China part II

So the second part of our trip in China was to a little town about 4 hours southwest of Shanghai. Here, we met up with Mr. Wu, a 70 year old retired English professor. This was definitely a highlight of this trip. Mr. Wu showed us around his town of Quzhou, and then we spent a day in the village where he grew up about 40km  from Quzhou. Interesting fact, the first American in Quzhou wasn't until 1987! So again, we were starred at a lot. The village was really interesting, as most of the young people have left to find jobs in the cities, and all the older people still farm their land. There is running water and electricity, but that is about it for modern conveniences. Since most of Mr. Wu's family (sisters and brothers) still live in the town, as well as his cousins and uncles, we were able to meet a lot of people. And by meet I mean wave hi and stand there and smile while Mr. Wu explained in Chinese why we were there. After walking around the town, his sister cooked the most delicious meal I have had since being in Asia. As you can see from the picture, there was a lot of food.
Oh and they had a dog. So I naturally asked its name and was then laughed at and told he doesn't have a name. I brushed that off, but wondered why they would have a pet and not name it. During lunch, I figured it out. In China, most meat is cooked with the bone in and fat still on the meat, so you have to pick through it, with lots of difficulty. When I asked what to do with the leftover bones and any other pieces that I needed to discard, he told me to throw them on the ground. The dog was the vacuum cleaner!
After lunch, Mr. Wu and his nephew took us to the three brothers monument where we hiked for about an hour and learned more about the cultural revolution and how it was to live through all the recent changes in China. We then were taking to another town, and hosted to a large dinner (only 4 hours after our large lunch). We ate Chinese style, with the turn table in the center and picking at food and it swiveled by. The food was of course, excellent. I'm convinced that in China, you will ONLY get the best of the best  if you can speak Chinese, so if you ever come here, meet up with some Chinese friends to get the true food experience.

All in all it was an absolutely amazing experience to spend time in such a remote area and be hosted by such a generous man. After our 5.5 hour experience in the train on the way there, we decided to try the fast train back to Shanghai which, thankfully, only took 3.5 hours. Dad spent one night in Shanghai then headed to Singapore to pick up my luggage for me and continued on back to the States. I'm still here in Shanghai, and I'm about to head to the airport to go to the Yunnan Provence for 6 days with Kyle to hike and get some fresh air!  I won't have access to my blog while in the west part of China, but ill update you on Shanghai and the west when I get back.

Ill add more photos on Facebook with better descriptions when I get back to the States, but its too difficult here in China since I can't seem to get constant internet access. Hope you all have a great rest of the week.

Love you and miss you!

China Part I

Hello from the land of the not so free! Bear with me for a bit, this is going to be a long one.  As I’m sure most of you know, Facebook is banned in China, and for whatever reason, so is access to my blog, so I will post when I can get access.  Here are my impressions and travels of the past two weeks in China.

First stop: Beijing. AMAZING city. Beijing is the political and cultural center of China, while Shanghai is financial center. Needless to say we visited A LOT of temples and learned more history then I’ll ever remember.  Dad and I stayed in Beijing for 5 days, and for three of them we hired a guide, which made life very easy. She was 26 so her and I had a great time talking about life for young people in China and she knew more history than Dad (if you know my Dad, that is hard to do), so she kept him happy with new facts.  We of course visited the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Bell and Drum Tower, Summer Palace, Night market, Ming Tombs, Tiananmen Square, Lama Temple and my personal favorite and most famous, the Great Wall. All were amazing, and all were larger than I could have imagined (Discovery channel does not give justice to these places on TV, even in HD).  We also had a chance to meet up with some of my friends from my MBA program who were studying Chinese (similar to when I studied Spanish in Spain), and who are now doing their internships in China. We went out two nights with them. The first was a typical Chinese dinner where you sit 10 people around a table with a swivel in the center and order as many dishes as the host feels necessary.  Between 10 of us we had about 15 dishes including Duck wish was Dad’s favorite. Best of all, it only came to about $25 USD per person.  I will certainly miss the great food prices in Asia. The next night the food wasn’t great, but after dinner all my friends and some locals and I went out for drinks in the night area. Dad being awesome, decided it was a night with my friends so we put him in a cab and sent him back to the hotel. Best part of that was no official cab would take him cause it wouldn’t have been a large fare so we had to find a ‘black’ cab (these are guys who drive around late at night and are not licensed drivers, just looking for some extra cash) and pay him double the price just to get him to the hotel safely.  As my dad is driving away, my friend screams at me to give my phone to my dad just in case…and then they drove off….

