Aleph discovers Singapore

Welcome to the first post by Adi Smith-

I haven't really read the post from the others and I'm going to skip around a bit so if it gets a bit confusing and I repeat what the others have said... I don't care.

The trip really started uneventfully- we all arrived at the airport only really knowing a handfull of people. Those of us who came on time were able to browse the duty free shops (and I've come to the conclusion that duty free is a waste oftime), the late commers were treated to a long long wait in the queue (serves them right! You know who you are...).

I dont knon whow many people actually noticed this but all the SIA girls are all extreamly thin in the waist and I have to wonder if there are some strict guidelines about what they can and can't eat. Somemone said that seeing as the portions of food were almost non-existant on the flight that that wouldn't be that hard.

We arrived at Changi after a bumpy 8hr flight to be greeted by the usual hustle and bussle of the airport- this was with the obvious and quite intimidating addition of a couple of army guys strolling round with a pair of p-90's at the ready- for those foreigners that get too loud (Jenny) or the returning Singaporeans who refuse to be taken into national service (Eugene how did u get out of it?)

The greeting party at Changi consisted of a Ian and a couple of students from NUS... I met Wei Wen (a bridge fanatic) and Jen (I'm not really sure of her full name but Jen is Anglo enough for me) both involved in the SPS program at NUS- something like the equivelent of our Advanced Science Degree. These and other NUS studnets are taking some of the classes with us over here and some are also coming to Tioman Island for a bit of study in to the local biodiversity. Really just an excuse to have a bit of fun at a tropical resort.

The one thing that really sturk me as we exited the airport was the heat--- it was intense, and humid and I can only add stifling. It seems to bear down on you like an oppresive wet blanket dulling your reactions and thoughts. I thought as we arrived at the college that I would never be able to get used to the heat and that staying in the un-airconditioned bedrooms would be insane however I can safely say that after a week or so I have gotten used to it and indeed I like coming out of the antarctica that is our classroom and into the warmth of the outdoors.

Anyway.... back to the college apartments that we are staying at. The place is called PGP (Singaporeans have some weird fetish for TLA's [three letter acronyms] and from now on I don't think I'm going to explain them so that you can have a little bit of a go at guessing what they are) and it is loacated on Prince George's Parkway or something like that. It is really in itself something like a small town - there are over 2500 rooms, 3 cafeterias, tennis and basketball courts, a gym and several fountains all built around 30+ residentiatl appartment blocks.

This photo is looking out of my room on level 3 of an 8 story building into the courtyard in the middle of a block. There are some crazy patterns on the floor that I still haven't figured out yet but just remember there are another 30 or so of these buildings in the complex so it is huge!

The really cool thing bout the apartments is the locking system. They don't use keys here- keys are for stupid westerners and this is Singapore. What they actually use are transponders (no they are not a sneaky way for the government to track the movements of the students who have skipped out on national service) they are actually like little remote control keys for our door locks. You hold the up to the door and press a little button and you hear these two little beeps that mean that your door is now able to be unlocked. Of course it is not as easy as it sounds because me and nearly everyone I talked to said that they had to fiddle around for at least five minutes trying to figure them out. Bellow is a picture of the transponder and it is all a bit James Bond-esq for me, but fun anyway. I'm still scared of losing my transponder--- not because of being locked out of my room but rather the fact that a lock-out incurs something like a $50 fine- as they say "Singapore is a fine city" (get it?).

Another of the James Bond like things that we got was a pen that had all the SWB students in raptures. not only did this pen have the amazing ability to write in ink, but it also managed to dispense mini post-it-notes out of a secret compartment that eluded me for a good 10 minutes before I finally opened it. I know that to many people that might seem really lame- but to us, after a long day of new and exciting things , it was just the icing on the cake ;).