Where to begin? We've had a pretty eventful/frustrating/patience-testing couple of days. I knew that travelling would force me to become more of a flexible person, but I wasn't quite expecting so many bumps in the road. We're safe, and we're all together, so that's all that really matters, but it's been interesting thus far, that's for sure.
Our flights from Canada to Singapore were all delayed, which was to be expected because of the snow in Canada. However, after sitting in the plane on the tarmac in the Vancouver Airport for 2.5 hours, the captain came on the speaker to say "well folks, we're going to get going, but Air Canada was unable to get any luggage on this plane, so we're going to take off without your bags. You should receive them on the other side within 12-24 hours."
Perfect.
36 hours later, we got our bags. 36 hours is actually quite a long time to go without essentials like underwear, contact solution, face wash, etc. Especially when you arrive in Singapore when it's 34 degrees and humid, and you're wearing Lulu's, running shoes, and a hoodie. Needless to say, we hit the mall pretty quickly after arriving at our hotel. Thank goodness we were staying in a beautiful hotel (the Carlton), which was right in the heart of downtown and shopping.
We ended up staying in the hotel for an extra night (2 in total) so that we could be somewhere the airport could deliver our baggage to once it was finally located.
When I say "we" I am referring to myself, Janene, Danielle, Heather, and Tia. We are all in the UVic Business program, and travelled here together and are rooming together. It's nice to have so many familiar faces to hang out with.
We are attending Nanyang Technological University here in Singapore, and the campus is 500 acres of BEAUTIFUL. It's amazing. I mean, I thought the UVic campus was nice. This is amazing. It's massive, for one thing, and it backs onto a jungle, so there are so many trees, and greenery, and it feels kind of rainforesty. We're living in residence on campus and checked in a few days ago. We all got really lucky and got placed in the same building, which happens to have been built in 2005, and is one of only two res buildings on campus that has airconditioning. It's nice to be able to control the temperature of our room, and keep it comfortably cool. The rooms are small, but they're really clean. The first thing we did once we checked into our dorms was go to the Ikea here, and get things like bedspreads, hangers, laundry baskets, storage baskets, etc. So at least we've been able to personalize our rooms a bit, and pick out a colour scheme..........don't act like you're surprised about that.
Yesterday was New Year's Eve for us here, as Singapore is 16 hours ahead of Victoria, and we celebrated by going to Sentosa Island. It was pretty much the most hectic situation I've ever put myself in. It felt like there were 2 million people going to the same place, and the lines were MASSIVE. We stood in the most cramped, sweaty line just to get in for literally something like 40 minutes......and I'm not normally a claustrophobic person, but this one really pushed my tolerance of having people pushed up right against me on all sides. Once we got through the lines, we had fun. There was a big dance party on the beach, with a pretty good DJ, and a foam dance party. We finally were able to snag a cab and got back to our dorms around 4am. We were exHAUSted, but it was a fun way to ring in 2009.
Today we're just taking it easy and exploring the campus a bit, since it's so huge and there's a lot to see.
Singapore's more expensive than I thought it would be. The thing that blows my mind the most is the cost of drinks. To get anything, like a martini, or long island iced tea: $16!! Even after the conversion, that's still like $14 CDN! Needless to say, we haven't ordered any drinks out yet. I guess there are very few alcoholics in Singapore, because it's too expensive. For example, even going to a liquor store, a 2-6 of Bacardi rum is $55!!! The same thing sells for like $22 at home, and we can't figure out why it's so ridiculously overpriced here.
We had our first rainfall today since we've arrived. We noticed there were some rain clouds outside, and thought it might rain sometime today. 5 minutes later we hear a loud noise, and it's POURING outside. Like torrential downpour, all of a sudden. The rain was so warm, so Janene and Danielle put their bathing suits on and went outside to play in it. Then about 7 minutes later, it stopped as fast as it started. Pretty crazy. Also, the other night there was lightening, but no thunder, no rain, no storm, just lightening for a while. Weird.
One thing I'm having a hard time getting used to is the amount that I get STARED at. It's insane. It's mostly the men, which makes it creepy, and they just literally sit there and stare. Everyone says it's because they aren't used to seeing white blonde people here.....but if someone of minority comes to Canada, we don't sit and stare at them...it's rude! I'm not quite understanding why they think it's okay....I'm sure I'll get used to it, but it's throwing me off a bit for now.
It's nice to be in such warm weather, and we're already starting to get used to it. It helps that our room isn't a sauna, so we can cool off when we want to.
The fruit here is amazing, I'm eating lots of pineapple, kiwi, mango, and watermelon. It's pretty cheap to get big chunks of each at our canteen (cafeteria). Thankfully our cafeteria food is pretty cheap. Actually it's really cheap. For lunch today I ordered a big piece of watermelon, pineapple, and a kiwi, and a plate of rice, chicken of some sort, and some green steamed veggie I'd never had before, and it all came to $3.50 SGD, so that's like $3 CDN. For a whole meal. Crazy. Very different from downtown. We went out for breakfast one of the mornings that we stayed at the hotel, and I paid $14 SGD for a croissant, a glass of orange juice, and a cup of tea. Yikes. I guess it just depends on where in the country we are.
I've got a yucky headcold that I picked up on the plane on the way over that took a few days to get full blown. I sound pretty manly today, and I'm all congested, which is not that fun in the humidity, but I'm doing alright. Thankfully they sell decongestants here.
I'm having problems with my adapter and converter that I bought in Canada to allow me to use my electronics here. The adapter plugs into the wall and the converter plugs into the adapter (to convert the voltage so I don't blow things up). I then plug my stuff (camera chargers, cell phone charger, computer power cord, etc.) into the converter. Only problem is the converter only accepts two-pronged plugs, and my computer power cord is a three prong. Janene's having the same problem. So, we went to several different places and finally found a plug adapter that accepts three prongs. Perfect. The only problem now is that I am scared to use my converter with my laptop power cord, because last night I was blowdrying my hair, with my blowdryer plugged into the converter, and was blowdrying it on the "cold" setting, because that's all that would work, and all of a sudden it started making noises like a plane about to take off, the inside coils all got bright orange, it started sparking, and then there was a loud "POP" noise and it shut off, and my converter had smoke coming from it. So, I'm nervous to have it damage my computer........what if it overheats or something? I don't want to risk it. What's the point of having a voltage converter, if it still blows stuff up? I also tried to plug in my straightening iron the other day, and one of the ceramic slabs literally lifted from the plastic which melted. Janene's starting smoking and smelling like burning rubber. Universal Converter? Pfffffft. Right. Anyone else been in this kind of situation? Tips? I'm confused......and really frustrated. I just want to be able to use my computer.........
I have a feeling I've just written a novel, so I should sign off. I can't post any pictures yet, because I need to do that with my computer, which I can't use yet. Bah. Hopefully soon.
Anyways, we're all safe and getting settled. We start classes next week, so hopefully we can get a schedule that will allow some good travel time. We're thinking of going to Malaysia next next weekend. Looks fun.
Happy New Year!!
xoxoxoxo
