The wise and thoughtful Laura Schlitz has asked whether we have found ice cream in Singapore. I am disappointed to report that the gelateria closest to my hotel is now “permanently closed,” according to Google, and I have not yet sought out the next closest options (one of the frustrating things about Singapore is that there is a tremendous amount of spectacular food, but finding exactly what you want can involve a surprising amount of travel). We checked at the grocery store, and a pint of Ben & Jerry’s costs $17 (about $12.50 US)!!! So the ice cream plan is on hold for right now. But for those of you who might be worried about my dessert consumption, never fear; I have been more than successful in finding pastry shops:
Today was a quiet day. We had a very, very long breakfast with Kristen, who will be one of my new counseling colleagues. She helps us by giving us tips on living abroad (she worked in Kuala Lumpur for 5 years), and we help her by listening to her apartment- and furniture-hunting woes. She’s very chatty and tons of fun.
Our big outing of the day was to the internet/phone store to talk about setting up internet for our new apartment. Turns out that our condo building is so new that it’s not in their system, and they can’t set things up in buildings that aren’t in their system, so we’ll get to go back to the store again next week. Ugh. There are times when I wonder about Singapore’s reputation for efficiency — it feels like efficiency exists, but only in narrow bands.
We had excellent noodle soup at a food center for dinner and then went to see the new Ghostbusters movie. It’s an odd culture shift to go from eating handmade noodles in an Asian food court to watching Ghostbusters on the big screen with Chinese subtitles (side note: some of the biggest audience laughs came when the movie made various jokes about wonton soup). I’m still trying to reconcile how Americanized this place feels while still retaining its fundamental Asian-ness.
By the way, the movie is not worth seeing — definitely a disappointment.
Traveler Tina 
I’m thoroughly enjoying your discoveries from the comforts my American home. I love all the descriptions of your food adventures. I used to eat Lap Pat Dok (tea leaf salad) at a Burmese restaurant in San Francisco and loved it so much. If you come across that, you might give it a try though it might have ground or dried shrimp in it and I’m not sure if you eat that. Anyway, keep on writing – it’s wonderful!