School Adventures

This week was the start of classes finally. The schedules here are very different. For pretty much all of my classes I have a two hour lecture once a week in a large lecture hall. Then I have a one hour tutorial at a totally different time and day of the week. The tutorials are smaller and allow for questions and group work. In three of my classes I am the only white person, which I was sure would happen. The natives here are quiet but if you start talking to them mostly all of them are friendly. I am sure that I will have some great study groups. The video above is from yesterday outside my door. The rain is absolutely crazy, you think that the world is going to end for about twenty minutes and then it is over with. After being here for a little over a week I have realized how different I am to these native people. Most people just look at you and don't say anything but if you chat with them they all are genuinely intrigued. I remember in Mexico the men would haggle you and always come up to you. Here we have not had one incident. Kara and I attended the freshman and new student tea for hall three yesterday. We were the only two from America, and there were two from Indonesia, Korea, and China. We ended up winning a coupon for answering trivia about Singapore! It was for only five dollars but we had a great time chatting with people. We just stressed to everyone that they can come up to us whenever they want. Last night we decided to do a girls night and wander around clarks quay. We passed a bar/lounge called Attica, and there was an extremely long line to get in. The manager came up to us while walking and invited us in for no cover charge. All six of us explored inside and yet again were approached to join the VIP section of the lounge. It is funny the power that six girls have here. Tonight there is a hall dinner in chinatown which is a great opportunity to meet more people in our dorm! Until next time..

xoxo

Leah

Clark Quay and Sentosa

Saturday night was the perfect night to do some exploring. There is an area in downtown Singapore called Clark's Quay which is a very modern area with tons of shopping, restaurants, and nightlife. This area reminded me of the US because it definitely is a tourist destination but it is still so much fun to wander around. There is everything to eat from spanish tapas, american brew works and hooters! There are plenty of outdoor bars lining the river and there is one called The Clinic where everyone sits in wheelchairs and drink out of fake IV's. It is something that I would never dream of seeing. Near one of the malls that we came on the MRT to there were vendors lining the river. There was everything for sale like cute sundresses for S$10-S$15 and any type of sparkly jewelry. These were good prices but in chinatown and little india we know we can find the best deals because it isn't as touristy. Yesterday we decided to head out to the man made island of Sentosa connected by a bridge and tram. The island was absolutely beautiful and tropical. Located here were towers where we took a picture at the Southern most point of continental Asia. I guess that is something that not many people have done! As well on the island is a Universal Studios theme park, casino, restaurants, a few resorts, and many waterfront bars/clubs. The beach is great if you take away all of the large tankers in the distance. For a half hour MRT, I'll take a tropical beach any day. We have plans to hopefully return to Sentosa next Saturday!

xoxo

Leah

Singapore Differences

A few days ago I went to Singapora Plaza to get some basic dorm needs. Of course on my list was sheets for my bed, but that was not so easy. The normal Singaporean sheet set comes with a fitted sheet, a regular pillowcase and then a pillowcase for a bolster. A bolster is the skinny long pillow which apparently is a common place in every bed. After buying my set I went on a search for just a regular plain sheet (that a normal bed would have). Due to the hot weather here most Singaporeans do not sleep with a top sheet at all, I ended up finding one that was more expensive than my sheet set and a decently priced blanket. The funny thing is that they were not easy to find at all. At carrefour (wal-mart type store) they have a plain sheet for S$49 and that was it. After some shopping I found one, but I just thought the whole process was a little strange. In my second picture is a clothes line dryer. The washing machines here are free which is great but there is only one dryer and it costs money. Therefore everyone dries their clothes outside. We have some bars outside of our window that everyone clips their clothes to over night. At first it was different, but now I have to do my laundry more often or there will not be any room to dry everything. I did my first load and it is extra work, but I don't have to worry about clothes shrinking in the dryer, and because it is so hot out my clothes dried in a matter of two hours. Finally in the last picture is our new welcome mat. While wandering the city we saw these cat's everywhere. Thinking about it I have seen the waving kitty in pretty much every asian restaurant at home. After some research I found out that this "waving kitty" brings good luck, and fortune to the owner and is also a welcoming symbol. Now our room is lucky and inviting!

