Really tired Wednesday

Well, hello there.

I forgot to turn on my hot water heater so now I get to sit around (theoretically doing homework, of course) and wait for enough hot water for a shower. Why do I have to turn on my hot water heater? It saves energy and all that wonderful stuff. It's also a huge pain.

There's not loads to update about today. I had hip hop again and I'm really sore. For some reason I never thought hip hop was that difficult. Well I'm wrong. Very wrong.

Chinese class hasn't gotten any more interesting than the last class. Falling asleep is one of those things that are very tempting to do in class! Especially during first period. Then it's practically inevitable.
I may be saying this a bit prematurely, but Singapore seems to be getting less humid to me. Or I'm getting used to it. Either way, it's not terrible to sit outside at lunch and stuff. The classroom and school bus is COLD in the morning though. It's silly! I mean, I get it's hot but there's not reason to keep one's classroom a penguin and polar bear heaven.

Funny bit today: Mom and I switched my current rental mattress with the mattress on the guest bed (my old mattress) because I don't like the rental mattress very much. It was a bit of a production. It involved a lot of making sure the mattresses wouldn't hit the top of the doorframe or something similar.

I guess I'm feeling lazy this week. The day off yesterday didn't help, nor the fact that I came back to an easy day. SAS has a 2 day rotating timetable and I have one "easy day" and one "painful suffering day". This translates to "painful suffering please end" weeks (3 suffering days) and "I like this week a lot" weeks (3 slacker days). On another random note, I think I left my skirt in the girl's locker room. I'm not certain how I managed to do that but I can't find one of my skirts. Oops....

Well, I think the hot water heater is done. So, will post later! Maybe with a picture for a change!

Hari Raya Puasa Holiday!

Hello,

Look who's posting again. Shocker. Today is Hari Raya, which is the day the Muslims finish their month-long fasting for Ramadan. Which means, no school for me! YEAH!

So, I woke up at noon, and have done nothing until this point, writing this blog post. Oh, I'll do my algebra II/Trig homework in a bit as well. Anyways, I went out last night with my friend Appu. It was kind of a long adventure of first meeting up in front of the right food stand (She was on the other end of the mall!) and then wandering around looking at shoes. It turns out that neither of us knew where we were going because we ended up in a mystery mall that had a Forever 21 somehow. Hey, I'm not complaining.
Singapore is confusing. More specifically, the underpasses are confusing, because if you take the wrong one, go too far, or take a wrong turn, you're in trouble. Which of course happened to us trying to go to Wheelock place. So much for that.

Discoveries and Noteworthy Occurrences:
-I've dropped out of the school play to be in the dance show instead
-Yesterday evening, Appu and I found a Sanrio store. It was like a little Hello Kitty Heaven
- We also found a bakery that lets you decorate your own cake. We were sorely tempted
- My parents and I found this really good breakfast-all-day place. I ate strawberry cake.
- At SAS, there is no point in running up and down the stairs to drop off papers. I am converted to emailing teachers last-minute emails
- There is fogging every Saturday or Sunday (maybe Sunday?) at my school to keep the mosquito population down. Dengue Fever is at an all-time high here in Singapore. The worst hit area is Woodlands, naturally where my school is
- Because of the fogging at my apartment building as well, my dad hasn't seen any lizards. He's very disappointed
-No matter how well you think you know the area by your apartment building, it will still look exactly the same as the building next door until your friend tells you you're walking the opposite direction
- Fruit juice here is amazing. It's ice, fruit, and simple syrup in a blender.

End of Week 2

Hello there,

I'm completely exhausted and it's only week two! I've been so busy with the play and dance and everything else, it's a bit overwhelming. Classes overall are going well though Chinese and Molecular Biology are so boring they routinely put me to sleep. I really like that it's a two-day rotation instead of a three day rotation because that means I get to meet with all my classes more equally and there are no "majors" and "minors" just "easy classes" and "hard classes" which I don't mind.

In dance today we did hip hop. It was fun but I'm not particularly good at hip hop, so I have to admit to hiding behind the guys (who were really good) and just following them a bit. It appears I don't have the "swag" for hip hop or something, though I don't really dance like a ballerina doing hip hop... I think I dance it more jazzy.

The Glow Dance, aka the first school dance, is tonight. I know it sounds pathetic but I'm going to sit this out partially because I'm so sore from dance earlier. The other half to it is that it's supposed to be one of those annoying school dances in which no one really dances but instead stands around awkwardly and talks. Then, during slow dances, everyone either runs to find that cute guy or else hides in the bathroom. Guess what?
I'm the hide in the bathroom kind of girl. Always have been.
So I guess I'm just going to spend my Friday night at home instead of spending an awkward 3 hours meeting people and socializing. And you know what? That sounds great to me because we have a freaking 3D TV (it arrived a week ago I think) and I'm going to watch a movie.

