Hello Again

It's been nearly 3 years since I last produced a blog entry. Ever since I left Turkey behind and started my Singapore life, I put my blogs to the side and stopped writing. It wasn't as though Singapore wasn't interesting but somehow in my mind I felt it was too "vanilla" to be interesting to others. I also struggled my first year here with a debilitating back injury that ended up costing me over $10,000 in treatments etc, so it was fair to say that my feelings about Singapore ranged around bitter at best. 

But now as I prepare to leave, I deeply regret how little I shared of this adventure in my life. So over the summer holidays I'll be doing a bit of a catch-up series of the trips I've taken, the experiences I've had, and the people who've impacted my life.

So stay tuned!

A Long Overdue Update

It's been a very long time since I last posted on here.  Well over a year ago.  I'm ashamed to say that I have no excuse for not posting earlier.  I've had good things to write about and will be posting about each individually but here is the basic breakdown:

*coaching took prominence in my life and 2 gold medals later, I'm feeling satisfied with where it's taking me.

*back injuries are forever (especially when you don't lose the weight that you should) and I'm finding ways to heal

*UFit is changing my life slowly but surely (UFit is a fitness group here in Singapore that specializes in group bootcamps as well as personal training sessions)

*Travel is back: Australia, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Boracay, Cambodia, and bumming around my great city in between travels.

*Career changes are on the horizon.

And I'm staying in Singapore for another year.  Please come back to reading my blog and posts and I promise to be more faithful as a writer.  Each of the points above will be a post in it's own right very soon!

CNY Singapore Style

Welcome to the year of the snake.  I'm not sure what that will mean but I hope it's one of prosperity, joy, health and happiness for everyone.
This isn't my first time in an Asian country so I thought I knew what to expect come this time of year, but it's totally different here in Singapore.  In Korea, it was a time for offering tables to the ancestors, visiting ancestral homes, bowing to your elders, getting money and eating yourself silly (doesn't sound too different from lots of westren holidays I know, minus the bowing and offering tables).  I loved it in Korea but that was because after 8 years of living there, I understood it (as much as a foreigner not living in a Korean home or family can understand it I guess).  I thought it would be pretty much the same in Singapore but from what I gather, it is and it isn't.

Sure, you still make offerings, you still visit family homes and you still eat lots but the young'uns aren't required to bow to their elders in order to receive their hongbao (little red envelopes with money), instead they simply needed to show up with an offering of mandarin oranges (please understand that this is my first Chinese New Year here and I'm sure I'm making sweeping and over simplified generalizations.... but this is my impression from what I've gathered by asking questions and just keeping my eyes open).  There also seems to be much more of an element of celebration to the New Year here.  Each day for the past 4 days, there have been trucks with drums and gongs and other instruments driving around the streets making music and just general noise for a few hours each day.

Then there are the fireworks that take place downtown and the parades and ceremonies in Chinatown.  I didn't get to see that part, I wisely avoided the overly crowded streets and went home.  There is a lot more decoration and colour here as well during this time of year, everyone is dressed up in lucky colours and celebrating with joy and glee.  Here are a few shots of the quieter streets today in Chinatown:

TCM and other medical voodoo

So I haven't written much about my stay in Singapore so far.  I meant to write all about the amazingness of my new location, parts of my new school, and so forth.  But, truth is, life in Singapore is fairly mundane and it's easy to hop into the routine of it all.  At least until your health goes in the pooper.  Then it's interesting for sure!

Since October, I've been suffering from a really sore lower back and ever increasing muscle spasms.  At first I thought it was because I wasn't active enough and so I got more active, nope... that wasn't the answer.  Then I chalked it up to my weight... nope, not the cause but it sure isn't helping matters much. Then I thought it must be the chair I have at school since the spasms happen most often after sitting, nope... that wasn't it either but the sitting sure wasn't helping either.  So I found a groupon (if you have this in your city, get on it... it's an awesome resource) for chiropractic treatments (which are really, really expensive in Singapore).  I snapped that up as quickly as I could.

When I got to the chiropractor, she took the time to educate me about my spine during the consultation, ordered X-rays (which were $250 extra) and explained a course of action after putting me through some bending tests and so on.  She also started adjusting and mobilizing my spine according to what the X-rays and her expertise said.  Only problem was that the spasms came back with a vengeance, as did headaches and over all body soreness.  I ended up taking a full day off work because I just wasn't mobile.  At one point, I spasmed on the table and couldn't move for 30+ minutes.  I was making some progress but my muscles were fighting it tooth and nail.  Then I had a spasm in my classroom chair at the end of the last day before the Christmas break.  I managed not to scream in pain (a huge feat, trust), but I couldn't move for over an hour.  All my admin saw, as did my TA, the school nurse, several teachers and support staff.  It was embarrassing, painful and frustrating.  But at the same time, I was so grateful to have people there to help me and sort things out.

