Brunch, colors, and a country club

Sunday, 11 February 2018

When I lived in Birmingham, England from August of 2009 to May of 2010 I met Lauren Birkett, who became a very close friend.  I've since been back to England to visit her and she has come to the states (both Atlanta and New York) to visit me.  There is no one like her in the world, I'm thankful for her friendship.  She has a friend from growing up (named Laura) that lives in Singapore and is a teacher.  As soon as Lauren found out Bren and I were moving to Singapore, she put me in contact with Laura.  Today Bren and I met Laura and her boyfriend Drew for brunch at a "mexican" restaurant in Clarke Quay.  We had fun talking about England, and Lauren, and living in Singapore as an ex-pat.  Drew is from the mid-west and likes sports a lot so we got to talk about the Braves and the Falcons.  It was a really nice time and I hope we will meet up again soon. 

Bren and I walked around the Clarke Quay area and Fort Canning Park.  From the park I spotted a building that I've been wanting to find here so we walked down a bunch of stairs to get out of the park and to the Old Hill Street Police Station.  The building has a pretty interesting history that you can read about here.  I mostly loved that the window shutters are painted the colors of the rainbow.  

We kept walking around the area and found Peninsula Plaza (also known as Little Burma).  There were lots of Burmese people out and about too and there was some kind of religious festival happening, but we were ever able to identify exactly where it was happening.  

We got on the MRT and headed back towards our apartment because I told Katie I would meet up with her.  She met an older Malaysian lady named Helen at a Toast Box cafe in the mall.  They got to talking and Helen invited Katie and "her American friends" to her country club.  Belong to a country club in Singapore (much like most places) is a symbol of status and wealth.  Helen met us in the lobby and led us back to the porch bar where she order champagne and bottle service whiskey.  We talked about her family and how they were once rubber farmer in Malaysia and then Singapore, and how she had a home in Singapore, and London, and France.  She spoke about the people she'd met and the places she'd traveled, but also that she was quite lonely that her husband lived abroad and often without her and same with her two children.  She said some sad things about how she'd rather be social and out drinking then visiting her grandchildren.  I had a strange feeling about the whole situation, but was also appreciative that she was hosting us for dinner.  In some ways her wild, carefree personality reminded me of stories of my great-grandmother (nana).  We had a great dinner (or rather a feast) of oysters, and sushi, and laksa, and grilled vegetables, and noodles. We had some great conversations as well.  However, Helen had maybe a few too many sips of whiskey and went off on a true rant about politics in the USA and said some incredibly hateful and racist things.  Katie and I definitely challenged a lot that she said, and told her frankly a few times that her speech was hateful.  We thanked her for dinner and pretty quickly decided to leave.  She seemed sort of confused on how to get home so she rode in the cab with us.  We dropped her off and took a sigh of relief.  It sounded fun to go to a country club with a woman in her seventies, but we probably won't be hanging out with her again soon.

Julie Bryne show!

Friday, 9 February 2018

A few weeks ago, Bren noticed that one of our favorite singer, songwriters, Julie Byrne was touring Southeast Asia and specifically coming to Singapore!  We were very excited because we listened to her album, Not Even Happiness so, so many times in 2017.  It was one of my favorite albums of the year, and it was quite random to see that she was playing in Singapore.  I may be wrong, but I don't know if she has even ever played a show in Atlanta.  Naturally we bought tickets immediately, which were very inexpensive.  The show was in a warehouse building in Geylang.  It was BYOB so we met up with Katie, bought some beers at 7-11, and headed toward the address.  There was no signage, but we sort of followed someone else that looked like they maybe going to the show and introduced ourselves in the elevator.  Her name was Tess and we wound up talking some once inside the venue and exchanged phone numbers (I may have made a friend haha).  The show was amazing!  We are having a great time in Singapore, and I am learning so much, and we are exploring every weekend.  But some days I miss home and hanging out with our friends and family.  So this show was perfect for my spirits.  She has such a haunting voice and nature-themed lyrics, and it was just what I needed to feel a real sense of peace.  There were probably only 30 people or so at the show so we got to talk to her and her boyfriend for a while after she played her set and suggested a few restaurants they try for a late night meal.  We had a really nice time :)   And Tess texted me about some events she is going to over the next few weeks so I think I really did make a friend to hang out with here.

After the show, Katie, Bren and I went to a local bar, Sara's that's across the street from our apartment building.  It was a fun neighborhood, dive bar.  The bartenders were all really nice and taught us how to play a betting dice game that was a lot of fun!  It was the latest I've stayed up since we've been in Singapore (besides the jeglag nights the first week). 

