Food and Engineering, yum!

I've been studying history like crazy this week, but it's definitely paid off. We only have one more quiz, and I've finally finished my two papers before the weekend! I just need to proofread them one more time before turning them in on Tuesday morning. Hooray! Now, I am all set up to go to Thailand this weekend, worry free!

My travel buddies and I are flying to Phuket, Thailand tomorrow morning at 8 AM. We are staying at the Jinny Hostel near Patong Beach. On Friday, I plan to go parasailing! I'm so glad that my first parasailing experience is going to be in such a beautiful place! I also want to do some snorkeling off the beach and shop at the open markets during the day. Phuket has a reputation of great and exciting nightlife too, including Thai Boxing matches! Hannah even found a little shop where we can make pottery out of Thailand's unique white clay. On Saturday, we are going on a white water rafting trip and an elephant trek through the jungle!!! I'm soooooo excited :)

As for this past week, I've finally established a typically weekday schedule. I wake up at 4:50 and take a taxi to swim practice. I leave the pool at 7:30, and the bus gets to my 9 AM class right on time. When class ends at 11, I eat lunch in the canteen by the engineering building. Unfortunately, it is not one of the better canteens on campus, but it's the most convenient. After lunch, I head to the library for three hours of checking e-mail and studying and taking an occasional 30-minute power nap. Then, I go to my 2 o'clock class. When it lets out at 4, Caroline and I head to the weight room to lift, and then finally get back to the dorm around 5:30. The rest of the evening includes dinner and more studying and essay writing. It's quite busy during the week. Since our classes are only 2 weeks long, there is a lot of material presented every lecture, so it's vital to be constantly studying.

Swim practices in the morning have been wonderful. I'm glad that I am swimming in Singapore Nationals. It is giving me a goal to work toward, which helps me get up in the morning. I'm really excited for a week off when the meet is over though. We do not do much yardage because the pool is so hot. Usually we do about 4500 meters, but all of it is fast and for time. It's terribly tiring, but at least I'm not going to forget how to race :)

My typical lunch between classes is rice, some kind of meat (usually chicken), and some kind of vegetable (usually spinach or cabbage). Basically, I choose whichever has the less amount of grease on any given day. However, today I gave in and went too McDonald's for a double cheeseburger and french fries, yum! I ate there with a classmate who was 12 years old in China when he first ate McDonald's. He said the line was out the door, and he went to the bathroom multiple times just so he could wash his hands and use the hand dryer because he had never seen one before! 

I eat dinner at one of the two canteens (dining halls) at my dorm. There is a Western food stall that serves a decent plate of spaghetti and mashed potatoes. They also have steak, but I haven't had any yet. At the "Asian Cuisine" stall, the pan fried thai chicken is phenomenal, but pretty spicy! I've also ordered a beef, rice, and egg dish from the Vietnamese stall. Sometimes I go for a cheese, egg, and potato prata, which is so good! Tonight I tried the minced chicken and rice from the Thai Muslim stall. Yes, there are certain stalls that serve food that is within Muslim dietary restrictions. In fact, every dining hall has a separate area for dishes and utensils from the Muslim food stalls so that they don't get confused with none kosher foods. It's pretty interesting. I once accidentally grabbed a fork from a Muslim food stall for my dinner that was not Muslim... and let's just say I pay a lot more attention now.

My favorite thing is that every dining hall has a fruit stall! You can buy slices of pineapple, mangos, apples, and bananas. They even sell cups of freshly cut watermelon for 80 cents, which is like 70 cents in the US! They also make fruit smoothies for only $1.50! My favorite smoothies are mango, peach, and banana. I plan to try passion fruit, star fruit, and kiwi too. They even make avocado and water chestnut milkshakes... I'm not to sure about those. Haha all I know is that a fruit smoothie after a long hot day is like heaven! Oh and the smoothies also have these things mixed in that they call "Pearls" which are little tapioca gummies. It's pretty tasty :)

