Friday, September 24, 2010
Singapore Open 2010: Our Party Grand Entrance
Singapore Open 2010: Flyin' Cake Pans
Fun tournament in a gorgeous place with gorgeous weather (for Singapore that is, meaning not too hot and not raining!).
We had some issues on the first day, but pulled it together by the second and tied for 5th in the A pool. It was fun playing with these guys and seeing some more of Asian ultimate. However, what I'm going to remember about the tournament is this: MUD!
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| Those were, at one time, his whites. |
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| Mmm mud, yummy... |
Why did this happen? Oh:
So that's what happens when it rains the week before a tournament...
Also of note: We won the party (clearly).
We drew inspiration from this, or more accurately, this. Erm, and these pics are from before we even made it to the party... we are in fact in transit to the party on the subway (mrt). Luckily the other riders were not (too) scared of us. In fact, while we were buying tickets a guy asked to take a photo of us :)
A Bit of Exploration
I arrived in Singapore on Thursday night and my flight out was Monday morning. The tournament was over the weekend, leaving me and my friend with a free Friday with which to look around. It had been pouring earlier that morning, and by late morning it was still raining steadily. Singapore is known for having a great zoo, but we chose to visit Sentosa Island with plans to check out the bug/butterfly park in the hopes that it would provide more shelter from the rain.
Sentosa Island is one of the main tourist attractions of Singapore (though perhaps that's not saying much since the entire city/country itself is a tourist attraction). It is located at the southernmost part of Singapore and proudly boasts the "most southern point of continental Asia," though seeing as both Singapore and Sentosa are islands... yeah. Anyway, it holds a very tall statue of Singapore's guardian and protector, the Merlion... And now, after browsing around on the internet for a little, I'm entirely confused about the story behind the Merlion. When I'd asked a friend about it earlier, I'd been given the impression that it was part of Singapore's legends and that it was the amalgamation of the creatures of the sea, rising from the water to protect Singapore in her time of need, and that it left a trail of starfish and other sea creatures in its wake. Just now, looking around on the internet, I could find no evidence of this story. In fact, it was designed in 1964 to be used as a tourism symbol. The original statue was made in 1971 and the one I saw a later replica. There are some scattered explanations, most referring to some prince who visited Singapore, saw a lion, and dubbed it Singapura, meaning Lion (singa) City (pura) in Sanskrit.
The bug park was not entirely indoors, but luckily the rain had mostly let up by the time we got there. The place consisted of a large netted enclosure of butterflies, another of tropical birds, and an indoor section containing glass enclosures with insects. I suspect that these had been brought in from the rain and they normally lived elsewhere. The rest was kind of a mini museum with facts about bugs and lots of pinned beetles and butterflies. Do any of you remember the blue morpho butterflies you could catch in Amazon Trail? They had some pinned up there and they come in blue and silver and are GORGEOUS. Seriously. I should have taken a photo, but it would not have properly captured their luminous beauty.
Anyway, there were really big butterflies, which seems to be the general size trend among bugs in Singapore. The birds were also (generally) quite pretty, though i guess really hungry... I paid SGD$3 to hold a small shallow cup of a sweet liquid and was promptly flocked by six or ten lovebirds. I enjoyed it (though you might not be able to tell from the photos... which will appear after I receive them from my friend) though it did rather feel like I was under attack. I made the mistake of grasping the cup with both hands, which meant that I had twice the arm roosting space and so twice the number of birds flew over. One landed on my shoulder and tweeted very loudly in my ear. Another landed on my head. >.< Anyway, I got rid of the cup after the birds started squabbling and, in the process, holding only my hand and arm uncomfortably tightly. Oh... and one of them bit me :( i was only trying to poke at it's feet so it would hop onto my finger...
