Sweat and Syringes

Today was my "official" first day in Singapore. As I tredded up the hills and stairs with Andrew and Bobby, I felt a rush of sweat down my back, on my forehead and ...well all over the place. Singapore is one hot and humid place, my friends. If you don't like to sweat, don't come here hahaha. NTU campus is HUGE and when I mean HUGE, probably the same or bigger than College Park MD. Loyola is this itty bitty campus. So Greyhounds, if you are reading this don't complain about that hill you have to go up to class everyday from Newman and Campion, you check out these hills in Singapore, talk about 6 flights of stairs to get lunch, I felt like I was walking up an Egyptian pyramid. My poor feet were crying in pain, but hey I'll come back with legs of steel...watch out!

Bobby, Andrew, and I decided to go to Boon Lay to buy mobile phones (aka cell phones) and toiletries that we forgot..well mostly me. I forgot a razor, tweezer, and a couple of other "girly" things (poor Bobby and Andrew). As we were sitting on the bus and cooling off, I heard what sounded like perfect English (since I am used to the Singaporean English--man is it hard to understand!!). I saw a Caucasian girl with a Singaporean NTU student and another girl who looked European. I looked at her and said, "You're not from America, are you?" She said she was Canadian (close enough!). Bobby, Andrew, and I exchanged names and where we were from. The Canadian girl's name was Jasmine. The European girl's name was Donna. The Singaporean NTU student's name was Cheryl. They were all such nice people. We were all on the same page---to find a mobile phone. I could not fathom the idea of not having a mobile phone whether I'm home in the US or in Singapore. The mall was crazy--people everywhere! We went into a "Wal-Mart" that had everything from rice cookers (only in Asia!) to pillows and to food. We got all we needed, sadly I walked out with a sad face with the amount of money I had just spent. We all took the bus back together to NTU (except Cheryl). We decided to hang out and get dinner tomorrow night. It's so cool to make friends with people out of the US =)

Justin finally arrived and joined us! We went to a cafe near Andrew's residence hall for dinner. It was all Asian food from noodles to fried rice to sweet and sour pork. I got the sweet and sour pork rice (that's what it was called). It was alright; my stomach is still shaky.... After we finished our meals, we decided to go into the city and explore (and of course drink...LEGALLY!).

We took a cab to Clarke Quay (pronounced "Clarke-que"). It is the most beautiful place I have ever seen. It's outdoors with this huge roof on top of the bars, boutiques, and restaurants. There were different color lights beaming through the place. This is probably a "hot spot" for tourists, as I saw Europeans, Asians, and Caucasians. We went to "Forbidden City" first, a bar inspired by China's Forbidden City. We ordered Singapore Slings that costed... wait for it... $13!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Outrageous, but what the hell I'm abroad, so I bought it of course. It was sweet and cold, just what I needed after walking in the humid weather.

After "Forbidden City," we walked on over to "Asian Fusion," which looked like a hookers bar, I wasn't so comfortable with Asian women dancing on a stage in front of me, so went to "Clinic." Now "Clinic" was an interesting bar. They had syringes and shots of alcohol. We got a syringe of this red drink that costed...$50!!!!! (What the hell were we thinking?!) and ordered 2 cold beers to share.

 After the syringe and beer, I felt a buzz (probably cause I haven't been eating). We decided to leave after we were "treated" at the "Clinic" (funny, aren't I?). We tried to get a cab but none showed up, so we decided to walk around and look for a train. Walking aimlessly to nowhere, we finally spotted a cab that took us back to NTU. I fell asleep in the cab, knowing it was bed time. I showered and now I'm here blogging =) I need to get to bed because tomorrow is when I "officially" sign into NTU with papers that need to be signed and fees that need to get paid. Until then, much love from the Chatty Chong!