An awesome Industrial Engineering system that the National University of Singapore (NUS) uses that Gt does not: the NUS library has a computer booking system! It's a little overwhelming at first, but after using it once, it is so easy! So the NUS library, like the GT library, has a big common area full of computers. At GT, if there are available computers, you just choose one, log in, and start using it. If all of the computers are in use, you wait in "the queue" until you see someone leave. Then, you go use their computer. However, at NUS, you have to go through the queue every time, even if there are computers open. At the end of the queue is a terminal that pulls up a map of the available computers when you type in your student ID. You click on a computer to use, and then proceed to that computer. This process is called "booking a computer". The computer you have booked has already recorded your username, all you have to do is type in your password to being use. Thus, someone cannot just walk up and use any computer, they have to book it first. Each computer is booked for one hour. At the end of one hour, if the queue is empty, then you have can keep booking the computer from your seat for another hour and then another hour (Yes, I've booked a computer for over three hours in a row when I've been writing my papers). However, if your hour is up and there is someone waiting in the queue, then they get your computer and you have to go to the end of the queue and rebook a computer for another hour.

This computer booking system is very controlled, organized, and efficient. The queue at NUS has been empty every time I've wanted to use a computer- a sign of good engineering! If this system was employed at Georgia Tech, no one would steal computers from someone in line. Half of the students don't even know that we have a waiting line for computers. I didn't figure it out until I was a sophomore, and then I felt guilty for all the times I unknowingly cut people in line for a computer. Also, the booking system limits the time a user can spend on the computer, preventing a terribly long wait times in the queue. Also, the one hour time limit will cause students to be very productive with their work while on the computer, and they would most likely avoid spending lots of time casually surfing the web or playing on facebook.

Maybe I can turn this into a mini design project for GT :)

Quote of the Day:

Little Swimmer Friend: Coach, we can't swim. There's lightening!

Coach: It's okay, it's in Malaysia.

The Great Singapore Sale

GUESS WHAT?!?! I've added a link to my photo website that contains all of the pictures I've taken so far!! YAY! The link is on the left side of this blog. It's called "My Photo Website". I spent lots of time on it today, so I hope you like it :-)

This morning, I went out into Singapore with a few of the girls to go shopping in the Great Singapore Sale. Unfortunately, we went to a pretty expensive area of the city, so I couldn't find very many affordable items. Luckily, there is plenty of time to find the good bargain areas because the Great Singapore Sale continues through the month of June! We spent our time going to malls along Orchard Road, which is like shopping in the Times Square of Singapore. Therefore, I only bought one item: the most amazing wrist watch! It has a huge white face and a white leather band, and the best part is that instead of numbers, it has CHINESE CHARACTERS!! Oh and I also bought some Belgian chocolate because it was big time on sale and the food here is so salty that I have a major craving for something sweet after every meal. Yes, Belgian chocolate. I am in heaven :)

Orchard Road was a beautiful area! There were big canopy trees lining the streets, creating shade all along the sidewalks. There was also a small breeze, which made for an enjoyable experience. There were tons of people walking around outside, street vendors were selling ice cream, and there was even a band of high school students playing music to raise money for the Red Cross. The buildings along the street weren't nearly as tall as New York, but all of the malls were vertical! It was fun going through malls that had over six stories of shops! Of course, the malls are high (instead of long like in Georgia) so that they don't take up as much space on the island. Also, the majority of the stores in the mall are very very small because they try to fit as many as they can onto one floor. In some of the shops, if I stretched my arms out, I would touch both walls! In the clothing and food stores, the aisles are very narrow and very close together, once again to save space.

As a break from shopping, we went to a cute little bakery for lunch. The smell of fresh bread and pastries was just too inviting! We picked up trays at the door and walked through the bakery with little tongs, putting lots of little goodies on our tray to buy. I got a warm ham and potato filled croissant and a dessert croissant drizzled in chocolate. Trust me, it was delicious. I was so close to buying a fresh loaf of bread too.

