The First Weekend!

Hello from Singapore!

It has been a wonderful first two days here... despite the humidity (and my wild mane of hair), I have loved every single second.  Friday night's late arrival put me to bed at around 1am Singapore time, I woke up with the sun at 6:30 and looked out at my beautiful view from the 15th story of our hostel.

 This second picture shows River Valley High School, which is where most of the students living here go. 

Saturday: In waking up with the sun, I decided to get an early start (by myself) for day 1.  I showered,  dressed, and headed out to explore our little city of Jurong.  My goal was to find the Jurong Point Shopping Mall - that has a 24 hour super market!! (I desperately needed soap, conditioner, and other essentials).  I eventually made it there, and to my surprise it was not only HUGE, but looked just like the Oaks Mall back home! It was so nice inside, with every store, and more, that I could imagine.  Since it was so early, I started with Starbucks and the super market, and made my way back home (since most of the stores weren't open yet) - I knew I'd be back.

At about noon, Sunny picked me up to take me to get my EZ link bus pass, that I'll be using to get around the city, and most importantly, to work everyday.  After that, we got lunch at Jurong Point at a little restaurant that serves 'soft-bone chicken.'  I had that and yellow curry rice - it was absolutely delicious! (I also got to try prawn chips, which were very interesting;))

After lunch, we hopped on the 199 (which I'll be taking to work everyday), saw my school from afar, and continued to NIE.  The National Institute of Education, Singapore is an absolutely beautiful campus, located in the hills of Singapore's countryside.  There was so much greenery, and the walk around campus was really great.

Science Cohort, we could have our own building!! 

The view from the 3rd floor of Block 2

 The other direction... 

Me on the 3rd floor of Block 2, overlooking campus!

An amazing plant on campus... I have yet to find out it's name!

The 'Journey of Teacher Education'... a timeline of NIE's history.  It was established 1991, the year I was born! 

A beautiful garden right outside of NIE's front entrance

The trip to NIE was great, and Sunny put me in charge of remembering how to get there for our meeting Thursday, so that I can bring along the other 4 ITC's... (International Teacher Candidates;)).   I also found out that we are not only the first group from UCSB, but the first group of student teachers from the entire UNITED STATES to come do an exchange program like this in Singapore with NIE.  That was really amazing to hear, and to talk with Sunny about the different countries they had already done exchanges with, etc.  Education needs to be connected on a global level, and it's really real that now I am a part of that connection. 

After NIE, Sunny's wife Grace picked us up and took me back to the hostel.  I rested for about an hour and a half (watched part of Pitch Perfect... miss you VoMo!) and then Sunny picked me up again to go to the airport and 'fetch' the other girls arriving that night - first Kathryn, who arrived at about 6, and then Rae and Katie who arrived at about 8:30.  We had dinner in between the two arrivals and I enjoyed a delicious chicken bao (steamed bun) and Mee Saim, a Malaysian noodle soup dish that was to die for... it was so good! It had thin noodles, a hard-boiled egg, spicy curry sauce, green onions, and a lime (along with other spices I'm sure).  It was really great :) 

We finally made it home from the airport at about 10:30 pm, and went straight to sleep.  I have my own room connected to Rae and Katie via the bathroom, and then Kathryn and Elise, (who joined us Sunday) are right next door!  For now, we have the whole 15th floor to ourselves! 

Sunday: We woke up this morning at about 8/8:30am, casually took our time getting up, and then ventured out to the Boon Lay Shopping Center (about a 5 min walk the opposite direction of Jurong Point).   Having seen Jurong Point the day prior, it was a much different shopping center.  There were many more carts and outside food places, the entire mall was outside and next door was a little flea market stretch along the side of the street.   It was really interesting to compare the differences between the two that are only about 10 minutes apart walking distance.  I got a 'Super Cheesy' bun from one of the bakery shops, it was quite delicious, and then we just window shopped the rest of our time there.  On our way back to the hostel, we decided to go check out Jurong Point as well.  We started in Cotton On (it felt just like home!) and I bought a nice pair of black shorts that are knee length. (much better than wearing jeans, and necessary since I shouldn't be wearing short shorts anyway!!)

We got a few other crucial things, had lunch - spicy chicken and green beans, a vegetable dish, and rice - and then headed back to the hostel to meet Elise and Sunny (she flew in at about 1pm).  Sunny didn't stay, but dropped Elise off and finally we were officially ALL together in SINGAPORE.  We each made lists of things we'd need, and headed back to Jurong Point to go to the 24 hour supermarket (so huge, and so awesome - it has everything!)  I got a ton of fruit, including MANGOSTEENS (yay finally!), dragonfruit, starfruit and 'China Kong pears.'  I'm so excited to eat fruit every day this week - I'm set! (and it was all so inexpensive!) 

My lunch today was so delicious... and all of this was only 5.30SPD... $4.18 in the U.S.!

Never seen a mangosteen? This is it!!! The 'Queen of Fruits'... and one of the most delicious things I've ever tasted. 

Now we're getting ready to go out for a celebratory first-night-together dinner (and drinks).  It's about 8pm Singapore time... Tomorrow I start at 9:30am, Sunny will pick me up and take me to my school to meet the Principal, my CT (yay!) and get a tour of the campus.  I'll be working at Westwood Secondary School, most likely with S3's or S4's taking biology. (Meaning they're in their 3rd of 4th year of secondary school, which lasts 4 or 5 years, depending on the track they're in - and are ages 15-16).  I'm extremely excited to meet everyone - I feel so fortunate already to have this amazing opportunity and I cannot believe that 2 days have already passed! 33 to go!