So Dad ended up getting home safe, I got home after a few hours, and then it was off to our next stop.

Second Stop: Xi’An. This is a check it off your list kind of place. This is the famous town where the Terracotta Warriors were discovered. There are supposedly about 6000 soldiers in this area, but only 2000 have been discovered and assembled. Truly amazing site considering it was constructed in 210 BC

Glad I did it, won’t feel a need to go back.  Upon leaving Xi’An to go to Shanghai, our plane got delayed due to landing gear malfunction. Under normal circumstances when issues arise in an airport with an airplane, I can fix it pretty quick. However, when you throw in a wholatta Chinese and a lil English, the world changes on you. Ironically, it was my Spanish skills that somehow got us out of the airport and kept us from being stuck overnight.  See there was this group of Spaniards (none spoke English) and they were trying to talk to a Chinese airline employee who had little English, so I offered to help. During my Perfect (ha, right) translation, I figured out that we could get on another airline. And because I kept trying to help the airline employees with the crazy Spaniards we got on an airplane!  See Karma works people, I’m telling you!

After the 5 hours in the airport, we finally arrived in Shanghai, and our plan was to catch a train to a small town called Quzhou.  Of course we landed too late and had to find a hotel in Shanghai for the night. Not a big deal, just that somehow, Shanghai airport has less signs in English than any other place in China. 

Oh and I forgot to mention, if you have been following my blog since I’ve been here, I bet you can guess what I’m going to say next……..

Yup, I’m sick again! Coughing my lungs out the past few days! Started the day we went to see the soldiers, got worse with the nasty pollution in Xi’an, now getting better thanks to good ol’ Dad bringing a Z-pak from home! Love my parents and them being prepared like a hospital.

Wake up Tuesday morning feeling horrible, but excited to meet up with Mr. Wu (more on him later), and see a side of China most people don’t get to see.  So we make it to the right train station and we have 30 minutes before we can buy tickets. Knowing just getting tickets could be an adventure we follow our fellow Asians lead and start lining up at the counter with 25 min until the counters open. Lucky for us, there is an ‘English Speaking Counter’, so we decide our best bet is to stand in that line. Turns out they only open two lines that day, and one of them happened to be ours, so with all our bad luck the day before, we were first in line and had an English speaking person to buy tickets from. With three cities in China named the same, I was just happy that we had tickets that said the correct name in English!

After a 5.5 hour train trip, in which I’m pretty sure my Dad and I were the only Caucasians on the train, which turned into 5 hours of getting starred at, and another 30 minutes of them watching Dad do Sudoku and trying to talk to us, we made it to our destination only a day later than expected, but with Mr Wu waiting happily for us at the gate!

I can’t wait to tell you about the rest of this trip. But that will have to be part two. I’m now in Shanghai and heading to brunch with some friends. Miss you all!

MBA'er

Well I am almost an MBA graduate! Technically I’m done with classes, but I still have one more paper to turn in, but I have until July to complete it. I can’t believe it has already been 2 years.  But before I have to go to the real world, I’m traveling around Asia for one more month. My Dad got to SIN last Monday and we just took a two day trip to Cambodia (second trip for me).  I still love the country, and the people are amazing! I know there is a lot of countries I haven’t seen yet, but I hope I get a chance at some point in my life to come back here.

Next stop is China for a month. I was going to head to India for a wedding, but I’m a slacker and didn’t apply for my visa in time, so I decided I’m going to stay in China for an extra couple weeks. So I’m heading to Beijing, Xi’An, and Quzhou with my Dad. Then I’m hoping to hit up Tibet and Mongolia with Kyle for the final two weeks in Asia. Then it’s back to the States the first week of June, and an attempt to find a job and join the real world again. So first stop when I get back…Chipotle! Although, ironically, I convinced dad to eat at this Mexican restaurant in Cambodia, and it was actually really good! Chicken Chimichanga and real salsa, mmm mmmm mmmmm! Really, if I could find affordable, good Mexican food all around Asia, I don’t know if I would come back to the States, except for family of course J

I miss you all very much and hope you are all doing well!

