April 18

Singapore is a nearly flawless city.
It's spotless. It's safe. It's almost surreal.
I've been here already, 2 times before, and every time it astounds me.

I arrived Thursday afternoon, and everyone was at work or school or daycare. Rankin picked me up, we got chicken rice and tea, and then before going back to work, dropped me off at the Singapore Art Museum, which was having a special exhibit on Feng Zhengjie. His quotes painted on the walls:"Things don't cease to exist because they are hidden. When I color human behavior with pretty exteriors, the tension between the underlying and the exterior becomes heightened." I took notes because I liked so many pieces. The art was mainly the work of southeast asians, like Semsar Siahann from Indonesia, Ibrahim Hussein (Malaysia), and Nirmala Dutt Shanmughalingam (also Malay), to name a few of my favorites. After that I walked downtown to a couple of malls, took the subway (which is still immaculate) to Esplanade park, saw the famous durian-shaped Esplanade theater (supposedly as equally posh as the opera houses in Australia), and then wandered aimlessly around the city some more. Uncle Rankin met me for dinner, then we came home, to his fabulous, gigantic house: 3 levels, modern, but not too trendy, clean angles, timeless, really beautiful.

The next day I woke up to my 4 year old cousin Rhys's warm eccentricity (a polite way of saying he yells and sings and runs around a lot, like kids do, very early in the morning), we took him to school, went around Rankin's office at Deloitte, looked after Maddie (who is my other cousin, 16 months, so sweet, but shy), and wandered little India, unkemptly eating Masala Dosai with our bare hands. We picked up Rhys from school, went shopping a bit and then to the American club. I'd go on to explain all of the funny things Rhys says, but will suffice it to: he's warm, inclusive, messy, uninhibited, a total goofball, a kid at his prime. Night rolled around and I went out to dinner with my cousin Simone, whom I haven't seen since she was 6 years old. She is now 13 years old, very active and involved in school, an intellectual already with Singapore's competitive education system, using words like "colloquial" in casual conversation, in her second language, filled with questions and fancy reverie (she acquired from movies) about teenage life in America, saying, "It must be so nice to be 19!", repeating jokes told by her chemistry teacher, talking about being shy and awkward around guys, so she spends her small amount of free time chatting with them via internet "much easier and better" she says with a laugh, making me feel a bit silly and nostalgic.

I've eaten too much in the last day, and week. And after my last meal, my stomach hurts horribly, but I don't regret any of it (the eating, that is). I love Asia. I like that everyone in Singapore says the phrase "Quite Nice" in regards to anything they are mildly impressed by. Things have been nice, quite nice, actually.