The Important Stuff

So pretty much, my posts have been about the fun things going on in Singapore so far, but it might be a good idea to give information about some of the important things like classes, transportation, etc. soooo here we go!

Transportation
Pretty simple, and cheap. Coming from Hawai'i this transit system is amazing. The main means of transportation for college students is called the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) its basically a computer automated subway system that travels all through Singapore. The trains come about once every 5-10 minutes and take you  almost wherever you want to go. When you initially buy the card you use to pay the fair, its $12, but you get $7 credit and can refill it whenever you want. Careful though, you can only refill with a minimum of $10 at a time... I didnt realize that once and had to borrow some money from a friend until i got to an ATM :-p. There are also your typical buses and taxi services that are easy to catch as well.

On campus, since it is so huge, they have complimentary shuttle buses that run every 10 minutes or so and go to different parts of the campus which is really convenient because it's so hot here!!

Class Registration
...one word. Crazy. So unlike our school when everyone adds classes based on your class standing, here everyone registers at the same time. For exchange students, the classes were picked for us from a list of about 10-12 classes that we would want to take. My advice is to pick as many classes as you can that will help you graduate, as early as you can. Also, each faculty (or subject) has a different registration time and method. So for example, I am currently in both the business faculty and the arts and sciences faculty. So when I wanted to add more business classes (because they only gave me one) I had to follow a completely separate system for trying to add classes then the arts and science method. If that isn't confusing enough, the local students have it even worse. On top of all of that they have a bidding system in order to register for classes..which doesn't sound like a bad idea, but definitely took me a while to understand, I'm just glad I don't have to deal with that!

Dorms/ Meal Plans
The dorm (or hostel as they call it out here) that I am staying in is actually brand new. It's similar in comparison to our freshman dorms at UH. I live in a whole separate complex just for the hostels called University Town which is right next to campus. It has about 7 residence halls and a bunch of places to eat, a campus bar, and an amazing studying facility with access to free usage of Macs and PCs.

The meal plan is mandatory for some halls, but not for the graduate housing (much like our apartments at UH). The food they serve is pretty good here. We share a dining hall with one other residence hall, and it serves a good variety of food. Asian cuisine is the most popular, followed by Muslim, and then their idea of Western food (which honestly....is pretty bad so no one ever eats it!)

Sports
NUS has a TON of sports to do. Everything from water polo, to rugby, karate, and even kayak polo (water polo with kayaks!!). There are plenty of clubs to join here for sports which i will check up on and give a more in depth update next week.

That's all the info I have for now... classes start tomorrow so I will have a better idea of the class work load then!

Singapore National Day

Today was National Day in Singapore. It's pretty much our equivalent to 4th of July. There were thousands of people gathered around the Marina Bay to watch the fireworks and show that was absolutely amazing. The Singapore Navy rode by in boats, the Air Force flew jets and helicopters carrying the Singapore flag as well. I went with a large group of people, about 300 of us met at a train station and walked over to where the fireworks were. So far, my time in Singapore has been amazing. I've already met a ton of new people (mostly exchange students) and I have a few really good friends already.

Classes start next week so everyone is doing as much as they can now and enjoy our last few days of freedom before the competitiveness of the Singapore academic world starts. On another note, I've had the chance to try the cuisine in Singapore and not only is it cheap, but its amazing. There are many little restaurants to go to, and where I find the best are the places in little India and China town because they have authentic food for a quarter of the price of a restaurant and its just as good.

Later on this week, we will be going to the beach that is pretty famous here, and I will start putting pictures in my blogs now that I have a camera that works properly!

Day 1

So today was the first day here in Singapore. After a rocky start of arriving at 3am and trying to check into a dorm without a cell phone! But honestly couldn't have asked for a better experience so far. I ended up making friends with ad couple of guys who were also checking in late, and before you know it, by 10am we have a group of 6 people eating breakfast together. Mostly today was a lot of "official" paper work kind of stuff, paying fees, going to orientations, blah blah blah. But through all of that I have already met a lot of exchange students that I will definitely see around campus and even in my classes in the business school here. We were all supposed to go out tonight to celebrate the end of a successful day at this event called Singapore Night, but 5 minutes before we met up, it started pouring cats and dogs... so that kind of put a bummer to the end of the night. Hopefully if the weather permits, we will still go out tonight, but apparently Singapore rain and weather is ridiculously unpredictable. Well that's all for now, stay tuned for updates!! P.S. the view from my dorm room= amazing

The journey begins

Welcome to my new blog!! This is going to document my experiences for the next few months while I study in Singapore from UH manoa. First and foremost, I must start off by thanking the Freeman family for offering me a scholarship to study in Asia. Without this I would not be able to have this opportunity so I will always be grateful to them for this life changing experience. Currently I'm sitting in the airport at HNL waiting to board the plane.. piece of advice for traveling.... Don't count on the airline having WiFi on the flight because apparently mine doesnt, so its going to be interesting to entertain myself for 18 hours. I'm so excited to see what happens once I land in Singapore and get settled in.. I'm getting picked up by a car service when I land at the airport, not a bad idea to consider if you're going to a foreign place and don't know your way around..relatively cheap too, only about $50 in Singapore actually. That's about it for now but I will update when I arrive and get settled in my dorm!!