Day 24,,,Almost 25

Hey guys, so I am wired the night before a trip so I thought I'd take a second to blog and hopefully calm myself down. Haha. Sidenote, I sadly don't have any pictures for this post.

So anyway its around 11:30 pm on Thursday, the 28th and I have to get up at 6 am tomorrow because we are taking a bus to Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. I've heard mixed reviews of KL from other exchange students, apparently its a city similar to Singapore but not as cool? (not very descriptive but I have legitimately heard almost those exact words from more than one person). But KL does boast the Petronas towers which were the tallest buildings in the world from like 1998 - 2002, so that is noteworthy (however, like my mom and my brother Tom, I'm pretty scared of heights, so that should be interesting). This weekend is also the January full moon (for the record its the second full moon in January as there was one for the New Year, which I learned is called a 'blue moon'), which means that the annual Thaipusam festival will be held at the Batu Caves (in KL). You have to check out the link because I really don't know that much about it, but it sounds amazing.

Anyway, expect a KL update on Monday night. Also, I have found out that Terri Donohue (for anyone reading this who doesn't know, Terri is my mother...although I'm not sure how I feel about someone reading this who doesn't know who my mother is), is coming to visit in the beginning of March, so I'm really excited for that.

I guess I will include a picture (but I didn't personally take this):

So this is a picture that I snagged from wikipedia, and it is of the Durian (known as the "king of fruits" in Southeast Asia). To give you an idea of what it is like, it has been banned from public transportation systems in Southeast Asia because its odor is so strong. People generally either love or hate durian, I don't think there really is a middle ground. We tried this on one of my first days here and my experience was not pleasant at all. So you will be able to tell if you are within probably like 30 feet of a durian because it will smell like a gas-leak. As if that is not enough, in order to eat it, you have to pick up one of the large seeds which is covered with something that looks like raw chicken, and eat the raw-chicken-looking substance, only to find that the texture of the durian is also like that of raw chicken meat. The smell was so overwhelming that I honestly could not tell you what it tasted like, only that I want no part in durians ever again (although I hear that 1. it is an acquired taste and 2. that if you put it in the freezer it is a lot better to eat because it subdues the smell). For anyone reading this that likes durian, I apologize for my awful description -- I will certainly try durian again at least once before I leave and I'll let you know how it goes.

So anyway, expect a post on Monday night my time, Monday morning EST.

Love you all!!

Day 21 - Yes, I'm still alive

Hey everyone, sorry its been so long since my last post (especially to Maria from UCHC-Simsbury). I went from having nothing to write about to being too busy with things to write about to have time to write (if that made any sense).

Anyways work is starting to be due, had some homework due today (and I didn't realize that I had bought the wrong book until midnight last night--- wound up having to redo my homework, anyway I've since worked that out). Its going to be pretty interesting to see how well I'm going to be able to focus on school in this weather. Most of my classes are pretty good though, I really like all of my teachers.

After arriving so late from Bintan last weekend we decided to stay in the city and do some more Singaporean things this weekend (great decision).

So Friday night I went with a few of my friends to see Avatar in 3D, it was pretty enjoyable. Afterwards we walked around Orchard Road which is the retail/entertainment hub in Singapore. Basically it has a bunch of hotels, malls, and designer stores (Gucci, Armani, etc.). Also there are McDonalds and McCafes basically every 5 feet. The highlight of the night was my discovery of Mos Burger which is a Japanese fast food chain --- I had an unreal burger and fries (the first western-ish meal that I have purchased when out).

Saturday we got up unbearably early (6:45) to go to Pulau Ubin which is a rural island north east of Singapore (its part of Singapore -- like a 5 minute ferry ride away). We spent the morning/midafternoon biking and walking around the island.

Ferry ride to PU - smelled terrible in there

Our biker gang on Pulau Ubin

This is everyone on top of an observation tower that looked out over some ocean

View from the observation tower

So some of my friends here are from UNC - Chapel Hill and they have a big exchange program with NUS, so there are a lot of NUS students who have been showing the UNC kids around - some of the UConn kids and I were jealous and decided to crashed their outing on Saturday afternoon.

