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.