Been busy

First of all...welcome to The Bronx Pudge.

Ok, now to get you all caught up...

I've been doing a lot lately, aside from working my ass of of course. I've slept in four different rooms in the last four nights. The hostel needs to get their shit together. Just kidding. They are being very accommodating to us.

Last week was the last week for one of the other interns here so we all went out to celebrate. We hit one of the pubs I went to for Pub Golf a couple of weeks ago. A good time was had by all.

I did my impression of Chris.

Andy did an impression of me.

I did an impression of Andy doing an impression of me.

Last weekend also marked Traffic Jam. It's an outdoor concert that Sony Ericsson puts on. They close down a road and throw a party. The headliner this year was Daughtry. You would be amazed how well behaved the crowd was. Anyway, they started the show with a performance by a drum troop. That got everyone amped for the concert.


They ended up on a flatbed playing drums with colored water flying all over the place.
I had to make sure I didn't run out of fuel.

United in song. By the way, we were standing fairly far back in the crowd and could still see perfectly because we are so much taller than everyone here.
The aftermath. So i carry a pocketbook. Big deal.


Two nights ago we went to the one and only night safari in the world. This blew the Zoo out of the water. There are a couple walking trails through the rain forest and the only lights are dim ones over the animals. There was also a fire breathing show, a creatures of the night show, and best of all a tram safari. It was so nice being there. It was dark, quiet, and just so unique. If anyone comes to Singapore, go to the Night Safari.

Hot shit!

Croikey!!!

I was exhausted at this point. It's hot as balls here.

Practice makes perfect

August 8th is National Day in Singapore. It's their independence day. They have a big celebration and a lot to do. They have a parade and air show during the day and fireworks at night. Apparently they want these events to go well so badly that they practice for a month leading up to the event. It seems fair that they would practice...HOWEVER...

Everyone has already seen the fireworks show at least three times by now so there is no real surprise in that. How do you practice fireworks anyway? I saw their helicopters doing their flag bearing portion last week. I've also seen F-16s flying around a few times and today I finally saw them all together in formation. What's left to see?



I do love fireworks and planes, but I would have preferred to see them for a special occasion. That would have made it a bit more special. Oh well. I guess I have August 8th free to do whatever I want now. Maybe I'll practice walking or something.

Zoo York...Singapore

Sorry it's been so long since my last post. I've been pretty busy with work and I'm also off my antibiotics so I may or may not have celebrated with some drinks finally. So let me catch you up.

Last weekend we went to the Zoo. It was alright. I'm not much of a Zoo guy but as far as Zoos go, it was cool. The most unique part of it was that there were a lot of free-range animals. I am really not a huge fan of that shit. A monkey almost peed on me. I did not have to pay extra for that. We'll be going on the night safari which is supposed to be amazing. I'll let you know if this is the case.

Beautiful. This guy was pacing back and forth for everyone.

The rare species Fat American. We were lucky enough to catch this elusive beast on film.

Father and son. So cute.

HaHa

Despite their best efforts, these elephants could not fly.

"I'm the king of the fuckin jungle bitch. Go get me some carcass!"

Stash's great uncle Cashew

In Singapore, they call this a fountain. Pretty cool shot that Kris took on our way out after a long day.

As a step in the right direction, I tried to overcome my fear of birds by taking a picture with Parrots. As you can see below, I am completely cured.



Moving on...I've been eating at this one food stall on a nightly basis. I get a great meal for S$2 which is nice because I'm broker than broke.

This past weekend was fun. We met a new friend who was staying in our hostel. She's from Germany and works in Kuala Lumpur. We literally met on the street and she ended up hanging out with us all day and night. That was Saturday, otherwise known as the day the Americans held their own with a rugby team playing Pub Golf. Oh yeah. What a great time that was. We hung out in an awesome part of town called Boat Quay.

With Sunday came brunch at the Hiatt with a couple of the higher ups at Iris and their girlfriends. It was spectacular. The food was amazing and abundant. We ate great food and drank champaign for three hours. Afterward, we hit up a few more local spots for some cocktails. We played some pool and had some fun.

Last week I also found this game. It's like Guitar Hero but for DJing. I know you'll appreciate this one Johnny.



It was a good weekend despite being pretty overcast the whole time. I'll try to update more often.

Party Time

It's official. We work with a great group of people. Yesterday we went to a BBQ at our Creative Director's place. A lot of people from work were there with their significant others and such. It was a great time and we ate some old favorites. However, Brits (which about half of our agency is made up of) consider a sausage a hot dog and they put mustard AND ketchup on them.

