I’ve been in Singapore for nearly 3 days and I have yet to find the dark underbelly.  Singapore is not like Andy Griffith’s Mayberry, it’s more like Dr Seuss’ Whoville.  The people are, from this observers’ perspective, absurdly good-natured.  While exploring the city yesterday I witnessed a guy digging a trench next to the road.  He was sitting in his backhoe and he had an enormous grin on his face. I watched him for a few moments and he didn’t stop smiling the entire time – the guy was REALLY enjoying digging with his backhoe.

I continued to explore, and while walking in the downtown district I encountered a few locals here and there, and they were all positive and upbeat.  Even the electronics salesman that tried to sell me a digital camera for twice the actual value was really quite friendly about the whole matter.

The place is also incredibly clean.  There’s no spitting (as the attached photo indicates) and no chewing gum.  There’s also no litter – anywhere.  Apparently there is a strict no-tolerance policy on everything, but I jaywalked 3 times yesterday and I didn’t get flogged, so I think it’s more of a myth.  Singapore is a success, and I’m interested to find out if there is a Letters to the Editor/Complaint section in the local newspape.

The downside to Singap ore is that if someone is looking for authentic Southeast Asian culture I doubt this is the place to visit.  All the street signs/menus are in English, everyone speaks English, and there’s a Starbucks on every corner.  With all of the banks and high-end shopping, Singapore is capitalism on steroids and could easily be confused with a very humid Newport Beach         .

As for the training camp itself: I’m pretty tired.  The reason that I went out exploring the first two days was to prevent myself from sleeping in the middle of the day so as to acclimate to the time difference.  However, it didn’t seem to work out the way I intended.  I did double practices the first two days here (8,000 per) and explored the city in between sessions.  Unfortunately my body didn’t adjust, so I was awake most of the night.  Right now I’m tired from traveling, swimming, exploring and not sleeping.  The combination showed last night and this morning at practice when I had a couple of awful sessions.  Today I decided to take a different approach to my adjustment process and am going to try and rest any time I can, regardless of the hour.

One observation from the pool that’s pretty funny.  Every day the swimmers all get in the water for a 7am training session and most of us do an 800 to 1,000 meter warm-up.  During this warm-up period time all of the coaches go to the coffee bar and have complimentary cappuccino or espresso.  They then return to the side of the pool, with a cup and saucer in hand, and casually sip their morning beverage.  It’s rather funny to watch 15 coaches, who typically chug coffee from a 7-11 Styrofoam cup, daintily sip cappuccinos during practice..

Skit night is forthcoming.

Attached picture is of me enjoying a made-to-order smoothie at breakfast.  The martini glass is a nice touch, and I asked for white chocolate chips on top to make it completely obnoxious.

 mdw