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.