It's been a while: Sentosa, Pulau Ubin, Tiger Brewery, and Bintan!

FIRST LET ME SAY THAT LAST NIGHT I GOT THE GOOD NEWS THAT MY MOM IS COMING TO VISIT ME AT THE END OF THE SEMESTER!!!!!!!!!  I cannot wait and have already started making plans for us!  It's going to be a blast!  Thanks John!

Things have been crazy busy around these parts...in a good way of course.  School/classes are really starting to pick up, I am applying for tons of internships, and doing as much traveling as I can.  It is incredibly cheap to travel here.  I just purchased a round trip ticket to Thailand for Chinese New Year for something like $50 US dollars and lodging there is going to be like $7 a night.  Crazy.  

A couple of weekends ago, a bunch of us just decided to chill here for the weekend and sort of hang out around Singapore.  It was a blast and a really nice relaxing weekend.  We took the MRT to Sentosa island right off the coast of Singapore.  It is manmade with sand from Indonesia, but really fun!  It was just a bunch of exchange students sitting on the beach all day Saturday.  We took snacks, books, good music, and just made a day of it.  Sunburn #1 of the weekend.  

The next day four of us decided, despite being ridiculously tired from the day before, to get up early and hop on a ten minute ferry to Pulau Ubin--another island off the coast of Singapore.  There we rented bikes and cycled across the entire island--on and off-road.  It was a ton of fun and due to my great experience with Abby and Blair this summer, I was an expert biker.  There was a lot to see, and we even got off our bikes for a bit and hiked around.  When we rented our bikes, we were trying to find ones that were comfortable and cheap to rent.  After arguing and trying to get her down in price for like ten minutes the lady told me in perfect "Singlish" (Singaporean's version of English) that she could, "give me discount lah".  Lah is something that Singaporean's often throw in at the end of sentences.  I haven't figured it out yet.  I replied in a rather frustrated tone, "I don't care about the color!"  Then Roman and Alex explained to me what she had really said and we all got a good laugh at my expense.  Needless to say we rented the bikes at a small discounted price for the day.  We ended up finding this cool sky look-out type tower that made for a great view of the island.  It was my roommate Alex--Germany, my friends Roman--Germany/Ukraine/Russia and Elaine--Canada, and myself.  I am learning that it is much easier and less stressful to travel in smaller groups such a this but more fun in bigger ones.  --Sunburn #2 of the weekend.  Time to get some aloe?

The Friday before I traveled with the business school exchange students (no one knows why I'm not in the journalism school, but I figured I'd bring that up after the exclusive free trip) to downtown Chinatown for a historical tour of the area followed by a tour of Tiger Brewery--Singapore's famous home-brewed beer, and then a night safari at the famous Singapore Zoo.  The tour of Chinatown and the Buddhist temple was really interesting.  Tiger Brewery was of course really cool and a great place to hang out with a big group like we were.  The night safari might have been better if I wasn't so tired, but it was still very impressive.  

Funny story about my roommate...She is talking to me while I'm writing this so I can't help but throw something in about her.  Alex is German.  Duh.  But in the German language I guess the V and W are interchangeable or something.  Well, this confuses her in the English language, and despite my instruction, she still doesn't quite get that the V will never sound like a W in English and the W will never sound like a V.  She says things like wery instead of very and wacany instead of vancancy.  It's super funny though...or maybe you just have to be there.  

This past weekend was my favorite weekend here thus far.  After trying to decide to go, and then not to go, and then to go, and on and on, we at the last minute decided to jump on the bandwagon as so many exchange students were, and go to Bintan, Indonesia.  In the end, I am SO glad we did.  It was an absolute blast.  There were probably 40 exchange students from NTU not to mention when we got there, there ended up being tons of French students as well as other exchange students from the other big university in Singapore: NUS.  This made for a great group to get to know and spend a weekend on an island with.  The group I was in was the group that decided literally an hour before the ferry was leaving the harbor to go to Bintan.  I was throwing random things in a backpack and jumping in a taxi before I knew it.  I didn't forget anything...except that none of us girls had booked a room in the resort.  Regardless, we hopped on the ferry and in two hours we were in Indonesia.  The ferry ride was the most expensive part of the trip and it was like S$50 (Sing dollar) so like $35 in the US.  At the harbor we got visas to be in Indonesia.  One of our students, G as we call him, is from Tanzania.  Apparently that isn't a country, like most well-known countries like the US are, that is allowed a visa upon arrival of Indonesia.  That being said, he was taken to a back room for an hour while we all waiting not so patiently outside wondering what was going to happen.  He ended up having to sleep on the ferry as we had taken the last one there, and then in the morning take the ferry back to Singapore as he wasn't allowed in Indonesia.  No one wanted him to stay alone, so a few of the other guys stayed on the boat with him.  Needless to say, he already has his visa for Thailand.   From the harbor we took a forty-five minute shuttle to our (unbooked) resort.  We went through the city/village to the beach where our resort was.  The village was poor, but functioning.  I have honestly never seen locals be so nice to foreigners.  The Indonesian people were SO friendly!  The staff at the resort was of course incredibly helpful and nice, but also the people we met on the walk to the neighboring resort.  We would be walking down the road and children would run to the road just to wave and say "hi, hello, hi, hi, hello, hi" to us while waving insistently.  Their parents, also sitting outside on the porch just watching the day go by, would also wave, smile, and say hello to us.  This happened at every person we passed, every house, every shop, and even every motor bike--they would slow down to wave or let their passengers offer a nice hello.  It was refreshing.  

On the island we ate great food, swam in the beautiful beaches, and relaxed.  We stayed in Bungalows that were sitting in the water that costed us 155,000 Rupia (The Indonesian currency) for two nights there.  This converted to $22 Singapore dollars and like $15 in the US.  Crazy cheap!  When the tide was high you could jump in from our back patio.  Some people rode kayaks, some relaxed on the beach, some played sports, some rode banana boats...it was just a fun time.  I mentioned earlier that we didn't have a place to stay, but luckily, the "double rooms" came with queen beds so we just shoved four in each bed and called it good.  There were showers (no hot water...I'm seeing a trend) and good food.  I had eggs for breakfast every morning and great fresh fruit for snack and lunch.  There was an island quite far from our beach and houses that you could literally walk to because the water was so shallow.  When I walked there the highest the water got was to my shoulders.  It was really crazy.  The ride home was not as nice as the ride there.  My friend Saly ended up getting sick as the ride was so rough.  When I walked her to the restroom at the back of the ferry I ended up getting really sea sick and shooing her out of the bathroom.  We decided we could never be pirates.  

I came home Sunday, applied for some internships, booked lodging for tomorrow and Thursday in Phuket, Thailand for Chinese New Year break, and wrote a paper.  I feel like I just turned around and am getting ready for another trip.  Tonight a few of us went downtown to the heart of Singapore (where the photo of the Merlion is taken at the top of my blog).  We got all dressed up and went to the Swiss Hotel--the 70th floor.  There is a beautiful restaurant, too much for any student to afford, and up a few more stairs is the New Asia Bar.  This is a high-end classy little joint in which the walls are windows and you can look out to see the Singapore skyline.  It was so fun!  We all ordered a glass of wine and sat on the couches to look at the view.  Tomorrow I leave on a plane at 6PM for Phuket, Thailand where I will be until Sunday night.  We also have Monday and Tuesday off (Chinese New Year) but the prices shot up tremendously for flights back on these days, so we opted to come home earlier and spend the Chinese New Year here in Singapore in Chinatown.  I'm not too worried about it as it is supposed to be one of the greatest places to be during this celebrations.  I will let you know.  Until then, bye!