Mid-week teaching, writing, running

Wednesday, 8 February 2018

My observations and teaching classes at my first host school is allowing me to gain more clarity on my inquiry project.  My grad school class as well is providing a lot of resources that I wouldn't have known to look into if it weren't for the reading materials and professors.  I've been trying to spend a few hours each day researching and writing and trying to narrow the scope of my project plan.  We have also been running more to explore our new neighborhood, including the MacRitchie Reservoir which is home to lots of exotic animals! There is a 10K loop around the lake through the jungle trails, and on a given run we have seen tons of monkeys and a monitor lizard.  Running more and being in a new neighborhood means we are exploring new hawker stands and restaurants as well--including a vegan ice cream shop.  I was hesitant about ice cream with no cream, but it was surprisingly tasty!

 

We moved apartments!

Monday, 5 February 2018

We moved out of the hostel and into the apartment we rented for the next 3 months and got internet set up today.  It's a nice place with a kitchen (gas stove!), living room, bedroom, closet, bathroom, and bomb shelter (yep, that's right--bomb shelter complete with giant metal door and ventilation systems.  Hopefully there will be no nuclear fall out while we are here, but just in case, we are covered.

Looking forward to living here for the next few months.  It's closer to my next school as well which is great!

Sentosa

Sunday, 4 February 2018

We decided to go check out Sentosa today.  We'd heard that was both a touristy spot, but also a get-away for locals.  One of my favorite things about living in Singapore is have access to tons of authentic foods from lots of different countries in Southeast Asia.  Today we got banh mi sandwiches from Banh Mi 888 in United Square shopping mall.  It's just a little store front shop in the mall, but the food was so delicious--especially the bread used for the sandwiches.  We will definitely be going back again.  There was a Starbucks on the walk from the MRT to Banh Mi 888 that had some neat plant walls that I want to try and replicate when we build a porch back home in Atlanta.  It seemed buildable--wooden framing and then the plants seemed to be planted in shallow, black gutters.

Sentosa is an island resort off Singapore's southern coast, connected to the city by road (bus), cable car (from Mount Fabor), pedestrian boardwalk and monorail (both from VivoCity).  We decided to walk the 15 minute boardwalk out to the island from VivoCity mall.  The water was very clear and blue despite all the cargo and cruise boats we could see in the distance.

Sentosa has a lot of different attractions, from Universal Studios, to a casino, to 3D art museums, to an aquarium, to waterparks, and beaches.  On the south coast, Palawan Beach is lined with food stalls and bars, and has a suspension bringe to a small offshore island.  We decided to just walk around and see the sights and hang out on the palm-tree lined, crescent-shaped Tanjong beach.  There were beautiful flowers and fountains on the walkways that eventually led to the beaches.  It's getting closer to Chinese New Year too so there were also lots of decorations and fortune boards based on the year you were born.  I'm the Year of the Snake and read my fortune on all the boards we came across.  Bren is the Year of the Tiger and said he didn't want to "jinx the universe" so he doesn't read his ha.

We also found a drink machine that stocked R.C. cola from Columbus, Georgia.  Small world :) 

We had a fun afternoon on Sentosa, and even though we walked around all day, we still went for a run that evening.  We ran around Ang Mo Kio-Bishan park.  We are moving apartments tomorrow, and although we won't be too far from where we have been living I took a picture of Bren crossing the street in front of the Ang Mo Kio neighborhood sign.  

Junkie's Corner

Saturday, 3 February

Bren read about a place called "Junkie's Corner" which was described as an antiques, bargain junk thrift store in the jungle.  It sounded like something we'd be interested in exploring and we decided we'd venture out there today.  We got lunch at a hawker stand on the way and I found pad thai again--which is always a favorite.  It's still blows my mind that I can pay four Singapore dollars for such deliciousness.   Also, there was a motorcycle with a sweet side car/cart parked at the hawker stand.

Junkie's Corner is pretty far off the beaten path.  We had to walk a good ways from the MRT station and through some unpaved roads to stumble upon what looks like a giant shed or warehouse coming out of the jungle full to the brim with stuff--some "antiques" but also just a lot of stuff...wintage, junk, furniture, art, toys...etc.

There didn't seem to be any kind of order in it at all, and some of the items were stacked floor to ceiling rather haphazardly.  Some items were broken, dusty, mildewed, and others were in great shape or renovated.  We had a fun time exploring though.  There were multiple old men (uncles) selling stuff, and I found a Pyrex bowl that I purchased for 3 SGD.  At one of the other guys "areas" of the shed, Bren found some fabric prints (they were literally hidden in a bird cage and quite dusty ha), but the man wanted 180 SGD (no clue why), so we didn't buy them.

