just another long weekend....

After our first full week of school, we get another long weekend. Lots to do today. First, we booked our villa in Langkawi for our October break. We are staying HERE. My favorite part about this place is that it clearly states "no kids allowed" and has great reviews. Also, I found out that before I can change my name on my passport, I need to change my Social Security card. I have not used my SS number for about 4 years and probably won't for the next 20, but gotta update it. Why am I changing my passport name in such a hurry? Oh, just because I can't get a new email address at school until I do... What? You don't see how those are related? Me neither. Anyways, SS card, Passport, new email address. So I will be filling out the SS card form and mailing that in. I'm sure that deserves a celebratory glass of wine at some point. 

At brunch yesterday, everyone was talking about the Treetop walk at McRitchie. O and I haven't done that in awhile so we're gonna go walk over there in a bit. It's about a 2-3 hour walk. The rest of the day will consist of sitting by the pool reading my book. Later we have dinner plans at a friend's place. 

Busy busy day. 

oh google, you're so silly

I was going to type "california wine" but Google had other suggestions....

randomness.

After looking at so many wedding websites for months looking for ideas for a winery wedding, I got pretty excited about all the things you can do with wine corks. I just ran across a few things this morning and got really excited about one. THIS VIDEO has Lauren Conrad (who I love- I don't care what you say) making a cork board in the shape of a heart. I think this is a cute idea, however, what got me really excited was looking at the corks. Most of the corks she uses are from Ledson Winery. That's the first winery we went to the day before our wedding for the wine tour. Anyways, I kinda want to make a heart out of wine corks, but smaller and use it differently. We have yet to find Nicholson Ranch wine in Singapore, but it would be rad to use those corks for the heart.

Ledson Winery

6 years

Wow, 6 years? I just realized I've had this blog for 6 years now.  I was looking back at one of my earliest posts and came across this gem :

The Cure for AIDS

Working with the future of America does have its perks sometimes. I had a student in class today stand up and announce(completely in the middle of class) that he had discovered the cure for AIDS. Super. Not only had he written down his theory, but he also had diagrams to go along with the theory. His theory goes like this: "Take AIDS blood and mix it with non-AIDS blood. Then separate the AIDS cells out of it. That is the cure. " Let me tell you I wish I could scan his paper and post it on here because it's just about the funniest thing of my life. Please someone alert the media to confirm that we did , indeed, discover the cure for AIDS in 4th grade today.

I totally remember this kid, but I'd forgotten about this moment. So 6 years ago, I was 26 and teaching at a Houston public school. It was my 2nd year teaching and had rough but hilarious group of kids. Now I'm older wiser and it's my 9th year teaching. Amazing how time flies.

Things I Like.

The Latest and the Greatest in things I'm currently obsessed with: 

1. Have you seen this website?

http://knotworkshop.bigcartel.com/

Oh, how I love thee. I want them all!

2. Some of my friends, The Conrads, have opened up this shop:

http://t-n-o.co/

Love love love these boots! I want them sooo badly! Can't really justify getting them since I'd never be able to wear them in Singapore. 

3. Our new Nespresso machine! Do you have one? If you like coffee, you should get this. Really amazing coffee expresso in about 30 seconds. We used some of our gift certificates from friends in Singapore to get this. Also, you can order the capsules online and they deliver them to your door. Talk about convenient.

book review.

 Got through a few books this summer and we've had some lazy days at the pool here in Singers.

 Here are the latest books: 

I loved this book. It's a memoir about her life growing up in small town, texas. I think she's absolutely brilliant and it makes me want to write my own memoir about random funny/embarrassing shit. 

Her blog is equally as funny- check it out! 

http://thebloggess.com/

Epic novel. That's all I think when I look at this book. Make sure you have lots of time to read this. I really like his books. This one is set in the Middle Ages just like his first book, Pillars of the Earth, it's about the same cathedral they built. Lots of drama. I like the characters and the time period is fascinating, but I always keep thinking about how badly they would smell back then. They seem to only wash like once a week and don't have deodorant, toothpaste, soap, etc. I'm now reading his next series of books, Fall of Giants, set in WWI. 

 Ok, so I had to know what all the fuss was about.... This book has been on every single bookstore's front shelf at every single airport we've been to this summer. (Which is 7 airports, I just counted) It's shocking. Like shockingly BAD. Terrible writing. It's like it's written by a drunk teenager. The author is OBVIOUSLY British in her word choices, but the setting and characters are from Washington state. That bothered me. But what really through me over the edge was how often the phrase "Oh my God, he's so fucking hot." was used. Maybe I should have created my own drinking game based on that. Might have made the book more enjoyable. As everyone knows, it's porn. That part doesn't really bother me, why is that even controversial anymore? It's not any worse than HBO shows. The part that everyone should be absolutely fired up about is the way women are portrayed in the book. The feminist in me was freaking out while reading this. The main character, Anna, is an absolute nightmare. She's the worst. I feel like this is just another Twilight book with the same main character. She's timid, really beautiful (but has no idea how beautiful she is- gag), men fall for her beauty and fight over her. She has no self-esteem and can't say no to this Christian Grey because, yes, you guessed it, "he's so fucking hot" OH, and he's super rich. Really? Of course, I had to finish it, gotta know the plot was going to pan out... and of course I had to.....

read the 2nd book. It HAS to get better, right? This is a BEST selling novel! No, the 2nd book was even worse. I forced myself to finish it. Save yourself the time and I'll just tell you what happens. So this girl with no self-steem or self-respect falls for this super rich guy who is into kinky sex. They have lots of sex. In 2 weeks of knowing each other and doing it alot, he decides he wants to marry her.... Yes, this sex-crazed control freak has changed his ways and wants to settle down after 2 weeks. They don't even know each other. Lust, not love. I hope young women don't look at her as a role model and Christian Grey as a hero because that's what we should be protesting. Forget the sex, we can't have women thinking this is what a real relationship is all about. I really can't say enough bad things about these books, but I'll stop here. 

