singapore update

okay sorry, I’m back. hostel number one was called wow hostel, don’t have pictures but I hope to be back there sometime, I had to leave after 2 days because they ran out of room, and now I’m in this place called footprints.

wow was right by/in little chinatown, so that was comforting. little changes. food was good, oh and there was a free breakfast every day, all the toast and strawberry jam you could eat, yum.  people were nice, made friends with some cool kids from switzerland, but they left today for indonesia =(

getting ahead of myself, let’s back up. first day: slept in airport until 7. went to hostel, found it with a minimum of lost.  dropped off my bag, couldn’t stay inside until noon. so I took the mrt to city hall, got out and walked around.  it was malls. malls in every direction as far as the eye could see. shops everywhere, all selling things I’m too poor to buy.  fun to walk around in though, and it was air conditioned, which was nice because it’s about 90 degrees and 85% humid. it’s like being home.  oh and everyone speaks english, so that’s nice too.  after looking around the malls for a while, I just walked.  found lots of interesting things, I basically walked around for about 12 hours.  I think singapore actually started when the city had a contest to see who could make the coolest modern building.  there’s also the world’s biggest ferris wheel and the world’s biggest fountain. haven’t seen the fountain yet though. 

first impressions:

people seem taller here. there are 3 kinds of people: regular asians, really dark asians which is like pacific islander or something maybe, and indians.  there are probably more, but I haven’t been to the little muslim/arab part of town, you’re welcome mom.  everything is too expensive.  this was a poor choice of places to visit when I’m still waiting for my first paycheck.  I’m getting really good at finding little hole in the wall local places to eat though, you can find a good meal here for like $5 if you look hard enough.  but just to give you an idea of the price discrepancy between here and taiwan, I’m paying twice as much for a hostel and a beer in a 7-11 is 8 dollars. how is that possible, drinking would be ridiculous here. 

back on point: everything’s in english which is an amazing change of pace.  there are a lot more white people here.  but the weirdest thing when I got to new hostel was I didn’t notice how few white people there were, I was overwhelmed by the lack of asians, I’m so used to being tightly packed in a crowd of asian people that anything else feels weird.

and now pictures!

singapore

okay, plane didn’t crash, everything’s great.  i landed at about 2 am, and rather than pay like 20 bucks for a taxi to the hostel where there was one bed in an 8 bed room where i’d pay another 18 dollars, i slept in the airport for 5 hours. apparently this is common, i joined a group of like 4 other people sleeping in the little kid play area, it had a rubbery soft floor, almost as nice as the plywood with foam topper i normally sleep on.

so at 7, i got on the mrt, took it to my hostel, dropped of my bag, and started exploring.  i’m in starbucks now where there’s wifi, everything’s fine. things seem a little more expensive here than in taiwan, maybe like 20% more, so looks like i’ll be living cheap for a little while.  i’m here until the 15th, so i’ve got two weeks to look around.  i had to stay that long because when i go back to taiwan, princeton review training starts on the 6th and is every weekday so i’d have to make a visa run either on the 3rd or on the 10th, and i definitely want to make as few visa runs as possible on my own dime. princeton review will pay for a trip to hong kong when you need it, and i’ll be working for them then, so i’m hoping if i can get them to like me they’ll reimburse me for the next trip, I already bought the ticket.  so i had to leave here after the 11th or 12th, and the flight on the 15th was about 150 dollars cheaper.  worth it even if singaore’s a little more expensive.  this is probably more detail than you care about, just wanted to articulate it for myself.

jimmy should be here on thursday the 5th, so i’ll probably see him the 6th or something, it’ll work out. 

haven’t really seen a lot of the hostel yet, better description to come.

first singpore impressions:

oh my god, there are plants here, i’ve missed plants so much and i didn’t even realize it, also the air is cleaner here.  there are definitely more westerners here.  also more indian people? i don’t know they might not be indian, just like pacific islander or something. it’s pretty hot here, high of 90 like every day while i’m here, so assumedly it’s sunny, which would make for darker people? i don’t know, i really haven’t done a lot of research on this place yet.  wanted to make my own first impression.  my hostel’s in kind of a shabby looking area, but around city hall and once you get into the downtown area things look really nice.  haven’t seen a lot, only been exploring for like an hour, so this is a very general impression.

okay i’m out

singapore travel adventures

i’m waiting at my gate to go to singapore.  i am here over an hour early. this is due to a combination of luck and planning in vastly unequal amounts.

