I want nobody nobody but you!

...."I want nobody nobody but you" might be my new favorite song by The Wonder Girls (korean pop female music group)... sorry Lady Gaga, but I'm in Asia....gotta like and respect their music more, catch my drift?

WARNING: this blog post is gonna be a long one....too many memories were made with such great friends and great activites... so brace yourselves!

WHAT A WEEKEND! We went to Sentosa Island and stayed at Siloso Beach Resort....the most beautiful place on Singapore! It was just so nice to be away from the dorm-life and into well... luxury, well my version of it... a comfy bed, a nice view of the beach, a sick-ass pool, and great friends...that to me is a great and luxurious vacation getaway!

After the lovely hour and a half travel (bus, mrt, and tram) and lots of Bounce (stupid game on my phone), we finally made it to Siloso Beach Resort. It is an eco-friendly hotel...and breathtaking. The pool was hugggge! There was a waterfall and two slides (for children, but of course, I went on it). The structure of the hotel was so unique, I was taken back. First thing we did was check-in and throw our bags in the rooms, and out the door we went to Underwater World.

Before we ventured to Underwater World, we grabbed lunch at HotDog King, I believe that what it was called. Singapore does not have "ballpark hotdogs," but "chicken hotdogs," I will never eat one again. It did not taste so great, and by the way, there were peacocks just chillin out right next to me as I was eating. First of all, I LOATHE birds, so of course, as I was eating, I was freaking out 'cause these peacocks looked like they wanted to eat me. I chucked my hotdog bun and fries in another direction and bolted. Underwater World was not what I expected; it was very small and bland. The only two things I enjoyed about it was the tunnel and fish-touch tank. I touched fish, star fish, and these fish that looked like baby sharks. They were slimy! The tunnel was really cool, it was literally a tunnel, with fish and sharks swimming on top of you and next to you. Baltimore Aquarium definitely kicks Underwater World's ass in the water... haha, get it? (small joke...). After that, we decided to give ourselves a pat on the back and relax at the Fish Spa...yes, FISH Spa.

Fish Reflexology is a "nibbling" foot massage....basically, fish nibbling at your dead skin and eating it up. Our dead skin is their source of food. When I saw fish relexology the first time, it was at Night Safari.. I thought okay I have to do this! The fish were so small and cute... UMMM TOTAL OPPOSITE at Underwater World... these fish were massive, probably the size of 2 betta fish. We stuck our feet in the water, and they swam right up to my feet and started to nibble and eat. At first, I could not stop laughing and screaming. It was so tickly! After a few minutes, it started to feel good. It was the most weird thing I have ever done in my life, but it was so worth it, cause afterwards, I got a nice back and head massage... and oh hot damn, it felt good...something I REALLY needed!

Afterwards, we bought a "noon day pass" where you pay a reasonable amount of money to do 4 activities on the island, such as the Tiger Tower, Luge ride, 4-D rides, Skyline, Segway Tour, etc. We chose to do the following: Skyline Luge, Extreme Log Ride (4-D), Pirates (4-D film), and Desperados (4-D, cowboy-shooting type of thing). After the long day of rides and fun times, we met up with our other friends (Robbie, Alex, Meg, Lizzi, Dominik, and Fiona) at Bora Bora Margarita Bar. I ordered 2 mojitos (strawberry and apple)...sooo refreshing and yummmy! Before those shenanigans, we watched "Songs of the Sea," a laser and water show, the effects were spectacular, but the music was a mix of Barney and Dora the Explorer, and I wanted to kill someone haha, but overall it was a really nice show. We ate dinner at a place called, "Tastes of Asia" and I ordered something Vietnamese, Beef Pho, which was a soup-noodle dish with beef brisket and it was verryy good, one thing that ticked me off was that there was no section for Korea....why you gotta be like that Tastes of Asia? don't discriminate and hate. shoot yo. Anyways, back to Bora Bora, we pregamed there for Azzura....oh Azzura... I'll get to that in a second.....

After Bora Bora, we all went up to our rooms, my room was the girls room, the other was the boys...we were all getting cute and ready, but before we did, us girls went to the pool. Lizzi and I hopped into the freezing water, and I of course a little tipsy, went down the slide...up and down...up and down.. woops? Anyways, as we were getting ready and pregaming (part 2), we were watching Hairspray...and oh how it reminded me of Baltimore, my home. I intensely watched it even with the background noise of, "hey take this shot of gin!" or chatter. After everyone was pretty buzzed, we headed off to Azzura, a beach club. Fiona, Lizzi, and I made a pit-stop to McDonalds, where I ate a McSpicy.. it was McDelicious (small joke again). Oh and at 711, I bought two ciders and the man CARDED me... I thought I was in Singapore Sir. Ouch. Us girls went to the beach and got stupid-drunk. You had to pay $30 cover charge to get into Azzura, and no way in hell we were gonna pay that! (By the way this was Justin's birthday weekend, so shout-out to you mahhh man Justin!) Lizzi sweet-talked the security and we were close to getting in, but then got impatient, so we jumped over the fence....yes I, Shannon Chong jumped over a fence to get into a beach club.. I felt so B.A. (for those of you who don't know what that means, Bad-Ass) and rebellious.. I was "bad to the bone." Anyways, we got caught but somehow did not get in trouble and the manager let us in for $30 for the 3 of us combined, we took it and proceeded into the club. There was a pool at Azzura, as Lizzi said, she felt like she was in an "Usher music video," it was so much fun, except, something had died....my phone. Never in a million years would I be the one to be careless and break my phone, it's never happened, but I guess my phone wanted to go for a swim. The phone was dead, but I did not care. Azzura was hoppin' and I had a blast.