After getting back from PU we went to the Marine Barrage which is a dam in Singapore which was built across the Marina Channel (my friend Kerry who is taking a water resources class here would tell you that Singapore has to import water from Malaysia to purify and drink and that the Singaporean government built the dam to close off the marina and are currently in the process of desalinating the water to make it suitable for public use, which will decrease their reliance on Malaysia). Anyway there is a park on top of the dam there and we flew kites in the late afternoon with the Singaporeans. It was awesome.

This is a view from a section of the barrage - look for the kites in the sky

This is the group of UConn kids, NUS students who studied at UNC, UNC students, and one NUS student who just found out that he got into the exchange program at UConn (I think he wanted the UNC program though...haha) -- someone with a very nice camera took this

That is me, flying a kite. It should be noted that most of the pictures on this update have been stolen from my friends' albums.

Another view from the top, check out the Singapore Flyer (biggest observation/ ferris wheel type thing in the world) in the background

Elliott, Kerry, and I in front of the new Sands Casino which will open when we are here. I despise this building.

So after we lost four kites to the wind (whoops), the Singaporeans took us out to a hawker center (basically a food court --- they are all over singapore; I eat almost all of my meals at them -- cheap/delicious food) in the financial district. On the weekends they shut down a road which runs in between the Singapore stock exchange (SGX) and a hawker center and set up tables for people to eat. There we shared a bunch of entrees which were chosen by the Singaporeans --so good.
Food included:

• Satay - grilled (?) chicken on skewers served with peanut sauce
• Rice with some type of vegetable (staple - obviously)
• Squid - I was confused about this because we were eating little things that were small, hard, and crunchy; not really like squid, not really my favorite
• Cockels in a spicy sauce - this was my favorite but it set my mouth on fire and I ran out of my drink
• Steamed vegetables - looked spinachy --- I can't really handle spicy foods and when mixed with the cockel sauce on my plate, deadly combination - especially when I was relying on the ice cube halves in the bottom of my cup
• grilled sting ray which was amazing
  

All of us at dinner - The NUS students were so nice to show us around and hang out with us, it was an excellent evening

A picture of the sting-ray

So after dinner, the Singaporeans took us around the block to a place to get good German beers (I'm not really sure why, although it was really good).

Me with a full liter (I swear that I shared this with two other people). The only thing I can tell you about this beer was that it had a hint of banana taste (I know nothing about beer).

After our stop for German beer, we went to one of the UNC (American) kids' Singaporean friend's house (Our American friend is on exchange and in the NUS Scholars programme here which is where he met our host and all of the host's Scholars programme friends). Our host wanted to prove that he could throw an American house party (NUS students are notorious for doing nothing but studying throughout the semesters) -- and wanted real Americans to attend. So the last stop of our extremely long day was to this gentleman's condo where he had a pretty legitimate "American house party".

The longest/best day ever culminated in this NUS house party. I hate to say it mom, but my American friends and I were really successful in teaching the NUS scholars a thing or two about beer pong.

So that is all the excitement of this past weekend. This weekend, it looks like a group of us will be bus-ing to Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. I am also pleased to note that another group of us have booked flights for our recess week (coming up soon in February) to Bangkok, Thailand (a big group, not just girls, I'll be safe - I promise). This is mixed with excitement of talking about travel plans for the rest of the semester, I will keep you updated.

Peace and Love,
Emily

Day 14

Spending this past weekend on Bintan Island, Indonesia was an incredible experience. We chose to go to Bintan because a couple of students who had previously been at NUS planned a trip and chose a group of 30 or so NUS exchange students to accompany them. A vast majority of the rest of the exchange students who were not picked (myself included) decided to plan our own trips to Bintan, and wound up having just as much (if not more) fun on our own.

So I guess I'll start this off with a little geography (a little geography that I wasn't exactly positive on until I looked at this map...5 minutes ago).As you can see Bintan is a large island which is extremely close to Singapore. It took a little over 2 hours by ferry to get there (this is after traveling for about two hours across Singapore by way of public transportation to get to the ferry port). We got to ride on the top of the boat and saw some pretty cool things on the way...

...Including some huts on the water

When we arrived in Indonesia, my fellow American travelers and I learned that it is a smart idea to travel with American dollars; the visa we were required to purchase on entry was priced in American dollars and we wound up paying a much higher price in Singapore dollars. Traveling with American dollars is apparently a well-known rule as our Canadian, Australian, German, and even Venezuelan friends had all brought American currency with them, whoops.

