Things that don't exist in Asia. . .

1) Shower curtains. Most bathrooms are open with only a ledge defining the shower area.
2) Conditioner. Every hotel we stay in provides soap, bath gel, toothpaste, shampoo, sewing kit, and razor, but not a single one has had conditioner.
3) Tampons. This one's weird and I really don't understand, but it's true.
4) Top sheets. I don't think I've stayed in a single place that has had a top sheet to go along with the fitted sheet. Beds simply consist of a fitted sheet and one blanket.

Same Same but Different

That's a popular expression in Vietnam and it does a good job of explaining the country. In many ways, it is the same as Thailand. It has a tropical atmosphere and the people are very friendly. However, it's also different. In Thailand you are always haggling with people. You get into a taxi and have to haggle over the price. You go to a club and you haggle over the cover fee. You walk down the street and you haggle over everything. Vietnam does not have this same experience. Taxis are always metered (though we did have our first taxi scam when we used a taxi with a rigged meter), club prices are not necessarily set, but at least more set, and you don't have to haggle quite as much at the markets. Though we may have haggled less because the Viet Dong is a terrible currency and so everything is incredibly cheap. I got to enjoy being a millionaire for the first time in my life. Too bad it was short lived.

The most interesting part of the trip, and the reason I wanted to go, was seeing the Cu Chi Tunnels and the war museum. We went to the museum first and it made me wonder how Germans feel going to any sort of Holocaust museum. The museum had very graphic pictures of people who had been injured during bombies and children who were born disfigured. The thing that I thought was most interesting was that instead of having other people say how terrible the deeds of the US were, they used our own words against us. They had all kinds of quotes hanging up from politicians and other protestors during the era. They even quoted the Declaration of Independence to show us as being hypocritical. I've never spent a whole lot of time studying the Vietnam War during school, but now I want to do more reading about it. One thing that is curious is that China occupied Vietnam for 1000 years, France was there for 100, then we were there for 20. It seems all of the resentment that is left is towards the US.

The Cu Chi tunnels were also interesting. The tunnels were built starting during France's occupation, but became much more utilized during the War with America. There was a portion dug just for tourists (because we're too big for what they actually used), and I crawled the 20 or so feet through it. It was pitch black and incredibly scary. The tunnels twists and turns and it is very hard to tell if you are going in the correct direction. Overall, the site was a little too touristy for me to have any desire to go back. One other interesting thing was that there was a video at the beginning of the area. The tour guide we were with, who was not associated with the tunnels, told us we should not watch it since we are Americans. I wish we had seen it, but oh well.

Sorry I didn't post this sooner. My plan was to post it over the weekend, but if you haven't heard, my weekend was very eventful.

4th of July and Being American

I realize this post is a little late, but oh well.

For the 4th of July, there is a group of Americans in Singapore that hold a big event each year. There is lots of BBQ, live music and fireworks. We went to it and had a lot of fun. The one scary thing was the fireworks. They were really really close to us and pieces of fireworks kept falling on us. I don't just means ashes either. Pieces about 1 square inch fell on people, including myself.

Overall, there has not been much reaction to us being American. Especially outside of Singapore, nobody over guesses we are American. People generally assume we are either British or Australian. I think I have met more Canadians than Americans while traveling. It really puts into perspective how little world traveling most Americans do. I know that after this trip I definitely have the travel bug and want to do a lot more (though I am also looking forward to eventually going home). It's now going to be my mission to convince all of my friends and family to do more world traveling with me ;-) The good thing about Asia is that other than the plane ticket here, everything is cheap!

The one place there was some reaction to us being American was in Bangkok. A few times after telling people we were from the US, they would say "Obama!!" and it was very clear they were big fans. You all know my personal feelings on this, but I figured that in the name of international diplomacy, I would not say anything.

For one of the taxi rides, it was myself, a guy whose parents are from Taiwan, and a guy whose father is from Nigeria. The driver was very very confused on how we all knew each other and could all be from the US. It made me realize that while we may not get out much, America really is still the melting pot of the world.

Bangkok

I have survived another trip to Thailand. Bangkok is very very different from Phuket. Phuket is a more relaxed beach town while Bangkok is an incredibly busy city. If I were to choose, I'd definitely go to Phuket again and skip over Bangkok. If nothing else, I would never go to Bangkok with a family. While going to the red light district was our own choosing, it is impossible to avoid all of the sex in the city. The hotel that half the group stayed at had minibars stocked with fruit flavored condoms. One of the restraunts we ate at had pictures of naked women on the walls. During one of the taxi rides, a guy in our group made a reference to the song, "Boom, Boom, Pow." The taxi driver thought that meant the guy wanted to some "boom, boom, pow" and pulled out a handy flyer for a "real Thai massage" where you can get two girls!

By the way, Maria, since you found out the meaning of the ping pong shows, you are welcome to explain to Mom.

The other problem with the city is the traffic. Many of you have experienced Atlanta rush hour and probably think that is bad. I can tell you that traffic at 11 am on a Saturday in Bangkok is far worse than anything I have ever experienced in Atlanta. Now I understand how all of those people on the Amazing Race feel in traffic jams. The one good thing is that taxis are cheap and tuk tuks are even cheaper. I actually really enjoyed riding around in the tuk tuks. They definitely give you a sense of adventure. Also, both the taxis and tuk tuks have no limit for the number of people. We went on a 30 minute taxi ride with 6 passengers plus the driver.

