Friday

Today was a really long day...We woke up early, and I got off to a wrong start this morning for I was rushed and didn't have time to get lunch for the day, which we were supposed to take with us on our journey. The humidity here is getting to me, and I'm trying to drink a lot of water, but you just have to get used to places like this. We are right on the equater, and every day is hot and humid. Alas..

First we took the ferry to St. John's Island where their marine laboratories and aquaculture facilities are. It was gorgeous - green, green, green. It smelled like foliage and outdoors and goodness. I don't know if I could live in a place like this where the city is all you see and even when you can escape to a green place, you still see skyscrapers on the horizon. We had a couple lectures at the marine lab, one on the lab and its projects in general and another lecture on water flow around the island, which went over my head a little. It was very technical and confusing. We had a short tour of some of the tanks and such. They are trying to culture corals and sponges, etc. and find ways to keep the biodiversity high and contained to the places it already is. Sometimes it's confusing to understand the concepts and ideas they present to you. They talk to you as they would other student groups or the general public, yet we ask more questions than Singaporeans, I'm sure. Once we express our confusion or question certain things, the answers become more vague and conflicting. This was actually more so at the landfill, which is where we went next...

Yes, a landfill. A small island-type place where they dump all their waste. Why would we visit? Well, they have this amazing way of doing it - they incinerate everything and take all the waste from Singapore every day to this island once it's incinerated into ash. They dump the ash (wetted, so it doesn't blow dust everywhere) into cells blocked off in this spaced. Eventually, when a cell is filled, they put earth on top of it and start growing vegetation. This place was also very pretty and had a wide variety of birds and wildlife - we saw a couple monitor lizards. You would never know it was a landfill. It's completely clean and all these inspection and water quality tests go into it to make sure the environment and water around the island is not harmed. The entire section is layered with this lining that keeps anything bad from leaching into the outside water. It's so very complex and intriguing, and must have taken lots and lots of minds and engineering to come up with and build (as do most things here, I've noticed). Singapore seems to be the place where, if you can think it up, it can be done..and it is done.

The trip on the boat out to these islands was nice, because we got to feel the ocean spray and be on the water. Well, it was nice for me. Passing through the strait, too, we could see all the anchored tankers and hugs ships. There are 800 ships anchored in the waters near Singapore's ports on any given day. It's crazy...

I was rather exhausted today, as well as other people, so we didn't really do anything exciting once we got back. I had dinner downstairs at the inn, and I've been sitting here relaxing, on the verge of falling asleep! I still have a stupid little cough, so I walked to the 7/11 for some kind of cough drops or allergy medicine. Plenty of cough drops - no allergy medicine. Mm..But it was the first time I've walked anywhere by myself. I feel comfortable here, and everything is very safe. I don't think I would walk around at night alone - but if you know where you're going and you walk there with a purpose and don't look like an idiot, nobody even gives you a second glance.

Green tea flavored cough drops are lovely..

Singapore Photos Day Five

The Fourth Day

This morning we went to the university and watching the signing of an official contract between Duke Environmental School and NUS's School of Design and the Environment. It was pretty cool, actually. Dr. Dan has worked on getting it set up for some time, and now it is official where Duke and NUS students and professors can have an exchange at the Environmental schools, etc.

Before this we met to discuss projects and I decided to focus on the military here and how it works, for they have a required national service for all 18-year old men. It's difficult to pick one thing because this government and society is so fascinating and different than our own. I think I will be looking into the public opinion on national service and how the government prepares the youth for their service at early ages. Also I will look into the use of land for military bases and how those areas become reserves for wildlife and vegetation, whether on purpose or incidental. There are many facets to it, and if I can find enough information I may narrow it down to one or a couple of these...we shall see. I am starting to get excited about it, actually!

We went for lunch to the Western Plaza mall and had some vietnamese, which was delicious, as well as these awesome fruit shakes. I got a mango flavored one but it was really made with mango and it tasted amazing...exactly like the fruit. For the afternoon we went to the water treatment plant visitor's center, which was very pretty and shiny and definitely built and engineered to give off a certain message. The plant is called NEWater, and it recycles and processes waste water back into pure, drinkable water. The center was very nice and impressive, and it was interesting to see how the process worked. Singapore has had concern in the past about running out of water, and they have a contract until 2011 with Malaysia to pump water from that country into Singapore. Since the contract was made, Singapore has engineered the NEWater methods, which seem to be very efficient and increase the water supply tremendously. They have also created catchment reservoirs for the large amounts of rainfall, and they have a desalinisation plant. Water is very important to them, as is every resource they must find a way to concentrate on a tiny island and supply to everyone (all 4 million people!)