Yup...I'm a slacker

So I just realized its been over a month since I last blogged! I really have no idea where the time has gone.
When I last checked in I was in Chaing Mai Thailand with two other friends, and had one of the most amazing experiences. I know I say that every time, but this really was amazing. I spent a day with my girlfriend Kim at an Elephant Mahout Camp, which is a training camp for Elephants. We spent most of day learning about these amazing animals and learning how to speak a bit of Thai so that we could get them to lift their feet to get on them bareback, walk them around and have them go left and right.  Did you know a full grown elephants eats 200 kilos (450lbs) PER DAY!!!!! I couldn't believe until I realized that at not point of the day with them did they stop eating. We also got to take them to a pond and bath them, which really ended in us getting soaked as our Elephant sprayed water on herself to cool down while we were on her!
The rest of the trip was really nice as well. My friends and I took a Thai cooking class and I can actually cook some Thai food now! Ill have to experiment on my family when I get back to see if its edible :)

After that trip I took a trip two weeks later to Bankok, and Phuket (an island off Thailand). I was with Kyle so the trip was fun, but honestly, I wouldn't suggest either of those places to visit. We did rent a motorbike for 3 days while in Phuket and visited the largest Buddah statue I have ever seen, and found an amazing waterfall. This waterfall actually puts Seven Falls in Colorado to shame. Mostly because unlike in the States, Thailand doesn't seem to care if you happen to fall in. We were able to climb about a mile up the waterfall and play in the water, nothing was off limits, and we were the only ones on the 'trail' until the very end!

I also happened to be recovering from food poisoning a day before we went to Phuket and happened to catch an infection almost as soon as we landed. If my parents taught me one very valuable thing about traveling it has been to carry drugs with you that you can read the instructions on. Well, I didn't listen. However, thanks to them, it is easier for me to remember drug terminology. Its amazing how easy it is to walk into a pharmacy (without first seeing a doctor) and ask for antibiotics if you can just remember its Azithromycin (Eyrithromyacin in Thailand). At least if you don't speak the language of the country, drug names always work.

After this, Kyle and I came back to Singapore and took the ferry over to Batam Indonesia with some friends for one night. This was another flop. There was absolutely nothing on this Island, and of course true to my form, I got sick again. I guess after visiting 6 countries and twice as many cities in Asia, I was destined to find at least a few places I don't like, right?

 

Procrastinating

I have now been in Thailand for a full 24 hours by myself, and its been wonderful. This is the first time I have traveled on my own, and its really fun!However, I will be joined by two friends in about an hour. Both are from USC, but one is coming from the States and the other  one is studying with me in Singapore, so the solo traveling wont last for long, but I'm really excited to see them.
First, the flight over here was wonderful. I sat next to a Singapore Air Cargo pilot who has lived in Chiang Mai for 12 years. Of course we talked aviation, but he is also building a kit airplane and invited me over to see it. I think my schedule is full while I'm here, but it was great to talk planes with someone again! He also gave me great insight into how the aviation industry works in Asia. The most important point I took from it: employees don't get flight benefits! So, although I had thoughts about working in the aviation industry here in Asia, that pretty much sold me on not doing it right now. I mean I love the industry because it fascinates me, so benefits aren't the only reason, but if your going to receive less pay for the same job function in another industry, there had better be some good travel options involved.
On to my day. I rented a bicycle today for about a $1.50 and let myself navigate through traffic,get as lost as possible, and it was wonderful. I really suggest renting a bike in any new town as long as its flat. Such a great way to see the city. Typical of Thailand, I found A LOT of temples (Wat's). Although I had the bike for 24 hours, after about 4 hours, my bum was numb and my legs were aching,  so I decided to turn it in and walk around for a bit. I found a quite tea house with local tea that was amazing, although it made me really miss my Mom since I know she would have loved the patio with the pink orchids, full trees and the waterfall, not to mention the delicious tea. I also had my first REAL salad since i've been in Asia. I'm surprised how much I miss simple veggies. After that I found some more temples and best of all, a massage place! less than $10 for an hour massage....I think Ill be going everyday!
I have to say although traveling alone is great I really wish my cousin Chad was here. For those of you who don't know my cousin, he speaks (or use to, not sure if he has used it in a while) fluent Thai. I think it would have been fun to be shown around a city by someone who has such a passion for it.

