90 to -10 in under 20 hours... I'm home!

Dropping 100 degrees F was certainly a shock, but I am SO happy to be back in Wisconsin! I flew into Minneapolis the morning of December 15th, and I had the biggest grin on my face. I can't quite describe the feeling, but I felt a mix of confidence/comfort/excitement/relief/anticipation, and I was just SO HAPPY.

Of course I loved Singapore, and I do miss it. I miss the lifestyle I had there: learning new things, meeting different people, exploring new countries. I miss the amazing variety of food, and definitely my friends, hearing many different languages (!), the warm weather, the TRAVELING, but I don't think it has been long enough for me to feel like I want to go back if I could... or maybe I'm just meant to be in the US and not Asia-- crazy thought. I love the US and the opportunities we are creating for our future here.

I feel like the whole semester has been a dream. I feel like I didn't totally take advantage of it; didn't do enough traveling; didn't talk to people enough; and studied too much. :) I'm sure I'd feel that way regardless of how I spent my time-- I mean it was only there 4 1/2 months! And now that I'm back I realize that it was a very individual experience and a very personal one. It's like almost impossible to explain "How was Singapore!?" when people ask, which is hard, but I sort of expected that would happen when I got back.

But I've skipped talking about a few things we did the last few weeks...

Aside from a few food adventures, I spent a decent amount of my time studying (I know!) for finals. I planned to study for my first two exams before Mom and Erin came, which sort of worked... Once they got here on Nov 20, it was all lost, and I didn't study till they left on the 24th. After that I have a big blank spot in my journal, but I do recall studying in my boiling hot room listening to Ne-yo "Miss Independent" nonstop, haha.

Phil, Ashima, and I took a trip to Sentosa one afternoon after an exam. Siloso beach definitely felt a little less than real, but it was fun and had a beautiful view. They had some nice resorts on Sentosa and some beach bars, which I could tell would be ridiculous during ZoukOut, an annual dance party held on the island. We missed it because of traveling, but it was Dec 13 this past year.


We all met Sheryl's dad at the Newton Hawker Centre and had an amazing array of food. It was such a nice time to hang out with everyone before we parted ways to travel and then head home. This is where I got those tiger prawns that were SOOO good, but also S$72, which is insane to me, but this hawker is sort of touristy, so maybe I can understand. I told myself I'd never regret spending money on food. ;)

A few days later we had a Thanksgiving celebration at Misha, David, and Adrien's apartment. It did not at all seem like Thanksgiving because of the heat (just like it didn't feel like Halloween), but it was nice to all get together, eat some "turkey" (actually a few yummy roasted chickens well-prepared by Jenny and Mina), veggies and potatoes, and share what we were thankful for. We explained the tradition to the UK students, too.

One of our favorite clubs Ministry of Sound (MOS) had closed earlier in the semester, and it was reopened just before we left. Now called Zirca, they had a big opening weekend celebration where they had some dancers that tried to create a Cirque du Soleil atmosphere. It was sort of lost on me, but the hip hop room, as always, was still a good time! Mina had some friends who were in the VIP room, so we hung out there for a while and then she, Ashima, Yong, and I danced in the hip hop room before heading out. Honestly, it didn't feel that much different than MOS, but MOS was always a good time, so Zirca probably will be in the future, too!

Katie and I took a trip to the Jurong Bird Park! It was pretty neat-- they had some really cool shows where they threw birds over your head and had them do tricks. On the train ride there I started to feel really light-headed and sick (I had a bit of a fever the day before), but Katie took care of me and we were able to enjoy the day walking around. They even had a bald eagle in one of the shows, which they explained was the national bird of the USA (we got a few looks, haha).

Hannah invited Jeff and me over for a Thanksgiving/end of semester gathering, which was so nice of her, and we ate some yummy homemade food including a fisherman's pie (with salmon, shrimp, squid, etc.) and this amazing mango dessert--Mmmm, Mmmm! We also got to meet her parents and friends, which was really fun. That was also the night that I totally failed using public transport and ended up wandering around Eastern Singapore trying to meet up with Ashima and others for dinner at the East Coast Seafood Centre, but I was able to get back just fine! No matter where you are, there's a bus stop that will take you to an MRT station, and from there, it's only an issue of time (it can take over an hour to get from one side of Singapore to the other by train).

Also in the last few days, Yong, John David, Katie and I went for lunch at the Botanic Gardens and then had tea and some amaaaaazing desserts at PS Cafe. It was starting to be real that we'd have to say goodbye, which was sad... We were all leaving at different time and that made having closure pretty tough.

My friend Sean's parents were so kind to let me leave my bags at their place after I moved out of the dorms, so I dropped those off with them and we went to Breworks for some beers and dinner. Later that night was my last night with everyone before traveling and then heading home. We met at the bridge in Clarke Quay (of course), and said some of our final goodbyes. After having a few drinks and chatting with David, Mina, Aman, and others, I cabbed it back to the UNC apartment and slept for a few hours before heading to airport with Henrik-- we ended up on the same flight to Cambodia!

