Sunday, June 5, 2011

First Day

I have arrived safe and sound in Singapore! My flight landed around 6:30AM on Saturday morning, so I took a taxi to the apartment, located in the Colonial Quays District, which is the historic heart of the city near the riverfront. The buildings are remnants of the British colonial era, though there are new malls everywhere.

I took a few pictures of my home for the next nine weeks. It is located on a very cute street dotted with various restaurants. We are on the 3rd floor. The apartment is loft-style, with enormously high vaulted ceilings. Luckily, there is internet access as well as air conditioning. There's also a flat-screened TV, though as far as we can tell, we only have six channels, only three of which are in English.

Here's the what you see when you enter. We have a cute little kitchen that we hopefully will be utilizing.


Our dining table/work space...


And bedroom! The window is gorgeous and lets in lots of natural lighting, though the view outside isn't the best.

On the food front, I've been exploring some of the city's specialties, such as thick toast for breakfast. I got this from a place called Toast Box in the airport when I arrived early in the morning. It was spread with yummy peanut butter!


Delicious desserts! These are mango snowy ice with tapioca pearls, mango with bean curd, and an almond and black sesame paste.



And a beautiful green tea snowy ice! It was really refreshing during the hot and humid night.


I've also enjoyed sushi, a red bean steamed bun, frozen yogurt, and Thai food. Unfortunately I probably won't eat out all the time and therefore will have to do some cooking. There are so many restaurants here. It is said that food is Singapore's national obsession, and I can believe it!

We are starting a bucket list of activities we want to do in Singapore. It includes going on the nighttime safari at the Singapore Zoo, visiting the Little India and Chinatown neighborhoods, and exploring the Marina Bay Sands, a tourist destination, museum, and casino on the riverfront. Check out the amazing architecture! It's a ship balanced on top of the three towers.


Tomorrow I start work and I hope to get over my jetlag by then. Wish me luck!

6 comments:

  1. Your place looks really nice! You should definitely tell me when you guys want to check out those places; I'd love to join you.

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  2. that green tea/red bean snowy ice looks AMAZING. You're going to have so much fun and delicious food :D

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  3. Seems a little nicer than dorms during summer classes, lol.

    Hey, Molly, I am going to China in the Fall Semester for a study abroad, and I'm concerned that I won't be able to keep in touch with people back in the States. I even tried your blog on a testing website for the Chinese Firewall and it came up as blocked. Do you have any advice for keeping in touch while in China?

    Hope you enjoy Singapore and stay cool!

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  4. Jen: We'll be in touch!

    Connie: It was quite delicious! I bet you'll have similar foods in Taiwan!

    Aaron: There are lots of ways to keep in touch while in China. Gmail and Yahoo work, and probably your school email as well. The reason my blog is blocked is because Blogger is blocked, but I believe WordPress isn't if you want to keep a blog. Facebook is blocked, unfortunately. Yale has a special program that I downloaded so I could have access to everything, anywhere, regardless of the firewall, so I'm not sure if your school has something similar.

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  5. Thanks, Molly. I contacted the Yale study abroad office and they said that I would need something called a VPN. Apparently, it works by having someone in a country outside of China acting as the internet hub, allowing VPN-users to work as though they were in that country. It seems like a good idea so I'm going to look into it. Otherwise, I guess I'll be fine... as I cry myself to sleep pressing refresh on youtube...

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