Ohhh Singapura!

What a week it's been! This time last week, I was packing and getting ready to say goodbye to my family. Today, I've explored Singapore, gotten lost by myself, tried tons of new foods, and started some amazing classes. Every day here is so full of things to do that by 9 pm, you're ready to crash!

A little recap of my week: Wednesday, we registered with NUS, took a library tour, and ate lunch at the Deck, one of the canteens on campus. Afterwards, we headed off to immigration to fill out lots of fun paperwork. We spent several hours here, and I didn't have one of the required documents, so I didn't get to complete my application, and had to come back on Thursday :(

After immigration, we went off to the Singapore Botanical Gardens, which, as you can imagine were absolutely beautiful.

Thursday marked the first day of classes. I think I'm really going to enjoy both classes. Professor Steiner, who came with us from UNC, is teaching a course on immigration and migration policies and how the US can learn from Singapore. We also have a NUS professor, Professor Quek, who is teaching a Singaporean history course. I really like Prof Quek, who is refreshingly frank about the good, as well as the bad sides of living in Singapore.

After class, the four of us who didn't finish at immigration headed back to ICA with Nadiah, who is the NUS student showing us around Singapore and arranging all the logistics. Spending time at immigration is no fun, but afterwards, Nadiah took us down to Arab Street to one of her favorite resturants, and then shopping. Interestingly enough, my favorite food so far has been the Muslim food here, we had murtabak (sp?) and sugar rolls (my fav!).

We also had our welcome dinner on Thursday. We ate at an Indonesian restaurant, and my greatest fear came true. They served the entire fish. With the eyes still attached. But aside from that, it was pretty good food, albeit a bit spicy. After the welcome dinner, we headed back to PGP and got down to work, as we had tons of readings for both classes.

Friday classes came awfully early, and we still had a full day ahead of us. After class, we went straight to lunch at a Thai resturant, where we ate with our tour guide from the Asian Civilizations museum. She was from France, here in Singapore with her husband, who worked in finance here.

After lunch, we went to the Asian Civilizations Museum, which I absolutely loved. I really want to go back and explore more of the museum.

We then got on a river boat cruise, which was incredibly touristy, but still lots of fun. We saw many important sites along the river, including the Fullerton hotel, Clarke Quay, the Singapore Flyer, and the Merlion. Below is Clarke Quay, which is the tourist strip of resturants and shops along the river.

And this is the infamous Merlion, which is comprised of a lion head and fish body. It is the unofficial mascot of Singapore, as it has its roots in important Singaporean history. The fish portion refers to Singapore's history as a fishing village, and the lion head represents Singapore's former name, Singapura, or lion town.

After the river cruise, Nadiah turned us loose on the streets of Singapore. Some of us headed over to Orchard Street to do a bit of shopping. It's a little bit like Rodeo Drive in LA or 5th Avenue in NYC. Getting back to PGP was an interesting adventure which involved missing a bus stop, a conversation with a random Chinese man who tried to sell me a watch, and a good bit of walking. :)

It's been an amazing week in Singapore, and the next 3 are going to fly by!