I arrived in Singapore this morning around 7:40am. After 12 hours on a flight with two shrill screaming children I was ecstatic to hit the 80% humidity this lovely island has. The 15 flight attendants on Singapore Air were absolutely stunning... and BITCHY. Ordering a veg meal apparently means you give up all other amenities during the flight. When our attendant came by to hand out the ice cream for desert she told me I was not allowed to have one because of my meal choice! The darling old English guy next to me was as horrified as I was and offered me his. Bless his heart. I declined. At least I avoided 'cankles' on this flight and managed to get just a bit of sleep with the help of Tylenol PM.
NUS set me up with a 'buddy' (Aaron) in the law program who met me at the airport and helped me get situated. With in just 15 minutes I had a SIM card for my phone, an MRT express pass and had hit the ATM. He then escorted me through the fantastic maze of a metro system to the hostel (G4). It took three separate trains to get here. They are really nice trains but the civil engineers could learn a little efficiency from the Munich system. An hour later Mahesh (a contact from ASU who lives here) met me at the hostel with an agent to go apartment hunting. You would never have guessed the woman was even speaking English! Rolly polly little thing she at least had a cute giggly laugh. Utterly disappointed by the rooms I saw for rent. Not only are they god-awfully expensive ($1500/month) they are old and run down or cramped and shared with multiple families. What a strange housing arrangement the Singaporeans have going on. So I returned to the hostel and checked in only to be even more freaked out. My 2-bed room is more like a 2-bed closet!! Literally enough room to walk between the wall and the bunk bed. I am sharing with a Chinese guy who seems nice enough but just as freaked out as I am. To top it off the wifi which is free in the rooms does not actually penetrate the windowless rooms, so you must sit in the hallway (where I am now). UGH! What a start to Singapore.... I was about ready to head to the airport and demand to be put on a flight home, when in came an email glimpse of hope.
On one of my last days in Munich, by chance occurrence through multiple levels of people, I met a partner at a IP Firm for a coffee. Turns out she is from Singapore and her brother and his wife still live here. She was such a fascinating person, but I can go on and on about her later. I just spoke to Nicolai on the phone and he is going to call some friends to see if he can help find me a place. And even better he invited me to dinner with his family! Good thing cause all I had on the menu was Gummibarchen.
Keep you posted on how Singapore makes out in this second chance. My toes are crossed. Tomorrow is a national holiday and I start class on Tuesday so I'd really like to get settled in ASAP!
No comments:
Post a Comment