Chinese New Year

To say my life is eventful would be an understatement. Sometimes I literally have to pinch myself to make sure I'm not dreaming. Where are the hidden MTV cameras? I am so blessed!

Last Friday, I was contacted by an NTU student named Wenxu who spent a semester at Elon two years ago. We exchanged contact information and he invited Leah and I out for dinner. We were so excited that he took us to an American restaurant in Clarke Quay called Brewerkz because we had been eyeing that restaurant the few times we'd been in Clarke Quay. In true American fashion, I ordered a cheeseburger, onion rings and beer. It was exactly what I needed after eating chicken rice and dumplings all week. It was great to talk to Wenxu about his experience at Elon and I was so happy to hear he had a great time.

Cheeseburgers, beer & onion rings = one happy girl.

Leah and me with our new friend Wenxu!

Saturday night, my new girlfriends and I hit the clubbing scene. We've had a lot of fun every time we'd gone out clubbing last week and this weekend was no exception. We went to a club called Zouk because a special guest DJ named Gareth Emery was performing. We had never heard of him before but had a great time.

DJ Gareth Emery!

The crew

Leah and me cabbing it back to campus, circa 5:30 am.

Today, Wednesday, is Chinese New Year. Wenxu invited Leah and me to spend Chinese New Year with his family for a traditional Chinese meal. Boy, were we in for a surprise. It was unlike anything I've ever experienced. No one in his family except his sisters spoke English. It was a vegetarian meal and I ate things I'd never seen before. It was a far cry from American food.

No idea what anything on my plate is. 

At the end of the meal, the waitress brought out this plate of a mixture of foods. Everyone at the table stood up and dug their chopsticks into the dish and threw the food up in the air. It is Chinese tradition to do this every New Year dinner.

Before the chaos.

Chinese people chanting and throwing food in the air? I'll take it.

Us with Wenxu and his younger sister

Us with Wenxu's grandmother. She gave us money packets to wish us a prosperous new year!

After dinner, we walked through Little India to an inexpensive supermarket where we could buy souvenirs. On the way, I started to feel sick - really sick. I had to leave the supermarket in search for a bathroom because I could feel myself starting to get nauseous. There were no bathrooms in sight and I ended up getting sick in an alleyway. It was disgusting but hilarious. Singapore has all these crazy extreme laws and I was nervous that I was going to get punished for throwing up in public. Wenxu's sister informed me that because I threw up in a sewer, I was in the clear. HAH.

I was starting to feel a little better and we got a bus back to Wenxu's apartment. We all sat in his living room and watched Singaporean soap operas, which were ridiculous. His mother gave us oranges and little packets of money, both of which are given as wishes for prosperity and good health. Since it is the year of the rabbit, she also taught us how to make little rabbits out of towels. It was adorable.

With our new gifts

My towel bunny is the one on the left... obviously the sloppy one.

Most of our friends are traveling this week because we have no class on Thursday or Friday. Leah and I plan on spending the time exploring the rest of Singapore. It has been raining nonstop for the past 8 days, so we've got our fingers crossed for a sunny day to spend at Sentosa!