Day 6 -4th of July in Singapore

As you might of guessed, there isn't much hoopla for the 4th of July here. It is just another day. No BBQs, no fireworks, and no day off. We had a BIG thunderstorm here last night and it was so loud it woke me up a couple of times. It was hard dragging myself out of bed. As I was leaving to catch the train another ILMer staying here got my attention. He was getting a cab so I jumped in and we shared it. It made getting to work a bit faster. He has an arrangement with the cab driver to come at the same time every morning so I think I might try make that a regular thing. Splitting the costs makes it more affordable. I rode the train back in the afternoon. Lots of school kids ride the train to and from school. You know they are school kids because they have to wear uniforms here. A kid who was probably 11 or 12 sat next me and he had some food from McDonalds. They like to fine you for everything here. Litter and it is $500, jaywalk and it is $500, spit on the sidewalk or chew gum it is $500. In fact if you fail to flush a public toilet when you are done it is a $500 fine. I have no idea how they enforce that one. If you eat or drink on the MRT it is a $500 fine. When I first got here I thought it would be nice to have a cup of coffee as I rode the train to work until I saw all the signs saying you can't. Well the kid couldn't hold out and started eating his fries on the train, happy as can be. There was an older guy sitting across from me and I could tell he didn't like it. He just stared the kid down the entire train ride. I actually felt a little uncomfortable but the kid didn't seem to notice at all. Nothing was going to stand between him and those fries.

On the way home I decided that I had enough of eating out. It gets a little old after a while. I decided I was going to stop by the Japanese supermarket and pick up some stuff to make spaghetti. I had seen some prego spaghetti sauce on my last visit and it seemed simple enough. Of course, it wasn't . I found the sauce alright but meats are an entirely different story here. The main meat that people eat here is fish followed closely by chicken. You don't see much pork or beef but they do have it. I headed over to the meat section to get some ground beef. When I got there I discovered that what looked like ground beef was actually a mixture of ground pork and ground beef. Why they had to mix the 2 I will never know. I decided that it just wouldn't do. I have seen some ads in the paper here for a chain called the Fair Price Supermarket. In the ads they seemed to have more American foods than what I have seen in the Japanese Supermarket. Next time I go I am going to take some pictures so you can see what I am working with here. They actually had some packages of god knows what that was called Essence of Deer. I gathered it was some sort of powder made from crushed up Deer antlers. It seemed to have some miraculous healing powers. Anyway, I decided to go back to my hotel to drop off my stuff and change into shorts. In case I hadn't made it clear it is pretty freakin' hot here. Then I was going to take a cab to the Fair Price. Back at the hotel I was thinking about the 4th of July and decided it just wouldn't be right to have spaghetti on the 4th. I decided that I would make a good ole fashioned hamburger and some fries. That is pretty American, right? I get to the Fair Price and it is only slightly better than the Isetan Supermarket. They do have more American foods but you are going to PAY to get them. The majority of the store is still asian and that stuff is much cheaper. I was feeling pretty healthy so I didn't really need to make some deer antler soup. Fortunately I found some hambuger meat here. It didn't say anything about pork so I have to assume it was 100% beef, I guess I will never know for sure. Still there were lots of compromises to be made. I found a small little package of hamburger buns tucked away in the corner of the bread section. I am guessing they aren't really big sellers. A burger has to have cheese so I went to the deli area and asked for just a couple of slices. They don't do things that way here. You have to buy the entire block of some not so cheap cheese and they will slice it up for you. Too much for me so I found some mystery Australian cheese slices in the dairy area that I decided to make due with. Condiments were next. I thought it would be nice to get some mayo but mustard is usually cheaper and could make due. The mustard was $6 a bottle, ouch. The mayo was actually cheaper but probably because you could only buy a tiny bottle. I guess I will just stick with Mayo. I thought a nice 6 pack of Bud would be festive and it was on sale...for $16.75 per 6 pack. Coke Light will do. I am starting to realize that the fries are going to be tough. I would have to fry them since I don't have an oven and the corn oil wasn't all that expensive but I was going to have to get a huge bottle. Ketchup was about the same as mustard and I felt it was probably going to end up being $15 or $20 for fries. Chips will do. I thought a burger just wouldn't be a burger without some lettuce and tomato. I went to the produce section and the lettuce was reasonably priced but looked like it was about a month old. The tomatos only came in a 4 pack for $8. I decided that who needs stinkin' veggies when you have meat and cheese! I saw some watermelon at the bargain price of $4 for one a little larger than a cantalope. Perfect size for me and the sign said seedless too. I grabbed a couple of essentials like some bacon ($12!) for breakfast tomorrow, some soda, and some delicious looking oreo's. I really wanted some Ben and Jerry's but it was $13 for a pint and I was sure how long it would take to get back to my hotel so I decided against it. I got out the door for the low price of $45. Not looking like the cheapest dinner after all. You can get American food here but you forget it is clearly a specialty item and they are gonna make you pay.

