Australia Day at Marina Bay Sands

Being only one of two undergraduate exchange students within my faculty (NIE) at Nanyang (NTU), orientation activities have been a little sparse on the ground. I've been caught in this awkward situation whereby I'm not specifically invited to university wide events as NIE mostly acts as a separate, independent entity and NTU assumes that they're doing their own thing with overseas students, however with so few students, NIE hasn't organised any orientation activities which may have helped with the struggle in the first few weeks. I was supposed to have a buddy but that seems to have failed considering I haven't met her yet (this being the third week of the semester). With this in mind, I saw that the civil and environmental engineering club was organising a day out at Marina Bay, with local students acting as tour guides to those on exchange. I've met a few people who are studying within the engineering faculty while on exchange as NTU is supposedly well respected for its courses in this area, so I knew some of the people going. What else could I do but crash the party?   After all, I didn't have anything else on!

Before actually heading off to marina bay, we participated in some icebreaking activities. I don't know about anyone else but I feel like icebreaking activities do they opposite of what they're supposed to - everyone feels more awkward afterwards than they did to begin with! Despite this, I was happy to be going out and celebrating Australia Day with some new friends. 

                                  

I found the Aussies - playing criket (badly) wearing Australia day onesies and (of course!) drinking beer. 

                          

Before beginning the tour, the leaders of the group fed us which was fantastic as I'd skipped lunch! We tried some foods that are specifically for Chinese New Year which is on the 31st Jan/1st Feb. 

                                    

                                    

                                    

Mareena (from the US) and I 

Excuse my dodgy hair but we'd just finished line dancing! The locals taught us how to do the electric slide to folk music - I don't think I've laughed so much in ages! Most of us were pretty hopeless until we got the hang of it: it wasn't really that difficult, I think we were just laughing too hard to concentrate. I have to admit, despite being stared at by all the other  tourists, it was a lot of fun. 

Aussie Aussie Aussie!

Shooting a new Singapore airlines ad perhaps? 

Blurry I know but I think the lights on the double helix bridge look amazing!

After exploring and having dinner, we rushed around the bay to try and make the light show. Occurring at 8pm and 9.30pm every night, you can see this show by catching the Bayfront MRT, and exiting the shops onto the promenade. Following this we headed to another display in Gardens by the bay, specifically with the Super Trees! Showing at both 7.45pm and 8.45pm all week, it's best to lie on the step under the main tree as its from here that you can get the best view - it was pretty amazing. The lights and designs on the trees change in time with music and considering their size, it is something to see! 

 

                             

I really enjoyed exploring other aspects of Marina Bay that I didn't see in my last visit. Despite being a tourist area, it is definitely worth seeing if you visit Singapore. I had a great day, and was really thankful that the others included me despite not being an engineer! I was thinking of everyone back home - I hope you all had a fantastic day as well. Although I wished I had some vegemite with me, just to see the looks on people's faces when they tried it... 

Chinatown Night Markets

Tuesday saw a group of us head to Chinatown, and as an added bonus, we found the Night Markets! After exiting the MRT we headed towards the Maxwell hawker centre which was recommended to me by my friend Jenny as having great deserts and the best chicken rice in Singapore! (The latter of which was taste tested by my friends). 

Decorations to celebrate the Year of the Horse

Love the coloured lanterns

Fake cherry blossoms at the temple - I'd love to see real ones!

This sugarcane juice was really nice and I didn't find it too sweet

After stalking people so we could steal their table, we decided on getting a few dishes and sharing so we could try lots of different foods. Jennifer got the famous chicken rice which was apparently quite good, Min got noodles of some sort and Saloni bought carrot cake (different to the Western version) which was recommended to her. I bought some dumplings from this store - vegetables, sweet potato and I bought two pandan (which had a coconut flavour) dumplings to try for desert! 

Carrot cake - black and white versions

Vegetable dumplings

Pandan Dumplings - they were soooo good! 

After basically eating until we felt like we were going to explode, we wandered around the markets that seemed to be held on all the backstreets of Chinatown. While most of the stuff was touristy or meant for those celebrating the new year, it was still amazing to be able to explore the stalls. I think we spent two hours there and we still weren't able to explore it all!

