Unfortunately I don't have any new pictures this week, but I would like to share some stories that have made my new life here even more exciting!

The Jewish World is a small world!!
I generally really enjoy being different from all of those around me here, as it is always a learning experience, but last week I desperately needed to experience something relatively familiar. So, I went to Maghain Aboth Synagogue, the only active synagogue in Singapore. As I traveled to the synagogue, I wondered what the Jewish population was like around here- would it be full of expats? would it be a congregation of Asian Jews? I entered the gate into the synagogue, and I was quickly directed to the Ladies section. That's when it hit me that I was jumping into an Orthodox service! I decided to check it out anyway. Inside was absolutely beautiful. I sat next to a large group of ladies (who ended up being all from the US), and by the way they chatted in whispers throughout the service, I could tell that I wasn't the only person there who was not an Orthodox Jew. I got to talking to the girl next to me, and I told her that I was a new student here from the Philadelphia area, and it turns out that her father is from the Philly area too, and knew of Lower Merion High School, and Har Zion Temple!! Their family lived in DC before coming to Singapore in 2003, and we knew a surprising amount of people in common, including the Szulanski family, whom my mom and I taught the youngest daughter violin and piano before they moved to Singapore in 2002 I believe. While we chatted during the service, I could hardly believe I was playing "Jewish Geography" thousands of miles from home with a girl that I just met! The clincher is that her name is Ashira Greene- not a far cry from my sister, Shira Greenfield!!
So I went to the Kiddush lunch afterwards and learned more about the Jewish population in Singapore. It was mainly Sephardic businessmen and their families, including the family that brought Banana Republic and GAP to Singapore, and the creator of Coffee Bean in Singapore. So a lot of important people in one room! There were some NUS students there as well, mainly very religious and from Israel and/or France. Everyone was so welcoming and friendly, I felt like I had a new family in Singapore! I can't wait to go back again :).

Music Opportunities
I am playing in the orchestra for the opera Turandot, which is a very high-profile event in Singapore right now. I'm really excited to be part of it!! We have a lot of rehearsals, but we're paid so it's okay.
I am also gonna start teaching privately, so I'm really excited about that!
The level of violin playing here really is phenomenal- my teacher and her other students never cease to amaze me. It's at a much higher level than any studio I've seen before. So I'm constantly inspired to work really hard!

That's about it for now! tomorrow I am going to check out Sentosa!

This week was the first week of classes, and there has been one headache after another! The fact that it takes at least 45 minutes to get ANYWHERE is really hindering me, since I'm used to allowing approx. 5-10 min for travel time to get most places. I used to think that Peabody's offices were very inefficient, but they run like a well-oiled machine compared to the administration of NUS. To make a long story short, I spent hours and hours of time trying to get into Chinese Class (which I don't think succeeded through no fault of my own), getting the school to give me my stipend (still has not happened), getting my library card to work, getting into the computer system so that I can book practice rooms, getting my bank account running, and trying to get my students pass. Not fun stuff! Also, since it takes 45 min at least to go between home and school, once I leave for school in the morning, I don't get back here at night usually until around 11 pm. I will need to get used to these long days. I think that once all the administration stuff is settled and I get accustomed to the school, everything will be much easier.

However, musically the first week of classes was very exciting! I met my teacher, and she gave me a lot to work on. She is a fantastic teacher and performer, and I think we will work really well together! I also had my first coaching and orchestra rehearsals, and so I have a lot of repertoire to keep me busy.

I also have still continued to be a tourist when I'm not at school, as you will see from these pictures!

These are all from Malacca, Malaysia:
Photo credits go to Jolene and Emily
Emily and I in the dutch quarters


There are stray cats in Malaysia too!


view from our hotel
we LOVED this cafe!!! delicious food, great coffee, and really nice waiters (such as the one in the picture) who told us all about Malaysian food. We went there twice and hope to go back again!

Me and the roomie

Me and Emily! I was tired, as you can see :)
outside A Famosa

These street musicians were FANTASTIC



Now Back to Singapore-
The one and only synagogue in Singapore. More about that later!


Part of a reeally beautiful sculpture exhibitTemples and synagogues and churches coexist happily on the same street!
This is home- after lots and lots of cleaning and a trip to IKEA!



Hope you all enjoyed!
~Leah

As always, there is never a dull moment in Singapore! A lot has been happening, and I am really excited to get rolling at school tomorrow (Monday). I am the first violinist in a string quartet with 3 lovely Chinese girls, and we have our first coaching with the T'ang Quartet on Tuesday. I am also so honored to say that I am on the first stand of second violins in the orchestra, and we start rehearsing Brahms Symphony No. 2 tomorrow! What a great way to start the year :). I also meet my violin teacher tomorrow, which will really signify the start of everything. I can't wait! Everyone at the music school has been really nice to me, and I have been making some new friends. The school is about 80% Chinese I believe, and the students have taken to thinking that my name is "Greenfield",which I think is so funny! In China, your last name is written first and then your first name is on the end, so when they see "Leah Greenfield", they think that my name is Greenfield and call me that. It's an entertaining change.

