SINGAPORE SAGA: A TICKET FOR SHAMAN

Back to mid February, in the country of Malaysia, a land

just south of Thailand....

It is a day where 2 American tourists have the desire

 to travel to the nearby city-state of Singapore, while

vacationing in Kuala Lumpur and in hopes

of seeing the ocean water and tropical sun.

During their time at the local train station,

tickets sell out travelling to Singapore and 

the two girls are left distraught along
with all hopes of ever arriving
to their destination when 

a fellow foreign traveler approaches them
and informs them that he lived in a Shaman
in India and had just bought a ticket to Singapore.

With all sorts of rage filling one of the women

at the thought of this man stealing one of the

tickets that they were planning to buy, 

they race off to the bus station and successfully 

purchase a bus ticket to Singapore for the next day.

Had they only known of the adventures that awaited them... 

Forging Filipino Friendships!

While in Malaysia, I had the complete privilege of meeting all kinds of wonderful people.  Morgan and I were in a mixed gender dorm room of our hostel so it's kind of inevitable you end up talking to the people you may be sharing a bunk bed and room with.  The way it started was one of the guys (Tim) accidentally bumped into Morgan while crossing paths in the small room and Morgan, being the outgoing and talkative woman she is, introduced herself and thus begin the adventure.  It could have ended with Tim just saying 'Hey' and then completely ignoring us the rest of the time but it tells me a lot about who he is that he immediately introduced Morgan and I to the rest of his friends.  We soon discovered that we all had a lot of the same plans in mind for the next few days and ended up spending half of our time in KL together.  These people were so awesome to meet and I honestly can't imagine what KL would have been like without them.  When in close quarters and spending several hours together with the same people, you tend to create a bond quickly.  I was pleasantly surprised at how easy conversation flowed as we swapped stories of university life, living in westernized countries that were still completely different, and what it was like living on opposite sides of the world but still have the same love of travelling.  Morgan and I really hit the jackpot on travel companions.

(Around table from left) James, me, Tim, Morgan, Mary, Ysabel, Silas, Rob

James aka The North Star- James is the one you can pick out in a crowd and also the one that you may expect to be intimidating and gruff when he is actually completely the opposite. :)

Tim- He is fiercely loyal to the people he cares about and you can always count on him to have your back.

Silas- When he asks, "How are you?" he is genuinely interested and always knows how to keep conversation going without being intrusive.

Rob- The funny guy that makes the faces everybody else makes in their head but can hold an intelligent conversation about serious issues.

Mary-  She is a fun and outgoing gal that loves musicals as much as I do!

Ysabel- She also is a musical lover and has an air of sophistication that draws people to her.

I stole every single one of these photos from Silas without his permission. I hope he doesn't mind. :)

I'm so excited to have a new place to go and visit friends now.  I will for sure let you all know when I start planning my trip to the Philippines!

Sploitered Thoughts

Last semester, I ended up chance meeting a friend that just so happened to own a music school in Yantai. We went to dinner once, and hung out a few times for talk and drinks.  His English speaking level was quite low but had no real trouble understanding.  He drove me to the airport the day I left to return to the States which was completely unexpected and promised to take me to some concerts and introduce me more to the music scene of Yantai when I returned.  A few weeks, after school started up again this month, he texted me inviting me to a party and to sing at said party with him. Haha I sort of knew what I was getting myself into.  I ended up being the ONLY foreigner and pretty much the ONLY one who could speak any English.  But positive side was it was just basically people doing a cover concert which I could DEFINITELY get (even though I couldn't understand the words).  Come to find out, it was a going away party for my friend Youchao and he was moving back to his hometown which is in western China.  When he was driving me home after the party I could tell he wasn't very happy.  On his face, was an expression humans can only describe as pained.  All he could manage to tell me was that his parents wanted him to move back home and he had to take care of his family.  He's lived in Yantai for 5 years and all of his friends and memories are in this city.  There was definitely more he wanted to say but obviously couldn't communicate them to me in English.  I hope I can see him again before he leaves.

Some kid today in 4th grade out-taught me today.  We were doing a song and there were two words that I had a goal to teach them (ostinato and unison).  We had sang through the song several times and then I normally always ask what are some observations they made about the song like words, style, instruments, rhythm things, repeats etc.  Well this kid sticks up his hand and states very matter of factly, "Well I noticed there was some ostinati in it."

Well fine kid, you just teach the class.

Then all of my teacher friends will know what I mean when I mention that one kid that can make or break your class.  I have him in one of my secondary classes.  This boy...ok he needs a name if I'm going to go on about him. 

 TANGENT: I do better talking in code names. Makes things easy for me, not so easy for you. I've been using code names ever since I was in middle school.  Ok lemme see if I can think of a kid that was like him when I was middle school.  I can't think of one. END TANGENT: 

 Ok so RED FLAG #1 was the first day I started handing out music, the FIRST thing out of his mouth was, "Why aren't we doing pop song?!" Because kid, you're not good enough to sing 'em yet. Shut your mouth.  Never in my almost 2 years of teaching has a kid asked me that.  Now I've had my fair share of the this is borings! and uuuugghhhhsss! and do we have to stand ups? Those I can handle but when you immediately question something that I'm doing, that raises a FLAG.  Skipping school due to chronically being "SICK" was RED FLAG #2. I had half a mind to get in a taxi every morning and get this kid to school because that's how much I care about and love him.  I had wondered when RED FLAG #3 would rear its ugly head which it did in full force today.  I handed out a song, we sing it through a few times and after I ask for some observations, he then opens his mouth (pretty rudely I might add) "Uh...this is a song for elementary kids right? That you gave to us?" 

He also has the tendency to be a real jerk to people in general.  He is a boy that is trying so desperately to be a man.  He is very near to that age, however he hasn't learned to control his i-hate-the-world-and-everyone-in-it attitude.  I've had several personal conversations with him but what teenage boy wants to take the advice of his young, yet older and more sage female music teacher?!

Every Sunday, I spend a few hours at a coffee shop planning for the upcoming week.  Most of the time a foreigner or two walks in and there will be a short conversation or quick hello and that's it.  This time though, my friend and I spent quite awhile discussing challenges of living in a China with a particularly interesting man hailing from Australia.  He then contacted us later asking us to dinner with he and a few of his work friends.  My roommate and I (Americans) ended up that week going to a Thai restaurant for dinner (in China) with 3 Chinese and 2 Aussies.  It probably couldn't have gotten anymore multicultural.  It was an enjoyable and social evening.  Two days later they fixed an authentic Australian barbecue to celebrate Australia Day (national day). We had ribs and potatoes and shot off fireworks to celebrate.

Yarp Request: I am having some troubles focusing on things I truly am passionate and care about.  Mainly regarding people.  I'm being really vague but.....don't care!

Farewell.

Also, I don't know what the word 'sploitered' means. I may have made it up.