Then after getting back from traveling to Cambodia & Laos, I had one last day in Singapore! It was an unfortunately rainy, dreary day, but I HAD to go to the world-famous zoo-- I hadn't been there yet! It was still very enjoyable, and I wandered around on my own seeing a few shows and looking at some of the unique animals. The zoo is definitely unique. It's an open concept, so you don't really see the fences or moats that separate you from the animals. You are right up close with orangutans, lions, bats, kangaroos, and warthogs. Of course I enjoyed the "crops of Asia" exhibit, too, even though it is a ZOO (I love plants!). :) Then I stopped by Bugis market to pick up a few thing, including another pair of those great jelly shoes! I grabbed some beancurd dessert and some red bean & banana pastry puffs and headed back to Sean's parents for a yummy dinner and to repack my things before getting my early flight the next morning.

I didn't finish up repacking and getting ready until a little after 3, and my plan was to get a cab at 3:30... So I laid down on the bed to "just rest my eyes for a few minutes," and passed out! Sean's dad thankfully woke me up at about 4:40 and helped me rush out in a complete panic. I got to the airport at 5:10 and they had already closed my check-in for my 6am flight! Luckily they let me through and I had no problems getting on the plane, but it definitely shocked me a bit.

Once I was on the plane I just kept thinking, "I can't believe I'm going home!!" I slept a lot of the first flight to Tokyo, watched The Notebook (which I hadn't seen before), and then watched a few movies and talked to the guy next to me (a Nuclear Engineering student at UW!) on the flight to Minneapolis. When I stepped off the plane in Minnesota (donning leggings and open toed shoes) I absolutely FROZE walking up the walkway to the airport. My skin and eyes were just killing because of the dry air, but I was greeted by pleasant Midwestern accents, which sounded just completely ridiculous to me, haha. It was weird that everything was in one language, too!

After Mom and Dad picked me up in Madison, we headed home and got Culver's on the way, haha-- of course! Then I completely passed out and slept almost 20 hours. I've been blaming my laziness on jetlag, but I think that excuse only works for a few weeks, if that! So I've had to get back into the swing of things. For the first few days, I kept thinking I was seeing people I knew, but I just wasn't used to seeing so many white people! That was a pretty silly phenomenon. I was also still thinking that soup was just broth, coffee has sugar in it, etc., but I do appreciate the heavy, bland (in comparison) American food. I love my cheese. And now I walk into a room and think, "Wow, it's pretty cold in here... We should turn down the A/C to save energy," but have to remember that keeping it COLDer saves energy! Crazy to think , because this cold would be so appreciated in Singapore.

It's weird that I am now in the same time zone as most of the people I communicate with, so nothing really happens overnight like it was in Singapore. It's the end of the second week of school and I'm so overwhelmed! It's nice to feel productive, and it's sooo great to catch up with old friends. I'm looking forward to finishing my last, fantastic(ly busy!) semester. ON WISCONSIN!

Here are the photo albums from my last few weeks:
the beginning of the end... dun dun dunnnn - SG 30
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2483312&l=0c96c&id=8605287

hodgepodge of my last few days in s'pore - SG 31
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2490741&l=d1e31&id=8605287

a few more kewl aminewls from the zoo - SG 32
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2492651&l=710bb&id=8605287

t minus one month!

I had my last classes last week. *tears* But not really for the classes. I realize there are so many things I wanna do and so many people I've met that I want to hang out with more! I'll have to budget my time in the next few weeks well. And Mom and Erin fly in TONIGHT, which I am so pumped about. I can't wait to show them the exciting things (and the not-so-exciting things) I've been up to... And the food ;)

So as much as I want my time here to go on for much longer, I'm looking forward so much to going home, as well. I can't wait to see my family and friends, move into my apartment in Madison, finish out my last semester of school (exciting new classes that I think I'll like), find my dream job, and EAT CHEESE. :) I may have spoken a little too soon about never being homesick-- I got a little sad a few weeks ago. To be fair, it was probably more about just finding a job and graduating and figuring out my life than it was about Singapore, but making these decisions would have been much easier if I were at home with all my resources there and the ability to speak face-to-face with people, etc. So I came to the conclusion that this semester has been a trade-off, as is every choice, right? I get the ridiculous exposure to a region I never would have had another way (not even by working here), but I maybe am set back a bit on the school (as in engineering bc I'm only in business classes here) and career fronts. So worth it.

Since I last wrote, I've had class on 3 Saturdays in a row (!) and...