xoxo

Leah

Day Four

Today was a fairly packed day over here! I woke up more adjusted, and slept in for the first time. Kara and I got breakfast at our new favorite "western" dining hall, where I got toast, breakfast potatoes and mango juice. We decided to check out the pool around ten, and we were blown away. I guess it is not too common to go sun bathing so we had all the chairs to ourselves while the water polo and canoe polo (in the picture where they essentially play water polo from kayaks) teams practiced. We met a few exchange people who came to relax by the pool; one from California, Germany, and Sweden. Then off to lunch for noodle soup that put us back S$2.50! It was very interesting trying to eat with only chopsticks. Around 4 we decided to adventure out off of campus. We took the campus bus to the MRT(public tram/subway) station and rode for about a half hour to Plaza Singapora. I invested in a few dorm needs from Carrefour (similar to a cheaper wal-mart) and walked around the huge mall. It was fun to get off campus but we were tired quick and made it back to campus around 1030 pm. I realize how huge the city is, Kara and I decided to take it in small doses and explore little by little. Thanks to an exhausting day hopefully I will sleep well tonight!

xoxo

Leah

Day Two

This morning I woke up around 430 am Singapore time and could not quite fall back asleep. The picture above is right outside my door, I have a deck that is perfect for soaking up some sun. My roommate Kara arrived around 9 am. Kara is from  New Jersey but has lived in various places such as Hong Kong, London, and even Singapore for a year. She goes to Elon University and we easily got along right away. We both cleaned up the room and explored the hall a little more. We found a small gym with a treadmill and some weights about a one minute walk from us. This is perfect so we don't have to trek across campus. We went to lunch near the library (because it was the only place we knew of) and ate a pretty western meal from Subway. We then realized there were ten more food options upstairs but we chose from McDonalds, Subway and Canadian Pizza (I didn't know Canada was known for Pizza?). We then explored around campus alot more and we found a great supermarket on campus where I bought towels for S$6, a few adaptors and shampoo for under S$40. We are still quit jet lagged and are just relaxing planning our adventures to come! We are very excited to go to the island of Sentosa which has a bridge running from Singapore and is know for their beaches and we as well are going http://www.marinabaysands.com/ here for only S$20 we can relax at the top of the building by the pool as if we were on a cruise ship. I can not wait!! I am glad that I am slowly making a good group of friends and I am sure we all want to venture out and really learn about Singapore 

xoxo

Leah 

Day One

After Maria took me to my room I borrowed some sheets and attempted to sleep. Unfortunately I was very awake due to my body thinking it was three in the afternoon. I managed to sleep a few hours and woke up probably more tired than before. My room is a two person room with plenty of storage for books and clothes. There are a few different things though, shoes are taken off outside of rooms by tradition. In one of the pictures you can see there is a "shoe closet" on the outside of my room, so the shoes never go inside. The other different thing is that the washing machines are free but there is one dryer that costs S$1(S$=Singaporean Dollar). Many people opt to air dry their clothes, so there are various clothes lines in the halls and outside each of the windows. The air is very humid, it is probably 80 degrees Fahrenheit and sticky. The AC costs 1 cent for three minutes so it is not economical to keep it running all the time. I have yet to use mine since the fan and open windows seems to keep me just cool enough now. It was and adventure taking my first shower here since I had no towels but I managed to clean up. I also encountered another dilemma with the outlets. I thought that a few things would work in the outlets but I was wrong and I needed adaptors for everything I brought including to charge my computer. The first day I went without anything plugged in. Day one I wandered around campus and went to the International Student Center to register. I got a a little tour of the campus and purchased a very cheap phone (S$69). After that the jet lag got to me and I turned in early.

                                                  xoxo

Leah

Arrival

Leaving behind the two plus feet of snow I set off on my adventure to Singapore on Saturday the 15th. After a sleepless night I arrived at Newark airport to a surprisingly easy and peaceful security and baggage check. Both my bags weighed in at 48.5 lbs. which allowed me to sneak by. My first flight took   me a little over fourteen hours from Newark to Tokyo. The plane headed up through Canada and cut back right before Russia. I remember waking up during my flight and we were flying over the Bering Sea according to my inflight map, the temperature outside was -80 degrees Fahrenheit. I was happy when we touched down in Tokyo. The airport was fairly easy to navigate with English signs in the places that I needed them. I bought a vitamin water there and the price came out to be $1.88 which is very inexpensive. My gate sign had Guam listed on it for at least two hours which lead me in a few circles and a few incomprehensible conversations I finally boarded. The next flight was seven hours straight to Singapore. Although the flight was very turbulent and squished I managed to sleep for most of the flight in an awkward position. To me the flight was from 4 am to 11:30 am, but I arrived in Singapore after 13 time zone changes to 12:30 at night. Customs and immigrations were quick and everything ran as planned until I reached campus with the taxi driver. We got lost for about a half hour, but after consulting a map we found my buddy Maria waiting with my key to my room in Hall 3. 

xoxo 

Leah