The site seeing we did consisted of going to the floating market, the bridge over the River Kwai, and the grand palace. The floating market was very cool, though not how I would want to shop on any sort of regular basis. You rent a boat and driver and go around to other boats that are selling various goods. The best part is seeing all of the people trying to cook soup in a boat. You truly can see nothing like it in the US. As much as I enjoy history, the bridge was not as exciting as I had hoped. It really was just a railway bridge over the river. I was somewhat surprised that more people in our group had no idea what it was, but then I realized I only knew because I had seen the movie many many years ago. The Grand Palace was interesting. My biggest takeway was that it looks much better from far away than up close. Up close, you can see that everything is kind of falling apart and all the decor is fading. It was built in 1782 and I have a hard time imagining what condition it will be in after another 200 years.

By the way, I hope everyone's been cheering on the Cardinals now that they've taken sole possesion of 1st!

Red Lights

Yes, these are those notorious red lights. The lights of the red light district. We are in Bangkok this weekend, so of course all of the guys wanted to experience the true Thailand experience, so we went to a "ping pong" show. If you try googling that, I will warn you that it was in the red light district of Bangkok, so it's not exactly safe for work. From what I understand of American strip clubs, the only things these places have in common is the naked girls. The things they do here are completely unnatural. I think I am scared for life.

For all the boys out there (and girls, actually), if you're ever feeling low on self-esteem, go to a bar in Bangkok. No girl will ever turn you down. If they can physically reach you, they will hit on you. They do not discriminate between males and females and they're not afraid to start touching if it looks like you're not going to say yes. Needless to say, I have never seen so many middle aged, balding white guys with young, Asian companions.

Today we are off to the temples and palace. Sorry I haven't been updating more.

Language

As someone who only speaks one language, multilingual people fascinate me. I know many people who can speak on the phone in one language and carry on a conversation in person in a different language at the same time. I am incredibly jealous of this skill. On this trip, I have run into countless more people who are fluent in multiple languages.

In one of our many bonding hours at the airport, we realized in our group there were eight Americans, one Malaysian, and one Venezuelan. The eight Americans spoke a combined total of one language, english. Many people can get by in other languages if truly forced, but no one is close to fluent. The two non-Americans spoke a combined total of eight languages, all of the fluently. This absolutely astounds me. They both have been learning the languages since they were young, but I still cannot imagine ever being able to switch between that many languages.

Almost everyone in Singapore is multi-lingual. There are four official languages: English, Mandarin, Malay, and Tamil. English is taught in schools and is used in official business. Many people come from families that speak Mandarin. Malay is used in all official songs, and poems and other such documents (no real idea of what all this includes). Tamil simply comes from the Indian population here. What I really find interesting is that while all business is conducted in english, almost no one is really comfortable and fluent in the language. When two people are together that know another language, they will almost always switch to that language.

While in Hong Kong, one person in our group made the observation that while fewer people spoke English, those that did spoke it much better than people in Singapore. In Singapore, there seems to be almost no regard for spelling and grammar. On my official quarantine papers, there was a stamp on the very top of my paper that read, "Isued Tamiflu: Yes/No." I could not believe that a stamp had been made and then used countless times with "issued" spelled wrong! I thought that was bad, until I went to the mall and saw this shirt. Sorry I'm too lazy right now to try and figure out how to rotate it.

Freedom!!!!!!!!

Hello world! I am pleased to say, I am free at last! Okay, I've actually been free since Thursday. I've just been too busy enjoying being free to post anything yet. But don't worry, I did eventually tell my parents.

What is more important now is that I am trying to plan out what to do with the rest of my time in Singapore. I have already done most of what I had planned for in Singapore (with the exception of the Night Safari), but there are other places I want to travel. Here is the list of possibilities:

7/4-7/5 Stay in Singapore and go to the drifting show
7/9-7/12 Possibly go back to Thailand. I really really liked it and the full moon festival is that Thursday
7/16-7/19 Open
7/23-7/26 Open
7/30-8/3 Korea
8/3 Go home!!!!!

There are several possibilities for the two free weekends. I really want to go to Vietnam, so that will probably be one of those weekends. I also know some people are planning on going to Perth, Australia and some people are going to India. I don't know when either of those trips are, but I might go on one. However, I might also be broke and just decide to stay here. We shall see.

By the way, check out my lovely interview with the Technique here: http://nique.net/ and then download the PDF.

Quarantine Photos

Check them out here:

http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=15924600&k=ZVBT33P2U2VGUCGCSEYXQVY

Swine Flu

Before I go into all of the glorious details of the trip, I will start out by saying that I am now in Singapore and doing fine, though I am a bit sleep deprived and hoping food will arrive soon. I will go into the details of sightseeing later, but this post is going to be dedicated to swine flu hysteria.

Thursday evening, 10 people on the trip left Singapore and flew to Macau. The adventures actually started at the Singapore airport. Being students here, we all received national student identification cards so we could be residents. As residents, we show immigration this card when we enter or exit the Singapore airport. Well, some silly person forgot her ID card. Okay, that person happened to be me. Luckily, immigration in Singapore managed to look me up online and pass me through. However, I ran into trouble in Macau. There, the asked for my ID card since I did not have an exit stamp from Singapore. Since I am a resident, I had no stamp. After about 30 minutes of negotiating with five different immigration people, I was allowed to go through. Then, the whole group went through the health screening. We turned in our forms saying we had no symptoms and had not been in close contact with anyone known to have the flu in the past seven days. However, when the inspector saw our forms, she became alarmed by us being American and asked how long ago we left the US. We explained it had been 4 weeks and so she let us through.

