Thursday at work I finally got a time slot to use the TEM (transmission electron microscope), so it was time to look at all the samples I had made and see how they were going. None of them were, in fact, just as I wanted. Some were too big (here, too big means 300 nanometers across instead of the 100 I was going for), the wrong shape (this indicates a different crystal structure, meaning that I didn't get the phase I wanted), and some contained entirely the wrong compound (due to having to work with a very air sensitive chemical that partially oxidizes everytime I open the bottle for more than 1 second). But, there was still a lot to learn from my failures. So, this week I'll be making the same samples over again, but this time with more of an idea what not to do. I guess that counts as progress. Friday I had a stellar day in which I technically was running a reaction all day for 8 hours, but this reaction involved about 15 minutes of set-up time and 5 minutes to remove it from the oven at the end of the day, which was great because it left me with tons of free time and I got to still feel like I was working. I went to a program at the International Student Center about Hari Raya Aidilfitri, which is the Muslim holiday that marks the end of Ramadan; it actually occurred last weekend. They told us a little about the history of the holiday and made us sing a song in Malaysian about it and then taught us how to weave these little pouches that are used to cook rice in to make these compressed rice blobs that are a traditional food Hari Raya food. Thanks to wikipedia, I now know that these are called ketupat and are traditionally made of banana leaves. Here are some unopened ones.
However, everyone soon gave up the weaving to enjoy the large amounts of free food (including the rice blobs).
On Saturday, I first visited the Peranakan Museum. Peranakan is the name for the descendents of Chinese immigrants that settled in Malaysia and Singapore many hundreds of years ago, and whose historical culture is a mix of Chinese and Malay traditions. The museum was built in a traditional Peranakan house from the early 20th century:
The museum mostly consisted of artifacts that represented the Peranakan lifestyle during the 19th and 20th centuries. The museum highlighted various aspects of the Peranakan culture such as their wedding rituals, mourning rituals, religious beliefs, food, etc. The wedding rituals were very elaborate and traditional weddings lasted for 12 days. Throughout these 12 days there are many ritual exchanges of gifts between the bride's family and the bridegroom's family, meant to represent the ways in which the bridge and groom will support or provide for each other. For example, the groom's family gives the bride some lengths of cloth to symbolize that the groom will provide for her, and the bride gives the groom a new set of clothes that she has made to show that she is talented in sewing. The jewelry worn for traditional Peranakan weddings is crazy! Here is a picture of one typical set:
The hat looking thing on the top is actually just a bunch of hairpins that the bride would wear all over her head. I think it must have been heavy! The special exhibit in the museum was about traditional Peranakan jewelry - they have very distinct styles and types. The most popular is a traditional brooch, sometimes worn in sets of three. There were a lot of interesting examples showing the evolution of the style through the ages. Another interesting thing was that silver jewerly was only used for mourning and was not worn at other times. They didn't allow pictures. I'm always sad when museums don't allow me to take pictures. Here are some household deities that would be kept in a house on the family alter to generally protect the family and give them good luck. Sometimes they were for a specific purpose, like the god of memory that was often kept by students.
After the museum, I headed to Little India to check out the Deepavali market. Deepavali is the Hindu festival of light. I think the legend behind it involves some hero/god who saved the world from an evil dark king. I'll get back to you on that one. Anyways, all of Little India was really pretty and lit up and they had a big bazaar selling things like lights, incense, flower garlands, clothes, shoes, and cookies. It was pretty interesting to wander around in, but it was super crowded, so I went and ate some delicious Indian food somewhere less crowded.
Today, I woke up bright and early to go hiking with my friend Brian. We went to a place called Mac Richie Reservoir, which is about in the middle of Singapore. This is some of the only undisturbed/forested land on the whole island. Part of the trail that we hiked was actually a suspension bridge way up in the treetops. Here I am on the bridge:
It was a really nice view and it was actually not too hot this morning, so it was a very enjoyable hike. At the end, we saw monkeys! We were almost all the way back, and I heard some weird noises in the forest and saw a man standing around and looking like he was watching something, so I asked him and he pointed them out to us. From my research that I did just now, I think they were Long-Tailed Macaques. Here they are:
I realize it's pretty hard to see, but if you look about in the middle of the picture, you can probably find it's tail. Anyways, they monkeyed around (hehe) in the treetops for awhile and then one started to shimmy down the tree on the right side of the picture. It stopped on a branch a few feet above the ground and then we could see that it had a baby on it's back! It was super cute! I got really excited and didn't manage to get a picture of it.
Aaaand, I even have a bonus picture. Here is the condo that I live in. It's quite tall, and yellow.
TWO entries in one week - I can hardly believe it!
ReplyDeleteI like that you call them rice blobs lol - were they good? They sound kind of delicious and I like that they're cooked in things that look like baskets.
I want to see more pics of your building and room!