“Can I go in there please?”

“Can.”

“Ten bucks for this?”

“Cannot.”

Singaporeans don’t say yes or no. They say can/cannot, and when I say can’t they still think I am saying can. I realized both words do sound extremely similar. After much confusion, I too have embraced the can/cannot system here – laaa. They also add a ‘ laa’ at the end of some expressions, I still haven’t figured that one out yet.

In short, I am in Singapore for about three weeks working as part of the MIT-Singapore Alliance on a water quality project. I work at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and live at NUS (National University of Singapore). Do not know why I don’t live at the same place I work, but I actually like the arrangement, because I got to experience both colleges. The universities are very, very impressive. The labs are top-notch, campuses are gorgeous, and the warm weather makes me feel completely at home. I realized even after three years I still feel like a fish out of water with the East Coast clime. I am truly a tropical creature.

I work about ten hours a day and then spend nights and weekend either sightseeing or kicking with the taekwondo teams at NTU and NUS. Tkd can be such a useful tool to cross cultural gaps. I just walked into practice at NTU (thanks to Wenxian’s extremely accurate info), introduced myself and started kicking. The taekwondo culture at NTU is very, very similar to MIT’s. They have a ton of alumni helping out and leading classes, it’s more casual, they have officer announcements after practice, people circle and do cheers. I have been cheering: “NTU, sah, NTU sah, NTU sah, sah sah!” for the last two weeks. Practice usually starts with a voluntary run around the track, and then kicking paddles (they call ‘em handmits!) or gearing up for contact sparring. The black belts seem to trickle in and out, or sit out some drills as they choose to, the color belts do the whole class from start to finish.

Practice can be pretty grueling because of the weather. You sweat off a lot ions and quickly feel dehydrated. Neither the NUS or NTU club practice on mats, which totally killed my feet. I haven’t had such bad blisters since my hard-court karate days back home in Bangladesh. Good times those. I have been practicing a lot spin kicks and other new techniques. Bought new gear here. The hogu is much more expensive here for some reason, but the forearm and shin pads were waaay cheaper. I got smas, a Korean brand, I think. It rocks!

In general, it has been really great experiencing how a different club, a different country approaches taekwondo. I quickly made friends and they took me shopping and to sketchy night places which only a local would know about. Check out the link for pictures.   Wait guys, sorry to disappoint, they are not sketchy pictures, just atypical touristy shots.

http://smilebox.com/playEmail/4d5441304e4459354d4452384d6a45774f4451794e44513d0d0a&sb=1

Random facts:

I, as in an American tkd trained person, hold the paddle with the weave facing out. That’s how we usually do it at MIT. But everywhere else in the world, they hold it the other way round. I have lost count how many times I have been corrected here.

Don’t roll up pants when no one else around you is the doing it. The NUS coach called me out for that one in front of the whole class.

When I say padachagi, no one knows what I am talking about.

The little shields are called ‘big brother’.

Intra-club dating is a universal phenomenon!!

That’s all from me. I will be here for about five more days and then I am going home to Bangladesh for a few weeks. Can’t wait to see my family!