We travelled from the NEWater place to Orchard Road, which was very very very busy and crowded. It is basically the shopping central with all the biggest name brand stores and high-end fashions...and prices. They also had countles normal malls and cheaper malls, all at least 6 or 7 storeys tall and very extensive. It was a shopper's heaven. We had dinner first, and a few of us got sushi, which was delicious, of course. I found a really neat watch stand in one of the normal-er malls and got a cheap watch for myself. There was also this Spanish store called Mango that had several sections to it, similar to Forever 21 except better quality. I found the coolest dress there. It was an interesting experience to try on clothes, because all the sizes are much much smaller. I had to get a medium, whereas in the US a small would sometimes be too big for me. Every experience here is new and different, even such things as trying on clothes and going shopping or riding the buses anywhere around the city. We also got ice cream at one of the many carts on Orchard street. It came in blocks and the guy cut a slab off of an icecream block and then put it between two wafers or wrapped it up in a slice of colored bread, whichever you preferred. It was absolutely delicious, and only 1 singapore dollar, which is basically 60 cents. Now that is marvelous...

A general observation - The food is amazing everywhere you go, but I'm already feeling vegetable and fruit withdraw! I got some plums today and can't wait to eat them tomorrow. Unless you seek out a grocery store and buy separate things, it's hard to find fruit and veggies.

Singapore Photos Day Four

It's only Day 3 - really?

I have been here forever already! I absolutely love it and I feel like we've done so much already. I can't believe I still have over a week left and so many more exciting things to do..

So today - We didn't really do a whole lot but there was a lot of information overload instead. We had a couple lectures at the National University of Singapore. The first was with a very nice gentleman who talked mainly about Singapore's environmental issues and the reserves on the island along with methods they have put in place and are working on to keep preserving certain areas and expand the conservation of natural areas and wildlife. He also took us to the Raffles Natural History Museum, which was part of the university. It was a small room with lots of dead and preserved things. Interesting... The second speaker in the afternoon was an an environmental lawyer and she talked about governance and more policy-oriented things, along with a generl overview of singapore history and laws. It's all very fascinating and I may go into it later...she had very interesting points of view since she was Chinese and Singaporean. We had lenghty discussions on the things she told us later in the evening..

For dinner we had bread, nutella, grapes, cheese, and wine in a nearby park. It was a marvelous picnic and the park is beautiful. there were many other locals have get-togethers and grilling out, despite the heat. It is hot and humid every day..some people were jeans and long sleeves. I don't know how they do it. I suppose I'm slowly getting used to it. After our picnic dinner we went further into the park where the jungle gyms were and we happily became children again. It was quite an exciting and fun adventure. I haven't climbed on things and spun around on contraptions in years. The pictures really do it justice as opposed to attempting an explanation. The playground was really big though, and let's just say some of the equipment definitely would not exist in the US due to safety implications..But we were very careful, of course. :)

Now I've been attempting to catch up on blogging and pictures, which really does take a long time! Maybe eventually I will elaborate more on today's topics and interesting issues/cultural aspects of Singapore. Not at the moment, however.

For now, enjoy the pictures...

Singapore Photos Day Three

Day Two

It was a long day! In the morning we woke early and took a bus tour around the entire island. It was storming in the morning, so it was nice to be under a roof! We passed through major construction areas, housing areas with large buildings of flats, called HDB flats, and we eventually passed into a less-populated area where things were actually green! It is such a fascinating country - so many different aspects of life and culture all concentrated on one tiny island. We drove through a massive cemetery, and there were various sections according to religion. Even though the country is very diverse and people are fairly tolerant of each other, the cemetery was obviously segregated, with signs reading "Muslim cemetery" or "Christian cemetery". It was interesting to see the differences in the graves and how the dead were buried and treated from religion to religion. I took many pictures in the graveyard. There were also many fish farms in the northern region where it was secluded and green. These were farms for tropical fish or koi to be sold eventually. From a rest stop we could see Malaysia across the Johor straits, and there was razor wire along a vast fence...meant to keep the Malaysians out. It is reminiscent of the US/Mexican border and illegal immigration issues. They face a similar problem with still-underdeveloped Malaysia, where people try to cross into Singapore illegally by the river.