The bug park was not entirely indoors, but luckily the rain had mostly let up by the time we got there. The place consisted of a large netted enclosure of butterflies, another of tropical birds, and an indoor section containing glass enclosures with insects. I suspect that these had been brought in from the rain and they normally lived elsewhere. The rest was kind of a mini museum with facts about bugs and lots of pinned beetles and butterflies. Do any of you remember the blue morpho butterflies you could catch in Amazon Trail? They had some pinned up there and they come in blue and silver and are GORGEOUS. Seriously. I should have taken a photo, but it would not have properly captured their luminous beauty.
Anyway, there were really big butterflies, which seems to be the general size trend among bugs in Singapore. The birds were also (generally) quite pretty, though i guess really hungry... I paid SGD$3 to hold a small shallow cup of a sweet liquid and was promptly flocked by six or ten lovebirds. I enjoyed it (though you might not be able to tell from the photos... which will appear after I receive them from my friend) though it did rather feel like I was under attack. I made the mistake of grasping the cup with both hands, which meant that I had twice the arm roosting space and so twice the number of birds flew over. One landed on my shoulder and tweeted very loudly in my ear. Another landed on my head. >.< Anyway, I got rid of the cup after the birds started squabbling and, in the process, holding only my hand and arm uncomfortably tightly. Oh... and one of them bit me :( i was only trying to poke at it's feet so it would hop onto my finger...
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| AGH, seriously, scary eyes much? |
Dalian Airport: A Caveat
I swear, every single time I have flown out of Dalian, domestic or international, they make me switch gates. Seriously Dalian, get it right!
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Singapore (新加坡)!
Singapore was AWESOME. It was a really refreshing change to Beijing. It is an absolutely gorgeous city. This was also the closest I've been to the equator (I kept on saying 'first time south of the equator' but apparently it's about 1 degree north of it, though i could have sworn i saw a map saying it was south). I'd say my only gripe with the place is that since it's tropical, the insects are big. Like... there are lots of cockroaches on the streets (at least they're outside right?) and they are HUGE. (Agh!) The tournament was also fun, but more of that some other time.
Singapore is nice, pollution free, clean, English speaker friendly, polite, etc etc etc, but it's not without it's own quirks. First of all, when it rains, it pours. And apparently, the place being tropical, it rains quite often. While in Chicago I'm used to heavy spring/fall rain storms, this is pretty serious business compared to Beijing's rain, which is often of the extended day of gloomy drizzles type. In Singapore it was of the pleasant, warm, and humid summer thunderstorm variety, though lacking the thunder as far as I noticed.
Second of all, the subways are kind of funny.
Also, their use/understanding of English might be a little suspect.
Either that or they just have a sense of humor in all that they do, which, given the subway stuff, might just be the correct idea.
Singapore is nice, pollution free, clean, English speaker friendly, polite, etc etc etc, but it's not without it's own quirks. First of all, when it rains, it pours. And apparently, the place being tropical, it rains quite often. While in Chicago I'm used to heavy spring/fall rain storms, this is pretty serious business compared to Beijing's rain, which is often of the extended day of gloomy drizzles type. In Singapore it was of the pleasant, warm, and humid summer thunderstorm variety, though lacking the thunder as far as I noticed.
Second of all, the subways are kind of funny.
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| At least there isn't a fine for bringing durians onto the subway. |
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| New take on 'your mom' is 'umama' |
Either that or they just have a sense of humor in all that they do, which, given the subway stuff, might just be the correct idea.
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| SaveMan to the rescue! |
Quick Somewhat Long and Dirty Summary
Been busy the past few weeks and because of that it's hard for me to put together a coherent narrative that would be interesting to anyone but me. My photos are also a bit lacking, so I thought I'd just catch you up and then get to the interesting part.
I left off at the train TO the Dalian tournament. a rather lively train at that. The tournament went well. Those of you who were around last year may remember we (beijing big brother) lost to shanghai in the finals in a very disappointing game. This year we sent so many players that we split into two teams with approximately 2 lines of men and women (playing 5/2) on each team, and proceeded to dominate the tournament. The downside to the splitting though was a fair amount of (mostly good hearted) rivalry. We split into going to Singapore and not going to Singapore teams, and the not going team won.... which just goes to show how we're not sending (or rather, didn't send) our best line to Singapore, which is kind of lame.
