Uniquely Singapore

So I've been in Singapore three days. It's been quite a journey.

Monday morning I woke up to my phone vibrating at 3:45... time to get up after only 4 hours of sleep. After throwing some clothes on and quickly brushing my teeth, my family and I were out and headed toward the airport by a bit after 4. I was in the air headed to DC by 6:30. Katie and I had a 5 hour layover and were soon off to Tokyo. This 14 hour flight was pretty grueling only to be followed by another 7 hour flight to Singapore. The funny thing was that it didn't get dark until half way to Singapore. Which meant I had ~24 hours of daylight... can you say jetlag?

A Singaporean exchange student from NUS who had spent a semester at Carolina decided to take Katie, myself, and later Scott into his home for the first couple of nights. It was a huge blessing to be taken in by him and his family (his parents and his twin brother Gabriel). After the first night, we checked into yo:HA hostel (off campus dorm) the next day. I walked into my small flat only to see trash all over the floor, spoiled milk sitting on a sticky kitchen table, and a shower and bathroom coated with a fine layer of soapscum/filth. I then walked into my bedroom to see one mattressless bed, and one bed with dirty sheets and a used showercap on the floor. George and Gabriel immediately offered for Katie (her flat was marginally better) and I to stay another night at their home. I told the front desk that I needed my room to be clean before I moved in and they looked confused. So we were back to Geroge's 12th floor 2 story flat that had a beautiful view of Singapore.

We then headed to NUS to begin registration and our application for our student pass into Singapore. It took about 4 hours to get through all of the red tape. Throughout our first two nights, George and Yong (another NUS exchange student from Carolina) took us to different local eateries to begin to experience the Singaporean cuisine. I've had fish head curry soup, squid, tofu, chicken rice, roast duck, Asian green beans, and a special fruit Duron. The Duron is a local fruit that is a bit of a delicacy. It has a very short season and spoils very quickly so you must eat it within one day. It also smells terrible. It turns out that to me, it also tastes terrible.

George and Gabriel took us to a Giant, which is a Singaporean version of Target... but much bigger. We bought all of the things we need... including cleaning supplies. We returned later to the hostel and my room was much cleaner so Scott and I unpacked our things and got settled in. This morning we went through general orientation and business school orientation. It seems that this will be an interesting journey. I'm looking forward to it after shaking off the last bit of jet lag. So I guess all in all this has been a good past three days. The dorm situation is quite disappointing seeing that many other international students got on campus housing (we are about a 15 minute bus ride from campus), but we are planning on moving out after our month contract is up. George and his family have made our entry into Singaorean culture much much easier. There will be more to come.