Saturday, August 11, 2012

Welcome Week

It's only my first week here, but my schedule is already looking packed. Praise the Lord that I am adjusting well, finally settled in my dorm, and familiar with the public transportation. The climate is hot (average high is 85 F) and humid (average humidity of 67%). If you want to send me snail mails, here's my address:
Nanyang Technological University
Hall of Residence 10, 52-4-1020
22 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639810

I still do get lost on campus sometimes. It is a HUGE campus with a lot of trees and hills, which is nice. However, the buildings are more like labyrinths inside another jumbo labirynth. There are 4 shuttle buses and one of them actually take people to the nearest MRT station. There are also 2 public bus routes serving the campus and surrounding neighborhood which pool at a nearby shopping mall called Jurong Point. Anyhow, here is the recap of the week:
  •  Orientations: I got to attend 2 different ones for the general exchange as well as the Business exchange (more free lunches, more free goodies lol). Informations regarding transitioning into the whole NTU life as courses, healthcare, safety, and other services were being explained. I can't believe that there are 400-something exchange students in total this semester, yet very few Americans. Such great opportunities to make some new friends from all over the world, but I definitely still need to make more local friends :) 

  • Cruising Singapore River: This is a great way to enjoy Singapore's greatest landscapes and history. Surrounded by historical as well as modern buildings, Singapore River is definitely the heart of Singapore. The "Quays" such as Clarke Quay and Boat Quay are also cool places to hang out. There are plenty of restaurants, food booths, and shopping centers too on these spots.

  •  National Day: There weren't much going on in the morning. It was quiet until afternoon-ish when people started coming out for lunch and just hanging out downtown. Red and white totally dominated the city. Not knowing much about what to do/where to go, I was very blessed to be invited by my exchange buddy Christine and her friends to spend the evening with them. We had dinner of Hainanese chicken rice at the air-conditioned hawker center inside Marina Square before heading somewhere near Millenia Walk to watch the fireworks.

  • A Day in the Bay+Singaporean meals: Another day of adventure! I started the day off with Singapore's national breakfast: Paket B from Canteen 11 accross from my hall.   For S$1.50 only, I had a very substantial breakfast of 2 boiled eggs, kaya toast, and a cup of tea with milk in it before heading downtown for the Singapore Flyer
I also had the chance to lunch at Canteen A with Ashley, one of the NTU Cru staffs who has been in touch with me. It was a really great time of getting to know each other, encouragement, and prayer as she introduced me to another Singaporean dish: laksa. I'm really looking forward to meeting my discipleship group (equivalent with Drexel Cru 's growth group) and going to Crossroads (equivalent with Drexel Cru 's large group) kick-off for the semester :)


  • Singapore Discovery Tour: Sponsored by the super awesome NBS Exchange Club, this tour took us through Singapore's important trails and landmarks. We started this tour on Bugis which is a  famous open-air shopping market for everything under the sun.  The guides got us a box of durian that we ended up throwing away because it was hard to insist us exchangers to finish it. We also had a chance to have some Singaporean dishes for lunch at one of the hawker centers.  


    After fueling ourselves, we were ready for some more adventure. We walked to the Arab street and the Kampong Glam areas populated by Malay and Middle Eastern small businesses. The dominating businesses here are imported textiles, rugs, as well as ethnic food. There's also the famous Sultan Mosque in this district. After succeeding better in getting us to try food from the stalls, our guides took us on an MRT ride to the Raffles Place where we would meet our Singapore Footprint guides.
          

    The Singapore Footprint guides then  led us through the most important landmarks in Singapore along  the river such as the Fullerton Hotel, Cavanaugh Bridge, Asian Civilisation Museum, Peranakan Museum, National Museum, and the Armenian Church. The tour ended there for the day, but a handful of us decided to go for more adventure to the recently-opened Gardens by the Bay. From this spot, we got a really beautiful view of Singapore's night. Tired from a day filled with fun, we ended up eating at the Marina Bay food court instead of the original plan of visiting the touristy Lau Pa Sat market.

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