Until the very end of April, I’d never been outside North America, but I corrected that in a big way when I took a 14-hour flight from Dallas to Doha and then another flight — this one a mere seven hours — to Singapore.
The occasion was my 12-day stint as author-in-residence at the Singapore American School. I conducted two-day writing workshops for the second- through fifth-graders and got to read a book or two to the schools first-graders, kindergartners, and pre-K students.
My view from SAS each morning as I made my way from the cafeteria to the elementary library.
Among my hosts was librarian Kate Brundage. I brought her a gift from back home — a copy of Sarah Bird’s A Love Letter to Texas Women — without have any idea that Kate herself is technically a Texas resident.
A few glimpses of what one of those writing workshops looked like.
One of the students laminated my autograph!
The school days were full, but there was much I wanted to see in my downtime, so I got out and about a lot. Besides, I figured I could sleep on my long flight home. (This turned out not to be true.)
On my first Saturday there, I had lunch in Little India, visited the Sultan Mosque —
— took a break for Japanese ice cream and coffee, went to a festival at the Thai embassy, and ended the day with an IMAX screening of Captain America: Civil War with Chinese subtitles.
Singapore offers a marvelous mix of cultures, history, natural beauty, and adventurous architecture. Here are a few of my favorite sights:
Marina Bay Sands from the south in midafternoon
Me on the 55th floor of Marina Bay Sands, looking south
Another view from the top of Marina Bay Sands, of Gardens by the Bay
A few up-close views of Gardens by the Bay
(Yes, those are made of LEGO.)
Inside the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple in Chinatown
The Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple in Little India
Inside the Armenian Apostolic Church of St. Gregory the Illuminator
Most of the signage was in English. Some was less familiar to me.
I picked the right day to follow my mom’s suggestion and go to the modernism exhibit at the National Gallery Singapore.
What else? Let’s see — there was a wet market:
The MacRitchie Reservoir Park, with Kate Brundage…
…and monkeys:
The Singapore Botanic Garden, with an Evolution Garden that I especially liked:
Though this guy was also a highlight:
But my favorite place to photograph was, without a doubt, Haw Par Villa:
The centerpiece of Haw Par Villa is the Ten Courts of Hell, the representations of which are a bit extreme. There are serious punishments for more infractions than I knew existed. Trust me, you don’t want to suffer the consequences of misusing books.
But I can’t end there. I’ve got to go back to SAS and one of the campus cats. Because campus cats.
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