Blog II: the return

Its scary how easily this just dropped out of my life.

It was my firm intention to maintain this for the whole year I was out there so i could look back on it with fondness.

I know noone reads it, I think its just therapeutic to write down what im thinking and feeling occasionally, and nice to read back.

I never knew what my narrative voice sounded like for example till i read my own writing.

Im back in the UK now, a story for another time that I will tell.

Suffice to say I will keep writing this and tell you all that happened to me as concisely as I can.

It will be slow but stay with me, it will be worth it.

Night time adventure

Im very happy here.
I decided this at 3:15 in the morning local time after having a midnight shower.
One of the amazing storms was lashing all around the building and rain was billowing in, but it was still warm. I stood over the balcony and looked out.
On another balcony on the other side of campus i saw a girl like me, standing and watching on the way to or from some where just in a towel as well.
I think we both stared at each other a bit and then she waved.
I waved back and then we both walked away.


I have always liked nighttime but here it feels different. More suited to me.
I think i might be falling in love with the place.
Little moments like this make life worth living.

Swine!

Oh god i have/had swine flu.
thats why i have been able to do updates these past few days.
So ill i couldnt go into uni so had no choice but update or go insane.
Crawled to the doctors today and they said that i had swine, but have crossed into recovery now.
so yay?

Swine free in a few days i hope.
*cough*

Second Wind

Well first of many updates.
Ill try to bring you all up to speed, but instead of long entries like previous as I have over a million days to cover it will probably be a brief synopsis instead of the event by event doohicky I got going on prior.
Also there will not be many photos, I don’t have a camera – I had to give it back to Ben so any I show on here I will have lifted from FB till I get my own camera.
Wonderful?
Yes. Wonderful.

Saturday I went for dinner with Father and a friend of his who has been an expat from Britain for 15 or so years here. Moved to Singapore and even got married. As im here for a year its probably a good thing to know someone.
Had a really good evening actually and tried all the local specialities in a local food court, very different from the touristy ones in terms of food offered and prices.
Especially prices, a Chilli crab (one of the specialities here) which would have cost $70 at Boat Quay even with “special discount for you” cost $40 here. Its fucking delicious.
So yeah, had a meal and met some of Wills friends (the expat) and got on quite well with them. All businessmen who have set out on their own. Kind of the intrepid men I thought died out in the 30’s – you know, the whole great pioneer thing.

After that we went to a Bar and Will stuffed me with G&T. Very kind of him but probably super expensive. I didn’t ask him to once in my defence. He is a very cool laid back gym and his wife is also wonderful.
I don’t think actually I’ve ever seen a more perfect couple. That’s how I would like to be I think if I eventually ever get married. But yeah that was my Saturday. Taxi home drunk with Brother and Father around 4. Will made me promise to call him and his friends gave me their email addresses. I still haven’t used them. I must do that.

Sunday, Bloody Sunday.

Actually it was Sunday, sunny Sunday.
Woke up late and had to PELT it from the hotel to the subway to get back to halls in time for the group trip of the day.
We went to Sentosa, a small island off the mainland which has been artificially created and turned into a beach. Met a lot of nice new people and some who aren’t so nice. It seems that people are either really open to new friends or will only talk to those of their own nationality. Im looking at you here the Irish and the Germans. Buck your ideas up. One Irish guy actually turned away and resumed talking to his group of Irish friends when I stuck out my hand to shake.
Maybe its just me he took offence to but seriously in my mind if you come on exchange you do it to meet new people from new places, not to spend time with people just from your uni?

Anyway had a Hotdog with some guys around 2 which was horrible. No pork really as the country has a much higher muslim population then the UK so its mainly chicken. Yummy for mechanically reclaimed chicken meat. However it killed the hunger pains and I DO love the Chilli ketchup here (they don’t have normal tomato)
Oh the beach is strange, while beautiful the country makes a lot of its income from shipping. In the video you should be able to see about 100 tankers just offshore. Very surreal. The water as well is a little oily no doubt due to the floating armada just offshore. Still a lovely place though. Made some new friends as I discussed. I seem to get on well with north Europeans such as the Norwegians and the Danes. Nice guys.
If of course you can ignore the whole rape and pillage thing of British shores for hundreds of years. Which being a forward thinking individual I can.

Anyway came back eventually tired, happy and sunburnt. After dinner in the mass food court we all went to a party off halls at Commonwealth campus – a hall that as its off uni property is unregulated by its rules ie: no drinking.
That was really nice actually, a massive gathering of people all talking and being friendly. It hit home though how much the English drink, me and the other British guy Killian sank a 6 pack each in about 2 hours which is pretty slow going. Most people were still on 1 or 2 cans. That’s binge Britain for you I guess.
Anyway Katie Maddocks by later to say hi came by as she lives in that hall and had a fine time talking with her and the others. She is a much nicer person to know then I first thought she would be in uni. We always up until this point had a cold relationship, as in we knew of each other and that was both about as far as the other wanted.

Anyway she left after an hour or so much better friends with me then we were before and I spend the rest of the evening teaching people how to swear in English. The basic concept I think is to string as many as you can. However there are certain rules. One swear can be friendly ie: “oh, go fuck yourself”
That can be said in a friendly manner.
However “go fuck yourself you ugly shiteating motherfucker” is never friendly.
It took more time then I though to get that simple concept home.

Took a taxi back with the others around 4. Drunk and happy asleep by 5.

Oops

Did i say updates by the end of the week?
oh my that was ambitious.
I probably meant this month.
Hang on, updates are coming
x

Friday 31st July

Friday 31st July
A good long update today.
No photos this time though as I had to give the camera back to my Dad. Ill try to get my own as soon as I have some free capital .

