Week Two of Classes, Adventures, and the Weekend

I know it has been awhile. Sorry guys.

Monday: With my FP&D professor in running military exercises in the jungle somewhere (mandatory service for all males) that meant my second class of the day was still being web cast so a friend of mine in some of my classes, Erik (from NJ, goes to Wisconsin), headed down to Chinatown to do some exploring/ shopping and to grab an early dinner. The place was somewhat deserted because we went somewhat early. I was also on a mission to replace my flip-flops that somehow managed to get lost in Bintan. Chinatown is gearing up for the New Year so decorations were being erected everywhere. The place had a lot of flip-flops (and tons of other useless items) but nothing that I would be willing to wear. One of the most interesting shops was the dried meats stand (I'm not sure you can make out the entire ducks, chickens, and geese hanging in the picture). I ran into a stand devoted to selling durian, a fruit that is so pungent that I refuse to get within 15 feet. Somehow its considered a delicacy here. I grabbed a kiwi juice at one of the many fruit juice stands located at almost every hawker center and proceeded to locate satay (chicken on skewers served with peanut sauce). Erik got carrot cake, (nothing like our carrot cake...it is basically eggs, radishes, and a few other vegetables) which is actually pretty tasty. After dinner we headed back home.

Tuesday: I don't have class on Tuesdays so I did what any normal college student would do, I slept in. The day was fairly uneventful. I did manage to do my own laundry, a feat that hadn't been attempted since NYC. We don't have a dryer so we have to dry our clothing the old fashion way (like the rest of Singapore) on clothes lines. Being bored and still in search of flip-flops, I decided to join Samm on his trip to the Immigration Building to collect his Student Pass because it is located just down the street from Bogies (a mall/ market area with very good prices). After searching for quite a while I finally found a comfortable pair. Samm (who also lost his flip-flops at the beach) wasn't as lucky. It isn't that easy to find a lot of choices in size 14. We did manage to locate ping pong balls and solo cups. After a New Orleans DMV like experience we headed back to the apartment. We grabbed dinner and eventually headed to the hawker center. Tuesday night bottle service at Koufu has become somewhat of a tradition. The cast changes slightly each week but its a great way to spend the evening.

Wednesday: The roommates and I planned a day outing in Singapore. We got off at Bogies again (Mike and Brian hadn't been there yet) and browsed around on our way to Arab St. in search of an all you can eat Indian Buffet for $10 that Mike discovered. In addition to all of the chicken curry, butter chicken, and various other items that are delicious (but I have no idea what they are called) the buffet included all you can eat naan. After gorging ourselves we headed towards the Raffles Hotel for the famous (and overpriced) Singapore Sling. It tastes somewhat like a Hurricane. After walking around the downtown area for a bit we called it a day and headed back to the MRT. After dinner it was time to test out the recently purchased cups and balls the only way we know how, beer pong. We played room vs room in a highly anticipated match up. Samm and I slaughtered Mike and Brian in a 3-0 sweep. After we headed to a birthday party being held in one of the building next to us in Commonwealth for another NUS exchange students. It turned out that they had invited everyone so when we arrived the party of at least 100 had spilled onto the front lawn of their building. It wasn't long before a very timid security guard closed the party down. The group dispersed in various directions and I went with some friends to a 24 hour Muslim place that had late night chicken curry and roti prata (cheese bread similar to naan). After the late night snack I headed back to the apartment to call it a night.

Thursday: This was the first day that we can register for Tutorials (small discussion classes held every other week). Despite not having class I had to go into the Poli. Sci. office to sign-up. I also managed to get into Govt. and Politics of Singapore which means I can drop the extremely intensive Chinese 1. After signing up I went with Erik to check out PGP (where the other half of the international students live). We hung out there for awhile and then headed to the NUS pool to go swimming. It ended up raining near the end of our swim, cutting it slightly short. I went back to PGP to meet up with a kid who had picked my flip flops up in Bintan by mistake (so now I have two pairs). We followed peer pong with another game the next night, bombs. The plan was to go to an "American Party" but after that fell through we decided to head out to the Helipad (view from the rooftop bar). Mike stumbled upon a way to sneak into the club that involves a back stairwell and a balcony. We could see a Hooters from the club and decided that after such an American night it was the perfect way to end the night. Brian ended up getting the number of our waitress (who thought he looked like Justin Timberlake).

Friday: Our night at the track. We planned another roommate adventure to the Singapore Horse Track. It cost $3 admission to sit in the lower area. We checked out the horses being paraded around the showing area to determine which horses we were going to bet on. On the first race Mike bet based on the jockey. Samm determined that the crazy horse was the most likely to succeed because of all of the pent up energy. I bet based on the fastest pre-trial run and Brian bet on a number. Samm's strategy proved to be the worst because his rambunctious horse wouldn't even go in the gate and had to be scratched from the race. None of us won. With a little more experience under our belts and a better understanding of the odds we proceeded to make a few more bets. I won one race by betting on the favorite to show and Mike's underdog picks almost payed off when his 30:1 horse finished a head away from a 150 payout. Overall it was a pretty fun night. The weirdest thing about the whole night was that 95% of the thousands of people were all men.

Saturday: I went to lunch with the Tay's (Michael and his wife Marylin). They chose Uncle Sam's Clay Pot. Clay pots are very common (and somewhat similar to Steamboats). You order whatever meats and vegetables and mix them together in a hot clay pot with rice. Some of it was very good like the venison but some of it was not very tasty (like the fish cakes). After lunch I headed back home to enjoy the day off. We planned on heading to a small island for some mountain biking but the bad weather delayed that trip. I spent much of the day anticipating the NFC Championship game to be played early the next morning. I stayed in because I was feeling a little under the weather. Turned out I had a 38.6 degree temp. which meant nothing until I looked it up to discover I actually had a fever (101.5).

Sunday: I woke up very early (around 6) despite my illness to tune in for the Saints game. My roommate Samm woke up as well to keep me company for the game. Watching the game on the Slingbox at such an odd time was a very unique experience. When it was all finally over with I still couldn't believe what had happened. I wore my jersey proudly for the rest of the day but because of my fever that actually went up I did nothing more than sleep. The plan was to head to the health center on Monday for a diagnosis.