Happy Thanksgiving 2009

We hosted Thanksgiving for some friends in what has become a mini tradition. Lauren and Alona worked hard to prepare the fixings and our home. We had our neighbors, the Figovs (Sean, Sue, Joel and Erin) from upstairs; Our friends Joanna and Dan Barry; our friends Susan and David Fedo and Leah's friend Ashmita. Notice that Jane was not with us. She had an opportunity to travel to Cebu in the Philippines for a service trip. We missed her, but I am sure she is having a great time.

We ate many of the traditional foods - stuffed celery, sugared cranberries, turkey, stuffing, green beans, mashed potatoes, and of course pumpkin pie, apple pie and a wonderful pumpkin cake that Lauren made.

We missed all our family and friends at home and hope you all had a good Thanksgiving.

Jed and Lauren

Eating local at the Hawker Centers

One of my favorite things about living in Singapore has been eating local. Almost everyday I work, I get lunch from a "hawker center" across the street from my office. Hawker centers were created by the Singapore government after they decided they could never be a 1st world country if there were many street vendors selling food on the streets as you still see in many SE Asian countries. So, Singapore built "hawker centers" where people can rent stalls and sell food. These are great places to get really cheap, and really good food. They are graded for cleanliness by the government (notice the B grade on the stall in the pictures). They tend to specialize in a particular food and each hawker center typically has many stalls. The one near my work is known as "The Golden Shoe" and has two floors of stalls. Some of the food you can find include wanton noodle soup, chicken rice, nasi padang, briyani chicken, mee goreng, and most importantly the local coffee and tea.

In the pictures you will see my two favorite stalls and they happen to be right next to each other. One is the stall where I get my tea each day. The coffee and tea in Singapore is a bit different. First of all, it is called Kopi and Teh (both Malay words). The Teh I order is called "Teh-C Siew Dai". Teh-C is a powdered tea made with carnation evaporated milk (the "C" stands for carnation) and sugar. It is quite sweet, but very good. I order it "siew dai" which means "less sweet" so they put less sugar in it. Lauren loves the "Kopi bing" which is iced coffee. Again, it is very good. This couple that runs this stand have become good friends, although I can not always understand what they are saying. In the picture you see their two daughters because it is currently school vacation here in Singapore.

The other stand is the best wanton noodle soup stand in all of Singapore. I get this for lunch about once a week. They always have a long queue. Often I order in the morning when I get my Teh-C and they have it ready for me, so I can skip the queue. By the way, the Teh-C costs SGD .90 which is about USD .65 and the wanton noodle soup costs SGD 3.70 for take-away, which is about USD 2.70.

I often say that the two national sports of Singapore are eating and shopping. Those who know me know that I don't like shopping (I am my father's son - a cheap yankee), but the eating is great in Singapore!

Just for you, Ryan O.

Lauren and I were given some tickets to the opera here in Singapore and we could not use them, so we gave them to Alona, our Helper. Here are a couple of photos of her and Cecil, her friend. Alona is on the left. I hope this satisfies you, Young Ryan.

Good luck on T-Day.

Jed

October/November update

Hi everyone. We wanted to share some photos from a few events in October and November. Lauren has enjoyed spinning class at the American Club and recently there was a "spin marathon" to raise money for Breast Cancer awareness. The American Club team booked a two hour slot and Lauren and our friend and neighbor, Gretchen both participated for the full two hours. It was held at an outside area of Plaza Singapura, one of the many malls in Singapore. They did really well and were led by their favorite teacher, Arziz, who you can see in the picture of four of them below.

The second event was, of course, Halloween! There is a neighborhood in the north of Singapore called the Woodlands where many American families live because it is near the American School. Halloween in the Woodlands is crazy! We were invited to the Hurst's house. Leah is friends with Maddie Hurst and they live in the midst of the craziness. You can see some photos which really do not do it justice. Some houses have to be prepared with 4000 + pieces of candy.

Next, Jane and her friends from school came to our house to bake pies for the SAS food fest. At the food fest, all the various clubs at SAS run a booth to raise money for their club. The club these girls are in is a club that works with disabled adults who live in a group home. They decided to sell apple pie and spent the afternoon and evening baking about 12 pies!

Finally, the big event was the oldest boy turning 18. It is hard to believe we have an 18 year old. Our celebration was low-key with a nice dinner and, of course, cake. He also enjoyed opening his cards from family and friends. Many thanks for thinking of him.

That's it for now. Enjoy the photos below.

Lauren and Jed

October/November update

October/November update

Mom and Leah Smoking a Cheroot - Actual Video