Singapore

Well, I am sitting here in Portland, trying to kill a couple of hours. It is good to be back on the eastern side of the Pacific. My body isn't quite sure what time it is. I can't complain, though. I do feel quite rested. I slept well on the airplane.
I Left Minneapolis after church on Sunday and flew straight from MSP to Narita-Tokyo airport. 12 hours in an airplane is a long time, as Bob can attest to. His was at least that long, if I recall. It was a full flight. Brenda knows how well I sit still. The little Japanese lady next to me never budged once. I'm sure she thought I had some sort of wiggle-worm disease.
I was afraid I was going to have a trouble in Japan, as my flight was two hours delayed leaving Minneaplis, and I only had a 1:40 layover in Tokyo. Thankfully, they held the second flight and I was able to get off one plane and on the other. That was another 7 and a half hour flight.
I got to Singapore at 1AM on Tuesday morning. After I got up (around 9AM) I spent the rest of the day with my colleagues shopping for necessary items. Wednesday and Thursday were spent training the Bosch associates there. One from Hong Kong, one from India, and one from Singapore. The two from Japan and mainland China were unable to make it, which was unfortunate.
Singapore is not a bad place to visit, really. Much, much nicer than neighboring Malaysia, so I'm told. I wanted to venture over there, but my Singapore host would have nothing of it. They call Singapore a "fine" city (the country is one city, so country and city are used interchangeably) - because there are fines for everything from chewing gum to forgetting to flush the toilett.
Everything is very strictly controlled by the government, who owns all of the land. You can lease it for 99 years, but it still belongs to the government. Because it is an island, and limited in space, land is very expensive to rent. It does appear to be quite open to Christianity, however. I even saw a minivan that had "Asian Baptist Bible School" written on the side. I also saw an Asian Theological seminary (don't know any more than that) and several churches.
I went to bed early on Friday night, and slept until 2:15. My alarm was set for 3, but I decided I would just get up and take my time. Got packed and went to the airport for the long ride home. It is so nice to be so close to home. I can't wait to see my family.

Pictures: 1) Singapore Opera House; 2) The Lion City; 3-4) food (I could take pictures of just about anything and not be embarrassed - I was just "fitting in!"; 5) They insisted that I be in at least one of the pictures. I finally relented when I realized it really was a big deal to them; 6-7) city scenes.