We've also frequented a few new nighttime spots. The other night we stopped at New Asia Bar to get a few drinks and enjoy the view (from the 71st story!), and then went to a club/bar called Supper Club. It had a swanky atmosphere (all white, beds around the edge of the upper floor and a dance floor below), but the music wasn't all that great. We also celebrated the REAL Halloween (on Oct 31) by going to the Screening Room bar. I guess the building near Chinatown used to be a hotel, and now it is a bar/lounge/screening room. We hung out on the top deck, which was a neat atmosphere, as well.
A few nights we have been hanging out on the Clarke Quay bridge, which is right near a bunch of clubs. Conveniently, there is a 7/11 nearby where we often buy a few beers (2 for S$5 is a STEAL!). One night we tried to go to Butter Factory and then Dbl O, but things get so expensive when it's later at night (S$30 for guys), and they sometimes make up this "must be over 23" rule for guys... I'm not sure why-- it even happened to David when he was with us (with 4 girls)!
We also went to Rain for karaoke (it's near Dbl O) the other night. It was so fun! We went for Elin's birthday, and arrived around 7pm. We stayed till 2am! They had to kick us out at that point after we had been dancing on the couches and singing our hearts our all night. :)

New food experiences:
I've been trying to keep up my exploration of Singapore dishes, and I also found a neat video on how to make some of them. This 3-part video (1, 2, 3) explains how to cook chilli crab, chicken rice, and bubor cha cha among others. Check it out.
My friend Matt and I went to the Newton Hawker Center and had a whole feast of Singapore delights. We had an oyster omelette, some carrot cake, chilli crab, satay with that yummy peanut sauce, and of course some tiger beers to go with it all!
Ice Kachang... oh, ice kachang. This is a truly Singaporean experience. These desserts are basically shaved ice with syrup and anything and everything on it. I recently got the "dinosaur ice kachang" at the Tiong Bahru Food Centre. It had Milo (like powdered chocolate milk), peanuts, sugar syrup, red beans, longans, and a mixture of jellies on it. It looked disgusting but it was yummmmmy.
Steamboat laksa. Laksa is kind of like a red curry soup with coconut milk in the broth. We went as a big group and shared a large pot of the broth and added in all sorts of goodies: chicken, corn, beef, shrimp/prawns, fish, mushrooms, fish balls (see how they are made), squid, tofu, and of course lots of noodles!
Lau Pa Sat: In my attempt to visit all 10 of the top ten hawker centres, Katie and I went to Lau Pa Sat the other day and we were overwhelmed! It is such a big hawker in the middle of the city, so there were way too many food stalls from which to select some yummy delights. We settled on two things: fish porridge (or congee), and fish dumpling noodles. The fish porridge was actually really good! And of course the "fish dumpling noodles" was fish, (chicken) dumplings, and noodles instead of fish dumplings, and noodles. Although there is an abundance of fish, seafood, and vegetarian dishes here, it seems like there is a little bit of meat on everything-- I've seen a lot of minced pork or chicken in most tofu dishes. And for dessert we had fruit sago (kind of like ice kachang, this one had many different fruits and sago pearls in it) and bubor cha cha (by FAR my new favorite dessert! It's just so pretty!). Bubor cha cha is a coconut milk "soup" with sago, other jellies, yam, and sweet potato pieces-- and it's often served hot or cold (with shaved ice). I like it hot.

Shangri-La brunch... My tummy feels full just thinking about it! Yong took us there, which was SO nice of him, and we ate for the full 3 hrs we were allowed. The place has EVERYTHING from Japanese to Malay, Western, Indian, not to mention the array of dim sums and spectacular display of desserts (including a chocolate fountain!). It was so good. Highlights include salmon sashimi, choc covered marshmallows, cheese tortellini, sun-dried tomatoes, lamb from the India section, and that yummy "disc-shaped egg tofu" dish that I get a lot (a staple, for sure).

High tea at Tian Fu Teahouse. We went for the Imperial High Tea at the Tian Fu Teahouse, which is in the UOB Plaza on the 60th floor-- beautiful view! We had three different kinds of tea (Silver Needle, Fenghuang Dancong, and Pu'er I think), and dim sums (carrot cake, sweet corn dumpling, barbecue pau, wontons, glutinous rice pancake, steamed custard bun). It was soooo good. The rice pancake was the best, I think, but the custard bun was a close close second.

Not quite related to fooood... The election! Oh my, the hype was intense for the election. I'm sure it was insane at home, but we definitely felt it here, too. My professors would mention things in lecture, especially with the economic crisis (I got blamed quite a few times as a joke, lol), and right around the 4th I heard, "...Obama..." "...McCain..." on the buses and MRT. And the bus TVs and newspapers were covered with pics of the candidates immediately before and after the election. I was so glad when it was over just so people would stop wanting to talk about it with me! And I was happy about the results, too. :)

Trip to the Science Centre! The Science Centre here in Singapore is very highly recommended, and despite a few exhibits being under construction, it was really neat! I totally indulged my nerdy side. They had a special exhibit for the Formula 1 race, and they had some cool displays including a huge water tornado thing (ykno, like you used to have with the two 2-liter pop bottles?), virus exhibit, a climate change exhibit, and special nanotech section. Videos: parallelism in the nano building process, dengue diagnosis, jam session, hyperbolic slot (this would have been helpful in math 234), voltage jumping an air gap and water tornado.