We stopped for lunch at a large mall, crossing back into the modern world and technology of the big city with huge sky scrapers and the constant construction that goes on in this area. It is amazing how expensive goods are here, but how cheap food is. We went to a food court, which is nothing like the food courts of America..no McDonald's or Sbarro here! Fei ordered us some random things in Chinese, and I got to try chicken feet and some kind of dumplings and a pork ball. All was very delicious, although I must say I probably won't go for the chicken feet again! Haha.

In the afternoon we got our MRT cards set up and took the MRT to the Museum of History. MRT is a metro system, and it's very well organised, clean, and fairly cost efficient. They are all about efficiency here, which makes sense because they must fit 4 million people on one island and make it all work! The Singapore Museum of History was very well organized and very beautiful, inside and out. We got audio companions and at each stop there were detailed stories and descriptions of the artifacts and the history of Singapore. There were two paths to walk - the events path, with the viewpoint of the British and others, and then the Personal path that displayed the thoughts of the locals and people who were subjected to different rules. There were many many things to look at and listen to, and of course I didn't get to all of it. We didn't even go to the upstairs exhibits on food and modern culture of Singapore. For a nation that has only been independent since 1965, it has changed a lot, and the history is almost more extensive than the US...I also find it more interesting, but that perhaps may be because I don't live here!

Post-museum, we walked around the city in search of drinks. We suddenly realized that it was Saint Patrick's day, and of course, like good college students, we sought the nearest bars. I was rather sad because I did not wear appropriate shoes for extensive walking - I thought they would be comfortable, but really one should not wear new close-toed shoes without socks. My feet still hate me today. At any rate, we made our first stop at the Loof, a bar on the rooftop of a building, where we took advantage of happy hour discounts (it being only around 5-something). We each got fancy cocktails, of which there are pictures, of course..haha. Then we decided to hunt down an actual (well - as real as it can get) Irish pub called Molly Malone's. It was so crowded, and it seemed that entire white population of Singapore was concentrated there. Very intense..But pints were fairly cheap (in comparison, but still very expensive), so several of our group got one. I, not really enjoying beer, ordered something called an F.B.I (full-blooded-irish) drink, and it was very delicious. After this we decided that food was in order, so we found an outdoor cafeteria-type place (of which there are many just about everywhere) and got some eats as well as Tiger beer, 3 1-Liter bottles for only 15 dollars (that's about 3 us dollars for 1 liter of beer..pretty snazzy for Singapore). It was local Singaporean beer, and I found it tasted similar to Natty light...but at that point we were a little more relaxed and didn't really care what it tasted like. The evening was quite a success, and we made our way back to the inn by the metro before 10pm...haha. Very classy. It was definitely a social experience, for we managed to find the non-touristy places and enjoy some local, more down-to-earth excitement. I kind of prefer it that way.

Singapore Photos Day Two

Singapore - Day One

Oh wow. I don't know where to begin. After not getting much sleep, we woke and met the rest of our group at breakfast in the hotel/inn/hostel/place...Then we decided to adventure a bit before we had to meet up with the entire group, so a few of us walked to the nearest mall and looked at all the shiny stores and pretty things. It is not quite difficult to get around and find things, since everything is in English...but all the same, there was a lot to take in. We walked across from the mall to an open air market-type place, except it was sort of indoors because it had a roof over it. There were food stalls everywhere and different sections based on what you wanted - fish, vegetarian, etc. It was very overwhelming. We eventually found some lunch, and I had my first Singaporean meal! It was delicious. I suppose it's a good thing I am not a picky eater and I do enjoy asian food!
It was pouring while we were eating lunch, and it continued to do so for the majority of the afternoon. It seems that it will be raining a lot while we are here, but it doesn't seem to bother the locals. They all are used to it, I suppose. Everyone carries an umbrella. I shall have to go buy one at the many possible locations for only about 6 US dollars. There is another interesting part of the country...Food everywhere is relatively cheap unless you go to a nicer restaurant, but even then with the exchange rate it is much cheaper than in the US. Other amenities are cheaper as well, but all the alcohol we saw in the grocery store ran up to 50-100 US dollars, or more! Very expensive in that realm.
We had orientation in the afternoon, and we walked to the National University of Singapore to do that. Apparently this is where we will be having lecture and such. It is a very nice place, but very very big! I suppose it reminds me of OSU. It is definitely bigger than Wittenberg, and I don't know if I could handle being in such a place where you have to take a bus to get to your next class! The schedule for our next two weeks looks very exciting, and we have evenings mostly free, so we will have a chance to explore a bit on our own too.
For dinner we went into the city, which was quite an adventure. We decided it might be a good idea to walk to the nearest metro station - which was a really really long walk, it turned out. Then the metro wasn't too bad to navigate. I always thought it would be much more efficient to have such a system in the states. Anyway - we eventually came to our destination, which was very very touristy. Even though we are tourists, we didn't quite feel like we fit in that general theme, and it was considerably more crowded. We were hungry, though, so we settled on a random restaurant by the river, which was nice. Post-dinner we decided we were too tired to explore anymore, which was sad because the whole place was a lot nicer and more exciting once it had gotten darker and different crowds of people were milling about. We may have to go back to that place sometime, but who knows. There are many, many things to do here!
Getting back to the Inn was a bit more of an adventure since we didn't feel like walking. We tried to wait for a bus but that took forever so we moved to the taxi bay and got one of those instead, since the Inn really wasn't that far away by vehicle. People drive on the left side of the road, and I sat in the passenger's seat of the taxi this time. It was a little disorienting, and I'm just glad that I don't have to drive while I'm here!
Now I am very very tired, so I will probably forget something in this particular blog..But I'm trying not to slack off right away! So this is what you get for the first day - perhaps I'll remember exciting things to add in later. Good night!

