imagine that you are an american college student, say about 20 years of age, arriving in singapore, in fact in asia for the first time, and going out for a stroll under some flats thinking you've got the idea what it is to live as locals in the hdb heartland, and walking across a void deck into a large tent with colourful drapery and chinese writing and lots of tables and chairs clearly set up for some kind of meeting or party, and then walking upon a casket with a real dead person in it too. that was the funniest story i heard all afternoon, at the tea given for the uva exchange students who are here in singapore. not a bad way to be initiated into singapore culture at all, walking into a funerary tent. for tea we fed them char siew pao (a hit) dao sa pao (not a hit) longans (hit) chiffon cake (so-so), chin chow (what do you mean this is grass? we just ate grass?) peanut cookies (hit) kueh neng gor (interesting) thingii with gula melaka in (it squirts!), and we're all going to a hawker centre for real local food on friday. (i am really looking forward to that) all of them have been here for less than a week, some of them just 3 days, and they've already learnt to say things like "can do!" "eh sai!" "jia pa buay?" or at least, one of the guys, alec, seems to be industriously learning hokkien, while michael, the other american guy, seems to have picked up exclusively mandarin words: "xie xie" "zai jian" "ni hao" tumbling swiftly from his lips when quizzed. chew-mee kirtland says that their mandarin and hokkien are coming along, but now we have to work on their malay. tanah merah: tah-na may-ra. bedok: buh-dohk (remember how mr hughes used to say bed dock?) but these people are very mobile - they have been going about on the bus and the train, and even went on an excursion to pulau ubin, which i think explains how burnt they were today. it mustn't be easy getting used to our sun. there were students from smu going to uva too, and the two groups were busily exchanging tips - what classes to take, which professors to avoid...one of the girls said that they chose to come to uva because they were told it was a small town and she thought that she would get *real* american life - that is: the average family leading regular lives in a regular american town. this speech immediately brought about significant looks between the uva students. i doubt charlottesville is the place to experience quintessential american life, although, as michael remarked, if you were going to go to a college town, what better place than charlottesville? beautiful, safe, lively enough and not depressingly remote, friendly people and a charming surrounding. i think these kids will like us. but i'm even more anxious that the americans should like singapore. i wish i could be home to host them, and show them my places. and when these guys come back to school, why, i wouldn't even be there to hang out with them and to get them to join ssa and to talk singapore with them - i'm graduating!!! already! four years gone like that *snap* i can't believe i'm going to leave. what would i do without uva? the weather report says it is snowing lightly in charlottesville today. i miss charlottesville.