We headed out after a couple of hours of exploring--it was a fascinating "store."  We got dinner and walked around the Marina Bay area.  We headed towards a carnival that had some free live music.  The bands were alright, but it started raining so we didn't stay for too long.  Another fun Saturday in the books!

We got dinner on our way back to the hostel at a Japanese restaurant at AMK.  Bren introduced me to eating "shabu shabu"--which is a Japanese hotpot dish of thinly sliced meat and vegetables that you cook at the table in boiling water.  Fun fact that he shared with me as well:  the term, "shabu shabu" is onomatopoeic, derived from the sound emitted when the ingredients are stirred in the cooking pot and served with dipping sauces.

Another fun Saturday exploring Singapore :) 

Observing, Teaching, Learning

Week of Monday, 29 January - Thursday, 1 February

I know that from my blog it sometimes seems that I fill my days with exploring the tropical island of Singapore with Bren and eating.  And while those are things we have definitely filled a lot of our free time with, I am definitely working and learning a lot about the Singaporean education system and mathematics curriculum.  Here is a brief overview of what a week looks like work-wise:

Monday:

• Lesson observation of an express Sec 3 class (Ms. Nadia), lesson focused on completing the square as a method to solve quadratic equations
• PLT (Professional Learning Team meeting) with visiting master teacher from China
• Meeting with my faculty advisory at NIE, Dr. CHUA 

Tuesday:

• Lesson observation debrief and planning with the teacher whose class I observed yesterday
• Psychology of Learning Primary Mathematics class 6:00-9:00pm

Wednesday:

• Meeting with teachers to co-plan upcoming lessons I'll be teaching in their classrooms
• Lesson observation in Mrs. Chuah class, a Normal Technical (NT) Sec 4 class, lesson focused on pythagorean theorem and using trigonometric ratios to solve right triangles for missing sides and angles.
• "Get to Know You" meeting at the U.S. Embassy

Thursday:

• Lesson observation with another teacher, Ms. Amy, Express, Sec 3, lesson focused on completing the square as a method to solve quadratic equations
• Taught a lesson in Ms. Nadia's classroom, focused on applications of quadratic functions (word problems)

Friday:

• Worked from home on research and writing for Fulbright Inquiry project 

Through the lesson observations I am learning a lot about the school culture and the focus for learning in mathematics classrooms.  The focus seems to be heavily weighted towards fluency, computations, and accurate calculations.  There are rarely opportunities for students to discuss their methods for solving a problem, analyzing each others work, or explaining what their final solution means in context of the problem or question posed.  Last week the PLT discussed increasing dialogue in math classrooms as the focus, which makes sense because there are few opportunities for students to communicate in class.  Instead I have been surprised at the amount of "teacher talk" and direct instruction that happens at the front of the classroom.  It has been exciting to teach classes too which started this week.  When I began to share some ideas and practices with teacher, they asked if I would be willing to teach their class and model some of these strategies and practices.  It is a unique opportunity to just be able to jump into someone else's classroom in another country and teach a math lesson.  The students were quite responsive and excited to have a "foreign, American" teacher for the day.  Although they were hesitant to participate actively in the ways I was encouraging, it was exciting to see that by the end of the class period they were discussing problems with their partner, explaining solutions in front of the class, and sharing their work in writing on the board.  I wish all teachers could have this type of co-learning opportunities.  It really has been invaluable for me and for the teachers I've gotten to work with so far.  

The whole school is open-air hallways and open window/fan classrooms.  The school is 3 or 4 stories and the courtyards all look so green and tropical, like this:

The classrooms get fairly warm, but the ceiling fans and light-weight student uniforms help. Although all the kids say they love going into the "air con" computer lab.

Also, I had a real "I love math so much!" moment while in the PLT meeting.  There was a master teacher visiting from China for the week at the same school.  She only spoke Mandarin and was meeting with me (English speaker) and 6 teachers from Singapore (4 who ethnically identify as Chinese, 2 who spoke Mandarin fluently, and 2 teachers who ethnically identify as Malay and don't speak Mandarin at all).  So we would ask a question, and one of the teachers who speak Chinese would translate the question, the teacher would answer, and then someone else would try and quickly translate.  I'm sure there was a lot that I missed in this conversation, but their was a moment when she was explaining how they teach pattern recognition through math classes in China, and started writing....because it was numbers and symbols, we all leaned in and understood immediately.  Mathematics is truly a universal language, and I'm thankful to speak it.

Chinese? Cantonese? Mandarin?  Want to understand more about "How A Dialect Differs from a Language" click here.