NUS Exchange Ball. Some of the ladies on exchange, Maria, Claire, Amberly, and others, planned a lovely evening for us at a campus venue with amazing food, good music, and lots of good company. Most of our friends from the exchange program attended and we danced and ate and drank. It makes me realize this is really coming to an end! The farewell gatherings have begun...


Pictures since last post:

the REAL halloween, food, beg of science centre - SG 22
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2469819&l=e56fd&id=8605287

science centre, sakae sushi, china one, and desserts - SG 23
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2478856&l=605ba&id=8605287

karaoke, high tea, the ball, lunch@matrix... - SG 24
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2479166&l=a9b80&id=8605287

update on not updating...

Ack! So naturally I've failed at being a good little blogster... It's been nearly a month since I last checked in and wrote something. We've had two amazing and successful trips--Vietnam (magical!) and Borneo (ridic with wildlife & plants)--and the usual Singapore mischief has occurred.

The past couple weeks have really hit me and though I feel torn between being an exchange STUDENT and acting like an "exchange student," I've been trying to focus on my studying. I just had a group presentation, group paper, individual paper due, and I've got three group presentations and another group paper before I'm in the clear. Well, in the clear and studying for finals! I have exams on the 25th and 26th of Nov and the 1st and 3rd of Dec.

A few things I've been thinking about:
1.) I cannot believe how ridiculously kind some people here are. Things have happened that I'm convinced wouldn't happen at home.

a.) One day I was working on a marketing assignment that was due in a few hours, and (surprise) I was a few minutes late to class. I decided to walk to beat the bus system, but of course 2 buses passed me on the way. I broke one of my flip flops, so I walked into class with only one shoe on. After class, the girl next to me, who I'd not met before and who had noticed my shoe problem, asked if I lived at PGP. Then she offered to go back with me barefoot so I wouldn't feel silly. SAY WHAT!?
b.) The lady at the juice stall at the business canteen calls me sister sometimes... I know it's not just me, but I really like that. :)
c.) I arrived at my operations management tutorial (late? yes...) and there was only one seat left in the back, awkwardly on the corner of a table. I squeezed in and instead of being annoyed, the girl next to me whispered, "We have a quiz next week; all the information about it is on the board right there." I guess maybe this would happen at home, but from a stranger?
d.) My marketing professor, who is really entertaining and smart, is apparently also very kind. She seems to notice when I attend lecture (sometimes calling me out as "Wisconson" in front of the class of 300!), and in the past 3 weeks I've attended a different lecture time each week. So the other day, she asked that I come down and talk to her after class. I thought she'd tell me that I should try to attend the lecture I signed up for because the lecture hall is usually pretty full, but she just wanted to point out that since I attended a different lecture last week, I should study the services section of the product slides because that class had already gotten the info and maybe I had missed it. SAY WHAT!? :)

2.) My group meetings have been on average 3-4 hours long. I think that is, like, illegal in the states as they say anything over an hour is not productive, but I wouldn't say it's all bad. In the U.S. we would have a short discussion about the project, immediately split things up, and then get back together in a few days when our individual parts are done and maybe spend an hour compiling or editing. Some of my friends here have spent almost a whole day in a meeting! It's a different mindset, I think, and it seems less efficient, but if you have the time, it's kind of nice to discuss back and forth and work out the topics together. You come up with some meaningful conclusions you wouldn't have come to on your own. Everything gets done, just in a different way.

3.) On a more personal note (ee!), I haven't really felt homesick yet--minus that time in Kuala Lumpur when I was sick and had a throbbing headache and had to sit outside our broken A/C room to get warm and eat mango biscuits with my pain pills.
I think it has something to do with it really being quite a short amount of time that I'm here. And with all the traveling, maybe I don't feel like I'm even fully settled yet! I was thinking about how some of the exchange students are here for a year, and I wonder if I'd learn more about myself and the world by staying for a year... I don't really have that option since finishing college and getting a job is something I'd like to do before I'm 42, but I wonder how that would change how I see Singapore and how I see the U.S. And then I realized, I've never lived in a place for longer than 9 months at a time since I was 18 anyway (granted, that's only 4 yrs, but still...). Maybe I'm just used to not having a "permanent address." That will certainly be a change when I get a fulltime job and I'm there for more than 6 months! ...or maybe I can avoid that somehow. Can we say, "International assignment?" :) winky ;)

Here are some new pics, too. I'll write about Vietnam and Borneo and share those pics asap!

those times in singapore btwn travels, or the BEST times! - SG 16
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2461906&l=fe1f2&id=8605287
including: EXCLUSIVE pricewaterhousecoopers party, powerhouse on a sunday, and the making of our beautiful butterfly wings

halloween's "the flight of the bumbleb- i mean BUTTERFLY" - SG 21
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2462957&l=1f492&id=8605287
halloween party, which was mostly exchange students, where our friend Stéphane was DJing!