Well since I've basically used this post to procrastinate on the paper I should be writing, yes I still have to remember I have homework even when I travel, I think its about time to face real life again. Love you all!

Home sick

So its official, I'm home sick. How do I know you ask? Well, I just spent $27 on a box of Peant Butter Cap'n Crunch, soy Silk milk, Smucker's strawberry jam, Prego Spaghetti sauce and.... a 6-pack of Coke. Of course the American brands are way more expensive, but I really couldn't stand the thought of more fish noodles in my stomach. I know what your thinking, and nope I'm not physically sick. Everything is staying down and solid (no worries Mom). I do know its completely psychological, because I can put down quiznos, subway, and KFC with no problem, but once an Asian dish is in front of me, I loose my appetite. So I hope my splurge of American products will suffice for this week, as I go to Thailand next week and I'm really dying for some street Pad Thai. I also get to meet up with my friend Kim there  (my roommate from my first semester at USC), so that will be some much needed girl time! I know ill make it through, and I'm not counting down the days till I go home, I do miss all my family and friends SO much right now.

Thoughts

So I just found out my Grandma Billock figured out how to find and read my blogs! Hi Grandma!  Next goal: get Nana to read it, which might actually be achievable as I just found out she just got her first email address!

I think my last post was a bit negative in terms of me not liking Vietnam. In fact just the other day I was telling my good friend Bobbi that I really don't like the country. Nim Binh changed that a bit for me as I got to interact with locals in a quiet environment and gain a better understanding about their life. I still do not like Ha Noi, and after visiting a few other Asian countries, the Vietnamese were very cold.

While I was in Nim Binh, I hired a driver and a motobike to take me around to all the sites. I was lucky to get a driver who spoke really good English, so I used the opportunity to ask him some questions. The first being about the dogs. As I said before, it didn’t seem that common since there was only one lady in the market selling dog, but a lot more selling chickens, vegetables, and fish. I also noticed a lot of people let their dogs lay around in what we would call a back yard. So I asked my driver if it was common to eat dog, and he replied its very common, and children tend to get a puppy and raise it (similar to cattle). He then proceeded to ask if I would like to try it and with my most polite no thank you, I spent the rest of the afternoon contemplating this. At first I was really bothered by it, but then I thought, would it be that horrible if I didn’t grow up with dogs as pets? I mean it would be a bit hypocritical of me to say it’s wrong and then go eat a hamburger. So, although it is impossible for me to see a puppy, or for that matter, cats and monkeys (I don’t know if they do in fact eat them, just saw a few tied up) in this country and not think about their fate, I accept it is what they do here.
So go give your pup a big hug and let them know they should be grateful they were born into a western society!

The way back to Ha Noi involved a new experience of waving down a bus to jump on it as it slowed down, more stares from all the locals, and in general, feeling like a movie star as people wanted to take pictures of us, touch our hair, and see if we were single. In general, I had some great times in Vietnam, but didn't connect with the country. Furthermore, the food wasn't that great, which was a huge let down for me as I love to eat my way through a country!

Ill do my best to catch up on the Philippines and Cambodia soon, as well as get all my pictures up on Facebook!

Its going to be a rough week, so if you all get some time, I would love to hear about what is going on in your life!

Vietnam

I know its been a while since I've posted, but traveling really takes it out of you. In the past two weeks I have been to three new countries. Although I want to keep this blog in chronological order, it's just not going to happen. I have loads to tell you all about the Philippines and Cambodia, but I'm now in Vietnam and finally have some time to breathe, so I want to share the past few days with you.