Anyway, when we arrived in Indonesia the place we were staying at had sent someone to come pick us up and take us on a 40-minute journey to where we were staying. Yus was very nice and also drove as if he were actually in the video game Cruisin' USA, it was quite exciting (actually all Indonesian drivers and motor bikers drive like that, not for the faint of heart). While Yus practiced his race-car driving skills and passed many cars and motor bikes (and drove through red traffic lights) we were able to observe that in Indonesia it is common for several people to travel together on one small motor bike. I think the record number of people that we saw on one bike was an entire family of five.

Our destination was a family-run resort/hostel hybrid called Pondok Wisata Susy--which can be found by clicking here. There were many other NUS exchange students staying there, and on the second night a group of students from an Indonesian university who were studying marine biology also camped out at PWS (you can find all of the Indonesian students on facebook, in case you were wondering). The family who runs PWS are some of the nicest people in the world, when a couple of boys went swimming and were having trouble getting back to shore, they were of immediate assistance (a mini-crisis which brings me to the second lesson I learned: find out how safe it is to go swimming before going swimming). They also cooked us some delicious meals and let us play our music through their sound system.

Mr. Solarto and his son who we were all calling PC (short for problem child) by the end of the trip. He was so adorable, but he had a nasty side --- he spent a majority of his time screaming and once even chewed watermelon in his mouth, spit it out, and threw it at our friend Mike.

My friend Tiffany and I took pictures of each other with our cameras, here she is with P.C.

Mr. Solarto killed a chicken for dinner on Saturday night. He didn't cut the head all the way off and it may have been one of the grossest things I have ever seen.

Saturday nights' dinner, one of the best meals I've eaten in Asia (maybe even ever). Rice, mixed vegetables, and freshly-killed curry chicken (some of the most tender chicken I've ever had). Perfection.

After dinner P.C. stopped being a demon long enough to befriend my fellow NUS exchange student, John

I feed P.C. sunflower seeds knowing that I am risking my fingers. Also without a mirror I may have forgotten to put sunscreen on my neck/chest area (sorry Mom).

This is me looking like a giantess in front of the hut that my friend Kerry and I stayed in

Late afternoon hammock session, a few feet from the hut we stayed in

A major goal of ours was to wake up and see the sun rise. On Saturday morning, Kerry and I woke up at 5:30 am and after seeing clouds, decided that we were not going to be able to see the sun rise and went back to bed. Our friends who woke up later (at 6:15 am) on Saturday morning saw a brilliant sunrise. This caused Kerry and I to have to wake up at 6 am on Sunday morning to see it for ourselves:

Partially cloudy, but still beautiful

The third lesson I learned (in addition to traveling with USD and finding out whether or not its safe to swim) is that standing under a coconut tree is dangerous as you could be seriously injured or potentially die if a coconut fell and hit you on the head. These all seem like pretty important things that I should have known pre-travel, but at least I know now and hopefully there aren't many other things that I don't know... anyway the good thing about the coconut trees, as I mentioned in an earlier post, is that they are delicious to drink.

Those are fresh off the tree right there

I didn't even think about this before, but a big reason why a lot of the NUS exchange students chose Singapore is because they love to travel and travelling is fairly cheap around Southeast Asia (especially when compared with travel around Europe) -- this weekend I think I spent less than or around 100 USD (maybe a little more) for the entire weekend --- including all travelling, a personal pick-up from the ferry, four homecooked meals, housing on a beautiful beach, fresh coconuts, and so much more. I can only say that I estimate 100 USD because when I changed money in Indonesia I was given several hundred thousand Rupiah (the conversion rate from Rupiah to USD is about 0.00011 and throw in that I was trying to convert from USD to Singapore Dollars to Rupiah and you will understand my confusion). It felt nice to walk around with a few hundred g's in my wallet, maybe I'll try that with American money sometime...

So the last picture is from when we left yesterday morning --- it is of some of the exchange students and most of the family. The woman standing next to me in the picture, Ms. Anni was so sweet and such a good cook. When the boys were having trouble out in the ocean (as I mentioned earlier), I went and got her and she drove me to where they were on the back of her motorbike and helped them come back to shore. Such a sweet lady.