Mid-Autumn in Singapore

It's mid-autumn in Singapore! And what does that mean? Jackets and cooler weather? Nope... Football and tailgating? No (and did you mean soccer?)... It means (among other things) midterms and mooncakes!

The Mid-Autumn festival is a Chinese harvest celebration usually during the second half of September. Here's a bit of info I borrowed from a website:

The Chinese believe in praying to the moon god for protection, family unity, and good fortune. The round "moon cakes" eaten on this festival are symbolic of family unity and closeness. Pomelos are also eaten on this day. The Chinese word for "pomelo" or "grapefruit" is yu, which is homophonous with the word for "protection," yu, expressing the hope that the moon god give them protection. Moon gazing is another essential part of this festival. On this day, the moon is at its roundest and brightest. This is also a time for lovers to tryst and pray for togetherness, symbolized by the roundness of the moon. Unlike most other Chinese festivals, the Mid-Autumn Festival is a low-key holiday, characterized by peace and elegance. -http://www.kevdesign.com/midautumnfestival

NUS had a gathering at the business school and one at our dorm PGP. We went to the one at the B-school and ate dinner, devoured way too many pieces of different mooncakes, lit lanterns and sparklers, and participated in a pomelo peeling (and eating) contest. Mooncakes are AMAAAAAZING. I'm not sure how to describe them well, but it's like a dense, sugary, mass of paste inside a think pastry(?). That doesn't sound that appetizing I guess but I guarantee they are yummy! Flavors I've tried include lotus seed, red bean, durian (remember that fruit I mentioned before that is very pungent?), sesame seed, strawberry, green tea, custard, and pandan (leaves used in a lot of Asian dishes-- our tour guide in Vietnam even said they make a good carfreshener? Pandan cake is a popular dessert that tastes kind of like angelfood cake to me). Besides the mooncakes, we got to know (quite intimately) the fruit called pomelo. It's like a grapefruit, but not as tart and flavorful. The peeling contest meant we got into groups of four and broke into and ate a pomelo. We got second place, though it was difficult to really know who finished when-- it was a little crazy. That's a picture of a huge pile of pomelos in Chinatown on the right.

We also celebrated Mid-Autumn by going to Chinatown a few nights. The first time we went we stumbled upon a Getai performance. We were trying out these yam, pumpkin, and rice cakes and heard the singing coming from the stage nearby us. After David and I saw the movie 12 Lotus, we were like "We have to see Getai!" so it was cool to see some people singing. Here's a video of a lady singing a song in Chinatown.

Other than the festivals, we've been partying a bit and eating a ton. In true Singaporean style, I should mention the food again. I have fallen madly in love with tofu. People here know how to cook it and it's allllllways good. And it's not even always a main dish! My new favorite dessert is tau huay, or soya bean curd (Check out: discussion of two rival bean curd stands, and Video: advertisement for Rochor Beancurd House showing tau huay and dough fritters). I had it first in Geylang one late night along with dough fritters-- basically just deep fried bread.

Another more healthy snack is dragon fruit! I'd never had it before, but it's so yummy. The ones that I've had are red/pink on the outside and white on the inside, and it tastes like a melon/apple/pinneapple-- quite sweet. Another dish I just tried but have heard tons about (mostly from Katie as she looooooves it, too) is carrot cake, or chai tow kway. It's not a dessert-- it's a main dish made with eggs, radishes, garlic, and soy sauce... I might never eat meat again because there are so many delicious veggie options!

We've been keeping up our Wednesday Ladies' Night tradition, going for dinners (We went to a great French restaurant the other day and my friends from France were telling me all about Paris and french food! I had fromage blanc with chestnut sauce for dessert-- look at me being all Singaporean and pausing to talk AGAIN about food...), a few movie nights, and mingling with a mix of exchange students and local NUSers. I've managed to make it to Central Library a few times to study, as well. :)

The other event I found awesome was a trip to an eco-friendly temple! The environmental club I joined set up a trip to see Poh Ern Shih, a Buddhist temple that is designed to be energy efficient, accessible to those with special needs, and water-conscious. It was truly inspiring. Features of the facility include the following:

• 3 different types of solar panels on the roof to catch the energy of the sun when it's sunny and also cloudy. They are also to serve as an example to teach others about the kinda of solar panels available. The three types: 1.) monocrystalline by Sharp- expensive but collect a lot of energy when it's sunny, 2.) polycrystalline by Mitsubishi- relatively inexpensive and aren't as efficient as monocrystalline, and 3.) amorphous by Uni-solar- the most expensive but gather the most energy even without direct visible sunlight. Energy is collected at 110 volts and inverted to 220, which is what most utilities use in Singapore.
  