As some of you may know, I had an amazing 3 days in Malacca last week! This small state in Malaysia has a fascinating history, but I will let you click on the Wikipedia link above to read about it because otherwise, I will be sitting here writing forever! I'm having a really difficult time writing about this trip, because I was shocked to the core with the drastic change of city conditions, culture, and history. Singapore is so built up and developed and secure, that I almost forgot that the rest of Southeast Asia is quite different.

Malacca is certainly in the process of developing- it has a beautiful historical center and a lot of cultural landmarks such as museums, churches, mosques and temples. We stayed in a 5-star hotel (for very cheap!), and they just built a large beautiful new mall and movie theater close by. They also have a nice outside theater and outdoor market areas. However, on the fringe of town, there are many abandoned buildings that are just standing there, slowly falling apart, giving the area a feeling of disquietude.

I read a story in the paper about an average family in Malacca that lives on 2,000 RM/ year, which is the equivalent of $606 USD/year. I can't even imagine that! The parents, in this article, said that when their son had the flu for 2 weeks, they splurged to buy him some pork, because all they had been eating for weeks was porridge. What shocked me the most about this story was the fact that the mother in this family was a clerk and the father was a plumber. Compared to some jobs, those are relatively skilled professions! I can only imagine what the lifestyle is for unskilled workers.

However, despite the fact that many people live in obvious poverty, we could not have been treated in a more friendly manner by the locals! Our group consisted of Emily (from Singapore), Kirstine (from Denmark), and Jolene and I (USA). They could not have been happier to be "serving" us foreigners! People would jump up to explain the history of Malacca as we toured the ruins- they never asked for money, they only wanted to talk to us. One street vendor swelled with pride as he said he knew about the "Philadelphia Philharmonic", when I told him I was from Philadelphia. One policeman told us that when he woke up in the morning, he never would have imagined having the opportunity to meet us that day.

My camera was practically out of batteries during the whole trip, so I am relying on my friends' pictures to illustrate our adventure! I will post pictures as soon as I get them all and sort through them.

I believe monsoon season is starting in Singapore, there was just a huge flash of lightning/immediate thunder and the sky is dark gray. I should probably turn off my computer!

Until next time,
Leah

The Cats of Singapore

I was walking in Clementi today and I saw a very sad-looking cat. One side of it had bad bite marks all over it, and the tip of its ear was missing. It was all skin and bones and missing a lot of fur. I watched it for a while as it desperately tried to clean itself, and all of a sudden it started convulsing on the sidewalk, leaving a stain of blood where it was. Needless to say, I started crying on the street watching this cat suffer. I acted on instinct- I know it is NOT a good idea to start feeding stray cats, and I know that I most likely violated at least 4 or 5 Singapore laws by doing this, but I went to the nearest grocery store to buy a small can of wet cat food for this cat. I figured if it was going to die, it at least deserved a good meal this afternoon. I opened the can and put it in front of the cat, who meowed excitedly and started eating away, and then I ran away before I could get in any trouble. I was still devastated over this one cat, and then, during my walk, I suddenly realized that there were FOUR other cats across the street! very calmly watching me. These cats were healthy-sized, and it looked like they had had their share of other wild animals to feed on, as well as trash. So I didn't need to go over and attempt to rescue them.

I just can't get over the sub-community of animals in Singapore. Well, as long as the rats and roaches and other pests stay outside of my apartment I'm happy!

Hi everyone! This week has been one that I hope to remember for ages to come. Literally every hour leads to new discoveries- some great (such as the glorification the soybean receives in Asia) and some not so great (apparently I don't know how to work an Asian stove!) But regardless, everything has certainly been interesting, and I will try my best to recap the past four days in an interesting way!

Monday-Wednesday
My flight to Singapore was surprisingly easy! I thought I would be bored and cramped out of my mind, but it's funny how quickly hours passed when I stopped counting them. On my flight from Minneapolis to Japan I was lucky to sit in a row with 2 people my age- one guy from Sri Lanka who now lives in Australia and had been visiting relatives in Montreal, and another guy from Alberta who decided to spend a spontaneous month alone in Thailand. Good company made time go by much faster. On the flight from Japan to Singapore I had a row to myself, so I was a little more lonely, but I got some "luxurious" sleeping done!