My favorite shopping location was Tanglin Shopping Centre, which is where I bought my watch. This mall was more out of the way of the commercialized area, and they carried antiques from ancient China!!! One of the stores had these lovely antique chests decorated with intricate carvings and Chinese engravings. My favorite antiques were a jewelry box and a medicine cabinet (each little shelf in the medicine cabinet was labeled with hand-written chinese characters!).  I also enjoyed looking at the ancient Chinese screens that featured elaborate paintings and stories of ancient China. I even found this thick wooden headboard, and carved out of the wood was a Chinese dragon! I wish I had a truck to take all of these items home with me. 

I also found a store that sold scrolls of traditional Chinese landscape paintings. Inscriptions were made on the paintings by the artist, typically containing the name of the artist, a few words about the subject of the painting, and poems. Occasionally, a painting will contain inscriptions made by an additional hand, usually a friend of the painter or someone who was moved by the painting's beauty. Most of the traditional paintings in the store even had seals on them, which I found so intriguing! Seals are used in China just like in the Western world- they are affixed by officials to authenticate documents. In ancient China, seals were also used in lieu of signatures. Officials in ancient China who viewed the painting added their seal to it in approval. Thus, the combination of inscriptions and seals provide a remarkably vivid history of the painting.

We also went into a store that sold handmade clothing, hand bags, and jewelry. The store was very pricey, so I did not buy anything, but the items were beautiful and so colorful! We spoke with the shop owner for a quite a while because she was very interested in our study abroad program. We told her that we were going to stay in Beijing too, and she gave us lots of advice about living there. She said that whenever she goes there, so goes completely vegetarian because the meat will make you sick. She says that even if your meat is well cooked and hot, the oils will make your stomach upset, so it is just best to avoid it altogether. Uh oh, what am I going to do? She also explained that Beijing is uncomfortably crowded, especially around this time because of the Olympics. When she started telling us about the preparations Beijing has made for the Olympics, she said, with wide excited eyes, that they installed air conditioning in one of the bathrooms in the city for the Westerners!! The more I am in Singapore, the more I begin to appreciate the comforts that we have at home. I can't even begin to imagine what Beijing will be like. We truly live luxurious lifestyles in the land of the free. 

Sentosa

I just took the most glorious shower in my entire life. No really, it was awesome.

After swimming and class this morning, we went to Sentosa on a class field trip. To get to the island, we rode in a cable car across the bay!!! It was so beautiful! On the way home, we got to see the sun set from the gondola! After spending some time in the Images of Singapore Museum, we were free to roam about the island. Activities included riding a luge down a mountain (so much fun!), eating ice cream, relaxing on Siloso Beach, taking lots of pictures, playing some beach volleyball, swimming to a few close islands, and getting into a fight with a sea monster (or a 6.5 foot long monitor lizard... whatever you want to call it). Overall, Sentosa is a very touristy island, so I wasn't the biggest fan... but it was a great get-away from the city for a day.

When the days activities came to a close, we began heading back to campus. I rode in the top of a double decker bus!! AAAHH it was fun! In order to avoid paying for two buses, we got off after one and walked the rest of the way to campus... and thus ensued the starvation march. We finally returned to campus tired, hungry, sweaty, and smelly. But we made it, and the watermelon at the dining hall had never tasted so good!

I've decided not to go to Indonesia tomorrow. The US government has issued a high level travel warning due to increased terrorism against Americans in the area, and the Indonesian government has sent out warnings about an approaching volcanic eruption on the island of Java that could cause serious earthquakes. So instead, tomorrow a few of us are going shopping, all day long, in the Great Singapore Sale, which is a month long event when stores across the island severely cut back their prices!!!! YAY!