• Hot water solar panels. These are black panels used to heat water-- no additional energy needed! Each unit (tank and panel and pipe) is $5,000, but you can purchase a smaller one for $3,000 that will heat all the water needed for a family of 5. The system has a 35 year warranty.
• A couple of small wind turbines paired with a small solar panel to charge a battery that provides power to lights used in the evenings. Wind in Singapore is stratified, so it would be great if you could adjust the turbine's height to catch the most wind power at any time.
• Glass pagoda. There is a large pagoda being built that will be covered partially with solar panels. There will still be enough uncovered area to let light through the structure, and the solar panels will be designed to look like art.
• 80% of the visitors to the temple are over 60 years old, so there are many accessibility considerations in the design of the facility. 1.) wheelchair access and Buddhas along the ramp to encourage visitors to use the ramp over the lift (to get exercise!), bathrooms with 2.) steady bars, 3.) doors that open out (not in) in case of a fall, 4.) rough floor tiles and water gaps to prevent slipping, and 5.) easy-to-use sinks at the correct height and with easy-turn faucets.
  
• Modular bamboo furniture that's sustainable and convertible so that a 6-piece bed can convert to a table and a workstation for studying.
  
• Rainwater is collected and used for hydropower to charge wheelchairs
• Water collected is also filtered through several tanks and reverse osmosis and is then used throughout the temple.
• Check out the Wikipage: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poh_Ern_Shih_Temple
  

Here's the link to some of the latest pictures from excusions and the temple, too.
tiger beer, lanterns, mooncakes... mid-autumn in singapore - SG 9
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2447710&l=6635a&id=8605287

a bit of nightlife & an eco-friendly temple - SG 10
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2450583&l=bf38b&id=8605287

When you start college, or when you talk to freshmen, the typical conversation points are usually things like where are you from, what are you studying, etc... The question most exchange students get of course is "Why did you come to Singapore?" David and I were discussing this the other night. I'm never really sure how to answer or what people expect me to say--probably because I wasn't really sure about it when I made my decision... Half the people in the world are Asian, and I've never been to Asia? The business courses I needed are offered at NUS? I knew a few people from Singapore? There's definitely no shortage of answers, but we decided the best answer would be, "Ask me when I leave." :)

35 days into my Singapore experience.

.....BreadTalk...........Bintan Sunrise.............Durian............Bubble Tea...........Orchids.......

One whole month! Since getting here on August 1st, I've been doing quite a bit. I hope I can summarize in a way that explains what it's really been like here. I would talk about the weather but a.) that's boring and b.) it's been the same about every day since I got here, haha. Except that now it is raining a bit more--usually a little bit each day. It's quite tolerable, though, and I've been doing just fine without air conditioning in my room.

What I should really start by talking about is FOOD. It is an obsession here! And I am totally fine with that, haha. I'm in a veggie wonderland! I'm still loving the white rice with 2-3 sides at the hawker centers or campus canteens. My list of favorites now includes spicy tofu, eggplant (amazingly good at any food stand), curry vegetables, and duck (I've had it a few times, and it's been pretty good!). I finally tried the infamous fruit, the durian, and unlike the other exchangers in our group, I was not repulsed. I wouldn't buy it in bulk (it's kind of sweet, mushy, pulpy, and some compare it to egg yolk-- I know, not appetizing), but it's definitely unique and worth trying once. I also love the fresh cut fruits all over Asia. In almost any city we've been in, you can get fresh cut melon, pineapple, dragon fruit, kiwi, mango, watermelon, and others for 50 cents to S$1.
Another new favorite dish of mine is prata, or roti. It's an Indian/Malaysian dish-- I think roti means bread and prata means flat, and it's sort of like naan, Indian bread, but not as thick. Regardless, it's super-good and can be found all over Singapore. It's kind of like a thin pancake-like bread with all sorts of goodies inside. It's acceptable for breakfast, lunch, dinner or dessert and you can get it with anything from pineapple, banana, CHEESE (!), egg, tomato, mushroom, various meats, and for dessert even with ice cream.
As far as drinks, I've found that Singaporeans don't necessarily drink a lot when they eat, but you can get any combination of those fresh fruits made into juice or choose from a selection of sodas and canned juices-- some with little gel bits in them. I've been getting along fine with my Nescafe as a substitute for real coffee. It's instant coffee, but it's pretty good. I bought a jar of Nescafe flakes and I've tried it from a can, too-- I even bought one at a drug store that was hot (they store them on a heating pad thing). You can get coffee at any place that sells drinks usually, too. And for a late-night treat, or actually a treat any time of the day, haha, we've been getting ice blended bubble tea! I really like the oreo or coffee flavors, but fruit flavors are also popular. Bubble refers to the way the tea was originally made, but now a lot of bubble tea doesn't even contain tea! They usually have sweetened pearls in the bottom unless for some crazy reason you didn't want them-- I think it's the best part. The pic on the left is of my friend YongMin and me at the bubble tea place by his apartment (he and the friends I met from UNC live in an HDB, housing development board, flat near the MRT station we always get on at). He's holding the oversized straws. Yum!

