Finally, the weekend! It was great to get to spend the whole day with Mike, I missed him a lot while he was at work during the week. We woke up pretty early because we had to go get our immigration cards from the Ministry of Manpower. Or as I liked to call it, the Ministry of Magic! We need to see Cornelius Fudge! And I am a nerd...

Our appointment was for 10, so we left early because we didn't know exactly how to get there. We wandered around for a few minutes looking for the Dhoby Ghaut subway station. Here's the thing: people here are so nice, like ridiculously nice. We saw a woman getting dropped off by her husband, and we asked them for directions. They told us where to go, and we started walking. A second later, the husband drove up and opened the door to his car and motioned for us to get in. He didn't want any money or anything, he just drove us to the subway station and told us about the area we're staying in. I don't know if it's because most people here are Buddhist and believe in karma, but I've never been in a city where everyone is so willing to go out of their way to help. I know that if I were in Austin, the odds of me picking up a lost Chinese couple downtown and driving them to a bus stop are slim to none. But at the risk of sounding corny, I'm actually quite inspired to be kinder to my fellow man. It really can make someone's day a lot better. I know we would have been pretty screwed, cause that station was in the middle of fucking nowhere.

So I was immediately called upon to put my "pay it forward" plan into action, if I can steal a phrase from a shitty, shitty movie. In the subway station, a fellow lost white person asked me how to get to the airport, so I told him to take the Joo Koon line and get off at the Taneh Mareh interchange. Mike helpfully pointed out that this in no way measures up to driving someone around, but I ignored him and felt very smug. Besides, hey, someone asked me for directions! And I gave him the right ones! Not only was I mistaken for a real Singaporean, I'm learning my way around. I've discovered that, however incongruous to my personality it may seem, I'm actually quite good with directions. Who knew? I found a shorter way for Mike to walk to work, and I got us to the Ministry pretty quickly. I'm officially in charge of the maps now. It's a heady feeling.

So after the Ministry (of MAGIC!!) we went to open up a bank account at United Overseas Bank. This is not interesting, it's just like opening a bank account in America, except they have more rules.

Anyway, after that we went back home to rest for awhile and cool off. Then we decided to head over to Little India, since it's quite close to us and I've been wanting to explore it. Basically, Little India is awesome. There are shops everywhere, selling $5 pairs of jeans, bangles, Bollywood CDs and DVDs, flower garlands, spices, calling cards, and pretty much anything one can think of. The whole place smells amazing, and people everywhere yell at you to buy things. From what I've heard from Adrian and Laura, this place is a fair representation of India India. They have the most insanely beautiful temples with tons of carvings of all different colors. I have no idea how long those took to make, but it was worth it. The Sri Veerama Kaliamman temple is the most famous one, dedicated to the goddess Kali. We tried to take as many pictures as we could, but it's so big it was hard to get the whole thing (that'swhatshesaid). We also stopped into Tekka Market, which is a big wet market on the corner. The first floor is a hawker court, but it also functions as a butcher shop. There was a big fish market, and then lots of little stands where people were chopping up meat on wooden blocks with giant cleavers. It was wet and slippery and Mike got a speck of meat flung on his face. The second floor is just all clothes and jewelry, rows and rows of saris and suits and walls of bangles. We took a picture of some of the jewelry and then a man came over and demanded $100 for the picture. He finally said he was joking, but it really wasn't that funny.

We got hungry, so we decided to try a place we saw Andrew Zimmern go on the Travel Channel. It's called Banana Leaf Apollo, which, granted, sounds more like a bad band name than a restaurant. Thank you, we are Banana Leaf Apollo, we have CDs for sale by the bar! But it's really popular and well known, judging from the amount of tourists we saw eating inside. They give you a big banana leaf to eat on instead of a plate, which seems very eco-friendly to me, not to mention a way to avoid doing dishes. We got aloo gobi, palak paneer, and yellow dahl with garlic naan. It was really yummy, and the aloo gobi was seriously good. But Mike got really mad because when I went to wash my hands, an Indian guy came up and tried to make him go to his store. He kept calling Mike "big boy" and saying he could make a really big shirt for him to wear. Now, I tried to explain to Mike that yes, he IS big, but not in a fat way, just in a tall, broad, and not Asian way. He didn't really listen, but he did go on a rather hilarious rant about the guy. "Sure, come to my store, I've got a TON of fabric to cover your HUGE FAT body, GOD you're so BIG, what the fuck is WRONG with you, are you a giant?" Then we had to haul ass out the restaurant so he wouldn't stop us again.

Anyway, a pretty full day. We were supposed to go look at apartments tonight, but our agent is taking us Monday instead, since more places are open during the week. Hopefully we can find something we like and start moving in soon.

I found the supermarket! There's one at Bugis Junction, which is the big subway station we go to a lot. They have pretty much everything an American supermarket would have, from Special K Red Berries to tupperware and Clorox. Once we have our own place, we can do a lot more cooking (and baking). It's nice to know we can have pasta or quesadillas anytime we feel like it. But food is so cheap here, we can still eat out a lot and not feel guilty.

Tomorrow we're planning a trip to the beach! Yes, I will wear sunscreen and take an umbrella like a loser. Hopefully it won't rain! Will write again soon...