Dear Cora,

Life-size scrabble? Yes, please.

reposing, sparing, ion-grapes.  I'm pretty sure ion-grapes is a word.  Don't even challenge it.

So you may be wondering why the only pictures I have of Singapore are of alphabetical origin.  And here is the reason: How many pictures of malls do you keep on your digital camera? 

And while this comment may seem unfair, or judgemental, I assure you it comes from a very positive and supportive place.  I love Singapore.  I love air conditioning, and food courts and sparkling clean streets.  I love timely metros and monks buying 10 packs of black dress socks at the mall. 

I love guava gelato by the world's tallest ferris wheel (although I do NOT love the price to go on the world's tallest ferris wheel and am therefore content with the fact that I will die having only been on the world's second tallest ferris wheel: the London Eye).

I love discovering sour candy for the first time since leaving the states.  And I don't love that the scale is broken so the guy won't sell it to me. But no fear: I love going back the next day and getting the new guy to sell it to me.  Because let's face it: What wouldn't I do for sour belts and peach-o's?  (If only they were CVS brand: sigh...)

I love hitting my one-month mark on my travels.  Has it already been a month?  Has it only been a month?

I love the merlion.  In fact, I love the merlion so much I bought a shirt with the merlion on it.  The merlion is the symbol of Singapore and it is, as you may have gathered, a lion with a mer-tail.


  

I do not love carrot cake.  This may seem shocking, as anyone and everyone should know that carrot cake, according to me, is the only cake worth even mentioning.  But I repeat: I do not love carrot cake.  Because in Singapore, carrot cake is made out of stir-fried gelatinous goop with spring onions and shrimp and really isn't carrot cake at all.  What it really is...is disgusting.

I like (not love...but this won't be a shocker) going into a hospital again for the first time since leaving work.  Don't worry, I was just asking for directions and I didn't even leave the lobby, but it was cool to be transported back to that place.

I do not love spiced butter milk.  In fact I do not love it so much that I almost gagged while sampling Justin's. Justin, too, does not love spiced butter milk.  Nobody who has taste buds likes spiced buttermilk.  If I ever meet someone who does, I will give them an award...and then slap some sense into them.



I do not love saying goodbye to Ashlee.  I do not love rude hostel roommates who turn on the lights at 4 in the morning.  I do not love when I step in vomit on my way to the shower.  I do love the shower though.



 I love that I am so close to crossing the equator for my first time.  That the Southern Hemisphere is at my fingertips. That Indonesia is just around the corner.

And I really love having the opportunity to experience this little corner of Asia that is pretty unlike anywhere else I have been so far.