Every trip to Ikea looks the same everywhere in the world.  The store is the same (a soulless warehouse), the time required to make it through is the same (at least three hours), and the frustration involved in assembling things is the same (maximal).

This was, it’s safe to say, our least favorite day in Singapore.  We spent the morning shopping and the afternoon putting things together and away.  All necessary stuff, but not exactly fun.  I can’t imagine what the assembly will be like when we have to assemble our new sofa bed on Monday.  But then we’ll be ready for guests!

It also rained all day long here.  Not thunderstorms, like we’ve been having most days at some point over the course of the past two weeks, but a steady drizzle-to-real rain variety.  I guess we’ll have to get used to that.  Without AC, everything here always feels a little bit damp — you wonder, when you hang your clothes to dry outside, if they might start to mold before they actually get dry.

This is all a good reminder that Singapore is truly equatorial, and that the country is trying to keep the jungle at bay.  If you just looked at all of the new, shiny buildings, you might not know that nature has any effect here.  But if you move beyond anything built in the last ten years or so, you’ll see that buildings (and sidewalks) age here at an alarming rate.  The wet and the heat and who knows what else just eat away at things.  It’s hard to imagine anything staying new and shiny for long.

Speaking of new and shiny, we returned to the Central Business District tonight to meet a group of new SAS teachers for dinner.  We met at Lau Pa Sat, a relatively new hawker center right in the middle of Singapore’s downtown.  It looks entirely out of place, but it’s crowded and well known for having excellent food.  We had Indian food (the “Veg Naan Set”) and something called Thunder Tea Rice (I’m really not sure what that was, but it was delicious).

Our group then walked in the drizzle along the bay to the Merlion:

And then to eat coconut ice cream out of coconut shells:

And then to watch the light show at the Marina Bay Sands:

All in all, a pretty good evening once we put the allen wrenches away…