Mochi - I really want to try some next time we visit the markets

I love this photo! 

All in all I really enjoyed the few hours we spent in Chinatown. The meal at the hawker centre was the best I've had in Singapore so far! I'd like to go back soon and try something else as I definitely preferred Chinatown to Little India. Now all I need to do is discover more fantastic hawkers corners and I'll be set! Shouldn't be too hard in a city that eat, sleeps and shops....

The Week That Was

This week has been pretty mental - the only excuse I have for the lack of posts on this blog. Monday began at 9.30 with 7 hours of classes that day! I was mentally exhausted by the end of it, reminded of all the work that had to be done this semester (in between going on holiday of course). It seems that the National Institute of Education loves its group work. Although I am the only person on exchange in most of my classes, people have been quite nice in including me into their groups. Tuesday was also a bit lackluster in terms of exciting events to report on. I went to class and also went for a swim later in the day. This shouldn't have been an odd experience but it was! Apparently after 5pm, they shut off either end of the pool for "beginners" to use. This means that if you're attempting to swim laps, you have to swim across the pool (the opposite direction to which you would normally swim). Apart from the Asians  and their inability to swim in a straight line, this also frustrated me as it meant that I couldn't do the set I had planned, particularly as this pool didn't have a pace clock either. Will have to try the other pool on campus - although it was entertaining to see the other "swimmers" try and speed up to look good!

Wednesday morning involved classes, cleaning and laundry - how exciting! (not) A group of us headed out to Clarke Quay that night ... supposedly for ladies night at the clubs. Although we didn't make it to the club, we ended up hanging out on this bridge with a load of other international people. I ended up meeting some really interesting people, particularly some cool South Korean girls! After getting a drink spilled on me, trying to make conversations with drunk morons and my feet dying from the heels, I gave up and headed home. It was fun but only for the first hour or two. I plan to actually go back to a club at some point - I've heard good things about Kyo. 

Before I had red alcohol spilt on my nice new WHITE top 

Because we didn't wear these heels for no reason... 

Following classes and errands on thursday, Saloni and I headed out to visit Little India. When I was reading about the best places to go in Singapore, I have to say that little India didn't appeal to me all that much. Since Sonali wanted to head there anyway, I tagged along and I felt that this was as the name suggested - a smaller, less crowded part of India transplanted into Singapore. The first thing you notice on exiting the Little India MRT is the smell - not pleasant that's for sure!

We visited the temple, but were both really uncomfortable First of all, it looked shady from the street - it didn't look how I imagined a temple to be and it was a bit weird that no one greeted us or made sure we were wearing appropriate attire or anything like that! Then Saloni went forward and I stood towards the back so as to not interrupt the people meditating. I take another step so I'm not standing right next to this guy's head (he's lying on this filthy floor) and he says I can't go too close! Excuse me? I'm wearing pants in 35 degrees so that I could visit this temple and be respectful at the same time, but I can't go closer than the above picture? Rude! The people there creeped us out anyway so we left pretty quickly. 

Mango Lassy - yum!

Friday was also a bit of a write off. I had to do boring errands like setting up a local bank account which seemed easy at first but has since been complicated by people's inability to check that they have everything they need from me before I leave the store. Can you tell that bureaucracy and paperwork has been frustrating me lately? Other activities that day included (more) cleaning as well as making a salad with dumplings for dinner - so good! 

Today has been a fantastic way to end the week - shopping trip! I went with a friend to Jem Mall at Jurong East and did some damage to my bank account. I actually found a couple of items and really enjoyed being able to buy from shops not available in Australia!

Gave into temptation and started the day with a chestnut macchiato - it was pretty good!

More yum North Indian food

Mum gave me one of these for Xmas - they are great at organising electronic items, especially if you're travelling!

Also gave into the temptation that is Sephora.. will be testing the volume spray and nail polish tonight

There's a mini haul and that (almost) ends the week that was. I'm posting this blog a little early as I'm headed out to a beach party tonight on Sentosa Island. I hope you enjoyed this massive post and I will try to be back soon with another one for your reading pleasure. Have a good week!