Blooies

Thank you to all who are following my trip online. I love receiving your comments and e-mails that are keeping me connected to home. Keep them coming, I'd love to hear more from you :)

Guess what?!?! Today I signed up to swim in Singapore Nationals! It's official, I'm actually going to do it. I can only swim in the first day of the meet because of classes and travel (I'm actually missing a full day of class, but the professor said it was okay and agreed that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity).  I will be swimming the 100m Freestyle and the 200m Backstroke. I'm going to have to swim my best times to make finals in the top 8, and I'm not going to be tapering or anything intense like that, but it should be fun anyway. I'm so excited! My classmates are thrilled too! They want to skip class and go to the meet too! So funny! I told them they can definitely come to finals! GT represent!

Today, I took my first quiz of the summer in my history class. It wasn't nearly as bad as a typically Tech quiz. Hopefully it'll stay like that! We're covering lots of material, very quickly, but the quiz was still good. My big plan for the weekend is writing the two papers that we have for this class. They are both required to be 5-7 pages, and they are both due in a week and a half! ahhh I just want to get them done and out of the way, but it's so hard to start!

Tonight, the whole group (including our two professors) went out to Blooies, an American grill right next to campus. It was expensive, but I had the most glorious bacon and mushroom cheeseburger that you could possibly imagine! This dinner was the first time I have felt full since being in Singapore. Blooies also serves pizzas, wraps, rubens, and quesadillas. Basically, this restaurant is going to be my savior when I have a craving for some good Western food!  I had some quality conversation tonight with my classmates and my two professors. The professors are so much fun! I have really enjoyed getting to know them outside the classroom. They want to miss class to come to the swim meet too! haha!

Tomorrow, my history professor is taking us to Sentosa, an island off the coast of Singapore. We are going to a museum about Singapore's history. Afterwards, we are free to roam the island! It is similar to Disney Land, with beaches, rides, a dolphin show, restaurants, shops, etc. It should be a good time! On Saturday, I'm taking a day trip to Indonesia, and I just booked a Elephant Trekking adventure for next weekend when I go to Phuket, Thailand. How amazing!

Dinner of Champions

Highlight of the day:

I ATE CHILI CRABS!!!! Yum!!! Soooo SPICY!!!! There is nothing more relaxing than going out to a small local restaurant with a great group of people and breaking open a crab covered with chili sauce with your bare hands! We decided that this was the messiest we've ever gotten while eating, even worse than BBQ ribs! I even got to take a look at all of the live crabs and choose which one I wanted them to cook for me! Trust me, I got pictures of my little crab before he met his fate :)

The chili crab was soooo good, but very spicy and surprisingly filling! There's quite a lot of meat in a crab, and my mouth was on fire during the whole meal!

Other happenings today:

We had our first full day of class- four hours of an Asian history course. It was tough to sit through the lecture, especially because I have no real interest in history. Nevertheless, I like having a small class. It helps me to pay attention, feel connected to the professor, and absorb what he is teaching. We have our first quiz on Thursday, and our final is in exactly two weeks from today. 

There is a huge group of students staying in our dorm complex. This particular group is made up of students from 12 different countries, and they are here for a math competition. Hannah and I spoke with three girls from Australia, and we told them it was just the coolest thing that they live in Australia, and yes they had an awesome Australian accent. They asked us where we were from, and we said the United States, and they said that was much cooler. haha I still think Australia is more amazing. 

Thought of the Day: Making decisions is an exhausting activity.

Good night :)

Swimming and Vesak Day

Caroline and I went to our first swim practice today!!!!!!!!!!

It was AMAZING and exactly what I needed! We were outdoors in the sun! One of the most beautiful things is to see the sunlight dancing through the water and rippling on the bottom of the pool. Coach Lim was so nice and thrilled to have us swim with his team. He hadn't even seen us swim yet and he asked us to swim for him at Singapore Nationals from June 4-8! All we have to do is register with Singapore Swimming, and then we can compete at their national meet! Crazy! What an opportunity! Competing in a swim meet in a different country with a different team! The swim meet even has the 50 backstroke, 50 butterfly, and 50 breaststroke events! Amazing! ...unfortunately we have classes during the week, and we've already bought our plane tickets to Bangkok for that weekend. Maybe we can work something out so we can get the best of both worlds.

