Melaka Melaka Melaka

This weekend I went to Malaysia! Singapore is very western, Malaysia is not at all. The bus ride was interesting, to say the least. It took 2 local buses, a subway, and one long bus ride to get to Melaka. My Canadian friend Rahul and I rode the bus together to meet everyone else there. On the bus ride from Johor Bahru (just over the border) to Melaka, I let him take care of most everything since he planned the trip and actually knew where to go. He took me to a bus, and when we climbed on, he went to the back, and when I passed the front seat, this old guy starts yelling at me to sit next to him. I looked at him with probably terror in my eyes, and just pointed at Rahul and ran after him. We sat in the back, and it was incredibly bouncy and dirty. It’s a 3 ½ or 4 hour ride, and after 2 hours, we stopped for a bathroom break. The old man came up to me and said, “You should go relieve yourself, my dear.” I didn’t know if I should laugh or scream. So he came and sat by us and talked to us forever, after explaining to me that he only wanted to talk. He was a little creepy, but he turned out to be a harmless old man. He asked us to guess his heritage, age, and how much money he had – a little weird. And now Rahul keeps calling me "my dear." Creepy.

So we finally got to Melaka and the hostel we were going to stay in was full, so we met up with the others and searched for another. We got a room that was gross, but dirt cheap and slept 4 girls to a room comfortably. We had our own room and bathroom and we each paid 15 ringgits, which is about $4 US. Let’s see, my impressions of Melaka. It’s certainly real Asia. There were open sewers, stray cats, and it was pretty dirty. But actually, some parts of it reminded me of Florida. There would be a poor, dirty neighborhood right next to a nice, wealthy area with brand new cars. And of course, the climate and plants reminded me of Florida, too. It was gorgeous weather, though a bit hot. The first night, we got there so late that all we did was find a bar and hang out for a while before we went to bed. Not meaning to toot my own horn, but apparently I was a big hit with the locals on the dance floor. I doubt they had ever seen a real-live natural blonde before. So that was fun. And all my friends are still making fun of me for it, too.

The next day, we slept late and got up for checkout and lunch. I love Asia because food is cheap! At home, a cheap meal (but better than McDonald’s) would cost me US$7. In Singapore, lunch runs about US$2 and in Malaysia, it’s about US$1. So I eat a lot. I think on Saturday we probably ate 5 times. We didn’t do much during the day – it’s extremely difficult getting 8 people organized onto a plan. We walked around in an open market for a little while and bought bracelets and sunglasses. When we went to the tourist office for information, we walked around shops there, too. I saw a little girl who was 1 or 2 years old. She waved hello to me, so I kneeled down to talk to her. I had my hair back in a bandanna, but she still reached around to grab it. Something like that would never happen in Singapore, but in the rest of Asia, it does. I gave her my sunglasses to play with, and she tried to run off with them, but her mom stopped her. It was very cute.

We took a ferry to Pelau Besar, an island of the southwest coast of Malaysia. We were planning on spending the night at the “resort hotel” there. Apparently in Malay, “resort hotel” means “campground.” We had a cabin in the woods. There were 3 beds for 4 girls, so we pushed them together and shared it. There were two showers, which really came in handy because when I was in the shower, 3 frogs jumped through the hole in the floor (the drain). I screamed at the top of my lungs because I turned around, and they were just there! I tried to get the guys to get them out, and they wouldn’t because they're all big girls, so I just used the other shower. When the maintenance guy came to fix the a/c, he took the frogs out for us. But the next day while Bailey was showering, 2 more jumped back in. And in the morning, the freely roaming roosters crowed right outside our window from dawn until lunch time. We got there about 6 pm on Saturday, not realizing that there’s not a thing to do on the island after dark – the only thing on the island is our hotel, an eating place, and a stretch of land where a lot of vacationing Malays were camping. But it turned out to be a lot of fun. We spent the evening in one cabin all together playing card games and telling each other our most embarrassing moments. There were a lot of things we found out about each other that I’m not sure I wanted to know. Malaysia is predominantly Muslim, and on the island, we could hear the prayer music broadcasted on the radios throughout the whole island 5 times a day. That was pretty cool.

