Some time has passed and at this moment I have settled into my room at NTU (Nanyang Technological University). I cleaned and unpacked, reported to the International Student Centre and got my laptop some internet. However, a long journey preceded this moment. One of preparations, enthusiasm but also some tension that comes with the approach of myself leaving. I wanted to enjoy my time left at home and thus, I decided not to do more than necessary for my exchange: I enrolled for several things, applied for a student visa and printed all the papers I needed; I did not, however, know much about the country. My not being able to answer the questions below led to some reactions of amazement: what is the climate like? How many people live in Singapore? What languages do they speak there?
By now, I have looked up the information and also experienced some of it: hot (about 30 degrees during the day, 23 during the night) combined with occasional rain showers; more than 4,6 million people; English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil.
I think I was supposed to write a story on my blog a while ago; sorry for the delay, university. But I know why I didn't: I have to be honest and say that stories about the preparations and no experiences are not that interesting. Therefore, I will now share some of my travel experiences with you. On Wednesday the 27th of July I left for the airport situated in Dusseldorf, after a long night of packing my stuff into my backpack and occasionally repeating that I was bringing a lot of clothes, followed by a 'but I am actually going to live there for quite some time, so I need the clothes' for justification. Right, Wednesday, everyone packed into the car (my little brother in the doggy space, since we were going with 6) and off to the airport. Check-in went smooth, goodbyes a bit less. It is sad to say goodbye to family and boyfriend for such a long time. Luckily the sadness was combined with a good feeling about the whole thing and excitement about the times to come.
I can be short about the journey: it was long, boring, tiring but also nice: I met a Dutch girl in Dubai who also arrived at 00.15h local time and had to wait until the following morning for the next plane. We chatted, walked around (a bit) and kept each other's seats occupied (the nice ones) which led to people passing by asking whether it was taken. Then we continued our journey to different continents: she left for Uganda and I left for Singapore, flying via Colombo. Another 9,5 hours on the plane, this time also made a lot less boring due to the company of a lovely couple from Wales who were off to visit their daughter. I took a taxi to my friends' house, the driver drove really fast but fortunately I could still enjoy the views of Singapore by night. It is amazing! Even a bit overwhelming: the beautiful huge buildings, all the trees and other green and the cleanliness.
It was great seeing my friends again and I will be seeing them more often during my stay! Had a good night sleep and the next day we went to get a simcard and and an EZ-link card in order to travel by public transport. You can practically get anywhere by bus and metro for very little money. The Dutchies can definately learn something from how they do it here. The cheap transport made me decide to go to the University by bus instead of taxi (2SINdollar against about 20SINdollar) and that went surprisingly smooth, even with the backpacks (big and small) and a small suitcase on wheels. Ran into some people on the bus who showed me the way to my Hall, I checked in and the rest you know. The rooms are small, and without natural light due to all the trees in front of the window. Well, I suppose it will provide me with some nice clean oxygen ;).
I am going to knit an end to this story and I will write again once I have more to tell. The whole weekend off, so time to go and explore!
Warm greetings from Singapore,
Fleur
