"Call me Emperor"

After a delightful day of wondering through Bugis Street with a group of SEASers, Josh, and Tim, I’m taking some time to sit down and contemplate my first week in Singapore. Obviously, any first week in a new, different country will be chalk-full of firsts. I shall take a moment to inform you of some of my firsts.

First gg (first fail if you don’t know what gg means)- After a grueling 25 hour plane flight (not including layover time), we finally made our way to our dorms and Huiqian gave us a tour. By this point, I was already drenched in sweat and exhausted. Mind you, this is only like 7 AM. We’re given an hour or so break to take a shower and clean up. This is when the gg happens. After getting to my room, I realize I never packed a towel. Hm. What to do? I definitely need to take a shower, but I couldn’t just get dressed all wet. Solution: Using a plain, white t-shirt to dry myself. It totally worked, but I felt so stupid. Luckily, I was able to pick up a towel later in the day.

First strange food- Avocado and chocolate milkshake. Delicious. At first it was a little odd, but by the end I was thoroughly enjoying it. That being said, I’ve had some pretty strange and amazing (and not-so-amazing) food since then, but I’ll save those for another post.

Ok. Well, I think I’ll save some other firsts as well! For now, I want to just talk about my week and experiences in general. Amazing. Simply amazing. We’ve basically spent our time exploring and being shown around the city. We’ve been to China Town, Arab Street, Chinese and Japanese gardens, malls, fancy hotels (for bathroom breaks ^^), and just all sorts of random places. It’s been kind of fast paced, but it’s a great way to gain your bearings and get to know the city some.

That being said, it’s killer to get around. The humidity and heat is ridiculous. I feel as though I’m constantly swimming through the air. It is pointless to check to the weather cause it says 60% chance of rain (it means 100%) and 85-90 degrees F every day. You know you’re in Singapore when a cold shower feel like it’s God sent. You also know you’re in Singapore when the shower head is way too low and you have to bend backwards and squat down a little to get your head under it. (Asians are short) Furthermore, you know you’re in Singapore when all the shower gel provides germ protection (random). Ok. That’s all the shower-related comments I have.

Well, I’m about to head out for dinner with a couple of people so that’s all I’ve got for right now. Sorry if it’s kind of random and not very detailed. Now that I’ve kind of caught you up on my trip, I plan on making more detailed posts about some of my experiences and opinions on things like food, the campus, and the culture. Later days! ^^v

P.S. Most of post titles are random things from the trip that you won't understand, but we will. :P 

"It tickles on the inside"

As I write this, the fourth hour of our twenty-three hour flight from Houston to Moscow to Singapore is dawning (Thanks Linden and Nicole for help with the math). Although you would think I wouldn’t have much to say at this point, I’m a man of many words and have a few things to share with you.

First, I want to give a shout out to all the Charlotte kids (people that flew out of Charlotte-Douglas to meet everyone in Houston). We had some hardcore bonding this morning! We all packed into our tiny, little jet and stuck together… unlike the RDU kids who turned on each other and abandon one another while people were going to the bathroom.  We got through all the airports and gates together without a problem! woot woot! We win. ^^

Now I would like to give a shout out to my Geology 101 Lab buddies! George’s amazing teaching provided me entertainment during the Charlotte-Houston flight. Using my geologic detective skills, I was able to identify a stage 2 river by recognizing depositional and erosional features such as oxbow lakes, sinuosity, and valley-channel with rations. Yeah. I’m a nerd. haha. But it made me think of you guys and our fun times realizing that water systems cannot all flow toward one point. Good times.

Next, I want to give a shout out to Justin Bieber! jk… kind of. So Singapore Air has AWESOME amenities- really up-to-date movies, music, and games to watch and play on your personal TV screen. Oh! AND KNITTED SOCKS! :D WHAT AIRLINE DO YOU THAT GIVES YOU KNITTED SOCKS? However, I ignored all this and decided to watch Never Say Never… in Japanese. Needless to say, the plot was pretty straight forward so my lack of understanding the Japanese didn’t present too much of a problem. I’ve moved on now and I’m listening to some pretty cool Cantonese pop (shout out to all my Cantos out there!)

Finally, I’m gonna send a shout out to Linden’s and my new friend Herman Chung. He’s one of our flight attendants. We haven’t actually talked to him yet. And he’s hiding right now… but he’s chill, so we’re his friends. haha. If we end up actually talking to him, I’ll let you know.

Other than that, the flight is going fine and they feed us well and often. That’s all I got. Over and out.

UPDATE: Sorry, I'm writing this part in my room now that I have internet access. So, Herman and I (as well as the whole flight attendant staff) became pretty close. Everyone had fallen asleep, but I couldn't so I went back and talked to them. Herman is pretty cool. He graduated from NUS three years ago with a business management degree. We just talked about random stuff and my trip. Unfortunately they switched staffs for the second half of our trip after we got to Moscow... I sure do miss Herman. The second group wasn't nearly as good as him. Maybe one day we'll meet again. One day. 
I also met this really awesome Singaporean woman on the plane! (She too couldn't sleep so we chilled in the back with the attendants) She moved to America with her husband many years ago, but unfortunately he recently passed away so now she makes visits to Singapore often. We talked about a lot of different cultures and countries. She told me a little about her life, I told her a little about mine. She was a very nice, old Chinese woman. I really enjoy making random friends on the airplane. I hope we meet again as well. One day. haha. 
Also, I dislike Russians now. Their airport was hot and unfriendly and their food was nasty. :( The whole second half of the plane trip was not enjoyable at all. I couldn't sleep and I had been awake for over 24 hours and I didn't eat much. However, IT'S OVER! Time for Singapore!      

Welcome!

Well, hopefully if you're reading this blog, you actually know who I am so I can skip the self-introduction. What some of you may not know is the purpose of this blog. I'll be spending the next two months (STARTING TOMORROW!) in Singapore, India, and Brunei studying abroad through the Carolina South East Asian Summer abroad program; the program is an absolutely amazing, completely paid for trip for UNC-CH freshman. I'm so lucky and excited to have this awesome opportunity and can't wait for it to start. While there, I'll be taking two classes- "The South Asian Diaspora in Literature and Film" and "History of Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand." Sounds pretty interesting, right?

So, I'm leaving tomorrow. Hm... how do I feel you ask? Everyone keeps asking me and I respond with the general "Nervous, but excited" remark, but honestly it hasn't quite hit me yet. I'm not sure when it will... maybe not even till I get there. Idk. However, I am little bit nervous. We've had a lot of registration stuff to do for VISAs and passes and whatnot so I'm realllllllly hoping I didn't forget/am not forgetting anything. But I guess we'll see in a couple of days when they decide to let me into the country or not!

Well, that's all I got for now! I'm gonna try my hardest to keep this up-to-date as much as possible with interesting and exciting stories, which I hope there will be a lot of! So keep reading if you're interested in my trip! See ya guys in a couple of months! ^^v