Big USA in a little Asian Culture

This morning we got to sleep in, but I was woken up by the sun reflecting off of the dock through my porthole right onto my face.  I needed to get up early to prepare for my sales pitch over lunch, and mentally prepare for Saturday morning ‘acting class’.  The entire crew followed Laser up to the dance studio in the yacht club.  Warm up began by frolicking around the room in a circle to feel the presence of the space we would be moving in.  There was running, skipping, hopping, jumping, stomping, backwards-running, and of course, high knees and karaoke.  Afterwards we found our own space in a circle and began by kicking our feet out without allowing the rest of our body to move.  Next we moved one limb at a time repetitively in each direction, again keeping the rest of the body still and relaxed.  We then came to a full body exercise that didn’t stop until we turned made the noise of donkeys as we pushed through our body’s resistance.  Beginning with hip circles, then adding arm circles, and then wrist circles, and then finger circles, and then head, face, tongue and toe circles.  For 15 minutes we had every joint and small muscles stimulated by circular motion.  For brief periods we would slow down and other brief periods we would speed up.  After we had broken our body’s resistance and began grunting and moaning like ‘donkeys’, we froze in place and felt the energy radiating off of our bodies.  Moving around the room and interacting with others we could feel their energies.  After the energy had subsided, we reformed the circle and began releasing our true voice.  Your true voice comes from your sex organ and resonates through all of your internal organs until it escapes through your mouth.  It has its own power and energy.  We again interacted with others, feeling their true voice and responding with ours, followed by its reverberation off of a wall.  The final exercise was a voice exercise.  Moving around the room and speaking how ever felt right to you individually, we made the sounds of the vowels, one at time.  The ‘class’ was ended by lying down and playing the entire thing over in our heads, ‘going to the movies’, and individual stretching.

Saturday morning clean up followed acting class, and I was reminded how beautiful Mir truly is; she really does clean up nicely!  I also got to swab the deck again, which is actually quite fun and makes you feel like you are in an old pirate movie.  Our two guests arrived a bit early, so I didn’t have time to shower, but luckily the humidity and heat of my bunk removed all of the wrinkles in my shirt and shorts!  The meeting went on for 3 hours, and the guy is very talkative and excitable.  There were a lot of great connections made and hopefully some future business.

I finally made it into Singapore!  I visited the Chinese Gardens and the Japanese Gardens.  They were rather crowded and the main garden, the Bonsai Garden, was closed for renovations.  The Garden of Abundance made it worth the trip, however.  In this garden are 100 yr old pomegranate trees and statues of the 12 signs of the Chinese Zodiac.  11 of them were scattered around the garden in open spaces, while the Dragon was located in a jungle area at the top of a waterfall and pool.  Clearly the BEST symbol!  The pagodas were nice, as well as the wild life; I saw a fishing bird catching fish!  The surprising thing was there were more Indians than Asians, I even took shelter from the rain under a pagoda with a group of 8 Indians who were eating peanuts and sharing a carton of milk.  As I was leaving the Gardens, a caught a young girl following me with her camera phone, and as I passed I heard the ‘click’.  Everywhere I go it seems, Asians are in awe of me!

I made my way back to Jurong Point for dinner, and passed up the thai and malay version of Friendly’s to experience a street dinner under $5.  The first place I found offered 5 different soups, each containing a different pig’s internal organ.  After browsing many menus and being stared at by a large Caucasian guy, I found myself seated at a table with two other single men all enjoying a different dish and from a different culture.  Back inside the mall, I found a cheap asian movie store, in hopes of finding a Totoro dvd for Leskosky (sorry, no luck).  At the market, I picked up some energy food, Snickers and apples, and ran into the Caucasian guy in one of the aisles.  Again he was staring at me and as I entered the aisle he asked me if I was from Norway.  I found out he was from Russia and also a seaman, in port for repairs.  Also he had ‘never met a USA’ and didn’t know the English words coral reef, ocean, fish, or sea animals.  I felt honored to be the first American Egor had met and after his limited English had been surpassed he shook my hand, smiled, and said ‘have good shopping, good bye’.  Waiting in line for a cab, the little Asian guy standing in front of me stared up at me for 10 minutes.  I tried to engage in a conversation, but I all I got in return were ‘wide’ eyes and an open mouth as he shuffled backwards each time the line moved up.  It sure is a little man’s world out there!