Moving in Day, or at least partially.
I had to give Dad a promise that I would leave most of my stuff here as an insurance that I would come back and see them. Actually thinking about it, it was quite a moving thing.
I mean he wouldn’t say it (what self respecting man would?) but I guess from the way he went about his day it was clear that he was already missing me before I had left.
In fact he insisted on walking all the way out of the hotel to the 100 or so meters to the station.
I will miss my family more then I thought I would.
Anyway, I left. As I had to do eventually.

I was fairly confident about where I was going. Looking at both my crappy map from England and the map the concierge at the hotel gave me it was pretty clear where the one university on the island was marked. So I took off on the MRT which is the tube system here.
Eventually I arrived at the station build into the University. Which was a good thing to because it was midday by this point? The absolute heat of the day. After about 10 minutes of wandering around though I cant find any signs for my accommodation, nor either any signs for the department I need to register with.
Turns out in the end I had wandered into the wrong university. Why it was the only one on both maps I will never know. I then asked for directions to my Uni.

The guard was friendly enough, but told me that he had no idea. So I went to ask the train staff. They suggested I get an MRT to a deeper part of the island because “it was probably around there”.
Having nowhere else to go I did. It turned out to be right and the uni was only a bus ride away. Handily you can use your ez-link card to pay for busses as well. It’s a general all round wonder card really. Eventually arrived at campus and began the long walk there.
Had to stop twice due to the weight of my bags (not even half my stuff) and the oppressive heat. After 40 minutes of walking I eventually arrived, exhausted.
At this point I was informed if I had just waited the uni hopper bus would have picked me up and driven me straight here.
Handy to know maybe an hour ago before I had totally sweated through my shirt. No lie. It had actually changed colour.

I was so tied that I don’t really remember registration for halls. I just signed anything they put in front of me and agreed to everything. So that’s how I got my room.

EDIT: You can look around it on a video from the post below, which pretty much renders this post redundant and describes the surrounding much better then I do here.

First impressions were the size of the room. Its very small. And has no aircon. So naturally is baking. Must be about 30c at nearly all times.
Around campus there is a mini-mart that has everything in it. With prices that are quite reasonable for the area (say $1 or so). You can get shampoo, sheets, laundry detergent, batteries, toilet bowl cleaner, CDs, frozen food, and much more. Handy to have really if you don’t mind queuing for ages. Ah! They also have pocky for $1 a pack. I have got through about six boxes so far. Gotta love it.
A big difference here to uni at home was that I was not issued a key but rather an electronic transponder, which I have to use to unlock everything (lift, doors etc) On halls there are a series of canteens – called food courts here. These canteens have Indian, Malaysian, Chinese, North Indian, and even Western food, (western food entails fish and chips, hamburgers, steaks) the shop rather conservatively being called “foreigner food”.
I will try not to eat at the Western kiosk I am in another country, perhaps the place I want to live in later life so why not eat the local food? When in Rome kind of thing. Common style of eating out here is with fork and spoon, and Chinese dishes are served with a pair of wooden chopsticks which must be broken apart and rubbed together to remove the wood splinters. The fork is held in the left hand and is used to shovel food onto the spoon that is held in the right hand.

Anyway to continue narration, after unpacking and collapsing on the bed I got round to plugging Lovejoy the laptop into the interweb and was able to send you all my first set of updates. Noone else living in my flat and being unable to enter any other flats due to my transponder I wandered around a little like a lost sheep. When I came back to my room I had a fb message from Keng who had moved in a while ago and wondered what I was up to.
I arranged to meet her at her halls and then went to ikea together where I got my bedding and so on. Met some of her friends as well and had a brewski or two outside her halls. Very social.
I should point out here that in this country you are allowed to drink in public even to the point of drunkenness. In fact most people drink on the street. If however you commit a crime, under the influence or not there will be a lot of trouble for you.
Just obey and respect the law here and you will be fine. Straight away a big difference to the UK!

By the time I got back I had a flatmate from Italy. He is very friendly and I think we will get on well. Nothing really going on here we decided to go to a freshers fair they were having on campus. Kind of wish I hadn’t really. It was a bit of a culture shock.

No drinking, smoking or having opposite sex in your room is allowed on campus. I will find out I guess if these are strictly enforced rules or not, if not through my own adventures then through the activities of my new friends. But yes, I got a gift bag for attending containing:

Caffeine tablets
Coffee sachets
Stress Ball
Chicken snacks
Contact lenses solution.

No doubt the solution will come in handy but the rest is such a shock. At Freshers back home we were given Condoms and Beer and pretty much told to get on with it. The freshers party as well was different to what I would expect – it was a large series of maths based games around the hall.
Me and Eital’s eyebrows couldn’t have climbed any higher up our faces and we soon left reeling in a combination of shock and horror. I had promised my Dad I would come back to the hotel so left about 9 to get there.
Arrived at 11:30 because I didn’t know the route properly and bus routes look different in the dark. Boo.
So hungry by this point so I went with Brother to get a McDonalds from the 24hour near the Hotel.

Whilst I was there I noticed a sign asking students to refrain from working inside the restaurant after 8pm. That was a bit of a shock for me. The entire culture is based on doing your best and working hard, something we lack a little back home.
I had an uneasy night, unsure if I could make it in this new driven world.

EDIT: sorry im so far behind in my updates, im really busy at the moment but will keep typing whenever i can. I should be up to date by the end of this week. J'espere
x

Halls

I have writers block so here is a brief video about halls to keep you going while i type up my adventures.

Look where i live!