My favorite part of Macau was customs. The customs inspection consisted of a man sleeping behind a desk. There wasn’t even an x-ray machine for if he decided he did want to check anything.

We spent Thursday night in Macau and took the ferry to Hong Kong on Friday. We did some sightseeing and were out in the town when we received an email from someone’s phone saying that a member of our group from Tech had tested positive for the swine flu (the ministry of health papers I received still call it that). We said crap, that sucks, but we continued with our sightseeing. He had felt fine the last time we saw him and none of us felt sick.

That night, we had just arrived at our dinner location when we received a phone call from the Ministry of Health in Singapore telling us that we were going to be held in quarantine when we got back to Singapore. We had not heard about this from any of our Tech representatives, and they started asking us for identification details including passport numbers, birthdates, etc. At this point, we became nervous about identity theft and not actually knowing who we were talking to. As such, we called people back at the school to get confirmation that we should in fact pass on this information. They gave us the go ahead, and we proceeded to cooperate.

Saturday, we decided as a group to continue with the sightseeing, but avoid really crowded places and wear masks on the MTR (their subway) and on other crowded transportation. During our contact with people in Singapore, we learned three people were being tested and others were waiting for results. They also started going back and forth about where we would be held in quarantine, whether it would be in our dorms or at a government facility. Eventually, it was confirmed that we would be allowed to stay in our dorms.

That night, a few people started to feel some flu-like symptoms. We had an assortment of medicines among the group that everyone was taking liberally. We were planning on spending all day in Hong Kong so we could see the horse races and a few other things, but we decided to go ahead and take the ferry in the morning. More than anything, we were worried we would be stopped in Macau and put into quarantine there. Given the option, we knew Singapore would definitely be better (if for no other reason than the fact that they speak English). With all of this in mind, we realized there was no way sight-seeing in Hong Kong would be any fun.

Sunday morning, we woke up and all took our temperatures. No one was even close to having a fever, but some people were not feeling great. No one was sure if this was in fact the flu, or just caused by the air quality in Hong Kong, or something else all together. We loaded up on drugs and took the MTR to the ferry terminal, wearing our masks along the way. We noticed then and on Saturday that there is no way to be Caucasian and look inconspicuous while wearing a mask. It is not at all unusual for Asians to wear them, but we never see white people with them on. At one point on the MTR, we saw a woman look at all of us with our masks and promptly cover her mouth with a cloth. She glared at us for awhile and promptly got off the train at the next stop.

The ferry ride was about an hour and everyone’s hearts were pounding when we got off. I honestly started shaking as I went towards the temperature screening. It ended up that we had nothing to worry about. They were actually changing shifts when I went through, so I’m not sure they even saw my reading.

In Macau, we had several hours to kill at the casinos before going to the airport. Once at the airport, myself and several others checked in without a problem. Then we had some more fun. Two people had accidentally booked their plane tickets for the previous day. Of course, the flight was booked and there were four people ahead of them on standby. We spent some time trying to help them look for different flights, but everything out of Macau was already booked. We eventually went through security and said we hoped to see them soon. Luckily, as boarding started, we saw them and they said they made the flight.

On the plane, we were once again all wearing masks. I never felt so bad in my life then when a man who seemed to be from Britain or Australia sat down in a seat surrounded by a bunch of us and then laughingly said, “this doesn’t feel suspicious, being surrounded by all of these Americans in masks.” We all laughed with him then silently said a few prayers for his sake.

The flight itself was not too bad. Since we are cheap and took Tiger Air (Asia’s equivalent of Ryan Air), we were not served drinks for the three hour flight, and that kind of sucked. However, the landing was absolutely terrible. By that point, we were all at least a little congested, as much from the smog in Hong Kong as anything. The change in pressure was probably the most painful experience in my life. My eyes started watering as I thought my ears were going to start bleeding. Even once we landed, it took a good 15 minutes or so to feel pain free.

We got into the airport at 2:20 am (getting in that late was a good $100 cheaper than any other flight), and braced ourselves for immigration. The temperature screening was first, and that was not a problem. For immigration, since I did not have my student card, I had to go to the ICA desk while everyone else went to the lines for residents.

I handed over my passport and explained I forgot my student card. They said it wasn’t a problem and started looking me up. As I waited, the first of the Tech students were going up to the immigration officers. Before anything had been found on me, the first of them was escorted over to the ICA desk. The officer told my agent the passport had been flagged, so I went ahead and said, “yeah, about that. . . I’m going to have the same problem. My passport is also flagged. In fact, there’s ten of us.” My agent looked at me and said, “what?! All ten of you forgot your student cards?!” However, by that point, everyone was quickly being escorted over and he soon realized there were ten flagged students.

It quickly became apparent they had little idea of how to deal with this situation. They were all very glad we were wearing masks and kindly asked us to keep them on. They collected everyone’s passports then started escorting us to a holding room (actually their breakroom). As we walked away, they counted us. Ten students. Then they counted the passports. Nine passports. They counted us again. They counted the passports again. They counted us three more times. They finally took us to the room anyway. They came into the room and counted us. They asked us if we all handed in our passports. We assured them we had. They walked away. They came back and again asked about the passports. Finally, they left and found the tenth passport.

