Row, Row, Row Your Boat

 In Ohio, I was used to living through all four seasons. We'd have hot summers and freezing winters and it was just a fact of life that you'd likely get stuck in a snowbank at least a few times a year. In Singapore, we pretty much only have one season- wet.

There are two official monsoon seasons in Singapore, which last from December-March and June-September, respectively. However, rain isn't restricted to these periods and you can pretty much expect it to rain anytime you'll be making plans outdoors. Right now we're in the middle of the Northeast monsoon season, which is characterized by long, frequent, heavy rains with northeastern winds. And living up to it's reputation, we've hardly gone a day without rain; in fact, right now it's been raining hard nonstop for the last day and a half or so with no sign of stopping.

(really, what are we supposed to do when we can't walk two steps outside without getting drenched)

The rain put a bit of a damper on any plans we could make to explore around outside, so we've been marathoning movies and eating lots of junk food (mamee ready to eat noodles, kueh lapis and DJ Bakery chocolate explosion buns have been on the menu today). And making paper boats to float down the drains. Hey, as long as we know it'll be raining we might as well make the best of the situation.

(I was holding the umbrella so Pris could take this picture at the risk of dying of pneumonia. I know, I'm too giving),

We used the instructions here and learned how to make our boats. It was much easier than expected and they did float just fine. Even better, they're in the rough shape of the gold ingots used as old Chinese currency, perfectly fitting just before CNY.

We floated them in a few of the bigger puddles around our block before we thought to try dropping them in the rain drains. We could tell the water was running but didn't realize how fast it would move until I'd already dropped it, hence the blurry pic taken before the boat whizzed past Pris on the other end. There was seriously only about a second and a half between that first and second shot.

Alas, just after this shot the boat ended up disappearing underneath a little rock bridge put for easy crossing over the grate. It was a pretty fun way to pass a little of the time stuck indoors, give it a shot next time it's raining!