Happy National Day!

Today is Singapore's National Day. Singapore has been a country now for 47 years. We've had 2 days of work and now a nice little holiday in the middle of the week. Been back in Singapore for 2 weeks now and loving the life. Since it's Singapore's b-day, I'm going to name my favorite things about living here:

1. Safety- I love going for morning runs in the dark feeling incredibly safe. I can walk home from the MRT station at 2AM by myself and not be in danger of anything happening. Low crime doesn't mean no crime, but I love how much freedom I have to do things.

2. The Food!! You can get a good plate of chicken and rice for $3 at the local Hawker or go out for gourmet dinner costing over $300. There's just every kind of food from around the world and you know how I like to eat.

3. Public Transport- Not only is it super cheap, but really efficient. I've got an App on my phone that tells me what buses are coming to whatever bus stop I'm near and how long until the next bus gets there. The MRT arrives every 3 minutes at each station. With taxis also being very cheap, there's no need to get a car.

3. The weather-  Every day is summer. My wardrobe is the same. Dresses, skirts, shorts, tank tops, sandals, all year long. That means every day after work you can just lounge by the pool soaking up the sun.

4. Travel- Where do you want to go? Singapore probably has a direct flight there. Our flights to Langkawi, an island in Malaysia, were $150 for both of us roundtrip. Our flights to the Perehentian Islands were $15 each. If you've got a flexible schedule, you can find some amazing deals. Our flights from Canada to the States this summer were $700 EACH. Asian airlines rock!

5. The parks- Singapore has done a really good job creating park space within a concrete jungle. You can get out on your own in a rain forest pretty quickly and not have a single person in sight. Lots of monkeys, lizards, turtles, birds, etc. Also, I love the Botanic Gardens which are gorgeous to walk through.

6. Shopping- Stores from all over the world. It's more usually more expensive than the US, but if you need anything, you can find it. Some of my faves are Zara, H&M, Gap, Banana Republic, Cotton On, Pull &Bear, Aldo, Sephora, and Esprit.

 7. The diversity- We live next to a Bible College and 3 other churches of different denominations which for some weird reason this shocks people when they see how many churches there are in Singapore. There's also a Buddist Temple and Mosque down the street too. So many different religions and nationalities living in harmony. In my class of 22 students, they are from 14 different countries.

THIS Video is pretty funny. The govt here has been really promoting local families to have more kids. They want to increase the population of Singaporeans.

Facts you probably didn't know about Singapore:

• Singapore is among the 20 smallest countries in the world, with a total land area of only 682.7 square kilometer. The USA is about 15,000 times bigger.
• Apart from Monaco, Singapore is the most densely populated country in the world, with 6,430 people per square kilometer. Total population is about 5 million. However, it very rarely feels crowded.
• The Bukit Timah Nature Reserve in Singapore contains more species of trees than the entire North American continent. You can walk around this nature reserve somedays and not see a single person. 
• Singapore consists only of one main island and 63 other tiny islands. 

Honeymoon # 2

Texassss..... After California, we went down to Texas to see my grandparents and to also explore Austin. We had so much fun. Got a hotel off 6th street in Austin. Went bar-hopping each night and ended up getting tickets to see The Barenaked Ladies who I love love love. They played lots of their old stuff and we were on the floor drinking Shiners all night. Of course we had to stop at a Taco Truck to get some burritos to go. Absolutely a blast! 

 Drove to College Station and walked around A&M. It was hotter than hell and slightly bigger than O's university.

  We just walked around like we owned the place and ended up just walking on Kyle Field. I haven't done that before. Hard to believe that it seats 80,000 and is full every game day. In Texas, football is a religion.

 Shiner, I forgot how good you are!

 Taco Truck! One thing I miss from Texas. 

 O at the Other University.

 Me! 

 Blue Traveler was one of the opening bands

If I had a million dollars...

honeymoon #1 continued...

I hate how on this blogger, you try to add more pictures and it puts the pictures on the top. It's like you have to think backwards, like what's the last photo I want on here and then work your way back to the top. Anyways, we had an amazing hotel right on the water. The first day, they had a farmer's market featuring jewelry and art from locals. I could have shopped all day here. There were lots of little seafood restaurants, candy shops, coffee shops, etc. Great little town, can't wait to go back someday. 

We went to Carmel one day. There's a beautiful mission there. 

 Back at the harbour, lots of seals....

 There were several tasting rooms for local wineries on the harbour. We tried several different wines, then bought one and enjoyed it at the restaurant next door overlooking the water.

 We went out to Pebble Beach one day. This was the most stunning golf course I've ever seen. Lots of celebrities have massive homes along the course. The course runs right next to the ocean. To play, it's $500 and there's a 3 month waiting period. Crazy.

Honeymoon #1

After the wedding week o' fun, we left San Fran and drove down to Monterey. We took the scenic route on the way down there and it was absolutely stunning. I wish had I had taken more pictures, but I was just admiring the views. 

 Seals and pelicans were surrounding the harbour. Also, little otters, but I didn't get a picture of them. They are too slick.

 Some guy had this really pretty birds and was letting little kids hold them. 

We stayed right in the harbour, so beautiful.