That’s basically Singapore in a nutshell. We get off our ship, we enter a mall and then we walk through a passageway and there’s another part of the mall. It’s crazy how big this mall was. In the morning we had another diplomatic briefing and then for class I stayed after the briefing where we had a sort of Q&A session with them. It was cool b/c it was an open forum where we could pretty much ask anything. It’s normally hard to do this during diplomatic briefings simply b/c everyone there is antsy and just wants to leave and get out and explore the port. There were only about 20 people so we were actually able to ask questions and they could take some time answering them and didn’t feel a lot of pressure to answer quickly.
After the briefing, my friend Kirsten and I walked around the first mall b/c we were meeting friends at about 12 to go out and explore a little bit. First we walked through a forest thing which was weird but we left there and went to Orchard Street…which was another mall. Except this one was even bigger than the first. It was 4 maybe 5 floors and had 3 or 4 basement floors. It was never ending, which of course meant we had to go up every lever. We didn’t go down all the levels, but it was still amazing to see all the floors. The intent was to get ice cream too…which was on the top floor. It was a good adventure though. We had to come back to the ship b/c Kirsten and Wes were going on the Night Safari and had to be back to meet up with the trip and I also had to get ready to go out to meet up with Mr. and Mrs. Golon and Chris.
Meeting up with them was wonderful. We’re getting to the point on the voyage where everyone is getting sick of each other somewhat and people need space and are hitting that slump where they miss home. Having the chance to see some people from home, especially a little over exactly halfway through was amazing. It’s funny in a way b/c you don’t realize how much you miss home until the little things happen. It was nice to get to go to dinner with them and completely let my guard down. I’m not sure if I’ve relaxed like that in a long time. Other than dinner with Chloe in South Africa, it can prove to be a challenge to completely open up. It’s a lot different being with people you’ve known all your life and people that you’ve known just over two months. Getting to go to dinner and then dessert somewhere else was a perfect remedy. After dessert, Chris and I wandered around Clarke Quay for a few hours which was really good. I was able to talk and not worry about watching what I said b/c someone on the ship might find out. It was also funny seeing people from the ship and having them do a double take b/c they were really confused seeing as they had never seen Chris on the ship before and didn’t quite get why he had an American accent at first. It was equally as nice to be able to end the conversation and just walk away and not feel obligated to have a full on conversation with them. It was a few easy but also hard hours. Letting my guard down and just being myself was just what I needed to feel sane again. On the flipside, knowing that I was only going to be able to spend a few hours was hard. I don’t know if I ever consciously thought about not being at home for so long until now. The other part was that came on to the ship not knowing anyone which was a little different since Chris is there with a best friend. And yet, all that taken into consideration, I have no regrets. I am happy with everything I’ve done and ok with not doing some other things. It was nice to be able to see home in a sense and also to get to be re-energized and ready for the other half. I’m more excited than ever for the rest of Asia and all that is to come.
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