Hooray for AA's!

I have finally managed to track down a pack of AA batteries, and since my camera eats them like candy, hopefully these will last me a while so that I can supply you with more pictures.

Today was a great day. Our only planned activity was lunch at a charity Indian restaurant. The restaurant is staffed by volunteers, and after you eat their delicious Indian food you can pay as much or as little as you feel is necessary. After lunch, our whole group headed off to Chinatown and pretty much dissolved after that. A couple of other girls and I then made our way toward Arab street, and checked out the Masjid Sultan mosque, which I believe is the oldest mosque in Singapore. Unfortunately, we got there too late to go inside, so I will probably go again later. 

In addition, we checked out a Buddhist temple and the oldest Hindu temple in Singapore, so I've really had a multi-religious day. Afterwards we spent our evening mall-hopping (basically because you have to in order to get anywhere in Singapore) and finished off our day at Max Brenner's chocolate bar, where we enjoyed the most delicious (and expensive) cup of hot chocolate I have ever had.

After that busy day, I'm wiped, and I am really not looking forward to getting back into study-mode tomorrow. But I am so glad that we've had a chance to roam the city in small groups and figure our way around. I think we're all definitely starting to feel more like  Singaporeans and less like deer-in-the-headlights tourists.

Today's Great Discovery

This morning, I discovered what is quite possibly the #1 best thing about being in Singapore: juice. Everywhere you go, there are fresh juice and smoothie stands, and they usually sell large pieces of fruit as well. And I'm not talking apples and bananas. I mean huge chunks of dragonfruit, kiwi slices on a stick, and the most delicious pineapple I have ever had. Naturally, I gorge myself on fruit at just about every meal now, but today I found my new favorite morning treat: pineapple-orange juice. Now I have had these two flavors mixed together before, usually in a bottle, and they are quite good. But when you order a $.90 pineapple-orange juice from this stand, the little juice man runs huge pieces of fresh-cut pineapples and oranges through his juicer, pours it in a cup, and hands it to you. It just doesn't get any fresher than that. This little cup of sunshine is almost enough to brighten my next  three hours of class time, and if this morning is any indication, I'll probably be drinking 2 or 3 cups a day. Yay for meeting recommended daily amounts of fruit!

Tiny Rooms for a Tiny Country

Well, I have officially arrived in Singapore, and the batteries in my camera are dead so I haven't really been able to take many pictures. But, I do have pictures of my lovely room, which is tiny but cute, and since it's a single, it's just my size! Note that the bed only has one little blanket there on the bottom. In this weather though, that little blanket is all you'd need.

We noticed the heat literally the second we stepped out of the plane and into the loading tunnel (if there is an official word for that thing then I don't know what it is). It is very hot and humid, and also it was raining in a huge downpour as soon as we arrived, but it's really not that bad once you get used to it. As soon as we put our stuff in our rooms and took a quick shower, we headed off to see some of the buildings we'll be using, and then went to dinner in this cool little place where there are lots of stands to choose from. One thing that I've noticed already that I really love is the pricing for everything. Food costs around 3-4 dollars, and they don't add sales tax to everything like they do in America. Also the conversion rate is quite nice such that my 5 dollar meal only cost me about $3.45 in American money.

Well we have a full day of errands and such planned for today, so I need to get ready. But I'm excited for the adventures ahead!

Howdy from Hong Kong!

Hey guys!
So we just arrived in Hong Kong about an hour ago, and still have a couple of hours before we board our final plane for Singapore. Luckily, there's free wifi here in the Hong Kong airport! So far our trip has been great. I didn't crash on my first plane ride, despite my friend's warnings- "You'll be fine, Virginia. Just make sure you have your seat belt on when the plane starts doing flips in the air!" My friend was so kind as to offer me his window seat since it was my first time flying. (Thank you Donnie!!) And surprisingly, the 14-hour flight across the ocean seemed less boring for me. Probably because they fed us more.

For now we're just kind of hanging out now, making use of the free internet- literally every one of us is sitting here with a laptop in our laps. Also, so far China looks quite pretty! There are some really cool-looking mountains surrounding the airport. They almost make up for the fact that security just confiscated my favorite pair of scissors. Anyway, I see that I am running the risk of rambling on about an airport, so I will go for now. I hope all my American folks stay safe while I'm gone, and don't do anything I wouldn't do!

Hello World!

Virginia here. I've rejuvinated this 4-year-old dormant blog in order to document the fun and exciting events of my summer study abroad program in Singapore and Thailand. (Let's just hope I actually keep up with it.) At this point in my life, I have yet to travel outside of my own time zone, or fly on an airplane, so this should be interesting. :)

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Enjoy!