International Fiesta

Stamford American International School holds an International Fiesta each year and to say that it is an undertaking would be an understatement.  With 70 different countries represented in the student body, there were plenty of people involved in this event.  It spanned over three days with certain continents represented each day.  The parents from each country brought native foods to be tried (by 2,300 students!) and decorations from their country and every student dressed in something representing their country and paraded through the school.

The Virkler kids obviously represented the United States on International Day but what all three were most amazed by were the numbers of their friends who had to "decide" which country they were going to represent.  Was it the country in which they were born, the country in which one of their parents was from (and hence also their background), or maybe the country in which they most recently lived.  The students in an international school are such an amazingly diverse community and it seemed amazing the options that some kids had.  One of Ella's best friends was born in Australia (hence an Australian passport) but her parents are British (mother is English, father is Scottish, so she has a British passport) and so the decision of which country to represent was complicated.  We had to laugh when she decided to go with Great Britain yet her sister and brother represented Australia!  Guess we should be happy that we didn't have any major decisions to make.

What did prove more complicated was deciding what an "American" outfit might be.  The kids from Thailand and Cambodia and the Philliphines had the most amazing dresses, the children from India had beautiful ornamentation, the children from Saudia Arabia came in these wonderful robes..... the kids from the United States were a little less clear in their clothing.  There were some cowboys, some Indians, a Statue of Liberty and then just those that were patriotic.  The Virkler kids fell into the "patriotic" category to the best of our ability.  Made us realize that we should pick up some interesting American clothing in the States this summer in anticipation of next year's International Fiesta!

Mommy had to dress up to as a volunteer!

Bintan, Indonesia

For our long weekend in March, we decided to do a low-key trip to Indonesia - one that included no airplanes!  Instead we took an hour long ferry from Singapore to Bintan, Indonesia.  We had to get Visas-On-Arrival once there and then hoped in a van to head to Angsana, our destination for the weekend.  

We had a wonderful time playing on the beach, lounging by the pool and exploring a little.  Drayton and the boys got in a round of golf (well, Drayton played and the boys enjoyed hitting some balls) while Ella and Mommy had mother-daughter facials.  It was her first one and she seemed to really enjoy it!  It turned into a fun weekend with lots of laugh and a little too much sun - afraid we underestimated the power of the sun and returned with several significant burns!

Singapore Zoo

We had a free weekend and decided to visit the Singapore Zoo.  This had been on our list of places to visit since we first arrived and we were actually heading there when Ward and Alexa visited us last August but Ella fell en route and broke her ankle and the zoo just never made it back onto our list of things to do until this past weekend.

We couldn't help but compare and contrast this zoo with our own North Carolina Zoo.  Whereas the NC Zoo is situated on over 2,000 acres and is the largest walk-through zoo in the world.  The Singapore Zoo only encompasses 69 acres (we kept on commenting on the fact that the zoo was almost the same size as the farm back home) yet despite it's small size it includes over 315 different species of animals.  The NC Zoo has about 250 different species represented.  

The main difference between this zoo and the NC Zoo was the fact that many of these animals are free to roam about the property although many seem to still stay in their spaces.  Many of the monkeys for instance weren't enclosed completely leaving you the ability to get very close to them and the ability for them to wander some about the zoo.  It was a very cool way to see some of the animals.  In other areas though it was very sad - the elephants for instance seemed to have terrible living conditions and thanks to the things we learned about elephants on our trip to Patara in Cambodia, we were able to easily see that the single elephant out in the enclosure was clearly agitated and unhappy.  Made us appreciate the wonderful pachyderm exhibit that the F.M. Kirby Foundation helped fund at the NC Zoo.

We had a great time wandering around seeing many different animals.  Highlights are shown below.  Definitely a fun place to take kids who might come to visit (hint, hint, hint).

These guys were determined to open this burlap sack - 

clearly there was something that smelled wonderful inside!

This guy was just sitting on the edge of a tree by the sidewalk

This baby was sitting along the edge of a sidewalk as well!

Now that is a lot of baboons!

Rare white tiger sighting

Summer was born in the Year of the Monkey

The Chingay Parade

So last weekend was the Chingay Parade and it was an amazing experience even if just to see how Singapore puts a spin onto things.  This year is the 50th anniversary of the independence of Singapore and to say that it is a huge milestone would be an understatement.  There are SG50 signs and slogans all around - we even received in the mail 50 stickers touting 50 things that make Singapore special.  Not sure what we are supposed to do with them other than just remind us that this is a great place according to the government (we're happy so we aren't complaining).

The parade was scheduled to begin at 8pm but you had to be in your seats by 7pm and were encouraged to be there by 6pm.  There were 60,000 reserved seats in the stands that line the road where the Formula One race takes place each November.  These stands lined both sides of the road and the President and Prime Minister were in attendance in the stands.  An additional 600,000 people were expected to line the streets after the stands to try and catch a glimpse of the parade.

What we saw was a combination of lights, music, sound affects, amazing floats, unbelievable costumes, smoke and noise all combined with SG50 pride that turned the parade into something more like a Mardi Gras event but with no drinking, nudity, or misbehaving in any way.  Not only did you not leave your seat, there was NO food, drinks, etc available.  It never occurred to me that there wouldn't be vendors everywhere selling food, souvenirs, drinks, trinkets, candy, etc on every corner and in every step of the stands.  But instead, there was none of that - we arrived at 6pm without feeding the boys because I knew they were going to be eating so much junk later on and yet we left at 10:30pm with two starving kids who had had nothing to eat or drink.

Of course, we had had an hour long tutorial on how to properly hold up the flowers that were in our goody bags at our seat and repeat "We love Singapore, We love Singapore, We LOVE Singapore" while moving the flower from our heart to above our heads.  This was practiced 1,000s of times in case we didn't get it the first few times.  It was then repeated throughout the parade whenever it was thought that we needed reminding that we did indeed love Singapore.  Was a little afraid that if we did not do as instructed that we would suddenly be yanked out of the stands by a little drone flying around (there really were drones flying around taking pictures of the crown but I am assuming that was just to get cool shots of the fans).

Anyway, the parade was an amazing overload of lights and sounds and each group that was represented did a fabulous job of showing their nation's pride as well as their pride in Singapore.  USA was represented by Stamford American International School where our kids attend and Ella was one of the lucky ones chosen to be on the cheerleading team that SAIS specifically created for this parade.  As a base she had practiced 2-3 hours a day 5 days a week for the last month and it all came to fruition this night.  They did an amazing job and she was euphoric after the event.  What a fabulous experience for her.  She said looking up into the stands at the thousands of people that she wasn't nervous at all and she just thought it was awesome.  What a great experience!

Pictures are lousy because of all the lights/smoke and the fact that the entire SAIS community at the event stood up to cheer on our girls when they came by which made pictures just about impossible.  Did get a few of the parade in general that might be neat to see.

Showing our American Pride in stands 

(SAIS was in the running for "most outgoing audience participation")

Handing out red, white and blue beads to those families that forgot to show their American Pride!

Sumner sporting the Stamford American decals we provided families