American electricity in Singapore

This little box is my life.

It controls whether I blow dry my hair, get to play Wii, use 99% of my kitchen appliances or get to use my computer at all.

It is the magic box that converts the British system of 220V electricity to our modest US system of 110V electricity. It is my favorite thing in our Singaporean house.

Without it, I would cry. A lot.

We have about six of these magical boxes in our home. For two kids from Kansas who never planned to live abroad, that means that we have six plug-ins in our entire house.

Yeah. Imagine living like that.

Because we have only five items that are made for Singaporean outlets/voltage systems, this means most all of our stuff is for US voltage systems. That was a fun realization. The five things we finally cracked down and bought were the only items we couldn't get around not re-buying upon our move here. There are just some things that aren't meant to be plugged into an inverter.

A hair straightener is one of them. Hair straighteners get really pissy when you plug them into an electricity inverter. I learned that the hard way when I came to visit. My hair was not anywhere close to straight that whole month.

So anyways, this is a post merely to thank Uncle Sam for giving us inverters. I tend to be a little hard on Uncle Sam sometimes.

And sometimes I'm sorry.

Not so much today, but some other times I am.

Christmas in October

I know it's a little early for a Christmas post, but I've been finding a lot of interesting things out lately that have to do with traditions and customs on this side of the globe.

One of the most shocking being this:

One of my work buddies has had his Christmas decorations up for almost two months now.

Yeah. Jumping the gun a bit, huh?

Actually no. You see, he's married to a Filipina and in the Philippines the Christmas season begins very early compared to the American custom. His family puts up the decor at the beginning of the "-ber" months. So the tree goes up in September and stays up throughout October, November and December.

I also found this article here that says some Filipinos even start the festivities before that. In fact, the Philippines are said to have the longest Christmas season in the world.

Can you imagine the sheer torture those poor children have to endure? When I was a kid, just the length of time between my birthday and Christmas was painful (it's really only 11 days. Yes, I was a dramatic child). That was nothing. These kids have to worry about making the naughty list for four agonizing months.

Then again, I could go for some Christmas lights for that long. Christmas lights make me giddy like a 7-year-old hopped up on sugar. When I'm in Kansas, I force the people I love to drive me around for hours just so I can look at them.

In Singapore, they light up the entire stretch of Orchard Road. It's just crazy awesome. I love how festive the whole atmosphere is.

Singaporeans too, start Christmas very early. Sandra, my good friend and one of the mystery coworkers that I'm always talking about, told me today that she puts up her tree in early November. She says that she likes to enjoy it as long as she can.

I can relate to that. We often don't take our tree down until February....because we want to enjoy it longer. Not because we're lazy. No, definitely not because of that. We like prolonging the joyful Christmas spirit into Valentine's Day. Yep.

But really though, if we didn't have these "buffer" holidays like Halloween and Thanksgiving, wouldn't we be putting up the tree a little sooner too? It's only weird to put it up now because it's like "Hey! You skipped Halloween!" or "Hey! We haven't had turkey yet!"

Everyone who's not a freak loves Christmas. Who wouldn't love to enjoy some twinkly lights for a few more days?

USA Today, I'm disappointed in you

Dear USA Today,

I just wanted to give you a pat on the back and say thanks for proving that people in the US aren't self-absorbed idiots with little regard for the rest of the world...like so many people in the rest of the world already believe.

I refer to this article here.

I'm guessing that since it was on the Idol Chatter page, that one of your high school interns probably wrote it. That could be the only logical explanation for your lack of editing or fact checking.

Referring to Singapore as a city in Malaysia not only makes your paper look ridiculously idiotic, but it also proves the care in which you take in reporting factual information. Whether it be about entertainment issues or not. Don't you have a map or better yet, access to Google?

The people here in Singapore that saw that article were more than a little peeved. It'd be like calling Lawrence a town in Missouri or Columbia a place in Kansas. (This is just to put it in perspective for my jayhawkers out there.)

So thanks for making the Americans look stupid again. We've needed a lot more help since Bush left office.

Sincerely,

The American girl in Singapore

**UPDATE - The article has been edited to properly show that Singapore is not in Malaysia. So if you're going there to see what they messed up, you won't see it now. Thanks USA Today for correcting your error. I'm still a lil mad at you though.

The Navy Ball

We spent last night at the US Navy Ball which was held at the famous Fullerton Hotel in Singapore.

Isn't it gorgeous? I love that hotel.

We had a blast and I finally took pictures to prove it.

I forgot last year. Wine does that to my brain sometimes.

I'll post some more later, but I need a nap right now. We got home waaaay after our 9 o'clock bedtime. Singapore has made us into geezers that go to bed at unreasonable hours for 20 somethings.

I made Halloween cupcakes

...because they don't celebrate Halloween in Singapore.

...because they don't make anything pumpkin-flavored to celebrate "fall".

...and because I needed an excuse to make homemade cream cheese frosting.

I think any of those excuses shall work.

Everyday is a good day when you get to eat cream cheese.