On Sunday, we decided to go to the beach on the island before heading back. We slept in again and woke up for brunch. When we headed down to the beach, we discovered that the sewers were running directly onto the beach. So we walked down a little further and found another beach that was covered in trash. So we walked some more and finally found a little beach cove in between a jetty and a mangrove. We hung out there for a while. The water was still kind of gross, but that’s Malaysia for you. Since it was a cove, it was very shallow, so we didn’t do much swimming, just hanging out in the water, which was fine with me. And despite putting on SPF 45 sunscreen, I still got sunburn on my back. I guess when I’m at the equator I’ll have to switch to SPF 250. We took the ferry back over to the mainland and got a taxi to the bus station. We ate dinner and shopped around a little until our bus left for Singapore. I know we didn’t actually DO a lot, but it was tons of fun.

Now I’m just hanging out and doing school stuff. It’s a weird thought that I went on vacation to Malaysia for the weekend and then just came back to school like usual. Classes are going well. I enjoy most of them. And they come in handy because I’m meeting a lot of Singaporean students. I made friends! I brought my friend Natalie along with all my exchange student friends to the movies, and during dinner, they questioned her forever about living in Singapore. By the way, the movies only cost US$4. So I’ll be seeing movies a lot, I think.

Class schedule

Just so you all know, this is my class schedule. That way you can figure out when a good time to call is. I'm 13 hours ahead. (But when NC starts daylight savings time, I'll be 12 hours ahead.)

Mon 10am - 12pm: Abnormal Psych
2-4 pm: Psychology recitation (odd weeks)
4-6 pm: Philosophy

Tues 8-10 am: Int'l Security
10-11 am: Philosophy recitation (even weeks)
12 noon - 1 pm: English recitation
2-4 pm: 20th C History

Wed 10am - 12pm: Hist tutorial (odd weeks)

Thurs 10am - 12pm: Postmodern Literature
12 noon - 2 pm: Pol Sci recitation (odd weeks)

Fri NO CLASSES!

Singapore, Singapore, Hearts So Big and Wide...

Luckily I managed to figure out the system and get all my classes. There was only one I didn’t get, so I substituted it with another. I’m in (1) Abnormal Psychology, (2) Intro Philosophy, (3) International Security (politics), (4) 20th Century History, and (5) Postmodern and Postcolonial Literature. The professors here are very good; most of them make class really interesting. One of my professors is American, and another is Malaysian but has been in the States for 15 years, so it’s a lot like being in class at home. I’ve been meeting people in my classes, which is really cool. I met a Japanese girl because she was wearing a UNC Tarheel hat, so I got all excited and asked her about it. Turns out it was a gift and she told me she knew nothing of the school or North Carolina, but she asked me to join her and her friends, so it worked out well.

Last weekend was a lot of fun. On Friday we went to a salsa club. Nobody knew how to salsa, so it was pretty funny. The school is offering salsa lessons, so maybe I’ll try to improve my skills so I can go back without embarrassing myself. On Saturday, we went to Funkamania. It was a hip-hop dance contest in the city where teams from NUS competed. It was cool seeing all these diverse groups of people dancing like they do on MTV and BET. They were very good dancers. I was impressed. A few Singaporeans took us there, so I met some new people.

When we were sitting around waiting for the show to start, I met Jenna’s Asian soulmate. He was 4 years old and extremely talkative. He was talking to me, climbing on me, showing me his Army outfit, pretending to shoot me in his Army outfit, and offering me cookies. I couldn’t understand half of what he said between the 4-yr-old lisp and the Singaporean accent. His mom apologized to me and said he was just really chatty. I told her it was okay because it was like being home with Jenna again, so the little boy gave me cookies to take home to my sister.

One thing I’ve noticed is the difference between being an exchange student here and being an exchange student at home. At home, anyone can walk in a room, and you would just think they were American. If I asked an Asian student at UNC if he was an exchange student, he would say, “No, I’m from New Jersey, fool.” But here, it’s very obvious that I’m an exchange student. In almost every class I’ve been in, the person next to me has asked me where I’m from. It’s a bit difficult to blend in around here. My friend Natalie told me the other day that she wasn’t even thinking about it, but she brought a t-shirt that says “blondes do it better.” She decided she’s not going to wear it here because she didn’t want to offend all the non-blonde people here. I thought that was pretty funny.