I am also going to post pictures, but I'm not quite sure how to do that here...so I will put them on Facebook for now and figure out a way to have them here as well...but later, not tonight. Haha - bedtime.

**edited 3/18/09 - figured out how to get pictures (i think). I got a Picasa account through Google to upload all my photos into albums I can link to on here. This way they can be separate from Facebook and visible to everybody..also I can post more interesting pictures there haha.

Singapore Photos Day One

Oh - and the first few pictures of this album are actually in the Hong Kong airport.

Hong Kong and 5 hours to go!

Time: 6pm on Sunday, March 15 (6am on March 15th in North Carolina/Ohio/home)

So I am sitting in the Hong Kong airport, which I must say is a lovely place. It's hardly crowded, very clean, and the people are friendly and helpful. I feel like a complete tourist, and it's wonderful. I started taking pictures of random signs the moment I set foot in the airport. It's kind of surreal - outside that window that I'm sitting next to is China. It's so awesome...I wish I could escape and skip Singapore for a couple days so I can go exploring. As we flew (for 14 hours!) I saw vast expanses of ice in the Arctic and vast expanses of snow and desert in Russia/China. It was so exciting to see on the monitor that we only had 1 hour till landing. I shall never wish to sit that long again! Luckily the flight to Singapore from here is only 4 hours, and when we come home in a couple weeks we'll be traveling with the great Jet Stream to aid us. I can't wait to get to Singapore! I am so excited that I'm not even feeling tired yet. Danny, Caro, and I also got coffees for 6 american dollars...haha. Everything is in characters and people around you speak some foreign tongue that doesn't remotely sound like anything you know. It's wonderful. It smells like China too, if that makes any sense. The moment I set foot out of the plane I could tell I was in a different country. I may never want to go back to the states! Why, when there are so many wonderful places to see and explore? I want to travel forever...maybe someday.

It's funny how people talk to each other when confined to the same space for an infinite amount of time. My seatmates were very friendly and asked me about Singapore and told me to make sure I don't litter or chew gum. I can't sit for very long, so I stood in the back and a very nice gentleman talked to me for quite some time about various things as we peered out the window from time to time and speculated what the terrain was doing as we followed it along. I am amazed sometimes at how genial people can actually be. Maybe it's the culture here? The majority of the people on the plane were of asian persuasion, and they were all very friendly. Maybe everything just looks better on the other side - the grass is greener, one might say. I get bored easily with things I know well, and I would gladly be away from the US for years if I could get away with it! I'm sure my mom wouldn't let that happen...haha.

Well, I shall probably write again when I arrive in Singapore, or perhaps tomorrow at any rate. I will look forward firstly to taking a long shower! Then on Monday my adventures truly begin. I can't wait.

Singapore in a week

so I will use this blog to keep track of what I'm doing in Singapore for two weeks, and also to let people from home know what's going on! So in a week I get to spend about 30 hours in various airports, and I couldn't be more excited..I will do my best to write every day and upload pictures to here or facebook.