While we were waiting, we heard that people who left in the morning took three hours to get out of the airport. We laughed, confident in our ability to get out faster. First, the MOH knew well in advance the time of our flight, unlike the other flight which was booked at the last minute. Secondly, one of those people was from El Salvador. We had gone through enough airline check-ins with him to know it usually took people at least thirty minutes just to figure out where El Salvador is.

After about an hour, we were told the doctor should arrive in 1-2 hours to check us out before taking us to our dorms. That meant he should be there by 4:30 (I believe. I don’t honestly remember for sure now). We were all starving and asked if we could have food. The immigration officials took down our orders, we handed over money, and they bought us some McDonald’s. That was at 3:30 am.

We spent the next hour or so walking away the immigration area. No other flights were coming in, so we got to know the heat scanning people and the immigration officers really well. Some people tried to sleep, with varying levels of success, though there only a few really uncomfortable couches and a lot of plastic chairs.

Two hours and fifteen minutes after the doctor had been contacted, we were told he had virtually cleared us. That meant we just had to went for the MOH to sign off and contact the company responsible for transporting us.

We spent the next hours trying to sleep. As morning approached and nothing had been changed, we were told various tales of how the MOH hadn’t signed forms, or NUS hadn’t approved us coming back to the dorms yet, or how the transportation company hadn’t agreed to move us yet. I slept for about an hour and few people did much better than that.

Finally, at 12:30 p.m. Monday, the transportation/security company arrived. They then informed us that we would be transported two by two. With our dorms at least 45 minutes away, we realized this was still going to take hours. Luckily, myself and the other girl were the first to be taken to the vans. There ended up being two vans. Each van could hold two of us, so four people could be transported at a time. Actually, each van could have easily held all ten of us. However, they were not allowed to put more than two people in a van so that we could not contaminate each other. Say what you will about that logic.

While some of the security people were sent to get two more students, we had our temperatures taken. Mine was a very healthy 36.5˚C. I also reported that I was not suffering from any flu-like symptoms.

Shortly after the other two people were brought out, we were handed our official quarantine orders. I glanced through them and quickly saw that I was not being taken to my dorm. Instead, I was going to a government resort. I told the security guys this had to be wrong and they got on the phone to check. After many phone calls, we learned the MOH had changed its mind. We were supposed to go to the government resort and someone would later bring us our belongings from our dorms. At this point, I had no computer and no phone battery or way to charge my battery. In fact, three-fourths of the group at the airport had no way to contact the outside world without first returning to their dorm.

After an hour of negotiations, begging, and threats over the phone, we were allowed to return to our dorms to pick up our belongings. At 3:30 pm, I finally arrived at my government resort. It would have been quicker, but the driver managed to get lost twice.

The accommodations here are not terrible. The food will probably make me starve, but we’re close to the beach so we have a nice breeze. I have my own room in a bungalow. I can leave my room to walk around the rest of the bungalow and talk to people. The common areas are all open, so I can get fresh air. The room is actually bigger than the dorms and the bed is more comfortable. The worst part is that I still have no internet (obviously that will have changed by the time this is posted).

At this point, four Tech students have tested positive and several others are waiting for results. Everyone not in the hospital is being transported to the resorts, with the guys at one and the girls at another. For some reason, they decided to start this process at 11 pm on Monday.

After getting some sleep, I am feeling fine, though I know boredom will hit soon. That is where all of you come into play. You should all send me nice long emails, realizing I have plenty of time to send equally long (or probably longer) replies. Hope all is well in the US!

Supply Chain Logistics and some other things

As far as classes go, I have finished my first class and am now halfway into my second. The first class was Modern Chinese and Japanese History. Now I am onto the IE classes, starting with Supply Chain Economics. The material is sort of interesting, but after about an hour of it, it gets very boring. Then I realize I still have three more hours and that makes me want to cry. As you would expect, we are learning all of the aspects of managing a supply chain. That means we are looking at transportation routes, inventory management, etc.

Our first test was yesterday. It was probably the longest non-final I have ever taken. It was ten pages of multiple choice, true/false, short answer and math problems. It took me 1.75 hours and I was the first or second person done. None of the problems were too difficult, though I will always hate linear programming problems.

One of the problems on the test was also a routing problem. I think I have now done routing/shorting distance problems in at least five different classes (Supply Chain Logistics, Combinatorics, Linear and Discrete, Optimization, and Stochastics). I'm pretty sure i'm now qualified to work for MapQuest or GoogleMaps.

As part of the class, we took a tour of the local IBM manufacturer. My biggest takeaway from the tour was that IBM is working very very hard to get away from the image of being a dull, gray company. We repeatedly heard that one of their processors now comes in color instead of just gray. Additionally, a few months ago, they broke into teams within the company and each team was assigned a conference room to decorate. They had a $100 budget and had to work outside of normal office hours. They were incredibly proud of these conference rooms. We even got to see a power point presentation about the contest.

I'm being reminded of the blog name lately. I'm very very sick of Asian food of all types. I can't remember the last time I went this long without pizza and I really miss it. Plus I don't think more than 2 meals have actually filled me up. We went out to a burger place on Saturday. They put bread on our table and we ravenously scarfed it down. I did finally go to Little India last night for some Indian food. The Indian restraunt in Columbia is honestly better and it was a bit pricey, but still nice to have something different.

