Lectures galore!

We continued our cultural exploration of Singapore by learning about the major religions that influence the philosophy of the Singaporeans. We split into three groups, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam, and were required to learn about the customs, rituals, and overall worldviews of our chosen religion. Each group also needed to locate a temple so that they could take the whole class to it later in the course. I was in the Hindu group. We decided to take the metro to little India and explore a temple dedicated to the Hindu goddess, Kali. She is the goddess of destruction and time. She is depicted with blue skin, red eyes, a necklace of skulls, two dead heads for earrings, a skirt made of human hands, and her tongue sticking out. Super intense, but awesome! After doing some research on her I found out that there is more to her than the destructive side. She only kills demons and she  works to liberate her children. She fights evil forces to protect her children. Many families bring their small children to be blessed by Kali, even though her statues are terrifying to behold.

After visiting the temple, we ate lunch at a local Indian restaurant where it was custom to each with your hands! Obviously, we all had a blast and got so messy trying to eat rice and curry with our fingers! It was so much fun!

In the later afternoon, we attended a lecture at the National University of Singapore, which is within walking distance from our hotel. The lecture focused on environmental law and how Singapore solves its many environmental issues. Even though I usually find policy and law to be incredibly dull, I absolutely loved the lecture. I liked hearing the lecturer’s personal accounts of the problems and how the government worked to fix them. All in all, it was interesting, informative, and fun!

The next day (Friday) was our big lecture day. Normally we attended three different lectures from various organizations. First, we went to the Botanical Gardens to listen to the National Parks Service discuss their goals and actions. They have done a marvelous job at “greening” the city. Most of you know that I really hate cities. I’ve been to NYC once and I will hopefully never go back again. To me, cities feel grey, dirty, and crowded. Singapore is different. Thanks to NParks, the city actually does feel like a garden. I never feel claustrophobic by the number of people. I see green plants everywhere I look and it doesn’t seem like a big city. I have unexpectedly fallen in love with this city!

After lunch, we went to the HUB environment building to listen to a lecture about how the government is working to supply clean water to the populace. The final lecture was at the university again and we learned about the applications of satellite remote sensing in conservation efforts. The final lecture was not only for us, but also to the university students. Afterwards, we had a chance to converse with the students and discover what they think about their city. I even made a few new friends!