The kids on the team were very nice as well. They were very interested in seeing Americans swim. The coach's assistant, Gary who swam at BYU in the States, told us that Coach Lim told his swimmers to watch how Caroline and I warm up, how we train, and what our strokes look like so they can learn from us. What an incredible position to be in!

The set today was a total of 5800 meters, not as far as I wanted to go, but it was a quality work out, especially in such a warm pool. Here is my first practice in Singapore:

Warm Up

1 x 150 @ 2:15

3 x 50 @ :45

(do set 4 times through)

24 x 100 Best Average (go as fast as you can and hold that time for every 100)

8 @ 2:00

8 @ 2:15

8 @ 2:30

(Best Average means that you swim as fast as you can on the first 100, and you hold that time for the entire set. I swam the first 8 freestyle, then the next 8 backstroke, and the last 8 freestyle again.)

16 x 50 @ 1:10 Kick

Every third 25 fast.

16 x 50 @ :50 Pull FAST

8 Free

8 Stroke

(with paddles and buoy)

8 x 50 @ 1:00

Descend 1-4, 5-8

(I did backstroke for all 8)

200 Warm Down

After practice, I went to Chinatown to see some of the Vesak Day festivities. I went to the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum. This temple is one of the largest in the world, and its architecture was inspired by the Tang Dynasty. More importantly, the temple was built to house the Tooth of the Buddha, which has made it one of the top religious and tourist attractions in the world. 

The Temple was absolutely breathtaking! There are no words to describe how ornately beautiful the Temple was, and my pictures do it no justice. Rich reds, golden ornaments, intricate designs, the list could just go on! Hundreds of thousands of Buddha relics lined the walls of this five story temple. Golden Buddhas, wooden Buddhas, porcelain Buddhas, happy Buddhas, warrior Buddhas, mystical Buddhas, and the famous Reclining Buddha. In the main temple area, each Buddha on the wall had a different pose. Every Buddha relic had offerings of cooked foods and fruits in front of it, and the temple was absolutely packed with people worshipping and observing. There as a line spiraling through the main floor and wrapping around the temple of people waiting to get a blessing from the monks, who were of course wearing their traditional orange robes. On the roof of the temple there is a magnificent garden. In the center of the garden is the world's largest prayer wheel that is constantly turning. One walk around the prayer wheel is equivalent to reciting one passage of scripture. The prayer wheel is meant to signify that the scripture is on going and never ends.

Upon returning to campus, I bought a delicious peach yogurt smoothie and started working on my history assignment that is due tomorrow morning, our first day of class (which of course will be preceded by swim practice)!!!!! 

The View from Above

Today, a good group of us went to the Singapore Flyer. The Flyer is the world's largest ferris wheel, standing at 165 meters high! We rode in an observation capsule and got to observe the country from above! It was an absolutely breathtaking experience! The ride around the ferris wheel took about 30 minutes, which allotted us plenty of time to take as many pictures as possible!

My favorite views from above were...

-Us taking a group picture in the capsule and having people in other capsules laugh at us

-How the buildings stretched on across the island for what seemed like eternity

-How a little mosque was nestled between the city sky scrapers

-Dozens and dozens of boats and barges out in the harbor, as Singapore is one of the world's largest ports

-The construction site for Singapore's first casino, which has already generated millions of dollars of revenue for Singapore, and it is not even built yet!

-A floating soccer field. Yes, a soccer field extended out into the bay, with stadium seating right on the shore!

