Finally have some time.

The pictures have been a little annoying because I finally have internet access on my computer as of two days ago, but it is slow and it doesn't like to load pictures and I haven't been able to get much time on it. Getting internet access was an extraordinarily frustrating process. I could check email because there is a computer in the executive lounge [1] but I couldn't get access to wireless because wireless, or at least a basic connection is essentially free for everyone in Singapore [2], but that means nobody is really concerned about the problem of getting wireless. Everywhere I went I would just receive this blank stare and people would go well you just get an ID and then I would try to call and get an ID and password and there would just be one of those "push x button for y thing you want to do" answering machines where none of the options were "I'm from the US and I'm only here for two weeks, but I would like to be able to get on the damn internet." Then there was our hotel, which was perfectly willing to give us internet, for $30 per day. Needless to say, I wasn't a fan of that.

But finally I can access it, if I go to the mall that is below our hotel and sit out in front of the Starbucks right in front of the metro station.

I will post more soon.

1: The executive lounge rocks. We get free booze (this is especially important in a city where any alcohol that is not Tiger Beer is at least ten dollars a drink) and a buffet breakfast that includes all the fresh watermelon and pineapple you can eat and ranges from that to dumplings, of all things. Also, in the evenings there is a cocktail hour that includes (in addition to all the wonderful cheeses that are left out all day) various small bites like risotto balls or steak in mushroom sauce or scallops or goat cheese with nuts, pepper-crusted watermelon and basil (that one is out of this world). The business floors on international five-star hotels rock, as it turns out. We get fancy truffles on our beds every evening as part of the turn-down service.

2: Despite the annoyance it has caused me this is a very awesome thing, of course when I say Singapore here, I mean the wealthy parts of Singapore where everyone has a computer. You can tell you are in a poor section of town when you see signs for internet cafes because nobody would see the point in the wealthy part of town. There is one gaming center right by the university in the wealthy part of the city that is always full, but that is just because gamers like to shove themselves in like sardines even though they could just talk to each other on their headsets.