I stayed in town this past weekend but am leaving for Hong Kong tomorrow. A guy on our trip lived there for a few months so he has lots planned for us, starting with Macau and some gambling on Thursday.

Best Meal

Lots of crab and beer followed by fries and a McFlurry at McDonalds.S

Toilet Adventures

One of the things I've been intrigued by here are the restrooms. I think the U.S. has some of the most boring bathrooms in the world. You can expect the same things in almost any bathroom you enter: a toilet, toilet paper, a sink with soap, paper towels, and a hand dryer. Sure, the level of cleanliness changes, but not much.

In the countries I have visited thus far, the possibilities when you enter a restroom are much more exciting. First, not all of the stalls have toilets. You'll notice I didn't say restooms, I said stalls. At least half of the restrooms I've been in have given you an option, you can sit or squat. Why would someone choose to squat instead of sit? I have no idea. I think it's supposed to be a cleanliness thing, but that is still always going to be perplexing to me. I am at least thankful there are actual toilets everyone I've been so that I have not been caught pulling a Rachel ;-)

The next thing that is different is toilet paper. Many places do not have any. Some have places to put it and are simply out while other do not even seem to have an option. One place in Thailand had toilet paper hanging outside of the stall, so you had to decide how much you wanted in advance. Instead of toilet paper, most places have a hose. I have not tried this and do not care to. I cannot imagine how this can be done without making an even bigger mess.

The next thing is paying. I know that paying to use a restroom is not exclusive to Asia, however, I do not think I will ever understand it. It's never more than a few cents, but the principle of the matter still gets me. Also, I was at a mall in Malaysia and needed to use the restroom.. I started to walk in when I saw a sign that said this restoom was a "premier restroom" and would cost me 2 ringgit to enter. However, the restrooms on every other floor were free. I went to another restroom and it was perfectly fine. Since then, I keep wondering what could possibly make one restroom so much better that you have to pay for it.

The final thing that gets me are the handdryers. Think of all the different handdryers in the United States. The only real differences are whether or not the are automatic and the pressure the air blows. Here, that is just the beginning of the differences. Some make you put your hands down between two pieces of plastic and blow the air from both directions. Some are like the ones in the US. Many blow the air out at an angle. One blew the air straight out towards me. This was one of the worst and worked terribly. I'm getting better, but for awhile it was taking me 5 minutes to figure out how to use every dryer.

Thailand - - My New Favorite Country

A few business items before we begin.

1) I have stopped being lazy and finally posted pictures to facebook. You can all see them at:
http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=15924600&k=SYLTZXV6R4YM5AGBVD23S3 for Singapore
http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=15924600&k=Z6ETY6UR355GUCGCSEYXQVY for Malaysia
http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=15924600&k=SWAZ32QRW64M5AGBVD23S3 for Thailand

2) To those of you reading this through facebook, I didn't mean to freak out/confuse anyone with the "Asian Boyfriend" blog. I posted the blog to the website http://asiawithoutrice.blogspot.com/ and there the video showed up.

3) To those of you who did see the video, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I do what I can.

4) I have written some postcards! Now I just need to find a postoffice. I'm told it's in the student center, which means I need to find the student center.


So for those of you who haven't heard, I absolutely loved Thailand. The country was gorgeous. The people were incredibly friendly. Everything was unbelievably cheap. It was once again a trip to a foreign country that cost under $300, including travel, lodging, food, souvenirs and excursions. It helps that when you do the exchange rate, you first remove two zeroes from the price there.

One of my favorite things about Thailand was that it featured both beautiful beaches and mountains. Most of you know that I'm not a huge fan of beaches. However, we went snorkeling, which I haven't done since I was about 7, and I really enjoyed that. That water was really salty, so I could easily float on my stomach with my face in the water and see all of the reefs and fish.

The elephant ride was really fun. My elephant had a mind of it's own and it seemed clear that the guide had little to no control over it, but that just made it more fun. At one point, my elephant decided it was time to drink some water. This turned into him giving himself a bath. That turned into me getting a bath as he sprayed water everywhere. It was fun.

We went during the off-season (it's apparently monsoon season right now), so the hotel was fairly empty. The pool was amazing. I do not have any pictures, but I think some other people do, so I will try to steal them at some point. There were actually three pools, but the big one was big enough that it had a grass covered island in the middle. It also had a swim-up bar where we got mai thais in pineapple (or mahi mahis as I like to call them). They were amazingly good. I want to learn how to make them. One thing that I loved there (and in Singapore), is that there is tons of fresh fruit. I don't know when, if ever, I've had fresh pineapple. It was incredibly good. Actually, all Thai food is incredibly good.

Many of you have heard me say that I have some interest in doing Teach for America when I graduate. After traveling around here and realizing the food is in fact edible, I've started thinking about doing the Peace Corps as well. I obviously don't know for sure, but it's something I'm considering. I would want to go somewhere like Thailand or the Pacific islands.

By the way, some of you should stop stalking and start commenting :-P To those of you who have commented, I enjoy reading them! I miss everyone, though not so much that I'm ready to come home quite yet!

Asian Boyfriend

Mom, Dad, I want to let you know about my Asian boyfriend. I figured that since we've now taken it to a physical level, it was time for you to meet.

