i'm back in singapore!

i am grateful for:
- hot water
- clean water
- electricity
- air conditioners
- washing machines
- sleep

had an amazing trip to the philippines. how am i suppose to summarise three weeks into one blog post? i guess i won't even bother. but if given the choice, i'd definitely do it all over again.

since then, i've been catching up with friends and family. and when i'm not busy doing that, i've been catching up on sleep :)

three weeks in palawan

i'll be leaving for changi airport in ~two hours. i'll be flying off to spend three weeks in the philippines for the first half of my elective, which i will undertake with seven other classmates from UWA.

the program we chose is the Agape Health Program. the question everybody asks is why the philippines? well, it fit our criteria of being 1) a developing nation, 2) a christian elective, and 3) reasonably safe. plus there was a bonus recommendation by a previous UWA student.

i won't be bringing my laptop because we'll be spending most of our time in rural conditions.

aerobics

fact number 1: i am in singapore
fact number 2: i am staying at my aunt's
fact number 3: today is wednesday

facts 1+2+3= i had to go to aerobics class with my aunt (and 15 other housewives) this morning.

aerobics pretty much equals 1.5 hours of humiliation. during this time i really missed my little sister, because if she were doing it with me, we could at least share the mirth. what i did instead was to select a spot at the very back of the room, and attempt to remain discreet.

shortly after this, the instructor started calling out in English. "Move your hips!", "shake like this!" and so on. the primary language of instruction is Chinese, so her use of English meant that she was referring to the aerobics noob at the back, ie me.

she then decided that i needed extra instruction, and insisted that i stand closer to the front of the room. so much for discretion. from my new vantage point, i spotted a young girl sitting down while she waited for her mother to finish. how come i wasn't allowed to sit out?

we had an extended period of the jelly hips today, which was quite painful. the instructor could give shakira a run for her money. i, on the other hand, more closely resemble the tin man from the wizard of oz. she kept making me put my hands on her iliac crest to "learn" how to shake my hips, and at one point decided that i wasn't getting the picture and perhaps i should put my hands on glut max instead.

i am so traumatised. never again. (i said that last time, didn't i?)