February 16, 2007

SINGAPORE

Chinese New Year Dinner, Indonesia Backpacking Update

I went out for a Chinese New Year dinner last night with a group of 75 hall residents at a chic district called Waterfront. The event was organized by the student committee and featured a ten course meal at a well-known Seafood restaurant called Jumbo Seafood. The name of the restaurant made me think it was going to be one of those buffet-style places found at the far end of a mall parking lot, but it was actually quite nice. We had the dining room to ourselves, which turned out to be necessary because the dinner was four hours of laughing, yelling, and competing for prizes. Before we even began eating each table stood up and used their chopsticks to fling their dish of noodles as high as they could. We did our best to keep the food over the middle of the table, but I was still stuck pulling chunks of salmon out of my tea afterward.

As the night wore on, the noise and revelry grew. The MC told  jokes on the microphone while we were laughing and having a go at one another. It is ironic how only a few days after writing about the reserved nature of the Chinese the entire argument was turned on its head with a wild, non-alcohol induced night. The truth is that Chinese New Year is the equivalent of most western holidays rolled into one celebration, and it is the definite opportunity for the Chinese to enjoy themselves. The pendulum swings both ways, I suppose.

After nearly three hours at the dinner, the noise became too much for me and I had to get fresh air. I excused myself from my table and escaped to the waterfront near the restaurant to relax. The solitude of the water and the distant city lights were exactly what I needed.

In retrospect, I think I experienced a mild case of homesickness. Whenever there are big holidays it is difficult being away from those with whom I am close.

This weekend should be better as I will be spending it with a family, and Hui Shi has become a good friend of mine. Chinese New Year is "officially" on Sunday, but I will stay at her house on Saturday as well to take part in all the festivities. If you see any Chinese people in the next few days you would do a world of good to wish them a prosperous new year: gongxi facai 恭喜发财 (click here). Give it a try in the next day or so and send me an email with how it went. I will post any funny incidents so do your best to make sure you don't say it to a Japanese person!   :)

On to the upcoming backpacking trip...

I will try to post once more before leaving for Indonesia on Monday morning. I am not sure how the trip will work (I will go to the library later today to begin planning), but I intend to survive with only a day pack for the two week trip. I'm not sure if this is feasible, but I am worried about safety and living conditions for this trip so I want to be agile. The 2002 and 2005 Jakarta and Bali bombings are fresh in my mind - not to mention the volcano that blew last year on Java, the 2004 Boxing day tsunami that wiped out Sumatra, the world's highest death count for bird flu, or the flooding that had 3/4 of Jakarta under water until last week. These definitely aren't the kind of facts the tourism industry stamps on the front of their brochures, but they are high on my priority list.

Since Indonesia is on the other side of the world and a mental image of the country probably isn't readily available, I posted a map so you have an idea where things will be taking place. I will write a more in depth introduction to the country once I start traveling, and I will try to post some kind of an itinerary in case the native people of [insert name] think I would make a good sacrificial offering to the gods.