Thailand Update Coming

I will soon write all about the wonders of Thailand. For now, I am finishing the second of my two papers due tomorrow. I will say that I am very sunburned and in a bit of pain, but I loved Thailand and am convinced Mom or Dad should take the family there for our next family vacation.

And the Winner is. . .

McDonald's!

What can I say, I wanted some french fries! Post cards will be sent to all who participated as soon as I stop being lazy :-) And once I figure out where I can send them from.

MRT Rap

Remember how I said the Subway has it's own rap? Someone in our group found it on youtube, so now you can all enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1i5es62BGQ

H1N1 Flu

The swine flu has officially hit Singapore. I heard 7 people have been infected and they have all been from somewhere in North America. We have been affected in several ways. First, at any airport we fly into, when we get off the plane, they have a heat sensing camera that will look at your temperature. In Malaysia, two people in our group were pulled aside and their temperature was read through a thermometer that reads through their forehead.

Here on campus, there are several signs of awareness. I walked by the hospital the other day and EVERYONE was wearing a mask. It looked like something out of a movie. Also, NUS (the university) provided everyone with a thermometer. When we first arrived, we had to take our temperature and reporter. Periodically, the school sends out an email and we have to report our temperature by 10 am the next day. Nobody in our group was aware of this timeline. As such, we all got the email last night/this morning and promptly ignored it. Someone came to our class later to yell at us since not a single person had reported their temperature. You can either text it in through your cell phone or report it online. Since we were all in class, we all promptly made up our temperatures and texted those in (anything between 36-38 Celsius is acceptable). I would feel bad for making this up, but if you go online, you can simply check, "I do not have a fever," if you don't feel like you have a fever.

I'll let everyone know if I start oinking any time soon ;-)

A Day In the Life. . .

By popular demand, here is my normal routine:

7 a.m. Wake-up
7-8:30 get ready for class/check email/see how the Cardinals are doing/read the news. This is 7 pm eastern or 6 pm central, so if you want to catch me online, this is probably your best bet. Except for mom, she might have better luck at 5 am central ;-)
8:30-9 take the bus to class while breaking the rules by eating a poptart for breakfast on the bus
9-11 class
11-11:30 eat lunch. There are several food courts in the engineering building.
11:30-2 Study. I either go to the library (only about 5 minutes away) or there are lots of benches to sit on. All of the building are connected by covered walkways, so I usually find a bench in one of the walkways.
2-4 class.
4-6 Check email/be lazy
6-6:30 eat dinner. There are two food courts within 2 minutes of my dorm. For dinner and lunch the options are basically chicken and rice prepared in any Asian styling of your choice (Chinese, Japanese, Muslim, Indian, etc.)
7-11 (or so) Hit the town. One day I went to a mall. One day I went to Chinatown. Tonight I'm going to Little India for the first time. It varies, but I feel like the day is kind of a waste of studying abroad if I don't get out at some point.

The way our schedule is set up, we take each class for two weeks. The class meets twice a day for 2 hours each day. The first class is history. Being engineering majors, this is a little intense for us. We're not used to reading. Plus we have two papers due next Monday. They are only 5-7 pages each, but people are still a little freaked out. Though not so freaked out that we're canceling our plans to go to Thailand this weekend. . .

Transportation

To get around Singapore, I use a combination of taxis, buses, and the MRT (the subway). If you have 4 people, taxis are pretty cheap. No taxis are allowed on campus unless they are picking someone up or dropping someone off, so you have to call to get one, but it only takes a few minutes for them to arrive. Elsewhere in town, there are usually taxi stands so you only have to wait a few minutes. The buses are also convenient and run fairly frequently. However, I was on the school bus today when it rear-ended a car. Oops. I don't know that there was any actual damage.

The subway may be my favorite mode of transportation. Depending on the time of day, they can be very busy. However, it is worth taking the subway for the times I get to see the MRT Rap. That's right, their subway system has its own rap song, complete with music video. It is all about proper etiquette when loading and unloading the MRT. The pictures are stills from the video.

Of course, I also do lots of walking. You would think that walking is a fairly universal mode of transportation and would not cause many problems. However, you would be wrong. In the United States, it is generally understood that you should always walk on the right side of the hall or sidewalk. Additionally, when on an escalator, you can stand on the right side or pass on the left. There seems to be no such standard here. Cars drive on the left, so you would think everyone would stick to the left. No such luck. As a result, everyone is constantly running into one another. Additionally, there are random steps everywhere. To get into my bedroom, I have to step up. To get into my bathroom, I have to step down. This is the case everywhere. I am getting better, but I will not be surprised if I leave Singapore with a broken ankle.

In Malaysia, we stuck to the taxis and buses. You have to be careful with the taxis, because they like to charge you a flat rate instead of going on the meter. The meter is always more. However, in Singapore they are very strict about not letting you squeeze an extra person into the taxi, but that is not the case in Malaysia.