The next day was a rough morning... it was off to Universal Studios Singapore....hungover! Justin, the birthday boy and champ went at 9am by himself, since all of us were too hungover and met up with him around 11am? It was TEAM USA and Lizzi who went to Universal, oh and did I mention it was the hottest and most humid day EVER? Sweat dripping nonstop...so gross. I rode rollercoasters, which is so unlike me. The mummy ride was the scariest thing I have ever done,  I wish everyone could have seen my face on the picture screen, it was as if I saw the most scary horror film out there, and I don't do horror movies or roller coasters.. I don't know what got into me, but I felt really adventurous that day. For lunch, we went to Chili's....HORRIBLE service but the food reminded me so much of home...it was great! The Shrek portion of Universal was amazing.. I literally felt like I was walking the streets of "Far Far Away," I think I enjoyed it more than the kids around me. Overall, I was really impressed with Universal Studios Singapore, especially after our last ride on the Madagascar Beach Carousel ride, haha. Of course, we were the loudest people on the ride (at that point we were so exhausted, sticky, and delirious!).

When we got back to the hotel, we all jumped into the pool and were joined by Robbie, Meg, and Fiona. We went out to dinner for Justin's birthday at Raffles City at a little pizza place called, "The Pizza Place" (real original hahaha). I ordered the Chicken Alfredo Linguini and literally it was a PARTY in my mouth... so damn good to have Italian food rather than your typical "chicken rice." Then we went to the Long Bar at Raffles Hotel where the Singapore Sling was originally created. Although it was mighty expensive, the atmosphere (live band) and great friends made up for it. I felt so relaxed and at ease with my Singapore Sling in one hand and peanuts in the other, and enjoying the old, cheesy live band music.

The next day was our last day at Sentosa, (oh how reality stinks, when vacation is over), we grabbed breakfast at the hotel and discussed our plans. By the way, that weekend I had real eggs and was in Egg-Heaven. It was kind of a rainy, gray day, so we decided to do something indoors and (hopefully) cheap. We visited the Sentosa Merlion. We watched a cute film on the Merlion, apparently, a king and his homies took a boat out to an empty island, and were approached by this lion. The king and the lion became BFF, and to be creative, he decided to give the lion the body of a mermaid, thus the Merlion was born! Hooray! We went up to the Merlion head and took pictures of the beautiful view. We could see Universal in one direction, and the other, the beaches. We took some corny photos by a photographer, and purchased them, because they were just too funny (up on Facebook). It was like "awkward family photos" but worse, haha. After our Merlion visit, we hopped on the mrt and back to NTU we went, but before we grabbed lunch at Vivo City. I had Indian food for the first time in Singapore, and oh my gosh, it was divine! The boys had to meet up with their group for class, so I decided to go to Boon Lay and purchase a new phone (oops..). The guy at the desk laughed at my phone, as he showed his co-workers the water sloshing around in my screen. I bought a new phone and BAMMMM I was texting like nobody's business!

I returned to my room and passed the frick out. I bought food from Golden Spoon (I call it my canteen because Hall 12 does not have one) and watched 2 episodes of Pretty Little Liars, and felt pretty damn content. May I just add, Pretty Little Liars is getting SO good! A is so evil! Hanna's soon to be stepsister is just as bad as A. WHO IS A? Oh and Mr. Fitz, Ezra, you're really hot.

After my lovely vacation, I decided to crack down today and do work. I did some here and there, and did my laundry. Go me! I grabbed lunch with my roomie, Joanna (every Tuesday we get lunch together) at Golden Spoon. I ordered my favorite: Chicken Oyster Sauce noodles....sooo good! It's only $2.50 Sing. dollars, so about... US $2.07? I may have done that math wrong, hence why I'm a Comm. major. So cheap and big portion too! I was soo happy!

I had dinner with Ms. Wendy (family friend...my Aunt's best friend from college, cute I know!) and her family tonight at a Seafood restaurant on Orchard Road. It was DELICIOUS. We ate crab fried rice, fried eggplant, coffee spare ribs, the famous Singapore "Pepper Crab," and a veggie dish. The coffee spare ribs were actually my favorite, next to the Pepper Crab. The crab was so good, it was definitely spicy but with a sweet side. After dinner, we grabbed Haagen Dazs icecream and chilled out after our big Seafood feast. Ms. Wendy and her family are soo sweet. I feel so comfortable and "homey" when I am with them. I cannot wait to see them again!

And, now I am here, almost ready to pass out at my laptop, with my poor fingers still typing this novel of a post, haha, but I do it because I want all of you to know that I am enjoying myself in Singapore and ALIVE! Call me corny, but I am truly blessed to have made the friends I am with at NTU. They are all so nice, warm/welcoming, and make me feel comfortable and can finally say that I love Singapore. On another note, I do miss my Loyola peeps especially now that fall o has officially started, so Evergreens if you are reading this, I miss you a lot! Sam Garvey is an amazing fall o EPC and I know you all are going to have the time of your lives! And, abroaders if you're reading this, enjoy international life! I'll see you in the spring soon enough! Back to classes tomorrow (Wed), but then Fri is only 2 days away, thank sweet Buddha, until news about this upcoming weekend, Much love from the Chatty Chong! xoxo

New vocab........

flat = apartment
close = hallway
bangers & mash = sasuages and mashed potatoes

oh and LOVE Singlish (singapore-English) accent... I'm starting to speak like a local and tag on "lah" at the end of my sentences...hahaha!