Overall though, the tournament was much more fun than last year. The top Dalian team had gotten a lot better and was fun to play against. Both of us beat them 13-1, but that score doesn't reflect how they played on the field. I had reservations about going back, but no more. :) It was also nice to see my mom and grandparents and go back and shower at their place before taking the train back on Sunday.
Also, my mom finally got to see me play! She was the epitome of a team mom, though a side effect was that the whole weekend kind of felt like one big 'your mom' joke, even if that phrase was said completely literally and innocently.
The week after Dalian was the opening ceremony for the UChicago China center. They made it sound like a really big deal and there were lots of festivities. Most of my photos for this are rather bad, but when I snag my friends' photos they will probably appear on facebook. We got to eat dinner at the Great Hall of the People (人民大会堂) where big state events, like the governmental dinner of National Day, are held. It's a really gorgeous place.
We probably weren't in the huge main dining/ballroom, but it was still really exciting to get to enter one of China's more important buildings. It's situated facing Tiananmen Square on Changan Street in the center of the city, which if you know anything about Beijing geography (correct term?) indicates that it's important. Other things nearby are the Forbidden City, Mao's Tomb, the National Museum, the National Theatre, the government, etc.... Anyway, it was cool and I got a lot of business cards and it made me feel like i was watching history being made because there were lots of 'important people' there and there was lots of yummy food and i learned what private equity is. kind of. :)
ugh. i cut the quality of the photos earlier for a faster upload and so i wasn't filling my allotted picasa space so quickly, but now i'm regretting it. sorry for the crappy looking photos.
I left off at the train TO the Dalian tournament. a rather lively train at that. The tournament went well. Those of you who were around last year may remember we (beijing big brother) lost to shanghai in the finals in a very disappointing game. This year we sent so many players that we split into two teams with approximately 2 lines of men and women (playing 5/2) on each team, and proceeded to dominate the tournament. The downside to the splitting though was a fair amount of (mostly good hearted) rivalry. We split into going to Singapore and not going to Singapore teams, and the not going team won.... which just goes to show how we're not sending (or rather, didn't send) our best line to Singapore, which is kind of lame.
Overall though, the tournament was much more fun than last year. The top Dalian team had gotten a lot better and was fun to play against. Both of us beat them 13-1, but that score doesn't reflect how they played on the field. I had reservations about going back, but no more. :) It was also nice to see my mom and grandparents and go back and shower at their place before taking the train back on Sunday.
Also, my mom finally got to see me play! She was the epitome of a team mom, though a side effect was that the whole weekend kind of felt like one big 'your mom' joke, even if that phrase was said completely literally and innocently.
The week after Dalian was the opening ceremony for the UChicago China center. They made it sound like a really big deal and there were lots of festivities. Most of my photos for this are rather bad, but when I snag my friends' photos they will probably appear on facebook. We got to eat dinner at the Great Hall of the People (人民大会堂) where big state events, like the governmental dinner of National Day, are held. It's a really gorgeous place.
We probably weren't in the huge main dining/ballroom, but it was still really exciting to get to enter one of China's more important buildings. It's situated facing Tiananmen Square on Changan Street in the center of the city, which if you know anything about Beijing geography (correct term?) indicates that it's important. Other things nearby are the Forbidden City, Mao's Tomb, the National Museum, the National Theatre, the government, etc.... Anyway, it was cool and I got a lot of business cards and it made me feel like i was watching history being made because there were lots of 'important people' there and there was lots of yummy food and i learned what private equity is. kind of. :)
ugh. i cut the quality of the photos earlier for a faster upload and so i wasn't filling my allotted picasa space so quickly, but now i'm regretting it. sorry for the crappy looking photos.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
A Study of a Tao: The Train to Dalian
This ended with Doc (the princeton university shirted one) sort of kind of elbow dropping him from his perch on the beds.
Alameda
A Little Bit of 三里屯
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