Food, the train system, and more food.

warning: this is a longish post. you may want to just read the photos and captions :-).

First things first. Our Olin friend Steven, is currently blogging from France (here) and has challenged us (in this post) to a friendly competition. He wants to see who can find the strangest/most interesting thing -- Steven in France, or Jason, Rose and Lexi in Singapore. I think we have the lead so far, but I have to say his swimsuit vending machine has me pretty impressed. So, in the interest of keeping Singapore ahead of the game, I give you this real ad seen on the street:

Kickapoo Joy Juice: Original USA Joy Juice Recipe!

That's right. There's a drink here called Kickapoo Joy Juice. The strange thing is that, despite its widespread ad campaign, we have yet to see it anywhere! We've checked a number of beverage-selling locations. Perhaps joy is something you just have to keep searching for...

In other news, we went to Little India yesterday, and wandered, and ate:

delicious!

I know I should stop being surprised by this, but Singaporeans are very into food. as evidence I submit that massive road signs like this are to be seen all over the island:

PIE, that way!

Ok, so PIE stands for Pan-Island Expressway. But that doesn't keep me from being amused every time I see one of those signs.

The Chinese New Year is coming up next week, and as a result, we've been told, it gets much harder to find food on campus. Though we'll probably be travelling at that time, Rose and I thought it prudent to stock up on food just in case. At the supermarket, we found, as expected, that some of the more familiar foods are a little expensive than they are back home:

Cheerios are expensive!

SGD$10.50 (USD $8.20) for a box of cheerios... of course, we went for the local equivalent instead:

Ramen is cheap!

Ramen noodles. SGD $1.85 (USD $1.45) for a pack of five. Chomp chomp.

And now, some notes on the MRT (the train system they have here, which is largely elevated, and only partially subterranean), which we used to get around a lot this weekend: 

all of the train cars in a train are joined together to make one super-long compartment, and there are cool LED displays that show the route the train is on and the remaining stops.

there are loads of cameras!

The MRT stations are bristling with cameras. From a sitting position in one of the stations, I counted 6 cameras that I thought could see me from their mounts and another 24 that were facing away from me. So, it is a little Big Brothery here. On the other hand, though we've been told that there's a harsh penalty for jaywalking, we see that happen all the time.

Finally, here are some pictures from the Night Safari, which is a nice attraction we visited with some new friends on Friday. They have an impressive collection of nocturnal or partially-nocturnal animals and a fun trained animal show. <warning: photography enthusiast-speak> There's so much here that I wanted to take good pictures of, but ended up with mostly blurry second-exposure shots. It was, after all, nighttime, and the lighting is kept low to keep the animals comfortable. It made me wish I had a big-honker lens, a giant sensor, or the time to bring & use a tripod. </warning>

a timber wolf howling as part of the show at the Night Safari! This was super-impressive.

 Even this picture of porcupines came out blurry -- I mean these animals are supposed to be sharp!

porcupines cuddling!

Until next time!