Dark side of sunny Singapore

This place still has some surprises left, it appears. Only yesterday I learned from a newspaper that Singapore doesn't use caning only in prisons as I had assumed until now but also in schools! In the news about criminal cases I have read that one part of the punishment quite often is caning -  a few strokes, I think maximum I have seen probably 6. Yesterday there was a letter in the paper about caning in a primary school. It happened in year 6, so the kid was about 11 years old. His offence - had chased and hit another boy who didn't want to give him his password for an online game. The caning took place in front of the whole class apparently with the consent of the offenders parents. To make matters worse the schools "discipline master" went into detail to describe the canes used in Jakarta prison stating that those were 4 times as thick as the one he was using at this school. Robert has talked to a former cane-master (turned taxi driver) who elaborated that most people who get this punishment choose the thinnest cane which is a mistake because it hurts a lot more than the thick one. I am almost speechless after this. I knew that the local schools value discipline highly and inquiring minds are not encouraged. The kids are loaded with mechanical homework and are not expected to ask too many questions. But this kind of physical punishment in the 21st century in a place like Singapore that looks so modern and western is quite unbelievable. And there they go wondering why their excellent school system doesn't produce creative spirits and sharp minds.

To keep it cultural - on Sunday we went to a theatre performance with the kids which was great fun. Together with Leenu and Ingrid. The play was in the old parliament which is a beautiful building from the colonial times. The chamber is just like it used to be, set up like the British parliament, so we sat in big leather armchairs facing each other with actors sort of in the middle. The chairs even had the names of the ministers of a former Singaporean government written on them. The play was by a group from Vancouver about trolls who were retelling and re-enacting some stories of HC Andersen. The trolls were huge and were wearing scary masks (Raoul probably had nightmares that night) but the play was very good - very interactive and involved the audience. One of the trolls while playing prince grabbed Beatrice and they danced around, Leenu was picked to be the "mechanical nightingale" with a costume and everything. The girls really enjoyed it and the boys had fun as well.

Then as if Saturday wasn't enough we went back to the Art museum so that Ingrid and Leenu could also see the Korean exhibition. The rest of the day was a play day for the girls at Leenu's. Boys had a good afternoon devoted to Lego and were incredibly well behaved for a very long time - proving the point of Ingrid's husband that 3 kids is easy-peasy!

On Monday we had another theatre performance with the boys in the morning. Went together with a neighbor - probably the part the boys enjoyed most - driving a big jeep. The play was nice but more for a bit younger kids, quite short, no text at all, lots of gadgets and lights. A bit like teletubby humor. 

All these theatre and museum visits gave me a bad cold that I have been fighting the whole week. On Tuesday the boys went to play at their Korean friends house and I went to yoga hoping that would help me with the cold but it only got worse. However we were so lucky as Yeo Yoo's mum treated us to a great Korean lunch and being as generous and kind as Korean friends always, packed for us doggy bags with bulgogi and chapche that Robert enjoyed so much the next day.

Cultural weekend

We started off very culturally on Saturday - there was a Korean modern art exhibition in the Art Museum with a special event on that day. The kids joined the arts competition, tried on Korean national dress. There was a music performance and various displays that we enjoyed. To my big surprise however the actual exhibition turned out to be the biggest hit - not really an obvious combination - kids and modern art. But there were so many interesting pieces in that exhibition that we all really enjoyed it. Of course comments like - is that art? it is just a square!? One artist had 4 real size people portraits that looked like paintings from far away but turned out to be negative reliefs - which meant that when walking past them, it looks like the people in the pictures are moving with the viewer. Really cool - and we walked at least 10 times. Also quite fascinating were the digital pictures by another artist - he used traditional Korean landscape or bamboo motives on LCD screens that changed all the time. The weather, time of the day, even time long term. One of them looked like the skyline of Hong Kong with mountains in the background and boats in the front and then after a while from the fog appeared skyscrapers lit up in the night. The picture next to it was similar but with a small island and a temple on it. This one also changed so that all of a sudden there appeared a city of high rise buildings behind the mountains. Also the small fishing boats sailed from one picture into the other. Really fantastic! Then there was a whole big wall of colorful tiles with all sorts of object stuck to them, toys among them, so it was great for the kids to look for different objects that they recognized. Another great work was a glass floor with thousands of small people holding it up while standing very close to each other. We liked it so much and as it was the last weekend of the exhibition, sent messages to many friends and urged them to go and see it.