The Family at Pondok Wisata Susy, Bintan, Indonesia

Singapore is amazing because it is a cosmopolitan city where everything is at your fingertips; Bintan was a nice break, we didn't have a public transportation system to use (we couldn't even take a taxi four miles down the road to where some of our other friends were staying). Staying in Bintan almost felt like we were apart of the large island community, it was a cool experience.

One last note about Bintan - we found the most amazing peanut butter crackers that I've ever had in my entire life. They are as addicting as hard drugs (or how I imagine hard drugs to be addicting), just kidding, but they are delicious. So if you go to Indonesia, look for the peanut butter crackers.

Its now 8:29 PM on Monday night and I'm trying to force myself to get into school mode. I have legitimate assignments due next week, and I still have to buy my books (I'm going tomorrow). This is going to be an interesting semester.

Hopefully I'll have something interesting to blog about soon.

Love to you all.

Day 11

I seriously pick the absolute worst times to update this blog. I am currently trying to pack things to go away for the weekend, we're leaving for Bintan (basically this resort island part of Indonesia) in 40 minutes and I haven't started packing. Make that 39 minutes now.





I started classes this past week and it was pretty good. I'm in a mix of business classes which don't seem as awful as I first imagined when I heard that all of the actual students at NUS spend all of their free time studying and doing work. UConn is the only school that I've heard of that sends their exchange students here and counts their grades, all of the other students that I have met only have to take their classes Pass/Fail, which is a little annoying. So 35 minutes away from when I'm supposed to leave.





There really isn't too much to update on about this past week because we were mostly figuring out classes (I still am --- I have been going through an appeal process to try to switch one of my classes).





I don't know what to expect of Bintan, we've all just received our student passes which means we are free to leave Singapore and travel around...we're all anxious to get off the island and see what else is going on. So anyways sorry this is a weak entry, I figured I'd make contact before I left, expect a better entry when I return. Although not on Monday, because I currently have 7 hours of class on Mondays in a row (without time to walk from class to class in between).





I'll leave you with a picture from Wednesday night (the big night to go out here, probably because Wednesday nights are "Ladies Nights", which means women don't have to pay cover or for the expensive drinks). A majority of the exchange students went to a club which had an awesome band that was doing covers of recognizable songs (including a slow version of the song Jai Ho from the movie Slumdog Millionare, that was probably the highlight). Ignore the fact that I look disgusting, it was so hot because there were so many people.

Haha, this is really a terrible picture but I don't have any others from this week (I'll do better in Bintan, I swear...)

Talk to you all later

Day 8

So I was trying to blog only on the prime numbered days, but I guess this is where that ends. In Singapore it is Tuesday, January 12th at 1:05 in the afternoon. It's my second day of classes and I only have one class today at 4 pm (Business Law--which transfers to UConn for some reason even though this class is obviously based on Singaporean law and UConn's is American B-law). Yesterday I had two three-hour finance lectures in a row, first was Portfolio and Investment Analysis followed by Financial Markets (which I'm not sure if it will transfer and was a little bit rough..). Six hours of class isn't really for me (is it for anyone?) but at least they only meet once a week.

Onto more exciting happenings - yesterday after class some of us went into Little India to explore. It was pretty cool, the streets were all decorated and we saw a hindu temple (there are four in Singapore and I don't remember which one it was...sorry) -- I had never seen one before so that was cool. After taking what felt like an hour to decide on a resturaunt we had some delicious indian food ---although next time we've decided we're going to have to look up a good resturaunt before we head somewhere to save time and frustrations. The last place we stopped in Little India was Mustafa, a 24-hour shopping mart which literally has everything that you would ever need spread over at least 5 floors. I even saw an 'aqua massager' that looked like a tanning bed--I was confused. After seeing all that Mustafa had to offer we were thoroughly exhausted and decided to call it a night.

Here is a picture of the decorated main street in Little India.

I'm sure many of you are wondering how my friends and I are faring trying to navigate the public transportation system in Singapore. I'd like to take this opportunity to say that we are having an easy time thanks to the website http://gothere.sg/, which gives directions to and from anywhere in Singapore and is the most helpful and easy thing ever. All you have to do is type in where you are and where you want to go and it comes up with public transportation directions, estimated time of travel, and exact cost of the trip. I can even type in my dorm (Prince George Park Residence) as the starting point and my class as the ending point (Business School) and it will tell me which school shuttle bus to take. Check it out - it's awesome.