I got a cab and got back to my hotel much easier than I expected. As I passed by the Carls Jr. next to my hotel I had an idea. Ding Ding Ding. I will make my burger and then run down to Carls Jr. and get some fries. Seemed like a stroke of genius. Everything wasn't as it seemed though. I started by cutting up the watermelon (it clearly said watermelon on the sign) and it was green on the inside. Not green like it wasn't ripe but just green. If it was seedless I would hate to see the watermelon that has seeds. There were plenty of them but at least they were about half the size of the ones back home. It tasted good anyway but was a little more like a honey dew than a watermelon. Next I unwrapped the ground beef. It kind of fell apart into a hundered little pieces. What the heck! Isn't it supposed to stick together? I made a patty, sort of, and was a little nervous that it was just going to fall apart because it looked loose. I had only used half of the meat and from somewhere deep in my mind I convinced myself that I had read that you could mix an egg white in with ground beef and would make it stick together. I cracked open an egg with the meat that was left and mixed it all together. Apparently I was wrong, it just looked gross and I imagined tasting fried egg on my burger. I decided that I had to stick with the first patty. It actually worked out pretty well and didn't fall apart too much once it started cooking. I cooked the meat and decided that I would turn the eye off and throw my cheese on while I ran down to Carl's Jr. Surely it would still be warm enough to melt the cheese while I was gone. I got my fries, which they deliver with chili packets instead of ketchup by the way. I asked for ketchup and hustled back to my room. It was defintely still warm enough to melt the cheese. In fact, the cheese melted so good that it ran almost entirely off of the burger and into the pan. It also got really crispy and as it cooled it stuck to the burger and kind of looked like a big sunflower. Not so good. I had plenty of cheese so I threw some more on. I had to perform some delicate surgery with a butter knife to remove the burger from the center of the brown crusty cheese in the bottom of the pan. In the end the burger wasn't all that bad. Nothing really tasted like I am used to but it was close enough. I decided just to stay in tonight and watch a couple of expisodes of Dexter and head to bed a little early. The interupted sleep from last night has left me feeling a little tired. I am trying to decide what to do with my weekend. I need to get a little laundry in. There are a number of weekend things I want to do. The zoo is supposed to be really awesome with some animals you don't see as much outside of asia. They are supposed to have a really big Hila Monster and a freindly chimp who has been in lots of local movies. He is so tame that you can actually go and have breakfast at the park and the chimp will pull up a chair next to you. I might skip that part. I also want to go to an island just off the shore of Singapore called Sentosa Island. The locals say it is a big tourist trap but hey, I am a tourist. They also have a long tram that takes you from mainland to the island high above the water. I think I want to try that. I think I might stay close and do my laundry and swim tomorrow. Maybe even catch a movie down the street. On Sunday I might try heading over to the tourist trap. I also want to check out Chinatown here. They have a 'wet' market that is supposed to be a sight to see. It is basically a big food market with lots of fruits, vegetables, and meats. It is called a wet market because the floor is always wet. Some of the animals might be pets in other countries! Sounds a little gross but it is a part of the culture here and I would like to have a look around.

So anyway that was my 4th of July. I definitely missed being at home and hanging out with everyone. Hope you guys have a good and safe 4th of July. Have a burger for me.