New Apartment

The street I lived on

My bed and bay window

My really nice room

The HDB approved my application and now, Jan, Daniel and I have a place to move into on the 2nd of August. This is a good thing. The family that lives in the house I'm staying in is moving on the 2nd and they are taking the bed. I guess it was really good time. I will miss my room in the house though, however I am not going to miss the ride on the MRT every morning. I do not like to have to leave an hour and 15 to 30 minutes before I need to be at campus as I don't know if I will make the bus or not. However I am currently in one of the few landed homes, a house. It is a really big room and it has lots of light. I will like being really close to school. We will be really close to the Pioneer MRT station to go into down and we will be able to catch the free NTU shuttle bus.

First Week of Class

I started class this Monday. I wasn't ready yet. I'm not sure I would have been ready at any point soon. I'm still having  trouble sleeping at night. I'm one of those rare people that needs to get 8 or more hours of sleep a night to function and I can't remember the last night I slept that much. I've not been able to sleep at night and them I'm waking up really early in the morning. Go figure, that I would still be adjusting to the time difference here 12 hours but I thought that over a week would be enough time. I actually thought I was adjusted and then Tuesday came around and I couldn't sleep and I was awake really early. Wednesday wasn't really any better. Today was the first day that I was really able to sleep in but that was mostly because I didn't get up when I woke up but decided to role over and go back to sleep.

Monday I had my first class at 9:30 am and I was not ready. There was readings we were supposed to have completed but I was unable to do them as I was looking for a place to live. The one good thing was that even though we didn't find a place to stay on Sunday. There were a couple of possibilities, we had a couple more places we looked at on Monday.

View from the Marriot hotel in Orchard Street

My first class is "Problems in Combating Insurgency and Terrorism". It is taught by a professor from Georgetown University, Bruce Hoffman. I might have dropped the class after the first day if I had not known was his name on my transcript would do. The course is divided into two parts one which Bruce Hoffman teaches and the other half taught by Gérard Chaliand. It is kind of strange to have the course divided like that but both of them are specialist in their areas. On Wednesday, the class became much more interesting to me as we moved away from the US and started really looking at who the individuals who perpetrated the events where. This was really interesting as they are not what you would expect them to be. 

Orchard Road area. View from Marriot Hotel

After class we went to Summerdale condo which we had seen on Sunday. We talked with the owner and said that we would take it under some conditions. We wanted to be able to move in on the 5th at the latest. This was not possible so we said sorry. I really liked Summerdale but the guys thought it was too big. It was pretty big but it was nice.

Catholic Church near Raffels hotel

I had to run back to class and I was a little bit late. My professor for my required International Relations class doesn't speak very loud and he starts out and then he fades away slowly, and during the fading he turns and faces the wall instead of the class. It was nearly impossible to hear him and I wasn't sitting in the back of the room. This is also a small class room. When I asked if he could speak louder he said he couldn't and I should move to the front of the room. Well seeing as there were not any seats in the first row I couldn't move. He also spoke in monotone so that it was really hard to pay attention. I really just wanted to scream. I was so happy when the class was over.

View from Campus of the other buildings.

I met up with Jan and Daniel and we went to look at looked at another apartment. We saw one apartment which we really liked however it didn't have A/C. We made an offer which was dependent on them putting in A/C. They didn't take our offer but gave us a counter offer which we accepted. Now we are waiting for the Housing Development Board (HDB) to approve us. We should know by Friday what the outcome is. When we parted on Monday we agreed to meet on Tuesday with the agent again and look at one more place and at the same time to pass over the good faith deposit. 


Tuesday Jan and I went to the center of town on Orchard Street. It is defiantly a shopping center. After Orchard we went to the area around Raffels hotel. When we looked at the other place it was also a pretty good location for us. It smelled like chocolate as there was a chocolate factory near by. If we are not approved on Friday by the HDB we will apply for this other apartment. 

Area in Clementi where I live

On Wednesday I had class again. Problems in Combating Insurgency and Terrorism got much more interesting. I had a lot of time when I didn't have anything to do so I tried to read on campus outside. I got to hot and started to get a headache. I ended up going to the library and took a nap. While I was napping I had a nightmare about my IR required class. One of the readings online was corrupt (in reality as well as my dream) and the professor was telling me that as a graduate student I need to know how to uncrrupt the file. It was a horrible dream.


When I woke up we had to go to the Professional Skills Enrichment class. It looks like it might be an interesting class. However I was really  tired so didn't really hear that much of what was being said. I like that it is being taught by many different professors. 

The View from my room on 2 Taman Mas Merah

After class a bunch of us went to dinner and then Daniel, Jan and I went to town and got a beer in celebration of a possible apartment. 


Today was a slow day for me. I thought about going to Boon Lay over by campus but decided to just walk to the grocery store near where I live. I got some food. I cooked a pizza in the little toaster oven and it was really good. It was really good to have gotten food and to have a day were I didn't have to do anything. I probably should have been doing readings for my courses but I decided to have a slow day. It was a good thing for me.

Big Snail

A really big Snail which I saw near where I live.

This snail was right down the sidewalk from where I live. The seem to come out when it rains a little. I don't know where they go but I only see them at night and in the morning.

Rotaract Meeting

Me, Jan, and the NTU Rotaract members

On last Wednesday all of the Rotary scholars who were currently in Singapore went to dinner in China town. It was nice to meet the other scholars. I think we will all try and travel some together. At least we will try and do some stuff in Singapore together. The scholars are Me, Jan (from Germany and also studying at S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies), Sharron (from Canada and studying at National University of Singapore), and Rachel (from Atlanta, and studying at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at NUS).  At first we were all looking for a place together but trying to find a place between the two schools was not easy. Rachel got housing on campus finally and Sharon found something near NUS so now Jan, Daniel (a German we met at school) and I are looking for a place. We are really going to look hard now as we really want to find something and fast.

