Hey Guys!

Haha.....erm....I know that I haven't been keeping my promise to blog. But it's so hard to blog often.....I really admire people who can blog everyday!

Since my previous entry, which is so long ago, it's been really eventful over here.


Pennsylvania
I went for my spring break in Pennsylvania for a week, and it was a great experience! I've uploaded the facebook photos. The vast farmlands just creates this serenity in you that really make you forget that you come from such a fast-paced world, like Singapore.




The Armish
But what was really great is the culture over there, and specifically the Armish culture. They are a group of people who stay firm on their christian practices that are more conservative and isolate themselves from the influences of the society. Their practices and beliefs are really amazing i tell you! Here's a shortlist just for your info!





Practices

• They do not want to be associated or "contaminated" by the US society so despite living alongside other Americans, they do not share the electricity and or water supply with the public. They also do not watch TV or listen to the radio.

• Education is only up to 6 grade and do not encourage further.

• At the age of 16, youths are given a chance to "explore" their identity and they can move out of the community and live the American life, and decide for themselves it the Armish lifestyle is what they want. (only 10-15% eventually leave the community!)

• They are not allowed ot own cars, but instead carriages or buggy. They belief that automobiles would bring them too far away from home.

• They do not have phones in their home but in a shack outside because they do not want to engage in unnecessary babble (from the christian bible)

• To avoid vanity, they only wear plain traditional clothes and avoid buttons or laces that are deemed fanciful.

• Oh they do not allow taking of photos because it is an undesirable form or human engraving, so we can't take photos of them and they do not have photos of anyone in their homes.
  

• there is no divorced, or you will be "ex-communicated" from the community.

• None of them have insurance because they do not belief in it. Instead, whenever someone needs money for medical fees or some other financial difficulty, they will organize a sale where the Armish people sell what they grow or make and give the money to the people who needs it.
  

The main idea is that they are really a very communal group and depend very much on each other. The farmhouse we stayed at hired a maid that was Armish and I was helping her out in the kitchen for two days. That was the closest contact I had with the Armish people.

The Farmhouse
Honestly, the greatest thing about the farm stay was breakfast every morning. Of cos the food is good, it was great EVERY morning! Toast, pies, fresh milk from the cows, scramble eggs, meat.....it was like buffet everyday!

And it's really nice to eat together with the family and the farm helpers at the table, where we would always sing grace before we had breakfast.

We also got to live abit of the FARM life, where we fed the calfs everyday, walks the goats (not the usual activity), learn to make cheese and milked the cows!





Exploring Lancaster
Every corner there is something in Lancaster. Canning factory, pretzel factory, winery, cheese experts, musuems of all sorts. All just within Lancaster and Intercourse county. There can be so much that I would talk about in Pennsylvania....but an advice, never come here without personal transport! I don't think there are any and even fi there are, you won't be able to reach the small areas where there's so much to discover! If there was time, I'd definitely would have stayed longer. It as really a road trip, driving around and exploring on the way. Oh we went to the Hershey chocolate factory, but it wasn't as fantastic compared to our "exploration". It was quite small in fact! But there was chocolate sampling! That's the good part!





Philadelphia
We didn't have enough time to explore philadelphia, but I went to the art museum. For those of you who are in to art, this is a MUST go! You can spend days there just looking at the art pieces. They have carvings and works form the Renaissance period, and alot more. I was lucky that they were holding a Picasso exhibition on the transitions in Picasso's works. And it was the only place in the museum that did not allow any exhibits. So too bad no photos.

Even the streets have murals everywhere on the buildings. It's really a art city. Oh but while i was roaming around the museum, Rose, Paul and Valerie went to McDonalds and saw blackness! The whole restaurant was filled with black people, even the staff! Maybe that's why the Philadelphia 76ers are good, they have so many black players to choose from!




Spring time=time to come out and play!
Hey I finally get to touch a softball glove again!!!!! It was a beuatiful sunny day, and I was on my way back.....AND! I chanced upon a softball recreational team and manage to join them!!!!!!! You don't know how much I miss just htrowing and catching a softball man!!! They play in a league called intra-murals here. Iit's like interhall games, just that you can just form a team yourself and play. It's really for the fun, so it's not so structured, the matches usually don't have a referee to umpire.

Oh and we got to know a group of people who plays frisbee. Apparently they know the previous GIP batch and have been trying to locate us (the new batch).

Another nice thing is that I no longer need to wear LONG SLEEVES to jog! I can just go jog whenever I feel like it and the weather's so nice sometimes!


Back to work now, spring time is here, so are the datelines!