This is where the hoodoo/voodoo of medicine in Asia began. One of my good friends and colleagues is a counsellor at my school and is also certified in tapping and body talk.  We had discussed these practices when I had a spasm back in October when friends were visiting and I'd since used the tapping a time or two to help calm myself etc.  I don't know if it ever worked or not, since I don't really know what I am doing.  But on the giant spasm day my friend did some body talk to help me with the stress of my body.  I'd love to say it worked but I was so stressed and in so much pain that I simply couldn't let go and let it do what it was meant to.  However, I did get the number for a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) doctor.

TCM can mean a bunch of stuff but I was sent to him primarily for acupuncture since that seems to help relax muscles most.  One of my admin had used this doctor and avoided a back surgery because of the healing it brought.  I was willing to do anything and went the next day.  By the way, I'm TERRIFIED of needles so I wasn't relishing this at all. The needles aren't too bad (although the one in my wrist today made me squeal and burst into tears), but the follow-up acupressure is excruciating.  The doctor hits all your medians of energy or chi and presses on parts that are blocked etc.  It hurts, let me be clear about that... really, really hurts.  But when the treatment is over and I've stopped sobbing, I'm able to get up walk around and even sit with some measure of comfort, which I haven't had in weeks.  Today, my voodoo doctor gave me some Chinese medicine to help speed the healing process.  When I asked what's in it, he just smiled, laughed and told me it was good for me.... hm... *shoulder shrug* Who am I  to argue with the doctor?

So there you go, in the Western world you don't often get the option of choosing between traditional, alternative or Eastern medicine practices.  That's one thing about Asia that I love.  You can choose from all of these and it's just considered normal here.  Let's hope that the TCM does the trick for my back... and just for my general health.

Truly International

This is my 15th year of teaching in general, and my 14th year of working internationally.  Not all of my schools have been truly international or even a little international but each has given me good lessons to make me the teacher I am now and so I'm grateful for that.

My current place of employment is the truest international school I've ever seen.  Not only are students from everywhere (and many of dual nationality that aren't even Singapore national combined with a foreign nationality), so are the staff.  This is the first school I've worked in that seems to be concerned with the quality of teacher more than where the teacher is from.  The curriculum is truly international from what I can see so far as well.  There are no SAT prep courses or focuses on any particular national  curriculum.  Instead, students are exposed to a variety of languages, literature and resources in order to be more globally educated and internationally minded.  This is the kind of school that I've dreamt of working for! YAH!  Please be reading in the upcoming days and weeks and I post about technology, Singapore and education.

Selamat Hari Raya, Singapore!!

It's a little late I know, but I wanted to make sure I did a little research about Hari Raya and had experienced it a little before I wrote about it.
Singapore (Singapura - island of lions) is a wonderful hodge podge of people and ethnicities and religions.  While a majority of the ethnic population is Chinese (I'm told it's about 77%), when walking in any area you will see people from Malay, European, North American and many other backgrounds.  And that goes for religion as well.  There are Buddhists, Christians, Agnostics, Atheists and Muslims everywhere and a real acceptance of each other here.
Ramadan has just ended and the celebration of that in Singapore is called Hari Raya. While one can say Eid Mubarak here, it's more often that you hear people greet each other with Selamat Hari Raya.  And like Eid Al Fitir in other countries (or Seker Bayram in my beloved Turkey), the celebration is family and food oriented.  Prayers are said (I woke on Sunday to the sounds of prayers being chanted in my neighbourhood and the smell of incense - not sure about the connection of these to the actual celebration as I couldn't see where it was coming from and perhaps it was from a different religious celebration), food is shared and family and friends are visited in homes.  One of the things that I found most interesting was to see Malay Muslim families all dressed in the same colours: silver, purples, browns, reds etc. I learned at the site listed above (link at the words Hari Raya) that this is a way that families show solidarity with one another.  Wonderful! 
I didn't go to any of the special bizarres that are held all over the city (particularly in the eastern areas) but from what I learned from articles and a couple of my new colleagues, they seem similar to those I've seen in Turkey and Oman.  I love these connections. 
I hope all my Muslim friends had a wonderful Eid and that they feel blessed from their month of fasting and connecting to Allah!!!