SimCity vs. Singapore

Welcome to Singapore! We arrived early Sunday morning and grabbed two taxis into the city. The buildings were modern and amazing to look at. We drove past at least a dozen skyscrapers in the first minute. I was amazed. We entered our hotel and looked out the window. WOW. We had a view of the entire cargo dock and the beautiful light-blue water and some islands here and there. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

Having just come from India, this was crazy. In India, the tallest building I saw was the Trident hotel in Mumbai. All the houses and offices were less than ten stories, but here, all the offices are over thirty stories high! Our hotel itself has over 45 stories! After sitting in our hotel room resting for some time, Mama said, “This looks exactly like SimCity.” I was surprised at her statement, but I knew exactly what she was talking about. All of the buildings in SimCity are tall skyscrapers and towers. The cargo dock in the game is full of different color boxes and loads, just like Singapore. The cars range different colors from red to blue to white to yellow. I am amazed at how clean it is, and how much art work and personal expression there is.

In India, most women covered their shoulders and ankles and heads. Here, women wear short, tank top dresses, high heels, jean shorts, t-shirts, or sneakers. They wear very loose clothing in India, and everyone wears relatively tight dresses, pants, or shirts. People seem to dress a lot like they do in Maryland during the summer. In India, we were restricted in what we could wear, but we can wear whatever we want. I love that everyone has their own style, so you never feel under or overdressed.

Singapore also has tons of parks and greenery. In SimCity, if you don’t build something in a space, it remains green and forested. JUST LIKE SINGAPORE. I love it here. It is so clean and nice and it reminds me of home, even though my neighborhood doesn't have any skyscrapers.

FIRE!!

While we were enjoying some humdity and heat in our tent, something very interesting happened. We were laying on our beds in our tents when we started to hear lots of yelling. At first, I though it was a medical emergency (it was quite hot, someone could’ve fainted) but the yelling didn’t seem to go away. I asked Da, “What is going on?” He peeked out the tent flap. “That is a big fire.” I gaped at him. “WHAT?” I asked, almost shouting. But I had heard him. I yelled, “Tori, Gianna, out of the tent! NOW!” Gianna got up from her position, and asked, “What?” I said, “FIRE! Get out of the tent!” She shot up and I grabbed my shoes. I looked around, where was Tori? I faced the bathroom. “TORI, COME ON!” She looked like she wanted nothing more to do with me. She faced me and said, “I’m on the toilet, Zoe. Chill.” I peeked out side the tent. The fire was far enough away, she had time. I walked out to Da. He had his camera and was taking pictures.

A tent at the end of our row was almost completely burned down. But then, the tent next to it went up in a giant cloud of smoke and flames. The staff at the camp had blown through four fire extinguishers, and now were desperately throwing sand on the flames. Where was the fire truck? Another set of staff members were trying to dismantle the tent next to the tent that had just caught fire. After standing and waiting for the story and the fire truck, everyone near those tents had brought all of their belongings outside, ready to move. I waited. “What do you think happened?” I asked Da. He didn’t face me to answer and instead talked to the camera he was holding to his eye. “Probably and electrical spark of something.” Mama came out of the tent. “WOW” she said staring. She made her way over to where we were standing. The only reason she came out of the tent was because the power went out.

Now is a time to be grateful for what happened. No one was hurt, although many of those people’s belongings were lost. We are thankful that it was not us, and that there was no wind. If there was wind, the whole camp would’ve burned down in just about five minutes. Everything was made of fabric and wood, so everything would have burned and many would have been killed or injured. We are thankful it was not us, and we are sorry for those who lost personal items.

Post Sickness

I have to say, not being sick is a pleasant feeling. After Morocco and most of South Africa, I have gotten extremely better. For those of you who don’t know, I was a sicko.

It all started on the day we rode the camels back from the Sahara. We packed up after a night of almost no sleep, and got on to a bumpy, jerky, buggy camel ride. We got to the a rest-stop-hotel in a town called Rissani, where we had two rooms, for and hour and a half. Gianna, Tori, Mama, and Da were very surprised by the temperature of the hotel pool, while I took a well deserved nap. I had a fever, cough, runny nose, and a headache. Yay. I was miserable the whole drive to the next stop.

At a UNESCO heritage sight, we stopped for some hiking. Boy, was I unhappy. I couldn’t breathe very well through my nose or my mouth, and we had to hike up a mountain. I am glad though because Mustapha (our Moroccan tour guide) made stops to see certain things, at which I caught my breath. At the top, we stopped to watch the sunset, which was totally worth my almost-death.

I did enjoy most of Morocco, even though I was sick. I tried to enjoy all that I could, and tried to keep a positive attitude (which was extremely hard sometimes. Now that I am better, I am glad that I got to see Morocco and I am glad that I didn’t die in the middle of the Sahara.