-and of course, Zach Tribble filming a hilarious video of himself high above Singapore to send to his mom :)

After our "Flight" as they call it, Caroline and I split off from the group to go find the pool where we will be training while we are in Singapore. The pool is at the Anglo-Chinese School, and the club we are training with is called SwimFast Aquatic Club. We took a taxi to the pool, and on our way, we learned that all of the schools in Singapore are segregated (girls only and boys only), the zig zag markings on the roads mean that no cars can stop there (these road markings are unique only to Singapore), and the curbs along the roads are painted with black and white strips for decoration only. Imagine that in America! hahahaha!

After seeing the pool today, I am very much at ease and very excited to start training again! The pool is located in a beautiful and safe area, and the school is absolutely gorgeous! The pool is long course, and it is outdoors!! Hopefully the water is not too hot. Also, the locker rooms are very big, but there is no toilet paper! I guess they figure since you're already wet... (Singapore is a very clean country, and the citizens work very hard to keep it that way- only hot air hand dryers are available in public bathrooms, napkins simply do not exist in Singapore, and I guess there is no toilet paper in the swimming bathrooms because it would be too messy). 

The head coach was not at the pool, but Caroline and I talked to the assistant coach, and we start our first practice tomorrow morning! We are supposed to have equipment, but we did not have room to bring ours. The coach thought it was funny that we left our things in America... oops. After seeing the pool, Caroline and I tested out the bus route that we will be taking back to campus. It took us an hour and a half to get back- we have to take two different city buses to get back to campus, and it also involves quite a bit of walking and waiting at the bus stops. Hopefully it won't take as long on the weekday mornings or we won't get to class on time!

Later this evening, we all went out to The Village at Holland Avenue. I went to a trendy clothing store and bought two tank tops. Hooray for new clothes!!! The tags were all in Chinese, so I had no idea what all of the sizes were! Caroline, Hannah, and I also hunted down a Mexican restaurant and shared some chips and guacamole, yum!

Tomorrow is a Singapore National holiday called Vesak Day. It is a religious holiday for the Buddhists, and it starts with chanting of the sutras by Buddhist monks inside the temples. The chanting will continue all night long. Vesak Day commemorates that enlightenment of the Buddha and his entry into Nirvana (liberation of earthly passions and desires).  Activities on Vesak Day by the religious include giving alms to the poor, the bathing of the Buddha's statue, the release of captive animals (especially caged birds), and mass candlelight processions. Tomorrow, I am planning on going to Chinatown, where there are many Buddhist temples, to see what Vesak Day is all about!

Observations

What I've observed about Singapore so far:

1. Singapore is a known for being a very efficient and well-run city. However, in fast food restaurants, food courts, etc. Singaporeans go into the restaurant, find a table, sit everybody at the table, and then one person goes up to get food for the entire table. This habit is entirely INEFFICIENT (and very annoying). This happened twice to us today- both food courts we went to were packed! So, like Americans, we wait in line, order, get our food, and proceed to find a table, none of which are available! The first time, we ended up sharing a table with a family, and the second time some people in our group ate standing up. Due to this Singaporean habit, the ordering line appears to be very short, but each person in the line is ordering food for more than just his or herself. Nevertheless, the service time is quicker as the cashier has to handle less money transactions because only one person is paying versus, say, four people. If everyone just waited in line first, like we do in America, once someone received their order, seats would be opening up because people would be finished eating. There would be a steady flow of people in and out of the restaurant. However, I have come to realize that the reason Singaporeans save seats is because Singaporeans (and many other foreigners for that matter) do not eat in fast food restaurants because they are fast. In fact, families sit at a McDonald's for over an hour. They stay not because they like the food, but because of status! Just being at a McDonald's is a way of partaking in modern, Western culture.

2. The Singapore government is ashamed of one thing: they have two systems for cash cards, and they cannot go back because it is already in place. They have an EZ-Link card to pay for transportation (buses and trains), and businesses are only starting to accept payment using a CashCard, which is similar to a GT BuzzCard- has money on it, and you just swipe to pay, no PIN number required. The system is tough on tourists and locals because they have to pay for and load two cards. 

