Welcome to Singapore!

Flight was long, what can I say. My feet were a bit swollen for two days afterwards =X I watched like... 10 movies and read a whole book! Due to some delays, me and another EAPSI fellow who was on the same flight, Katelyn, didn't get into our rooms at Graduate Hall at NTU till 6 or 7am. Sleep was glorious :)

The first day that we were here was "free" so a few of us went to the mall to buy some supplies and take in the atmosphere. Malls are super popular here and shopping is big, so it was pretty crowded. 

Had the first experience here with Singaporean food, which can be really really cheap. For example, chicken rice, which, although is more the size of a snack for ME, is about $1.50 (and that's less in US dollars). Other, larger meals, are around $3-$5 if you go to the cheaper places. Eating out is definitely going to be what I'll have to do the most, as we don't really even have a way to cook food, nor a fridge (except one in a common room downstairs). Riding the MRT (metro) and taking the bus is also super cheap, around a dollar or so. Coffee is around 50 cents.

Waiting for the bus.

More waiting for the bus.

On our first official day we had the opening ceremony (where one person stated that Singapore has two types of weather: outside (humid) and inside (air conditioned)), met with my host advisor, and did a whole bunch of administrative stuff (like getting some checks!), and then went to the mall AGAIN (though a different one). Had my first "hawker center" (basically open food court with food stands with huge variety of food) experience, though this one was air conditioned. 

Not the best picture but you get a sense of the LARGE amounts of cheap food =p

English in Singapore can be a bit difficult to understand, as people will often not only use slang, but also words from other languages, like Chinese dialects and Malay etc. It sounds English, but you catch yourself asking again and again what the person said. At least all the signs are in English!

Also, here they drive on the left side of the road like in England (and correspondingly have the driver's seat on the right side). 

Singapore also has surprisingly a lot of open space and doesn't feel very crammed-in like you'd expect from a small island nation.