Sunday, May 21, 2006

Asian Adventures

this morning finds me in singapore, admiring exotic greenery and flowers i would never imagine. as our house hunt comes to a close, i am awed at the graceful and quiet asians and their industrious cities. greg and i started the day with a 'short' run/jog/crawl/cry through the city's lush botannical gardens. wow. upon our return we were greeted by the concierge with cold towels and water. just another day...
greg and i noticed right away the contrast between our straightforward western mannerisms and the more subtle inflections of speech and less directive manner of the asian culture. here in singapore (not that i'm an expert after being here for 20 hours or anything), the city feels just as it was explained to us by one of greg's colleagues, "a typical western city with a good helping of Asian sauce." the clothing is noticeable familiar and english is everywhere.
even so, there are reminders that this is not 'just like home'. the muslim influence and population in kl was easily seen in headcoverings for what seems like 4 out of 5 women in all styles and terrific colors. we enjoyed seeing the younger set fully loaded with rhinestones and sunglasses, reminding me that while english is prevalent, we're not even close to kansas anymore.
this trip has already been enriching, spurring the appropriate introspection, i think; what about my manner can be softened? how can i communicate more consisely and use fewer colloquialisms in my speech? how on earth am i going to stop saying like, ya know, yeah, what?, whatever?
omitting those words alone would probably increase my i.q. a few points, ya know?
:-)

chryl left the ground at 11:25 1 comments