Besides a lot of eating and drinking, I've been keeping busy seeing Singapore. We went to see the Singapore Symphony Orchestra in the Botanic Gardens, which was really nice and chill. We also saw the movie 12 Lotus, which is a Singaporean film about a girl who wants to be a Getai (a performance held during the Hungry Ghost Festival) singer, but struggles with the men in her life who are motivated by money more than love. It is in Mandarin, and there were a lot of performances mixed in with the dialogue scenes, which was pretty effective. Check out the trailers at www.12lotusthemovie.com. We also visited the National Orchid Gardens at the Botanic Gardens-- they were so beautiful!!! The National flower of Singapore is the Vanda Miss Joaquim orchid, but there were all sorts of varieties and hybrids of orchids, even ones with corkscrew-like petals! Check out the rest of the orchid pictures in my album:
the orchid extravaganza - SG 7
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2439862&l=7c108&id=8605287

We also started watching a Singapore sitcom called First Class. It's about a bunch of misfit teachers who each have a quirkiness about them and a group of students who are struggling with fitting in and being good friends to each other. This is the episode where the kids are picking their CCAs (extra-curricular clubs): part 1, part 2, part 3. This one also totally mocks Mean Girls (with their "scrapbook of suck") and they talk about steroids and bulimia? The acting is actually pretty terrible, but it's funny. We've also been going out for ladies night every Wednesday, and so far have frequented Dbl O (and the O Bar), Ministry of Sound, and Powerhouse (by far the best music). It's free for girls to get in, but then in order to get free drinks you have to wait in like forEVER... It's usually pretty packed though, even with guys on ladies' night, so the dancing is really fun! Other fun recent events include a free concert on campus (with FREE beer-- ridiculous) and trying a Singapore Sling for the first time! It's a drink that was invented at the Long Bar at the Raffles Hotel, a ritzy hotel downtown, and it was pretty good-- sort of fruity, but quite refreshing. I went to the Long Bar with my friend Sean (from this summer at NI, his parents are living in Singapore) to try one. It will set you back S$24, though, but considering a pint of Tiger beer is S$16, it's not too much of a splurge, haha. It's all relative?

Here are some pics of these events and others:
bubble tea, pizza, free beer, and orchids - SG 6
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2438550&l=e525e&id=8605287

And don't forget traveling! It seems to be the opinion of a lot of Singaporeans, including our professors and tutorial leaders (tutors), that the exchange students are here to travel. One of my tutors even said we should make our groups such that most of the exchange students are together to accommodate our travel plans! Since I last wrote, we've taken trips to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia (truly Aaaaaasia - as it's referred to in the 2007 tourism commercials. It's kind of a joke because people say Singapore isn't the real Asia, so we like to add it on everytime we say Malaysia, haha) and Bintan Island in Indonesia.

Trip to Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia:
There's probably more to say here with pictures than with words, so check out my albums:
cantstudy. gottatravel. (KL i) - SG 4
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2437061&l=4cb0d&id=8605287

cantstudy. gottaPARTY. (KL ii) - SG 5
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2437562&l=a4b57&id=8605287

We went to KL on buses from Johor Bahru, Malaysia (just across the border from Singapore) and stayed from the 22 of Aug (Friday) to the 24th (Sunday). Many of the taxis in KL didn't have meters, so we had to negotiate a price before getting in, or at the mall they had a taxi stand where you got a ticket based on the distance you wanted to travel and then handed the ticket to the next taxi driver in line. The hostel we stayed at was SUPER nice (as were the owners) and I even ran into these two really cool women from Wisconsin!. But, to be honest, we did not do too much that was very cultural. KL is a big city, so we did a little bit of shopping... We did see the Petronas Towers and check out the local nightlife. Friday we got settled in and shared some dishes at a Chinese place on the street (bullfrog porridge, dumpling soup, seafood friend rice, mango Thai chicken, eggplant). Then we visited the Chinatown night market and hung out at the Reggae Bar. After a horrible night of freezing because our air conditioner wouldn't turn down (I had to sit in the hall in the middle of night because I was sick and wanted to warm up!), we got up and had toast and headed off to visit a mall about 30 minutes outside of town. We had some yummy sushi at Sushi King, a place with a conveyor belt of sushi (each is priced by the color of plate-- check out my stack!). Then we shared dinner dishes again that night and went to a local bar before heading out to a few clubs. The next morning (Sun) we headed home.