After the BBQ we went to Bandeoke. It's like Kareoke but with the backing of a band instead of a machine. It was a lot of fun. It seems I'm going to enjoy my time here very much. Here's a few pictures to catch you up a bit. Also, I went to the Zoo today and will talk about it in my next post. I hope everyone is well. I wish I was home for the All Star festivities. Such a shame about Bobby Mercer. I hope they honor him this weekend.

Kaya Toast and Coffee. A local favorite. A new Matt favorite. I'll be bringing this stuff back for sure.

The immaculate MRT. They charge you based on how far you go so you don't have to spend $2 every time you ride. I think our most expensive ride to this point has only been S$1.80. CHEAP!!!

Enjoying some of the local fare on the way to Ikea. Yeah. They have Ikea here too.

Food, Food, everywhere is Food

So as it turns out, most of my blog entries will be about food. There is so much here. Everywhere you look is a different type of food and in true fat boy style I plan on trying everything. When I'm done with this trip I may know more about food than Morgan...but probably not.

Already I've tried things I never thought I would. I ate a Century Egg. I can't really do this one justice until I can get a picture of it up here which I will do. Pictures are on the way. I promise. I also ate Carrot Cake. Sounds normal enough but it's anything but. This Carrot Cake is not a dessert at all. It's a meal and not sweet at all. I don't quite know exactly what it is, but once again, I'll post a pic when I get it.

Kris and I met up with a friend of our friend from Crispin yesterday and she took us for some Indian food. Never in a million years would I have thought I would like it let alone love it. Everything I tried was great. It may be a new favorite type of food. We also went to a bar for a drink. I drank water as I'm still nursing my leg but the beer that Kris had cost S$13 and that was happy hour pricing. Beer is very expensive as is all alcohol. A bottle of Jack Daniels runs S$75. It seems I won't be drinking much.

We are now looking at times to go see the new Batman movie next week. We are gonna get to see it before any of you because of the time difference. Don't worry, I won't give anything away.

Things are great at the agency and the air conditioning and hot water now work at our hostel so life is pretty good for the time being.

By the way, I have linked a bunch of stuff in these posts and will continue to do so as you might understand the things I talk about. Click on the words that are underlined to learn more.

I hope everyone is well. Be in touch.

Welcome to Singapore

Hello everyone. I decided to start a blog on here to keep you updated on my adventures in Singapore. I'll try to update it as often as possible with stories and pictures. Please comment often and keep in touch. Let me know if you have any questions. I've been here for a few days now so let me catch you up.

Kris and I got to our hostel around 1am on Monday. We had to share a queen bed that night. Needless to say, I didn't sleep the first night. We are now in a room with two beds and horrible AC. We live right by an MRT (Subway) stop, Boon Keng which takes us to a stop very close to the office in Chinatown.

The office is great and so are the people. We stopped by to say hello on Monday and they sent us out to explore. We went to Harbour Front and Orchard Road. Harbour Front has a couple shopping malls and places to eat. It was a bit overcast so the view wasn't great. I'll go back and get pictures when it's nicer out. We saw a movie there in a 500 seat theater for about $5. Orchard Road is insane. It's the shopping capital of the world apparently. Some of the malls are VERY high end and some are not. Kris and I walked into one and couldn't even afford to look around. Again, pictures will follow soon.

On Tuesday, we had our first day of work. The agency is great. It's very small and the atmosphere is terrific. The people here are awesome. There is a Pizza Hut downstairs where a pizza costs about S$20. Craziness. We ate lunch at a Hawker Center. It's like an open air vendor plaza. There is a ton of food to choose from for very low prices. I had rice with chicken, vegetable, and sausage. I'll get more exploratory as time goes on. I also had the best sesame ball I've ever had in my life. I plan on eating a lot of those while I'm here.

After our first day we went to Zouk. It's the hottest club in Singapore and one of the hottest in the world. We were guests for a private party there. It was a good time. Free booze and food is always fun even though I still can't drink because of my antibiotics. We met a bunch of people and had a great time.

This morning we had a tradition Singapore breakfast of Kaya Toast and coffee at a local shop. It was delicious. We are getting our first briefing later today. I'll keep you posted on my trip and get pictures up as soon as I can. I'll also try to keep the rest of my entries short and sweet. I just wanted to catch you up.