I arrived in Hanoi on Sunday Feb 20th, and it took all of about 3 hours to discover I really do not like the city. I couldn't wait to plan a trip out of there. So my friend and I booked a trip to Halong Bay, which is a bay with thousands of limestone isles. We booked the trip with our hostel so there were with many other backpackers and young people on the boat, which made for a good trip. We spent the night out on the Bay on a boat called the Jolly Roger, and did a two hour kayaking trip around the bay which was AMAZING. After Halong Bay my friend and I tried to reschedule our flights, and head down to Siagon, but the cost outweighed the benefit so we decided to jump on a local bus and drive two hours south to a town called  Nim Bihn.
The real adventure started when we arrived at the bus terminal, and immediately  men started pulling are arms towards these buses. We attempted to find anyone who could tell us how to buy tickets, and got a lot of pointing towards the buses. We finally got on a buss, with more people pushing us and every time we asked if this was the bus to Nim Bihn, they just shook their heads and smiled, which I'm guessing means that we were saying the town wrong and they were just saying yes to get us to stop asking questions. So, we sat like uncomfortable cattle in the back of a bus as people stared at us in surprise that we were taking local transportation. At first it was a bit scary then I figured the worst that happens is we head to a different town, get a hotel and jump on a bus the next day to somewhere else. About an hour and a half into the drive we stop for a break. Once again, our whiteness attracts all the stares of the locals as we get off the buss in an attempt to use one of the most disgusting toilets I've had to visit in all of Asia, thus far. Back on the bus and about 30 minutes later, we get yelled at by the driver to come to the front of the bus (which of course is him just pointing at us and signalling us forward), and once the door is opened, we are all but pushed of the slow moving bus in a town we are told is Nim Bihn.
After a bit of walking we found a hostel, checked out the rooms, and decided it is good enough for now so we stay. Since this is a small town, the market mainly consists of food, very little clothes shops, and a welcome change, no tourist shops. As we're nearing the end of the market area, we come to the 'fresh food' section. Live chickens, fish, fresh vegetables, and to my surprise, a cooked dog. I'll spare you all on the detail of what exactly it looked like but I did look back about 20 times as I couldn't believe I was starting at an actual dog. As bad as it sounds, it was not as horrible as I thought it would be. Also, I assume its not as common to eat dogs since I saw about 20 women with chickens, another 10 selling fish, and only one with the dog. Of course as I was walking back to the hostel, I started realizing how many dogs were tied up, and have now decided to not eat meat while I'm staying in this town.

Lunar New Year

Well, Chinese New Year turned out to be less exciting than I had hoped for. I think most of this was on me since I simply just wasn't in the mood to run around town with thousands of other people to the next event. Being someone who does not celebrate in the true Chinese fashions (with family), is like being a Jew on Christmas. Nothing is open. Although in the states Chinese restaurants are open x-mas day, here, as would be expected, they are closed. So Indian food it was :) No complaints since I really do enjoy the food, but the weekend was fairly dull. Almost everything was closed, so I was forced to take lots of nap, exercise more and do some homework. Which I haven't really done the last two since I've been here, so it was a bit of work! I know, I'm not expecting any sympathy here, just soaking it up before I have to go back to working 5+ days a week. I also managed to finalize my next 4 trips around Asia, so Ill have more interesting things to write about soon!

On another note, I'm about two hours from heading to Manila and Boracay in the Philippians. As I mentioned before, I'm meeting a couple friends there, and now, Kyle! He bought a last minute ticket from Perth Australia which happened to have about a 14 hour layover in Singapore, so I got to take him around for a few hours. It was so good to see him after about 2 months apart.

I miss you all dearly! If you have any request for anything from Asia, let me know. I'm heading to Cambodia and Vietnam and plan on doing some supper cheap shopping!

Exciting adventures

So far this week has been filled with good news. My Dad is coming to visit me in April and we're going to backpack in China and hopefully Tibet! I also booked tickets for next weekend to Boracay (supposedly the best beach in the world) and Manila, where I am going to climb an active volcano. It is possible to outrun lava, right? Just kidding, Mom and Dad, I hope! :)
I'm meeting two friends from my USC there who I haven't seen in a while so it should be a good weekend. Then I fly back to Singapore for two days, and then we get a recess week from school! Since I only have class on Mon/Tue I have about 13 days to travel, so I'm heading to Cambodia and Vietnam. Best of all, Kyle is meeting me in Cambodia and we are spending 3 days in Siem Reap, where Angkor Wat is, then 3 days Phnom Phen. Its been a while since we traveled together, so it will be a good change of pace! I'm doing Vietnam with one of my girlfriends that I met in Indonesia, she is from the Netherlands and is really cool, so it should be another good 6 days.
Tonight is a start to the Chinese New Year, so I'm doing what every good expat does, going to  and Indian buffet, then heading down to Chinatown to watch fireworks, which I'm pretty sure are illegal here, so that should be interesting.