Trip to Bintan Island, Indonesia:
Below is the photo album from the trip.
the weekend i went to bintan - SG 8
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2441008&l=aae5a&id=8605287

We were thinking of just going for a day because the ferry was only 1.5 hrs, but my friend Ashima already had accommodation, so we stayed over Saturday night (30 to 31 Aug). I didn't call to get ferry tickets until the day before we left, so we had to take a 1pm ferry. It worked out okay though, because it was pretty rainy on the way there & perfect weather when we got to our secluded island spot. It was a good thing we planned to stay overnight because it took 1 hour on the MRT, another 30 minutes to wait for a take a bus to the ferry terminal, and then the 1.5 hrs ferry to Tangung Pinang. Bintan is behind Singapore by an hour, so it was sort of like 2 hrs travel time. We sat on the upper deck of the ferry and grabbed a taxi when we got to the island. The taxi ride was about an hour (our driver Dodo was awesome, and he took us to get our return ferry boarding passes and to an atm; the ride itself was quite an experience! See this video I took on the journey) and our spot, the Shady Shack, was definitely secluded. The "shacks" were all wood with two mattresses with bug nets. We hung out on the beach, had lunch/dinner (yummy veggies, fish, shrimp/prawns, eggs, and these fishcake things) around 4pm, played cards, and sat by the bonfire chatting till late into the night.
The whole time we were there we didn't really know what time is was-- it was actually nice not to worry about the time and just go to bed when it was dark and we were tired and get up with the sunrise. The sunrise was SO beautiful. The tide was low and the water was so still and warm. Then we hung out, went swimming, hung out some more, read a little on the beach, ate (fried rice and pineapple), and basically just chilled until our taxi driver came back at 4pm to get us.

School update:
Between the planning for travels and the actual travels, there seems to be little time for... what was it again? Oh yeah, school. But now that classes are in full-swing, I've had to make some more time for my studies. This is what my schedule looks like:
Which really isn't that bad, eh? My Wednesday tutorial is every other week, so I have every other Wed off and every Friday off.
I think I mentioned I was in all intro classes since I haven't had much business in school before, but the specific classes I'm taking are Intro to Finance, Intro to Marketing, Operations Management, and Asia Pacific Business, Ethics, and Society (that's a mouthful). Most of the local students are in their first or second year, and a lot of them are shocked when I tell them I'm in my 5th year. I haven't quite figured out how to convince them that 5 years isn't shameful in the US, haha.

I'm really liking my Operations Management course because it seems to be a little more technical than the others and is more closely linked with engineering. My professor is an engineer by education, which is cool, too (my marketing tutor is an engineer as well!). Finance is okay, pretty boring in the beginning; we've been going over financial statements and ratios. Asia Pacific Business, Ethics, and Society is interesting. The lecture is a little slow, and I'm getting lost with some of the economics terms (macro is a prerequisite, but I haven't had that yet). I think keeping up with the readings will help with understanding the concepts. Marketing is by far my favorite of the four classes. Marketing by nature is much more interesting, I think, and my professor is this spunky lady who on the first day of class made a HOT or NOT reference to Michael Phelps and how cute she thinks he is versus Michael Fay, the American guy who was caned in the 90s for vandalism. And this is why she says her lectures cannot be podcasted!
The other day in my marketing tutorial we were talking about different approaches to marketing and our tutor showed us these NUS Business school ads. They are pretty funny, well the one with the girl from the US (I assume US 'cause she mentions U of Chicago) is, the other one with the Singaporean guy is just plain cute-- and I can relate since it takes over an hour to travel from one side of S'pore to the other on the MRT. I'm still kind of amazed at how often we talk about the US in my classes. The operations management book I have, which is a special international edition, even had an example from Trek Bicycles in Wisconsin, haha.

And I joined an environmental club! This was one of my goals for going abroad-- to see how other countries view the environment and what they are doing to improve their impact on it. The club just had a Green Carnival on campus where they kicked-off their new initiatives including zer0waste (to encourage paper, plastic, and can recycling), 1degree up (to increase the temperature of lecture halls on campus & houses to 25 degrees C), rebate2earth (implementing a 10 cent charge for plastic bags to be donated to an environmental organization), save3s (encouraging professors to allow submission to papers and assignment online or double-sided, and setting printers to print double-sided by default), and food4thought (promoting a more sustainable diet). I helped out be encouraging people to write on the banner you can see at the left. Visitors were asked to write something they pledge to do to improve the environment or just some encouraging words. I'm interested in working with the rebate2earth campaign to minimize the use of disposable plates/cups and containers on campus.

And this is probably more than you wanted to know, so I'll end here. Check out those pictures because they are probably a better way to describe what I've been doing (and easier to digest!). Let me know what you're up to!