3. Everything is done on the left in Singapore. People drive on the left side of the road. Consequently, the steering wheel is on the opposite side of the car than in the U.S. On an escalator or moving sidewalk, you stand on the left and people pass you on the right. The mosts interesting for me was when Caroline and I were swimming today. A guy got in our lane to swim, and we had to REVERSE CIRCLE SWIM (staying on the left side instead of the right)! 

4. Social etiquette in Singapore: You must cover your mouth when you yawn, putting your hands on your hips is a sign of anger, and it is rude to blow your nose or clear your throat in public. A person head is considered holy because it is the very top of your body. Thus, it is rude to touch someone else's head. That being said, it is also rude to show somebody the bottom of your feet because those are the lowest and dirtiest parts of your body.

5. Singaporeans save 50% of their income! They are the highest saving country in the nation! China is #2 at 38%. The U.S. citizens save 2%! I think Singaporeans save so much because they live in very small houses, and thus do not have a lot of space for superfluous items.

6. The Olympics in China are starting on August 8th, 2008 at 8:08 PM. Thus, 08-08-08, 8:08. This is being done because 8 is a lucky number, BUT this year, 8's have been unlucky for China! On February 24th, snowstorms cause major traffic problems in southern China (the date 2-24 adds up to 8). On March 14th, there was an uprising in Tibet (the date 3-14 adds up to 8!). On May 12th, there was an earthquake in China that killed over 50,000 people (the date 5-12 adds up to 8!!!). Luckily, I do not have any travel plans for 6-02, 6-11, 7-01, or 7-10. 

7. The 1996 Olympics cost Atlanta $2 billion (building the venues, expanding the airport, adding transportation routes like MARTA, etc.). The Olympics were paid for by Americans only (Coca Cola, etc.), not the U.S. government. The only thing gift that Uncle Sam gave Atlanta during the Olympics was two army troops for security. The 2008 Olympics in Beijing has cost $38 BILLION so far, and still counting! And the Chinese government is paying for it all, with a little help from American companies for advertising purposes. 

8. The Olympic venues (the Ice Cube, the Bird's Nest, etc.) were all designed based on winning entries in a global architecture contest! Any architect could submit their newest and most creative idea, and the Chinese government got to pick. None of the chosen designs were made by Chinese architects , because, well the Chinese do not specialize in architecture. None of the chosen designs were made by Americans because Americans are all about building something to be used in the future, like turning the track and field venue into a baseball stadium (Turner Field), and China did not like that idea. They wanted something new and exciting and never seen before. In fact, the majority of the winning designs were designed by Europeans! Why? European architects can never see their new, creative ideas be built because of the preexisting architecture in Europe. However, China has become an avenue for European architectural creativity, so the Europeans just went crazy! One downfall of this though, is that none of the buildings match. haha :)

Singapore!!!

I've finally arrived in SINGAPORE!!!! We are 12 hours ahead of Atlanta, so I didn't even have to change my watch! The minute and the hour hands can stay exactly the same! So wonderful! We arrived in Singapore at 1 PM on Friday (1 AM in Atlanta). We flew from Atlanta to LA (4.5 hours), LA to Hong Kong (14.5 hours), and then Hong Kong to Singapore (only 4 hours!). After we landed, we went to the university, checked into our dorms, went to orientation, went on a campus tour, then to the store, and then I was FINALLY able to shower after practically 48 hours. It was glorious.

One of the highlights of the plane flight- the flight attendants served Chinese food! One of our snacks was cups of ramen noodles. We were given chopsticks to eat them with! I ate ramen noodles on an airplane with chopsticks! I was pretty impressed. Also, when we were waiting in the airport for a connecting flight, a group of Chinese women flight attendants walked by in their uniforms, with their hair  held up in a bun by chopsticks. They were so tall, thin, and beautiful, and it made me want to be like them. Chinese women truly are exquisite.