Food, Food and culture

I decided to stay for a few weeks in Singapore and not travel in a n attempt to relax, and Singapore. Thankfully it somehow, it turned into a jam packed, culture filled, and exhausting weekend.  Since this was really my first weekend enjoying Singapore (the first weekend was spent finding an apartment and the following two, spent traveling), I really wanted to check out some of the more touristy places. Unfortunately, we are currently in one of the two monsoon seasons, and is hasn’t stopped raining in three days.  Which is fairly depressing, and making me rethink my idea that Seattle could be good place to work after I graduate. So I spent the first part of the week attending classes (yes, I do have to go here to pass), with the second half reserved for catching up on sleep and kicking this cough. The bad news is, I still haven’t really slept, the good news, I love Singapore more everyday I’m here. I was invited out Friday to one of my classmates Birthday BBQ’s. It happened to be a Korean BBQ which was my first and I really hope it’s not my last. Food was excellent and the people and location were even better. Coincidently, my roommate’s birthday was the same day and I was invited out with her and her friends to celebrate out in Far East Plaza, a more business night life area.  A great time with new friends!

On Saturday night, the MBA students here organized a Chinese New Years Party for all the Graduate students, which was an absolute blast. They even had a dancing dragon! Sunday was by far the best day. I applied for a host family here in Singapore, and they invited me to lunch at their house. It is a Singaporean family with Malay and Indonesian decent, so the food was AMAZING. Of course the most difficult task was what to bring with me. I was told that if they are Muslim then the food has to be Halal, which I didn’t know, and had no idea if they were. Thankfully, there is a great florist near me, which solved my food issue and proved to be the best option, since 1) they are in fact Muslim and 2) the mom loves flowers.  Back to the food: the dish was similar to chicken soup, but we added noodles, fried onions, chives, and some potatoes thing to. They also bought typical Malaysian dessert for me to try, which I actually ate with my hands (typical Malay style). It was such a great time to understand more about the Singapore culture, and they are such wonderful hosts. They also have 4 children, and the oldest is a 20 year old girl, who has offered to take me all around Singapore and introduce me to her friends, and of course take me to the best shopping places.  I was then invited by two classmates, to a dinner at a Korean Restaurant, and of course that was amazing too.

Oh and If I haven’t made it clear before, I LOVE THE FOOD HERE!

Chinese New Year’s is coming up next week, and I’m told it’s supposed to be incredible here in S’pore, so I’m really looking forward to braving the crowd this week and hanging out in China Town to see what it’s all about! 

First backpacking trip!

Last weekend I traveled to Kuala Lumpur and Langkawi (an Island off Malaysia) with two classmates who are also on exchange here at NUS. The first day there we walked around, visited the Petronas towers and as always, enjoyed the flavorful food Malaysia offers! Unfortunately, and true to every trip I take to a new country, I got sick. At first I thought it was allergies and assumed I was allergic to Asia (which seemed to be the case in Spain since I was sick the entire time I was there), however, it turned out to be a full blown cold, nasty cough and all. I did my best to not let this affect me by taking as much cough suppressants and cold medicine as I could possibly find.  The second day was the best day, minus the cold, we woke up and headed straight for Batu Caves which is a Hindu cave built inside a limestone hill. We were fortunate to be traveling there during one of the most famous festivals held every year, Thaipusam, a Hindi festival (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thaipusam ) in which people make a pilgrimage from KL to the caves, which is about a 15km trek. We got a ride from one of guys staying at our hostel, Vincent, who lives in a village about 100KM away. My basic understanding of the festival is that it is the time of year to atone and cleanse the body of sins, some people actually mutilate themselves by hanging fruit off hooks that are pierced into their body. People come from all over the world to attend this festival. We even met a couple from Russia!  At one point we heard there were about 1.3 million people there the day we went. It took us about 2 hours to climb the 272 steps to get to the caves, on a normal day it should have taken about 5 minutes. In summary, I have never felt so claustrophobic, dirty (it was about 85º and 85% humidity, sunny with no clouds, and constant body contact with the millions of other people), or uncomfortable in my life, and yet it was one of the most fascinating experiences I have ever had.