After the exhibition there was Korean food as well. And to complete the very Korean day boys had taekwondo class straight after!

A whole year

Today a year ago we arrived in Singapore and it seems quite unreal. The time passes quicker and quicker. Even Beatrice asked recently how come that time goes much quicker now that she is older. Just so very busy. 

It has been such a great experience for all of us to be here. The boys have turned into real Singaporeans - especially Karl's English sounds more like Singlish now. So if you were to hide his blond curls and blue eyes he could easily pass for a little Chinese boy. All kids have made really good friends and have gained a lot of independence - being able to go to their friends houses or the playground by themselves. That's the greatest thing about living on a condo.

The attraction of the swimming pool has worn off after a year and whereas we had to spend whole days in the pool at the beginning, now I have to drag them out once a week.

The boys had a great day out yesterday before the start of their 1 week school holiday. They went to Sentosa island with the school for a day, visited the aquarium and saw the dolphin show. Raoul was worried that the "dolphins would eat his friends" but luckily none of that happened. So now we have a week to fill with entertainment.

Swimming

The busy weekend made me forget about Beatrice's swimming gala last Friday. It was quite an eye-opener for me to be honest. I had somehow assumed all kids here can swim as at least in her school most probably live on condos with pools. It turned out to be a wrong assumption. The whole year 2 was divided into 3 groups, the first of which swam across the pool in the shallow end with floats and noodles etc. And there were kids in this group who have lived here all their lives! Second group did some more advanced widths partly unaided and only the third group swam whole lengths of the pool showing some great technique and speed. Beatrice was in the third group and all other kids from her class in there are the ones who have regular swimming lessons in addition to school swimming. Beatrice is not keen on lessons although I can clearly see now that having learned most of what she can now by herself she could be a really great swimmer if she had proper training. We keep trying to convince her that she will have to represent Estonia in the Olympics but so far no success. I even dragged her to the pool on Sunday when the coach was here but she just refused to join in, neither bribes nor threats worked. Probably she just doesn't see a point if she is one of the best in class anyway. But what a wasted opportunity as it would be so easy to train here - no need to go anywhere far away, can just go down to the pool every day and even the coach comes here. Who knows if we are ever going to live in a place like that again. And I bet she will want to have lessons if that means driving to a pool half an hour through snowstorms.

As a great follow-up to the independence day Beatrice has found a new Estonian friend - Leenu, who is also 7 years old and also a trilingual kid. If I would walk into her on the street I would suspect this is an Estonian girl - so strong genes from her curly blond blue-eyed mother. The girls had a first play date and clicked very well. I listened quietly behind Beatrice's door and yes indeed they did speak Estonian! Now we are looking forward to a theatre morning next weekend. 

We had a busy weekend with theatre, taekwondo, play at Ikea, shoe shopping, play at friend's house, concert in the park and dinner at an Italian. Theatre was great for the boys but probably a bit boring for Beatrice already, not as much story lines and action as Toothfairy and also quite short. The boys enjoyed burping jokes of the Bear and Chicken. They are still puzzled why the tooth fairy didn't come this time though. (Well she did come to our house Sunday night, as Beatrice has lost her other front tooth and has a huge hole now!)

On Sunday after a play day we went to the Botanical gardens for a concert. Only managed to listen to the first part which was an australian folk group. Interesting instruments - all made from gourds (pumpkins). And the feeling was a bit like Viljandi folk - so Beatrice and me enjoyed it. Was good for Robert to get out a bit as well, he could finish a little earlier at work and join us in the park. Afterwards tryed an italian restaurant that Leenu's italian dad recommended as serving the best pizza anywhere outside of Italy. And so right he was! And as we didn't break any glasses or caused any other damage this time we will definitely be going back.

Our kitchen has turned into a hunting ground recently. There have been visits from a rat to our fruit basket and even after the neighbors caught a rather large one, there must have been one more. I have borrowed their massive trap but no luck so far. Only today a poor gecko got stuck in the sticky trap and I feel so bad because he was my favorite one. Used to live behind the coolbox and make me jump every time I moved the box. I tryed to get him out but the sticky stuff is so strong that I could't save him.