayer, but as we sat down for dinner at a Turkish restaurant, the hauntingly beautiful voice became clear over the music. Andrea and I smiled a bit to think of how far our lives have come since we were in school in Michigan; and how strange it was to be two Americans in Asia, listening to the call to prayer at a Turkish restaurant.