Emily and her mom picked me up from the airport when I arrived around 1 am, and unfortunately they had to wait around, because my suitcase did not make it to the airport! It was quite a headache. Luckily they found my suitcase the next day :). Emily was kind enough to give me her bed to sleep in that night, but I only actually slept from 2:30-5:30 am because, despite my exhaustion, I was also jet-lagged!


The next morning, I experienced my first wet market with Emily's family- it was basically like a permanent farmer's market that was about 5x more dense than any farmer's market I've ever seen! With many new sights and smells as well. I think it's called a wet market cuz sometimes the floors are wet. For breakfast I had vermincelli noodles with about 3 kinds of tofu and vegetables and curry! Apparently that is not an unusual Chinese breakfast. I took this down with soy milk which is all over the place and quite popular! I believe this breakfast cost a whopping $3. We also bought 3 types of fruit- prunes, rambutan, and a fruit that Emily didn't recognize. They were all so good!!

Next I checked into my new flat which is in Boon Lay, which is relatively very far away from pretty much everything! The place itself looks a little depressing right now- we desperately need to decorate! However, I have 3 really awesome roommates (nice change in my life! some of you know what I am referencing), so that makes the place feel much more comfortable. One of my roommates is an American grad student from Chicago, and the other 2 are grad students from China! It is a really nice cultural balance, and we are going to exchange English and Chinese lessons with each other. I will post pictures of the place after we decorate it a bit.

In the afternoon I saw NUS and my new Conservatory for the first time (so beautiful!!!). I am so excited to spend my time on the campus and in the new music building. Once again, I didn't take pictures yet, but once I do you'll see what I mean! :)

That evening, we went to Clark Quay, which is a beautiful restaurant/bar/shopping area by the water (pictures at the bottom), for a trip organized by NUS Exchange students to all meet each other. At least 100 international students met on this one bridge to socialize for hours- it must have been a really strange sight too see all these foreigners mingling on a bridge! I met mostly Europeans- from France, England, Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland, Holland, Amsterdam, Germany and others. Then there were those from China, India, New Zealand and Australia! I cannot express how thrilling it was to see only TWO other people from the US all day!!!!!!!

So that takes care of my wednesday. Not a bad first day, but you can imagine how exhausted I was after the crazy long flight, 3 hours of sleep, and a first day like that!!

On Thursday, I had to have my medical exam to get my student pass from the immigration checkpoint authority. It was relatively painless, besides when they couldn't get blood out of my arm and had to use my hand instead! ick!
The real highlight of Thursday was going to my new friend Qinying's birthday party! Qinying is a piano student at YST who is about to go to Peabody for her Master's degree. A bunch of YST students met at her house for birthday festivities and food! I made my first popiah which was really exciting and yummy! They were all so nice and welcoming, I'm really looking forward to hanging out with everyone more!
After that, I met up with all the international students again at Lau Pa Sat- or Festival Market. It was Singapore's first wet market, and now it's a huge beautiful food court! I met some more people, mainly Europeans, and especially a Swedish girl who is a big backpacker. We were talking about backpacking in the Phillipines over mid-semester break!
The last stop on Thursday was with Jolene, my roommate, at a bar called Indochine.We sat outside where there was live jazz music, beautiful lights, and delicious drinks (I got a chocolate martini!). It was also right by the water, so we were really happy! I think we'll be frequenting that place.

Friday I went to an international students meeting, where there was lots of free food and they told us about different trips and groups we could join, etc. I did some practicing (finally!) and then went to a barbecue at PGP (residence hall on campus) for the new music students.

as you can tell, I am getting tired of writing! And you are probably getting tired of reading! Saturday I went on a Singapore food tour organized by NUS! Instead of writing about it, I will now show pictures! Click on any to enlarge~

The sunset somewhere between Japan and Singapore, on the airplane

Me at Raffle's Place on Thursday- it's so beautiful at night!


Making my first popiah at Qinying's place!

Yes that is a stand for soy bean products and yes, they did dress up a soybean to look like a granny!

Peanut soup with sesame balls in chinatown
Some sort of pink treat in chinatown!

The colors of China town

Buddhist Temple in Chinatown
Me at Ann Sang Hill Park
Another temple!
It was really beautiful

Our food tour group! The girl on my left is Jolene, my roommate! The other girls are my new friends Zhou Ye (Chinese), Lin Zhan (Chinese), Adidi (Indian), Jia Fei (chinese).

These are both from a beeeeautiful Buddhist temple in Chinatown!

These are both from a sculpture garden in Chinatown

This is a statue in Little India of Shiva. People came frequently to pray at that corner.

The following are all from Little India:






Festivities by the Esplanade






Well, I will write more on my opinions and ideas of Singapore later! Thanks for making it to the end!!!