Day 1...

To my friends: this blog will probably be very boring for you. I haven't done any traveling or partying yet, it's all about my flight here, apartment searching etc...it's mostly for the parents ;)

It's about 3am friday morning here in singapore so i've been here just over 24 hours now. The flights here were stressful to say the least. I had to fly from minneapolis to chicago, another flight to tokyo, then another to singapore. First flight: canceled. So i had to get on a flight with another airline. Second flight: overbooked by 25 people and i did not have a seat. Stressful for about an hour, but eventually enough people gave up their spots where i was able to get on the flight. However, the flight was then delayed about an hour meaning i would miss my flight to singapore. Luckily, the Tokyo airport is amazing and delayed their flight to accommodate those of us on the late flight from chicago. So, i ended up getting here the same time as planned. BUT then i realized my luggage did not make the trip. It was still in chicago, and when they realized it didn't make the flight they booked it on the next flight to tokyo but not for the connection to singapore....so anyway i've been spending a lot of time on the phone with the airlines, i have been wearing the same clothes for a long time now, and i have no idea where my luggage is. They said it will hopefully arrive tomorrow night.
I don't mean to be a negative nancy though, the luggage thing sucks but i'm still very excited to be here! I like the hostel a lot, mostly because there are so many other exchange students here and i have met a ton of great people. I haven't met any americans other than the guy from U of M who i traveled here with, but i have met students from canada, germany, hungary, austria, france, spain, norway, australia...all over. We're going to start apartment shopping tomorrow. Rent here has increased greatly in the past year or so, it is going to be much more expensive than i was anticipating. I'll probably live in a 3 bedroom apartment with 5 other people and it'll be about $5000/month. (once you divide that by 6 and account for the exchange rate it's about $540USD/month)
Our hostel serves free breakfast all day. This morning i had something called dragon fruit which i had never seen. The outer part is a bright magenta color with big orange and green leaves and the inside is textured like a watermelon but it is white with like a million tiny black seeds in it. It was tasty, but i think i mostly just liked it because it's pretty =). After breakfast about 15 other exchange students and i walked to the school to pick up some paperwork that is necessary to receive our student pass/visa. Then we had to go to the Immigration center and wait for about 2 hours to apply for the visa. After we went to the mall and all ate at a Japanese restaurant where i had Ton Toro Ramen. Most of us only ate about half our meal because we got so tired of struggling with the chopsticks...it was good though. When we got back to the hostel it was about 6pm and i accidentally fell asleep until 11pm...then i got up and sat outside to chat with some people and we ended up going to a place called Clarke Quay. It's a very interesting place, it reminds me of Disneyland (specifically Downtown Disney if any of you are familiar.) It's a street that has a decorative shelter over the top and on each side is all sorts of bars and restaurants. There is much more emphasis on atmosphere and decoration in the bars than in the U.S. One place is called The Clinic and it looks like a trendy, modern doctor's office. Everything is white, the tables have big lamps overhead that look like the ones over a dentist's chair, and at some of the tables the guest sit in wheelchairs rather than regular seats. Alcohol is very expensive! A beer was about $8-10 USD, and a mixed drink $10-15 USD, so needless to say i did not have anything to drink.
I'm not too tired due to my accidental nap this afternoon but i'm going to try to sleep now to get on some sort of regular sleep schedule...in the morning i will be asking girls to lend me clothes, hair binders, blow dryers, and other necessities i am lacking without my luggage...