When we got to the airport, in Kuala Lumpur, we had 7 people trying to go to the same place. We didn't want to take two taxis, but the van only held 7 passengers. However, a guy told us he would go ahead and take us. Thus began the sketchest taxi ride of my life. First, we immediately had to stop at a gas station. He pulled into the station and lifted up the hood of his car next to a pump. He realized he was on the wrong side, so he got back in the car and pulled around to the other side, still with his hood up. He then proceeded to pump something in under the hood of the car. At first we assumed it was some strange way to get gas. But no, because once he finished, he had to pull into another pump to get gas. Again, he pulled in on the wrong side on his first attempt. While filling up, he went inside. We all sat there talking and listening to music until Yinka (one of the guys in the car) asked, "is it just me or is the car still running?" Sure enough, it is apparently standard practice to leave the engine running while you fill up on gas. Finally, we got moving again. We headed toward the city until we came to a round-about. We the proceeded to go around this round-about not once, not twice, but three times. The first time around, we all managed to see the sign pointing towards Kuala Lumpur. Not so with the taxi driver. However, he eventually managed to get us to our destination. I am still somewhat convinced that he must have just stolen the taxi and that was why he had no idea what he was doing.

When we returned to Singapore last night, we took a taxi from the bus station (it was cheaper than flying) back to our hotel. This became the flat out scariest taxi ride of my life. The speed limit most of the way was 70 km/h. Our driver decided 120 km/h was a much better speed. Honestly, I was okay with this. As some of you know, I tend to drive fast myself. But then our driver's head started bobbing. At first I thought he was just getting into the music. Then I looked at his eyes. Sure enough, he was falling asleep while he sped through the city. We stopped at a red light. He took a nap. We didn't start moving again until we made some noise to wake him up. I'm still not sure how we made it back alive.

Here are a few photos from Kuala Lumpur. The skirt I am wearing is the new skirt I bought in Singapore. The flowers on the light pole are the national flower of Malaysia. The pool was the pool at our hotel. Unfortunately, the photo does not really do it justice. The towers are the Potronus towers, which were the largest in the world in 2004. That's what big oil does for you. We went up to the observation bridge on teh 41st floor and you can see the view from there.

A Few Notes On Malaysia

Apparently I can actually be halfway good at haggling. I bought some (very fake) Gucci sunglasses. The guy offered them to me for 110RM. I laughed and walked away. As I was walking away, he started shouting other prices to me, going down to 70RM. This was still way too much, so I refused to go back. A couple of minutes later, he came to the stall I was at and dragged me back to his stall. He offered "just for me" 50RM. This was the price a friend bought for his sunglasses, but it was still too much, so I offered 20RM. He said no, so I walked away again. He came back to get me again. He finally went down to 30RM. I offered 25RM and refused to budge from that. He finally relented and gave them up. So yeah, went from about $30 to about $7. Not too bad.

Nobody in Singapore or Malaysia uses knives. A lot of places have forks and spoons rather than chopsticks, but never knives. I've already gotten used to this to the extent that I got halfway through my eating my lunch with my fork doing all of the cutting on Saturday before I finally realized there was a knife I could use.

Malaysia is a Muslim country. Everyone who went this weekend knew that. However, it didn't really sink in until we realized all of the hotel rooms had a copy of the Koran instead of the Bible.

I had the two scariest taxi rides of my life this weekend (admittedly, I have not ridden in too many taxis back home). I will go into details tomorrow, but for now I will simply say I am thankful to be alive.

I realized why Asians are all skinny. They eat just as much fried food as us and just as many carbs, but all of their portions are about 1/3 the size of ours.

I gave in and had American food this weekend. A prize in the form of one of the first postcards I send to the US to anyone who can guess which fast-food chain I went to.

We went to a bar Friday night. We had to pay 20RM for the first beer and each subsequent beer was 1RM. For those who don't know the conversion, that means we were buying beer for 35 cents.

I spent a three day weekend in a foreign country and spent under $300, including all lodging, airfare, and food. Beat that Western world.

I will post pictures tomorrow, I promise.

Typos

So I just reread my last post. Yes, I do realize there are 50 million grammar/spelling mistakes. no, I am not going to fix them. I'm too tired/lazy.

Shop Til You Drop

Today was my second time in a Singapore mall but the first time to do any actually shopping. I can now say that I am going to end up doing much more shopping. I did not look in any of the American stores (Gap, Nike, etc.), but from glancing in them, they look very similar to the stores in the US. However, all of the other stores are rather different. The stores are very small and jammed full of clothes. The fashion is pretty cute. There tends to be more variety in styles and less variety in sizes, though I could find things that fit. Also, no two stores had the same things. I kind of think that each store has its own little sweat shop associated with it. The clothes are a little cheaper than in the US, and the shoes are much much much cheaper. I bought a skirt and 3 pairs of shoes. As those of you who know me well can probably imagine, I easily could have bought 10 more pairs of shoes, but I eventually made myself stop looking.

So the first pair I bought (the ones on the bottom) were S$30, so about $20. The strap around the ankle and then hook on a way that is really cool, but I have no idea how to explain. Anyway, I thought that was a pretty good deal for really cute shoes. But then I found my other two pairs. Those were each S$10, or about $7. They are honestly a little higher than I would normally get, but for that price, I could not resist.

I know it's a little terrible that the first pictures I'm posting are of shoes, but I will get more pictures up soon. In case your wondering, the spot on the lower right corner is from when my camera got into a fight with a pond in Central Park over spring break. Oops!