While I'm not having a hard time with public transportation, I am having a hell of a time with my unruly hair. It is so thick and it dries in gross, unmanageable waves (not like the cool waves that I can sometimes do at home). I had planned on diffusing my hair but I plugged in my diffuser and tripped the electricity in my room so that's a no-go for the time being. If anyone has any tips please let me know because I'm considering shaving my head at this point (not seriously although it would be an improvement).

Last note -- Laura (my friend who has been at virtually every family function since we were around 8 years old) is studying abroad in Ecuador and also has a blog, you can find it at http://lauralaexploradora.blogspot.com/. She actually likes taking pictures so she has some cool ones up -- check it out.

I guess that's all for now, I love you all!

Day 5

So I'm slightly embarrassed now that I have seven visible followers, I guess I didn't realize people would actually be reading this thing. Anyhow, for my major financiers (teej and terr), the blog must go on.

Since the last time I blogged, I tried my first coconut. Three of us walked around the marina last night (and saw the famous merlion statue in front of the Fullerton Hotel) and we ate dinner on Arab Street (you can probably guess what community is prominent there). I honestly cannot tell you what the food was that we ate because the menu used terms that we obviously weren't familiar with so we asked the waiter for his favorites (he didn't fully explain to us what they were), the food was inexpensive (I think we each spent 6 sing$ -- including coconuts) and pretty good. The most exciting part was when they brought out the coconuts, which all have their outer shell taken off and are served on a plate with the top sliced off, but on. First you drink the liquid out of a straw, I was surprised at how clear the coconut milk was, I was expecting it to be like cow's milk. It was light, refreshing, and sweet; I give it two thumbs up. The second part comes after you've drank all the milk; you can scoop out a filmy coating on the inside with a spoon and eat it---it didn't have much taste, but the texture was pretty interesting. Satisfactory experience, I'd do it again.

Today, while most of America is experiencing a terrible winter, the exchange students and I went to Sentosa, which is the only beach in Singapore. Its separated by a little bit of water and we had to take a trolley type thing to get there. Sentosa is kind of weird, it offers attractions like a golf course, segways, kayaks, a zip-line, etc. and it also has some beaches (with 0 waves) that face a bunch of cargo ships. It was kind of bizzare swimming while looking at them, but it was awesome weather and the water was nice, so I shouldn't be complaining---I just might not be going back that soon.


This is a picture from Sentosa...not too bad.

Anyways, its 8 pm here, I'm going out with the exchange students tonight (don't worry mom and dad, remember that alcohol is extremely expensive here), I should be meeting them soon and I am not ready AT ALL (just blew my adapter by plugging my hairdryer in it, so I've reached a state of panic). I'll leave you guys with a picture of two of my friends from this afternoon at the supermarket and I'll talk to you later!!

On the left is Katie from UNC Chapel Hill, on the right is Kerry --- also from UConn

Day 3

It's been quite a long few days in Singapore. I've been busy with registration, orientations, and getting used to the area. Thankfully I've had all of the other UConn exchange students (around 10 of us) in addition to local students and friends that we've picked up along the way to help me out.

Anyways - my mom doesn't like to use the air conditioning in our house at home unless its really hot and humid. We only use it during the hottest couple of weeks in the summer, and in my opinion that's really the only time we need it. My current room in Singapore (a single dorm in an area of buildings with over 3000 single rooms) does not have air conditioning and the weather is soooo humid. I keep waking up early because of the humidity waiting for my mom to turn on the air conditioning (or "air-con" as it is called here). I don't think it's going to happen. Although I do have a fan and a sink in my room, so I shouldn't be complaining. Besides this afternoon, I have barely been in my room anyways.

I'm exhausted still from a combination of jetlag (maybe not anymore? I don't really know how that works), the fact that we have been busy all day, everyday, and because I keep waking up extremely early. But, the bottom line is that I'm lovin' it, so it doesn't matter that I'm overtired (except when I fell asleep at the table when we were out the first full night we were here...).

I'll leave you with the view from one of my windows, notice the cranes in the background.