SEAYBST Baseball Tournament - Manila

This past week, Evan and I traveled to Manila for the annual South East Asian Youth Baseball and Softball Tournament. Evan was playing for the Singapore U19 team. There were also two other baseball divisions and two softball divisions. Singapore had one team in all five divisions. Evan and his team have been practicing all winter to prepare for this tournament. The other cities represented were Jakarta, Indonesia; Perth, Australia; Bangkok, Thailand; and, of course, Manila, Republic of the Philippines.

The great news is that Singapore won the Senior division. In fact, all three Singapore boy's teams won. In the two softball division, traditional powerhouse Manila won both divisions. Evan had a terrific tournament batting around .500. In the field, Evan split his time between third base and right field. His team was led by their senior captain, Billy Fulton who was named tournament MVP. Billy hopes to play in college next year, and has some interest from a couple of California schools.

In the final game, we played Manila. We jumped out to a big lead, but they chipped away. Then, in the top of the 7th, they hit a three run homer to come within one run. However, we got the final two outs and prevailed 9-8. Billy pitched and made the last out on his 104th pitch and there was a 105 pitch limit for all pitchers.

We all stayed at the Galleria Holiday Inn in Manila. It was quite interesting as the place was overrun by kids between 10-18. The hotel was attached to a mall, so the kids enjoyed that. I think the Krispy Kreme shop was the most popular as you can not find a good donut in Singapore. "Bar One" was the destination of choice for most parents.

While Manila is not the nicest city and traffic can be a hassle, we did make one outing to the US Military Cemetery. This was a very impressive stop. There are over 17,000 US servicemen from WWII buried there. There are also another 36,000 names carved into the walls of a marble rotunda. These are the dead who were never recovered. Also many of the walls of the marble rotunda have these tile mosaics that depict different battles in the Pacific theater. The grounds are pristine and it makes quite a contrast from the rest of Manila.

I have included some photos and a couple of videos of Evan batting below.

Thanks for reading.

Jed

Anne and Claire come to visit!

How exciting to have friends visit us in Singapore! It was such a delicious treat! It was Claire's spring break, and the Miller boys willingness to fend for themselves for a week, that allowed Anne to journey with Claire half way around the world to our home on Leonie Hill. Their visit was short, but special.

Yes, we toured around the island, taking in the sites, smells and tastes of Singapore. But most importantly, Leah was able to share her daily life in Asia with a friend. The weather, her school, our local mall/movie theatre, and getting around (independently) via bus, MRT or taxi. All quite different from life in Newburyport. Claire was a trooper-eating local foods, enduring Little India and taking a solo taxi ride to meet Leah at SAS. The squatty potty was about the only "culture" she refused to try.

I too was thrilled to have a friend from home share my routine. Anne and I spent time at the American Club, walked my favorite morning exercise route along the river, drank tea, went to book group, met friends of ours and toured four art galleries. It was just great!

To escape the hustle and bustle of city life in Singapore, we took an island getaway to Pulau Ubin. This little island is only a ten minute bumboat ride and costs $2.50 per person. There are no scheduled departure times to and from Ubin, as bumboats set off only when there are 12 passengers. The island is a throwback to Singapore in the 1960's. There are about a hundred villagers living in kampongs. Ubin residences rely on wells for water and generators for electricity. We rode bicycles through fruit orchards (coconut, banana, mangostein and jackfruit) and rubber plantations. We walked through the mangroves at Chek Jawa. We enjoyed the wild life, rustic charm and the cold local beer with our lunch.

It was so much fun having our friends visit. Our three year contract is up in June 2010, so if any one would like to explore this part of the world and hang out with us, please know you are all welcome and we would love to see you. Maybe you could ask Anne or Claire about their holiday...

We miss you all~
Lauren

Anne and Claire explore Pulau Ubin

Anne and Claire come to visit!

Wedding guests

Jed and I were invited to a Muslim wedding this Valentine's Day. Our security guard, Mansud, invited some of us living in Leonie Hill Towers to his nieces wedding. Our friend, Sue Figov, was also invited. It was a blazing hot day, and the party was held on the ground floor in the HDB (Housing Development Board) where they live. Mansud and his wife were so welcoming. They took care to find us a seat, introduce us to others, lead us to the food, refill our drinks (juice only), and pose for a family picture. The Malay buffet was delicious, especially the beef randang. The desserts were not so good, and like the Chinese wedding we attended, the cake is only for decoration. The live band was pretty good; a large family that played instruments and sang. It was so funny, one family guest pulled Sue and I up to dance as soon as we finished eating. We were the only one's dancing, while the "locals" smiled at us and snapped photos. Needless to say, we worked up quite a sweat. Apparently, after we said our goodbyes, the dancing began and continued into the evening. It was sweet of Mansud to include us in such a special family occasion.

Happy Chinese New Year / Gong Xi Fa Cai

In January, Singapore celebrated Chinese New Year, also known as Lunar New Year or Chun Jie (Spring Festival). Since about 2/3rds of Singaporeans are of Chinese decent, it is an important time here in Singapore.

There are a number of interesting traditions for Chinese New Year. I guess I would liken it most to US Thanksgiving. CNY is characterized by the following:

Reunion Feasts - On the eve of the first day of Chinese New Year, families come together, typically to the home of the eldest, to have a festive dinner. This is a time to celebrate family togetherness and is very important. Typical foods might be some of the following:

Yusheng - (raw fish salad) - In Singapore, it is served unmixed and all the people use their chopsticks to toss the salad. The higher the toss, the more prosperity you will have in the coming year.

Shark's fin soup, Abalone, fish maw, and mandarin oranges. In our office, a pair of mandarin oranges were given to everyone. These are quite auspicious and represent "golden luck".

At CNY, there are also "hongboas" given out. These are little red packets (envelopes) with money. Always give an even dollar amount (odd is not good luck) and usually some amount that has an 8 in it, since 8 is a very auspicous number. These packets are usually given by married couples to their elders and also to their unmarried juniors. The Management Committee members in my office donated money so that we could give a nominal amount in an hongboa to all the unmarried people in the office!

There are also other celebrations, such as a parade, lots of lights, street bazaars, etc. It is a fun time to be in Singapore! This year is the year of the Ox and as many of you know from Chinese restaurant menus, depending what year you were born, you are associated with a particular animal/reptile, etc. In our family, Leah is born in the year of the ox, so perhaps she will have the most auspicous year!

We hope everyone has a healthy and prosperous "Year of the Ox"!