This morning I gave a short worship for the group, and then proceeded upstairs in the conference offices to hear a lecture from Dr. Wong. He spoke to us about Chinese culture, history, language, and much more related to "The Chinese". He spoke for about two hours, but it was all very interesting and much of it I had never heard before. For instance, I had no idea how many different dialects of the chinese language there were, and that there's a specific dialect for the royal family, and a dialect for the people. Not only that, but there several dialects all throughout the country with different tones and pronunciations of words. What I thought was awesome is that although they may speak a bit differently, the written language is all the same. Dr. Wong said that the Chinese writing unified the people of China because it is something that they all have in common, despite the way they may pronounce the characters they are reading. Another thing I found interesting from his lecture was when he said, "A Chinese is anyone who accepts and adapts Chinese culture as the preferred lifestyle and philosophy." This made the culture open to anybody, and I thought that was awesome.
After the lecture, we took the bus to a mall and ate lunch at the food court. It was a very interesting experience because of how packed the place was; it was impossible to find any seats after getting my food. I ate chicken and rice, and had a hot black coffee with it. I also tried ordering a dessert at a different stall, but the lady spoke very little english and I ended up with a completely different dessert. Luckily it was still very good, she gave me a mango smoothie instead of a mixed fruit shaved ice haha! Once we finished our dessert we walked around the mall a bit more and window shopped, since a lot of the clothes seemed to be more expensive compared to the stores back home.
We then took the MRT to the Gardens by the Bay, which was by far my favorite part of Singapore; it was absolutely beautiful! We paid $5 to take an elevator up and walk along a walkway among the super trees, and the view was breathtaking. We had a perfect view of the Marina Bay Sands mall/hotel, and I must say it is the most amazing hotel I have ever seen in my life.
Walking through the cloud forest and the flower dome was another beautiful experience. It was wonderful to see that the country is making an effort to take care of the environment in such an innovative manner. I definitely want to visit this place again sometime in my life.
For dinner we ate in the mall of the Marina Bay Sands, which I must say was beautiful inside. The mall was filled with luxurious fashion and jewelry stores, and even had a moat with gondolas on the bottom floor. We ate at the food court, and I had some Thai noodles with an iced special C tea. After dinner we walked outside and watched a beautiful light show, consisting of the super trees lighting up in different colors. We then walked to the MRT station and went back to Chinatown to do some more cheap shopping for souvenirs. We finished a little late, so after taking the MRT back to Caldecott, we had to sprint back to the guest house in order to meet the 10pm curfew. Luckily we made it right on time, and I am now sitting in my room completely out of breath and sweating like crazy.
Overall, I have continued to love this country. The Gardens by the Bay were absolutely beautiful, and something I will never forget. I wish the US would take more innovative ways of improving the environment like this place.
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