My first few days in Singapore!

This is a picture of my dorm room...notice I don't need anything more than a sheet.  The picture below it is a view from one of my windows in my room.

This third picture was taken from my dorm window and the last is of my dorm from inside the block.  The hanger at the bottom of the picture is where you dry your clothes.

Today begins my second full day in Singapore.  It has been an adventure every step of the way beginning with the flight here.  It was incredibly long (28 hours), I slept most of the way and met some wonderful people on the planes.  I arrived in Singapore around midnight on the 31st where a driver picked me and some other exchange students up from the airport and took us to NTU (Nanyang Technological University) where we will all be studying for the semester.  Two of the students were from University of Illinois so there was some friendly border-wars rivalry, but it was nice to meet people from close to home.  

We got to campus around 2AM and my student buddy Nont was waiting for me.  He showed me around campus, partially against my will as all I wanted to do at that point was sleep, but it was good to stay up a little longer so that I wasn't so jet-lagged.  After he dropped me off at my dorm, I unpacked and took a look around the dorm.  

My room is decent sized with a large closet and nice furniture.  I have a roommate who I haven't met yet as I am pretty sure she is still on holiday for New Year's.  It is custom here to take your shoes off before entering one's house, so since the dorms are our houses, we take our shoes off at the door before going in or carry them inside.  I think it's kind of cute.  haha.  Our floors are immaculate because of it!  The bathroom is just a few doors down, but since it is never cold here in Singapore, the dorm room doors open up to the outside.  On my first trip to the bathroom for a shower I was greeted at the door by a small lizard.  It freaked me out then, but even after just a few days, I'm getting used to them.  I also found out very quickly that there are heating hours for the showers.  Needless to say I missed that memo and my first shower was ice cold.  I have learned to appreciate these though as my room is not air-conditioned.   The weather here is very hot, humid and sunny during the day, but it didn't rain until early this morning.  The campus is gorgeous as NTU is a garden campus completely covered with trees, waterfalls, and vegetation.  The nights are beautiful here as well.  

I woke up early on the 31st to take care of my bills here, get my schedule, and set up my dorm before everything closed for the holiday.  I don't know what possessed me to think that I could do this all on my own, but I set out at 9AM on my journey around campus.  At the bus stop I got two things:  a tan and a HUGE mosquito bite.  I rode the bus around campus twice as I had no idea what stop I needed.  After the second time around I just guessed, got off the bus, and started walking.  Every place I went sent me somewhere else, but after a few stops, I got to where I needed to go.  There I met, thank goodness, two other exchange students from San Diego State.  They're student buddies were taking them around to do these tasks, so I decided to tag along.  It made things go much faster, and I found out that I had already filled out most of the forms while I was still in the states so it went fast.  

Then my new friends, their buddies, and I went to the mall to pick up some things for our rooms and get cell phones.  It was quite an adventure.  We went to the third largest mall in Singapore, and it still had four floors.  It was huge and packed with people!  We finally got everything and grabbed a bite to eat.  My dish literally came on a huge wooden plank with grilled chicken, chili sauce, and seafood soup (ugh) all heated by a flame underneath it.  Keep in mind this was at the mall food court, not a nice restaurant and only costs five Singapore dollars.  It tasted great! 

We then came back to NTU to get ready for New Year's Eve.  All of the exchange students decided to go to Sentosa Beach for the New Year's party.  We grabbed dinner at another HUGE mall--we opted for Carl's Jr. this time though for time's sake.  Then we hopped on the train to the beach.  There were about thirty of us that ended up meeting there, and it made it really convenient to get to know each other.  The beach ended up being a blast and a great way to ring in the new year!  We quickly found out why Singaporean's don't drink though--alcohol is not only outrageously expensive, but heavily taxed.  Needless to say, we didn't drink this holiday.  We had an amazing time though.  There were five dance floors, a foam party, and a huge beach.  After fighting to the death for cab home, we all discovered that we had foam in our hair and sand from head to toe.  Looked like another cold shower.  

This was a ridiculously long post, but to sum it all up, I am having a wonderful time here in Singapore.  Everything is closed today for holiday, so we (all of the exchange students...we stick pretty close) are just sitting around, tagging pictures on facebook, and blogging.  We have orientation tomorrow, Saturday, and Sunday, so we're all relaxing for a day.  I am incredibly excited for the rest of my stay here, and am happy to say that I have already made lots of friends.  I miss you all terribly though.  I wish you all a Happy New Year and I will post again soon!  I just heard a loud pop come from the outlet and my electricity just went out...I guess the converters aren't working so well...oops.