Also, I feel really weird every time I walk into a McDonald’s. I’ve only been there three times, and I felt like I really stood out. Not a lot of westerners live in the area I’m in, so when I go there, my friends and I are usually the only westerners there. Probably I walk in and all the Asians think, “Oh yeah, the westerners in McDonald’s. How typical.” You know, just how we think when we see a Japanese dude with a camera.

Hopefully this week I’ll finish the last of my paperwork and errands. I’m getting a phone for local calls and I’m buying all my textbooks. I still need to get my Student Visa, but the school is still stalling on that for some reason. I’m not too worried about it – right now I have a 90-day Social Visit Pass, so I have a while.

Bad news about my room. I thought the wood strips running along the wall near the window were just dirty, but it turns out that it’s really mold growing all over it. I left my backpack there, and the mold attacked it, too. I had to throw it in the washing machine. It was disgusting. And mold grew on my flip-flops. I keep my fan on all day and I keep my windows open when I’m in the room, so I don’t really know what else to do. I guess I will just have to complain. I think I can manage that. :)

First Impressions of Singapore

I am finally in Singapore! The flight over was a nightmare, but I made it. About 10 of us flew together, and we met another NUS exchange student from Canada when our plane stopped in Vancouver. It was nice being with a lot of people. Even though we couldn’t get seats together on the plane, we still spent a lot of time together. (We were in Kennedy airport for EIGHT hours!) We got in around noon on January 5th. Sida, a Singaporean student who studied at Chapel Hill last semester, and his friends picked us up from the airport. It was quite a relief – after being on a plane or in an airport for 35 hours and only sleeping for 3 of those hours, I didn’t feel like figuring out how to get to NUS (National University of Singapore).

On our way to school, we stopped at Carrefour, which is like an urban Wal-Mart. I needed to buy a few things I forgot, and THREE people had their baggage lost. By the way, don’t fly American Airlines! We got to NUS and it was a big hassle checking in – I’ve found lots of red tape at this school, so it’s a lot like being back in Chapel Hill. My dorm room is tiny, but there’s only me in here, so now I just need to decorate it to look more like a home than a cell. I went to a welcome meeting for students in my residence park the first night, but I ended up being too tired to socialize – between jet lag and a head cold that found me on the plane, I was exhausted. Despite how tired I was, I still woke up at 5:30 am and couldn’t sleep any longer.

Today we went to an orientation session, registration, and a couple other business matters. Registration was frustrating… more red tape and a few problems with my student account. Also, I was only assigned two courses, which is a BIG problem. If I don’t have at least 3, I’m not allowed to be here! So I have to figure out the system so I can add classes, but classes start on Monday, so I need to go fast. I met some people at the orientation for international students, so that was nice. I had lunch with a Canadian, a Norwegian, and a German. I’m meeting with them and a few Carolina students this evening to find something to do around here.

By the way, everyone said it would be weird living here because I would be the only blonde girl around. However, there are about 15 students from Sweden and many others from Scandinavian countries. Actually, one guy asked me if I was Swedish. I thought that was pretty funny.

It was weird arriving here; there’s just a few differences. First I tried to go around to the right side of the car to get in, but that’s the driver’s side. It was very strange driving down the road and being a passenger on the left side. I keep bumping into people because I’m used to walking past on the right, but they expect me to go left.

It’s also been difficult getting food. At the canteen, they have a long row of booths, like a mall food court. They each specialize in different foods. There’s Chinese, Muslim, Asian, Indian, and Western, to name a few. The problem is that every food is written as its ethnic name, and there are no descriptions, so I don’t know what any of it is. The first night, I was so tired, I just pointed at something and ate it. And for breakfast, I think I’ll be eating granola bars or cereal every morning. The only breakfast food they have is toast, half-boiled eggs, and weird pastry things. I tasted authentic Singaporean snacks, and to be honest, they were pretty gross. It was gooey and not very tasty – my American taste buds are used to a lot more sugar than that.

It was also weird to go from January in North Carolina to January in Singapore. Almost every day this month, it’s about 85 degrees and rainy. Monsoon season doesn’t end until February, so it rains off and on all day. And my room doesn’t have air conditioning! It’s not too bad, though. I have three windows to open and a very powerful fan. It cools to about 75 overnight, so I slept okay.

Well, I think that was long enough. Stay tuned for updates.