This years District 3310 Rotaract President's Goal

At the dinner John, Sharron's host offered to take us to the Rotaract District Assembly. John came and picked us up this morning and we were all tired and wishing we were sleeping. We got there much earlier than was probably necessary but it gave us time to meet with other Rotaract members. Jan and I met the NTU Rotaract club which was nice. We might be able to give a presentation there and also we might be able to join them on some of there outings or service projects.

The actual speeches were not as good as they could have been. I think it is hard for speeches here to be really good as they are given in English which is most of the time the persons second language. I respect that they can speak more than one language but it seems to me they are missing some important parts.

3 Rotrains, Jan, Sharron, District President, Me, Rachel, and 3 Rotrians

After the speeches we had lunch. At the dinner on Wednesday night I said that I did not eat red meat and as a result they think I'm a vegetarian. This might be better for me as the vegetarian food seems to be pretty good once I finish picking the mushrooms out. Okay so I'm a picky eater. The nice thing about the meeting was that we were all able to connect with people.

After the Rotaract us scholars headed our way on the MRT. I went back to my room and changed my shoes and then went down town and met with my host. He took me to Raffel's hotel where we had danishes and talked. After he took me to a store where I could get some school supplies. It was good to go out and get things I'm going to need for Monday when I start classes. Dr. Reto had a meeting so I came back to my place and then went to meet Jan and Daniel so we could look at an apartment. They really just wanted to take it but I really didn't like it that much. Lucky for us we didn't take it but went and started calling agents and setting up times to look at places on Sunday. I don't think the agents here ever sleep.

It was pretty late when I got home. I think I might have been on one of the last trains. I didn't see the buses running so I just walked home from the MRT. That takes about 15 minutes but at night it isn't as hot so it isn't as hard to walk.

Registration and a Room

The Art Media and Design building on Campus

Today was registration and I thought I would get to campus early and register. This did not happen though. I got up really early but as I had neighbors who were running around and ringing the door bells until about 3 in the morning I didn't get as much sleep as I would have liked. I went and got some breakfast and headed back to the hotel. I checked out and then checked my bags for the day. I'm hoping that I will be able to have a room by the end of the night.

It took me quite some time to get checked out and by the time I got to the train and then got confused and got off the bus to soon I had missed registration and had to wait until it opened again at 2:30pm. I thought that if I got off the bus when everyone else did I that I would not have to walk far to get to where I needed to be. This was a bad assumption and I ended up walking quite far to get to the right place. When I finally found it I was hot and really thirsty.

Walking on NTU campus

I had lunch at Subway, not very original of my I know but I just needed something to eat and I didn't want to have to think about it. I got everything I needed for registering my candidature and then went to the Humanities and Social Science Library (HSS) to sit inside. I'm having some trouble getting used to the heat. Once in the library I realized I had an email from Jan another Rotary scholar studying at S. Rajaratnam School of International studies. We emailed and were finally able to meet after I registered.

It was good to have someone else to talk with. We both got phone cards as we already had phones. I can now call people. I'm hoping that it will make it easier to find a place to stay. I got an email from Patrick Alexander who is a real-estate Agent who was recommended to me. He says I can stay in a room in his house while they are moving out, which means I have to find a place by the end of August. It will be much better than staying in a hotel. I went and looked at the room and took it. I went and collected my bags and headed over. The taxi driver got a little bit lost which was a pain he couldn't read English, so it was a good thing that I had been to the place once so I recognized the road I needed to get too. At least I have a room I can stay in and not have to worry about how much it costs.

One of the quads on NTU

The family has a maid so she will do my laundry for me. That seems a bit strange to me but I kind of like it as I have been going and going. The room is really big and it has a door into the bathroom which I share with 2 other people. Over all I really happy with the room.

Finally in Singapore

View from my Hotel room on the 13th floor

The flight from Asheville left at 6 in the morning and by the time I said good bye to Matthew and got on the plane I was so tire I didn't have time to really think about leaving for a year. I slept most of the way to Chicago and then when I got there I had a five hour layover. Not really a good start to the trip but not bad. The flight into Hong Kong was really long and I have to say I was really ready to get off the plane when we landed. United didn't have the little screens on the backs of the seats so I couldn't chose what movies I watched. I did watch "How to Train Your Dragon" which was really very good. I was able to sleep most of the trip which was good. Landing in Hong Kong was very pretty. I was able to rest some more there which was good. I did get some water from a fountain and it tasted exactly like the water in China which I didn't like. The fountain said that the water was purified and safe for drinking but I didn't drink to much after I tasted it. When I got to Singapore I was tired and waiting for my bags to come I just wanted to go to sleep.

View

I have arrive in Singapore. Jetlegged and hungry, but safe. My host Rotarian Dr. Reto picked me up at the airport which really saved me. I don't know that I would have made it out of the airport without him. I am staying at the Panisular hotel until I can find someplace else to stay. I'm on the 13th floor and have a view from which I can see the harbor and even a blur which is Indonesia. The first night I didn't sleep much and when 10am came round I really wanted to stay in bed instead of going out and seeing the city and the University. Dr. Reto took me to breakfast and then to the University where we got all of my medical stuff taken care off.

It was really good to see the campus, which is huge. They have an internal bus system which kind of scars me. I'm hoping that I won't get lost tomorrow when I got to register.

My room at the hotel

Dr. Reto took me back to the hotel and I tried to find a place to find a place to stay. I have a possible room for a short time but I have to contact the guy. I'm so tired that I hope I can sleep.