i originally misread the departure time, 21:00, as 11 pm. whoops. saw that this morning. then nearly missed a bus to go to the airport because i got held up in the hostel with packing other little last minute things. then i got to the airport and discovered that apparently i’m awful at researching on the singapore government immigration site because they won’t let you in without a return ticket, which i have not purchased. luckily, i was able to use the airport internet to buy a plane ticket using my debit card, after my credit card got declined twice, even though i am not nearly maxed out and i used it yesterday.  got a pretty good deal too. but now i’m here, and nothing else can go wrong except that i’m really hungry and there are no restaurants on this side of customs, what were these airport planners thinking, every store here sells basically only booze and ipod chargers.  there is a soda machine, and a coke costs $30. i have $28 in change and a $500 bill, which the machine will not accept. =(

so overall everything went swimmingly, even though this was by far the worst planned trip ever. thank goodness. i have learned a valuable lesson today. maybe two. the second one can be that i should also carry smaller denominations of money.

cold

oh my god, all i do in this country is get sick, seriously what’s wrong with this place, now i get why everyone wears the masks

singapore

alright, going to singapore, leavin on the 1st at apparently 1130 pm. so i’ll be getting in a little bit late.  hope cabs aren’t that expensive because i do not plan on walkin around then on my first night with my big suitcase.  might only bring the small suitcase actually, i can cram stuff in there.  anyway, not a lot to write about.  psyched to see jimmy. i think one of the gales mentioned i was going there to him, thanks for making things happen cousins!

ahhhhhhh

i got my dream job ahhhhhh

wow, i might even make over $30,000 a year, who needs engineering anyway.  also, i might be seeing my cousin jimmy in singapore, small world, super excited. today was a pretty darn good day. now I need an apartment. things are lookin up.

recovered

alright let’s get back into this. 

not sick anymore, feelin good, back at like 85% maybe. just in time for my visa to expire. so I’m making a run to singapore for maybe like 12 days, pretty excited. buying a ticket today or tomorrow, probably leaving in 6 days. 

I finished all 3 rounds of interviews for the princeton review, I hear there are 5 people applying for 2 jobs, hope I get one. it would end up paying about 30000 more than I’d dreamed, which would be awesooome. I’ve been waiting to hear back for like 3 days, the suspense is killing me.  I sent a thank you letter to the people I interviewed with and all that stuff, at least I can rest easy knowing I did everything right and as well as I could.

gonna go talk to the immigration office about if I can get my 2 month visa renewed or if I have to leave the country every month until I get a job. I’ll keep the world posted on stuff now, blog recommenced.

siiickkkk 2

warning this one gets pretty personal

okay so the fever's over, but the throat's still murdering me.  of most concern is that being sick has made my immune system into a beast, and it decided to attack my large intestine. (ulcerative colitis flare up)

this is the worst it's been since i was diagnosed, maybe i should have seen this coming with the stress of moving here and new diseases and different foods, all of which might be triggers for a flare.  i've had to go to the bathroom almost a dozen times today, i think i'm gonna call a gastro doctor tomorrow, if this doesn't sort itself out real quick i might have to go back on steroids, which would suck because you swell up like a balloon, get covered in tiny zits like all over your body and just feel like crap all the time.  i looked up this other thing called vsl#3 that i want to try, but i don't think they ship to taiwan hooraaaay

this is just a lot to deal with right now

siiickkkk

see title, i am feverish and in bed, better updates later

semester at sea, part 2

alright so quick recap. people came to taipei and stayed in my room and the room next to me, they came from the us and canada, they live on an ex-cruise ship that now takes kids all overt he world while teaching them college classes. “semester at sea.” costs like $24000 or something but it includes a semester of classes, a four month cruise, stops in at least ten countries in majorish cities, food, all that. and the boats full of college kids. how did i never do this. regrets.

anyway, they’re in my room and the room across the hall, i invite myself along with them to fun things on the first night, karaoke, clubbing, exploring, etc. see last post for pictures.

next day way too early in the morning, everyone wakes up, walks around, eats in an “american style” restaurant, we decide i can go hangliding the next day in keelung, i run and grab stuff from my hostel, we all go to a park, yada yada details later, i’m tired, here are pictures from the next day when we went to keelung.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2037428&id=1096890440&saved

you should be able to see them even if you’re not on facebook. if not I’ll put them up here tomorrow.