Trip to the Museum

1. I was awed by the beauty of the museum. The architectural design that fuses colonial influences with modernity. It was serenely beautiful.

2. We visited the Greek Civilisation exhbition. There were many interesting exhibits that gave us a glimspe of ancient Greece, their culture, religion, art, sports, politics, etc. The sociologist in me surfaced, especially when it came to the segment on religion. Learning about their gods and semi-gods and heroes and all that they represent individually was really quite insightful. There was little statues of a goddess called Nike. I pointed the winged goddess to the kids, telling them how her name means Victory, and that she stands for triumph. I told them, maybe that's how the brandname Nike came about, but they were more interested in taking pictures with the nude statues.

Above is a picture of a funerary lion. Sculpted animals were installed on top of tombs, the lion being the most popular animal protector for tombs.

3. Within the exhibition were quotes printed on the walls. along one blue-lighted corridor were quotes by Greek philosophers. From what i know of Epictetus, he's prob the epitome of what one would call "attitude determine behavior", that our capacity to be happy is dependent on our own characters, and how we handle ourselves, others and events around us.

" You say ' I want to win at Olympics'. But wait. Look at what is involved...You will have to obey instructions, keep away from desserts, eat only at set hours, in both heat and cold; you must not drink cold water nor can you have a drink of wine whenever you want to. You must hand yourseld to your coach exactly as you would to a doctor: Then in the contest you must gouge and be gouged; there will be times when you will sprain a wrist, twist your ankle, swallow mouthfuls of sand and be flogged. And after all there are times when you will lose."

4. We also had complimentary passes to the History of Singapore Exhibition. Wow. It was really high tech. We were all issued a "companion", which was this interactive handheld device with headphones in which u can key in some numbers as you walk around the exhibitions. There were SO MANY THINGS to see and listen too. If we were to stop at EVERY station, it will probably take hours to complete it. But it was really very fascinating as we could listen to first-hand accounts of war survivors, narration of people's lives, conversations re-enacted, videos of Singaporeans living in different eras. I stopped at as many as i could, until i realised how left behind I was from the group. I wanted more time to listen, especially to the section when it showcased the women in early singapore, as well as the stories of people who survived the war, so i stayed back for another hour. :)