Tidbits

• I just booked plane tickets to Kuala Lumpur that cost $35 including taxes
• They take the term "ice cream sandwich" very literally here (think dyed wonder bread)
• Durians are as gross as they smell (though some people disagreed)
• According to some of the guys here - in the US, all of the ugly girls go to tech schools. In Asia, the pretty girls go to tech schools and the ugly girls study liberal arts and do nothing with their lives
• I don't think I've paid more than S$3.5 for any meal

Culinary Experiences

As most of you know, I am what is commonly referred to as a "picky eater." The only vegetable I genuinely enjoy is lettuce. There are only about five fruits in the world that I like. Oh, and I don't like rice. So before I left for Asia, everyone was very curious about what I was going to eat. To be perfectly honest, I was also very curious.

So far, I am making an effort not to eat any American food. First of all, it's more expensive. Some of us actually almost went to Hooter's last night, but back out when we realized it's price about the same as in the US and we've already grown accustomed to $3 meals. Instead, the only American food I have had is Poptarts for breakfast, which I hope no one will fault me for as asking me to be adventurous first thing in the morning is simply a bit too much.

So without further ado, here are some of the notable foods I have had so far:

Pig's ear (kind of tastes like bacon, but the cartilege gives it a crunchy texture that is rather disgusting)
Chicken feet (no one else was willing to try these since they were still in the shape of feet, but they really weren't bad)
Duck tongue (supposedly a delicacy and actually good enough that I may get it again)
Rice water (absolutely disgusting. I was really thirsty when I had it and still couldn't force down more than two sips. It was like water mixed with sugar and butter.)
Roast pork and duck (both good and not really adventurous)
Eel jelly or maybe it was squid jelly, I don't really remember (pretty gross. It's basically black jelly that tastes terrible)
Seasoned peaches (just dried peaches, but they put a little bit of seasoning on them, hence the name)

I will keep updating the list as I try more interesting foods. So far I've realized that I'm more adventurous than other people when it comes to meat, but there are fewer non-meat dishes that I enjoy.

Welcome to the East

Hello from Singapore!

We're going to start this post with something competely unrelated to Asia and say, hooray for the Cardinals sweeping the Cubs! During all of my layovers, I made a point of finding internet if only to allow me to check on the Cardinals progress.

I'll start this all out by telling everyone of a little fun I had with my parents. Before I left for my trip, my family and friends all decided it was a great idea to tell me all kinds of travel horror stories. These stories consisted of everything from losing papers, to booking plane tickets on the wrong day, to getting stuck in tsunamis and much more. As such, before I left I was having a little bit of anxiety over my own travel plans, especially as I was completing the first part of the trip on my own. I arrived safely in Singapore, but I decided to go ahead and let my parents think otherwise, sending them the following email:

Hi Mom and Dad.

So traveling is certainly an adventure. As planned, I met up with the group in LA and flew to Hong Kong. However, things got a little interesting in Hong Kong. Apparently, something was wrong with my reservation and they did not think I had a seat on the flight to Singapore. So instead, I was supposed to fly to Laos and catch a connecting flight there to Singapore. So I flew to Laos. And now I am still in Laos. The plane I was supposed to catch apparently had mechanical problems and could not make it to Singapore. I'm being told that I should be able to get on a flight in the morning. They gave me money for a hotel, but some people told me that it's really not safe to go to one on my own as a female here, so I'm planning on spending the night in the airport.

I will try to update you again in the morning. I'm not sure I'll be able to. As you know, my laptop battery doesn't exactly last long.

Love you!


Now, I will go ahead and say (much to the dismay of some of you), that I am not pure evil. As such, I sent my brother and sister the following email:

Hi Joe and Maria!

So as I had said to both of you before, I decided to freak out mom and dad a little. Here is the email I sent them, and then a real email you can forward on to them.

insert email here (no need to repeat it)

So here is what's really going on:

I am now safely in Singapore and staying at the dorms in NUS (National University of Singapore). The flight to Hong Kong was incredibly long, but I slept for almost all of it. I probably slept for at least 10 hours. I met up with the group in LA, and most of the people are really nice. However, no one was really seated next to anyone else on the flight.

The Hong Kong airport was my first experience in Asia. Some people bought some food and I trid a little, but did not have a whole lot. In Hong Kong, we had to go through security again. I was amazed by the number of people wearing masks. Some of the people without masks were simply covering their mouths with a cloth. There were also a few people on the plane wearing masks, including all of the flight attendants!

The flight to Singapore was not made. Again, I slept for a couple of hours. The food on this flight was pretty bad, though it probably would have been better if I liked eggs.

Once in Singapore, we went through immigration. Walking up to immigration, they had a heat detecting camera looking at everyone to see if anyone had a fever. Luckily, nobody did. From the airport, we took a bus to the dorms.

Singapore is absolutely gorgeous. It almost reminds me of Miami with the tropical climate and the very open buildings. The architecture is amazing. The buildings all have crazy lines and twisting shapes. I don't really know how to describe it, but I'll try to take some pictures.

The weather here is even worse then I had been warned. Think of the most humid day you've ever experienced in Missouri. This is worse. I want to be able to do some running, so hopefully it won't be terrible in the mornings.

We have to get up earlish tomorrow, so I am going to sign off now. I hope you enjoyed my first email! I will talk to you more soon!


So my mom immediately called my sister and was definitely freaking out, so my sister took pity on her and told her the truth. However, my dad did not think to talk to Joe or Maria, and had to wait until I emailed him the next morning to learn the truth. I know, I'm a great daughter.

Anyway, I will write much more, but just wanted to get things started here.