sentosa & nights out

wednesday 29 july

i went with a group of exchange students today to sentosa island resort.
for some reason, everyone i meet is canadian.
we went to 4 different attractions (the merlion, sky tower, segways, and 4d movie) for 10$ plus the beach.

this is a merlion. the famous mythical animal representing singapore.
it has the head of the lion and a body of the fish.
singapore was originally named singapura (singa = lion, pura = city) because a great prince came to the land and came face to face with a lion. the two supposedly understood each other's grandeur and became friends. historically, singapore has no lions. how silly.

this is the view from the top of the merlion.

we also went on the tiger sky tower. i forget how tall it is, but the view was pretty nice.

here are views of the beach area at sentosa:

afterward, all of the exchange students were invited out to a night at clarke quay.

thursday 30 july consisted of orientation and another night out at west coast park.

breaking the ice

monday 27 july

today i met wei ling.
she took me to clementi to exchange money, get an ezlink card for the bus, and helped me figure out life.

i also went to ikea@queensway with people from pgp.
we ate dinner & hung out for a while.

tuesday 28 july

today was registration!
we got up bright & early to get our student passes & id cards.
later, i went with some guys to east coast.

later today, i went out to eat dinner with a couple people at the cheese prata shop.

after dinner, we went to west coast. no beach, but a pretty harbor.

while we were abandoned by one taxi company, we eventually found one that brought us back to our dorm for 4$. hooray for the low cost of living that is singapore :)

welcome to singapore

singapore is very humid.
there are lots of cats.
my first hour here, i was lost. outside. at 1 in the morning.
in singapore, fruit juice is literally a watermelon stuck in a blender.
no ice, no sugar. slightly lukewarm. mashed up seeds.
S$3.60 (US$2.40) gets you an entire meal of noodles and soup.

...and now we're off to NUS!

(Pictures to follow because the internet is being difficult.)

[edit]

the view at toa payoh -- 보이 언니's apartment complex.

the view from my room at nus, pgpr

...and the countdown begins!

Only five more days until I leave for Singapore? Preposterous.

williamsburg is half a world away...

$1600 in airfare
+ 23 hours of travel
+ 2 50-lb bags of luggage
+ 1 threat for quarantine
____________________

= 5 months in Singapore