Singa Pura Chronicles

It's about time that I take you on this amazing journey with me to this magificent country-city-penisula on the southest tip of little Saigon.

I touched down in this page of my book on July 30, 2005 at around midnight local time on a United airline boeing 747. As soon as the plane touched down, I felt myself stepping into a fantastic world of endless opportunities. A new world, a new chance to present myself as what I want to be. No judgements.

Never before have I felt to free to express myself, so unreserved. So now, each day it in itself a story, and a gift itself.

"Where there is life, there is sunshine"

Sometimes I get so discouraged from all the people who just don't care, but at other times, I am so touch by people who you hardly know, who would go through so much trouble just to help you out.

Day one.

Do to my time difference, I woke up at 5am, after only 2 hours of sleep and wondered around Sheares hall, which I now think of as home. After showering and getting ready, it took me 30 minutes just to figure out how to get out of my block.

I live in Block A. The entire residence is quite pretty, clean and welcoming, like an inn, from the roof tops of certain blocks, we can even see the ocean. at the centre of each block we even have our own gardent with palm trees, little pathes and all!

So I wondered around sheares, and blindly came across this huge hall that looked like a cafeteria, except for all the tables, as they where covered with all sorts of recycled materials with crafts in various stages of completion. A guy-who later became known as Derrick was bent over a huge pile of stuff, busy doing his thing. I don't know how, but we started talking. The first real person that I talked to in Singapore. Already for some reason I felt different, more out going. For those of you who know my back home should know that I am extremely shy, and unoutspoken around some people I don't know. It must be the air in singapore. We decided to have breakfast together. He and his friend Josephine treated me to brunch in the Hawker centre at Clementi square where one can find everything they need including food, clothes, bank, post office, blah blah... they got me hooked up with a cell phone right away. Because I am a foreigner, getting a cell phone plan would have meant that I would have needed to go to the headquarters of the cellphone service providers and would have payed an extra $200. To my surprise, Derrick, who I hardly knew at the time offered to put my plan under his name! I mean, he didn't know me either, for all I knew, I could have not payed my bills and he would have been in trouble. :) it makes me smile when people are so nice. Which brings up the questions, are they nice because they are naive, or are there truly people who are just genuinely nice, knowing the risks?

On that same day I was going out of the building and passed by an open door... someone was inside who wasn't asian... DING! Exchange student just like me... it was none other than... SUPER Colin! As I was busy meeting him Gary, the funky Mexican-texan-hebrew speaking dude walked passed the room and BOOM! I met my firstest exchange student buds!

That night, I met up with some more exchange students through colin and went to visit little india! :D:D

From front to back:

Right: me, cody, Alex, ? Left: Colin, Tyler, Shannon, Vijanthi(who is hidden)

There we met up with more people and woot! There you have it, my first day in singapore.