Monday: This continues the previous blog of getting off the plane on Monday around noon from Thailand. I had to hustle from the airport which is about an hour away back to Commonwealth so I could change and pick up books/etc for class. I had just enough time to take a shower before it was time to head out. Mike and I split a cab which costs about $6 from the apartment to school to save ourselves a lot of time. I made it to class just in time. The first class, Singapore Foreign Policy went by pretty smoothly. As did the second which is in the same lecture hall and was actually taught by the same professor due to an absence. Naturally he was a little tired so he let us go a bit earlier. Still tired from the weekend we enjoyed a relaxing night in.
Tuesday: Every other Tuesday is an off day for me. This was one of those days. Except for sleeping in a little later than normal I actually used my day wisely catching up on some much needed laundry. I was nearly depleted of almost everything so this day off couldn't have come at a better time. I decided that the best way to use the time in between loads was to clean the apartment. So I went about my day sweeping, mopping, and taking out the trash.
But my productivity didn't stop there...I even managed to work in a run. For those of you that know me well enough I assure you that this is not a joke. I'm actually going to stop procrastinating my fitness and now is as good a time as ever. The food is good but can be wearing at times. Chicken and rice is also relatively healthy, which has caused me to lose a little weight since being here. By the time all of this was over some of the roommates who had school began arriving to a much more livable apartment. We grabbed dinner and waited for the Tuesday tradition. This one was pretty fun. I met Arnuad and Stephanie (two people who will appear in the Bali and Java posts to come).Wednesday: I overslept and missed my first class. I called Erik to see what I missed and he gave me the best news of the day...class was canceled. I vaguely remember the professor telling us that class would be canceled but only because Erik reminded me. Had I bused my way all the way over to campus just to learn that there was no class I would have been very upset. Instead I got to sleep in and go over some of my readings for my class at 4. I got to campus with enough time to go to the library to print out notes. The class, about public policy, is very interesting but can also be very boring. I was fading fast so during the break I made a quick stop at the canteen to get something to wake me up. After class I headed to the free shuttle that resumes pick-ups at 6:30. By the time I was back it was almost time to start getting ready for ladies night. We were headed to Baroque. It offers a live cover band and free flow from 8:30-11:30 for $20. We planned on meeting some other exchange students there but were surprised by the number of people that we knew from school that were at the club. This wasn't the first time this has happened either. The best way to explain this phenomenon is to relate it to the high school party. Although there is an endless number of clubs exchange students always manage to bump into one another. One person will tell another until most of the exchange students end up showing up. When the free flow ended the bar began to empty, naturally. I called it a night.
Thursday: No school every other Thursday. Its pretty grea
t. The excitement I have for the Super Bowl is almost unbearable and I still have to wait till Monday. I think the only highlight of the day was ordering McDelivery. You can do it online or via the phone. It is also 24/7. I also spent a lot of time reading almost every article I could find about the Super Bowl.Friday: It turns out that every other Friday I was forced to sign up for a tutorial. It sucks but I can live with it for another 3 weeks (only three more tutorials). These are discussion based classes. I'm not sure how much I already talked about them but it was definitely an interesting experience. For starters the icebreaker used to introduce one another was: name, year, where you're from, and something interesting about your grandparents (ie where they are from, etc). The highlight of the class for me is when another exchange student came in late (without knowing the topic) to about midway through a girl talking about how her grandparents are dead. Her face was priceless. The rest of the time is spent by the tutors asking the class useless questions like "what would you like to discuss?" and "how should we go about discussing this?". I sat through almost two hours of a class where we never reached anything relevant. The discussion was literally how we would discuss things in the future and arguments on what are the best ways to discuss. It was maddening. This Friday in particular I had my first group presentation. The professor threw our group under the bus in class on Wed. and none of us had time to work on it till the morning. I ended up presenting about something I knew very little about but the professor seemed to enjoy what I was saying and I think it ended up going pretty well.
Tonight was another one of those night were everyone ends up at the same place. We went down to Arab St. (bars, restaurants, and hookah cafes) and met up with some friends. After waiting a very long time at a the large table with a a ton of other NUS students Samm, Sarah, and I decided to go to another place down the street to grab some hummus, kabobs, and a hookah. The food was very good and we had a good time talking and drinking. Some of our friends were going out to the bar but it was already about 11:30. We got a cab and headed to China Town. It
was all lit up because of all of the decorations for the new year. It was a pretty good night of strolling through the streets and shops of China town at night. Everything was about to close so there weren't as many people which was nice. After about an hour and a McFlurry we grabbed a cab back to Commonwealth. The can took us through downtown which is very impressive at night and past the giant new casino under construction.
Saturday: Other than the amount of sleep I got this day was probably the most wasted day since being here. Normally I could give an insight on something silly or interesting that happened specifically today. Since I waited too long to write this post I'm going to just talk about some of the general things I've noticed about Singapore. Everyone walks like they are in a grocery store all the time. They have almost no homeless and the ones that are don't beg for money, instead they try to sell you travel packs of tissues (which can be very useful especially because of the next point). The food courts don't have napkins. They are nowhere to be found. Instead Singaporeans bring and use tissues as napkins. Police officers are almost never seen. In fact the only time I've seen one is for a traffic accident. I even walk by a small police station every day and I still don't see them (I'm not sure if this is as interesting to everyone else or if I've already typed about them...for which I apologize).
I decided that the Super Bowl deserved its own post so look for that tomorrow. A picture of the Pig Organ Soup stand. Calling my name. The bet calls for me to eat this shops namesake if the Saints win the Super Bowl. 
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