I'm so excited to be in Singapore! Singapore is beautiful :)

It's so clean, and very green- lots of grass and tall trees. In fact, the parking lots look like grassy fields. There are strips of brick where the tires go, and the rest of the lot is grass! Amazing! The architecture around the city is phenomenal. We even drove by the Esplanade on the way to NUS. The industry in Singapore is crazy! We passed barges and barges loaded with cargo, high rise cranes dominate the skies and the shipping yards, and we passed a huge ship yard FULL of crates, stacked on top of one another- Hyundai, Costco, etc. It was incredible. Also, all of the curbs in Singapore are striped, painted black and white. They look like lane ropes! ...and I caught myself wondering who spent so much time striping the curbs. They must have had some fancy machine help. It seems a little excessive to me, but cool nonetheless.

Since Singapore is on the equator, it is oppressively hot and humid. I can barely move when I am outside. The heat is unbelievable. Luckily, our dorms, classroom building, and library all have air conditioning. Oh, and Singapore does not sell any water! There are vending machines all over campus, and none of them sell bottled water! Bottled water is not even offered in the cantinas (dining halls). I didn't see a single water fountain either! Thankfully the tap water is drinkable because I was filling up my water bottle with water from the bathroom sinks. I definitely can not do that in Beijing. I'd be a goner.

Also, in Singapore, I do not feel like a foreigner. All of the signs (road signs, advertisements, etc.) are written in English, and maybe only a quarter of the signs also contain the Chinese characters! I haven't seen a single sign yet that is solely Chinese. Also, everybody knows how to speak English, so it is kind of taking the fun out of being in Asia for the first time. However, I know that Beijing will be the polar opposite.

The dorms we are living in are very nice. Each person gets their own room with a bed, desk, closet, bathroom, and shower. The security is ridiculous. The dorm complex is divided into ten different blocks. The keys are electronic, and thus my key only sends the elevator to my floor, only opens the stair well door to my floor, only opens the door to my block, and only opens my personal dorm room. As a result, I can not visit other floors or blocks, and no one else can visit other floors and blocks. We could call each other and open the doors, but no one has cell phones. Hence, I am getting lonely in my room all by myself.

Tomorrow, we are getting up early to register for our student pass, which will allow me to reenter the country when I leave for weekend trips. After registration, we have our first class. After class, I am planning on taking the metro to find the pool where SwimFast Aquatic Club trains. I've been speaking with the coach, and I want to see if training with him this summer is doable. NUS has an "olympic-sized pool". It looks a bit short to me, and it also does not have backstroke flags or pace clocks. I will get a good tan though- the pool is outside! Furthermore, the weight room is out in the open, like in the courtyard, with no air conditioning. It should be fun.

I'm glad to finally be in Singapore! I'm so excited about my travels coming up, as well as exploring Singapore's city. We are planning on doing a Night Safari tomorrow. In addition, Monday is Vesak Day, a Singapore National Holiday. I'm hoping to join in some of the festivities and immerse myself in some of Singapore's culture.  

It's today!

Today is the day I leave for Singapore!!

...and I still have a little bit more to pack :)

I will be spending six weeks at the National University of Singapore. I will be taking a history course (Asia in the Modern World) and an Industrial Engineering course (Quality Control). The study abroad program consists of 30 Georgia Tech students (all Industrial Engineering majors) and four Tech professors. We are staying in the only air conditioned dorms on campus, hooray! Our flight leaves tonight at 8 PM, and we fly from Atlanta to LA to Hong Kong to Singapore. We will arrive in Singapore on Friday at 1:30 PM where we will immediately go to Orientation and receive our student passes.

In mid-June, we will fly to Beijing to take our last two classes (Supply Chain: Manufacturing and Supply Chain: Logistics) at Tsinghua University. Luckily, our schedule during the entire summer gives us three day weekends for every weekend! While in Singapore, I will be spending the long weekends traveling to Thailand, Malaysia, and Hong Kong.

Gotta go finish packing!