Later that day we were invited to have dinner and attend a prosperity and Chinese New Year ceremony at a Tao Temple. We happened to be walking by and taking pictures the day before and a lady walked out and invited us. I was fortunate enough to sit next to the sweetest lady, who reminded me of my Nana, and did her best to explain the symbols and the ceremony in English. I didn’t understand a word of the ceremony, but it was truly an unforgettable experience to be invited into these people’s lives.

That night, at our hostel, Vincent broke out his guitar and we all sang ‘Hotel California’ together, and had great conversations about the political and economic situation in Malaysia. A truly valuable conversation as I would have never understood the racism and corruption that exists there if I was just a tourist walking around.

All in all, KL was an amazing. I don’t think I would suggest anyone visit it unless you can meet some locals and enjoy their company, or if you really enjoy big cities in Asia.

Our next stop was Langkawi, an Island off Malaysia. This Island was beautiful, and we met a lot of great people. They had some mountains that made me miss Colorado, but beaches that can’t compete with any in the US. I also got to drive on the ‘other’ side of the road and succeeded without injury, except for always turning on the windshield wipers when trying to use the turn signals.

When I finally returned back to Singapore it hit me hard why I choose to study here and use it as my home base for travel. Singapore is so CLEAN and very easy to get around, a perfec place to return to after traveling Asia, especially when sick! 

The first two weeks

The first two weeks of living in S'pore have been nothing less than chaotic and exciting. When I arrived I stayed in a hotel for two nights looking for an apartment. Needless to say, those were two very lonely and frustrating nights in which I definitely questioned what I was thinking when I choose to move to Asia. Thankfully, I found a place by the second day that is really close to school and things started to calm down, a bit. The biggest shock so far was the cost of living. It's like living in Manhattan! The best part though is that I have two roommates, who are both from India and both graduated the MBA program I am attending here at National University of Singapore (NUS), which has been extremely helpful as I adjust to a new lifestyle.
My classes are going well. I have only 3 courses here in Singapore, which I conveniently scheduled on only Monday and Tuesday. Which means, 5 days of travel every week. As you can see classes might become a second to travel during these 4 months, but of course I will make sure I will at least pass!
The first weekend I was here I traveled to Bintan Indonesia on a group trip organized by local students for all the exchange students attending NUS this semester. We took the ferry over, which proved to miserable as I get sea sick in packed boats. The way back was much worse as there was choppy seas and it took us twice as long (about 3 hours). Bintan was just okay, not a whole lot there, but I did have a chance to meet a few really cool girls that I plan on traveling with in the future, and I got to explore and meet some locals, so it was worth it in that respect. I also had a bungalow which was in the water (pics are on facebook), which has been a dream of mine for some time now.
Back to Singapore for the second week of classes I discovered that it is very difficult to figure out a new school system, but everyone has been very helpful here, so the frustration was kept to a minimum.
So, my favorite parts of Singapore so far are Hawker centers. They are essentially outdoor food courts in which families rent out a kiosk and cook various types of food and I have one that is about a 5 minute walk from my house.  It is extremely cheap, around $2.50 USD for a meal, and another $.70 for fresh juice. I eat here twice a day as its cheaper than cooking at home. Plus, it very difficult to get tired of the food as there is about 100 stalls, and every type of food, including Indian, Chinese, Malay ect. I'm trying to remember to take picture of my food, but I tend to be too hungry to remember.

Well, I don't want to scare you all off with such a long first post, so Ill continue next time with my trip to Malaysia.

...and so it begins

After many emails and phone calls to various family members in the US, I determined that while I love talking to you all about what is going on here, there never seems to be enough time to explain what is going on here and to catch up on what is going on back in the States. Which is really important to me, because no matter how cool this place is, I still miss home and need my dose of family news every week.
Over the next few posts I will attempt to catch up on the first two weeks in Singapore and will try keep the blog updated at minimum, weekly. Please feel free to comment and let me know what is going on with your lives as some days it can be easy to live so far away, but other days hearing about your world helps me get through the difficult days!