Sunday evening, and time to reflect on another busy weekend of coaching and early mornings (I much prefer one to the other - not difficult to guess which) it's time to reflect on more than half my time gone by in Singapore.
It feels very much like I have been here for a lot longer than the two weeks and three days since I flew into the country, and already I feel like I am a local with plenty of knowledge about how things work in this part of the world.
Today has involved relatively the same things as last Sunday. First I coached at West Coast Park this morning with my kids for an hour between 9:30 and 10:30. Thankfully I gained the correct information today, and arrived perfectly on time to set up.
The Japanese baseball players we are usually fighting for space with had moved slightly over into our territory this morning, so I had to take back some land by stretching out into their outfield. This morning I had the privilege of coaching eight children before finishing with a little match.
Doesn't matter how much time you spend coaching, it appears that children of ages 5-6 love to stand around in bunches and basically kick the ball as hard as they can when it comes towards them. Ironically today's session was about finding space, but that seemed to go completely out of the window when they were like bees around honey wherever the ball went.
After the session this morning we caught the bus back to the MRT station at Jurong East and then made our way back to Sembawang. All these early mornings must have taken their toll on me as I almost instantly fell asleep as soon as I managed to get a seat on the train.
A strange phenomenon seemed to take place this afternoon because as soon as we headed back towards Sembawang the rain came pouring down! Thankfully I had my umbrella in my bag so it wasn't required too much on the journey between the train and the apartment.
I had a quick bit of lunch before heading out to Sentosa island where I had spent most of last Sunday. This weekend I was doing my best to play tour guide to one of the other coaches who hadn't seen the place for himself, but was impressed after seeing some of my photos. Despite one visit there I was able to guide him half way around before having to return back to the apartment and allow him to continue exploring the rest of the island.
Miraculously as I started to get close to Sembawang again, it started raining, and this time the umbrella was a little more necessary than it had been on my original visit.
I've had a fairly quiet evening of being on the computer, as I prepare for my final full week in Singapore.
We have a new coach staying with as at the moment, he is also from England, and I am spending this week taking him to sessions and showing him around whenever I get the opportunity.
I remember when I first moved to Korea, and I was very grateful that I had two great (future) friends to show me around, but unfortunately I wasn't awarded that luxury when I first came here and I had to make my own way around.
I have done my best to try and make him feel welcome, and considering this is his first time in Asia then I'm sure he appreciates the slight bit of wisdom that I can impart on him.
Partly due to the language, the culture and basically everything, I think that Asia is perhaps the most difficult part of the world to 'blend' into. I consider myself to be a chameleon when it comes to visiting new places, and I was able to settle in a little easier here due to previous experiences in the continent. But I know it can be tough when you first come over, and I remember thinking "Wow" when I first saw all the bright lights, ridiculous amount of people EVERYWHERE, and strange smells started to waft from food all around.
I understand that perhaps this is a slightly narrow view of the world as I have never been to South America or the Middle-East, but to me, Asian culture is rapidly different in terms of its whole perspective, and I can understand why people might find it difficult to settle here, particularly if they are not in the right situation.
Of course I am not suggesting that I am some worldly expert on everything, but these are things that I have picked up on my travels and believe to be the case.
This week, school's have returned, so most of our sessions will be taking place in the afternoon once again.
Hurrah for lie-ins!
I'm not the best, but I am the most persistent.
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