So, I guess I'm missing a great opportunity to meet people, but as a sophomore that's already stuck in classes with loads of freshman, I feel no need to drag my butt out the door and go to the Glow Dance.

Not looking forward to Monday... I have loads of tests!

I don't think I ever posted a uniform picture so here's me in the polo and shorts. Like every other girl at SAS I roll them up to make them shorter, because mid-thigh is a really awkward length that makes you look shorter. And that's something I don't need!

Someday when I get around to it I'll post a picture of the class shirt and also of the skirt.

Heard about the hurricane back in the USA. Let me know how you all are doing. Thinking of you all <3

(I also really hope the house doesn't get damaged because we were supposed to close on it on Monday)

Lunchtime Post :)

Hello everyone, 

I'm sorry I haven't been writing, I've just been sooooo busy with activities starting up. Since I think lunch ends sort of soon, I'm just going to list everything and describe how it's going!

Dance: Last dance class was belly dance. I don't think I did too badly. However, last class of the day is African dancing. Yippee! An hour and 20 minutes of sweating!

I don't know what's going on with dance club, I can't figure out if I'm out of it, or if people just don't send updates around.

The Play: So auditions on Thursday were horrid. I was pretty nervous and lost confidence. However, Monday and Tuesday were workshop days. Hopefully I've improved enough for a decent part. 

BlackBoard: It's this website that my teachers post documents and assignments on. It's similar to Moodle for those Bedford people who know what I'm talking about. However, BlackBoard is the biggest pain in the butt to figure out that I've ever had to deal with. I literally hate it. It makes no sense whatsoever.

Classes in General: Molecular Biology and Chinese are really, really boring. Like, nearly-fall-asleep-in-class-but-you-persevere-and-stay-awake-but-just-barely. English has the potential to be interesting, History of China is great, Algebra II/Trig is difficult.

Alright. So my friend Appu is reading this over my shoulder while drinking tea. Ok now she's gone. But anyways, I can honestly say I have friends here even though it's only week 2. Not bad at all!

On a side note, I met a girl named Natalie today. She's a redhead. There's something extremely weird going on here. 

First Weekend Part I

Hello everyone,

Sorry I haven't written a post recently, I've been pretty busy with school work already. So far, I have two oral reports on Tuesday and a possible quiz Monday. I had a math quiz Friday which I hopefully did ok on because I ultimately got answers for every question though I'm sure some were incorrect.

Today I walked around Orchard Road with my friend (who has requested her name not be mentioned on this blog). Her father picked me up at home and dropped us off outside the Ion. Then we got distracted in a store called "The Things She Needs" or something along those lines and tried on shoes. After finally getting our butts out of that highly entrancing store, we walked to Cold Stone Creamery. She got Mint Mint Chocolate Chocolate (which I made her say five times fast with amusing results of "mint min chocola choco") and I got the Chocolate Devotion with additional gummy bears. Which my friend  thought was gross until she asked me for a gummy bear. Whatever. We then went to Forever 21 where we had fun trying on clothes. I ended up buying a mint-green dress that looked completely hideous on the hanger, but for some very bizarre reason looks good on me. I have no idea why it's such an odd color but looks good.
Walked to the American Club after some additional looking around. She's a member which is quite nice and the Club is very beautiful. However, it's also really expensive and in my opinion there's not much use for it unless you have a lot of children or no access to a pool/gym at your house/apartment. We walked to Wisma Atria and my parents picked me up. I had loads of fun with my friend she's so nice :)
It's really nice to have a friend already even though I've only been in school a week.

After getting picked up, my parents and I went to the Tanglin area and ended up getting my father a Chinese desk for his at-home office. That area is really annoying... everything is "Tanglin" something or another. Tanglin Centre, Tanglin Mall... it's not easy to figure out where you are or where one is actually trying to go!

Then saw an amazing Chinese dance performance. It was by the Dance Ensemble and in the top 5 best shows I've ever seen in my life. Here's a picture of all the performers. While I do have a video of the sword boys (I don't know what their official name is) I figure it's probably better not to post it for fear of the Copyright Monster chasing me down about choreography and all that.

The other picture is of a menu at the place we had a late-night snack at after the show. It amuses me greatly. Figure out why :P

Day 2!

Hello everyone,

Just a quick update before I go to bed. Today was a pretty good day. It was my easy day and I only had one truly academic class, Chinese I. However, Chinese I at the moment is extremely easy. It's like, say "b" in Chinese. Now say "ba". Now add a tone. You've just said "father"! Woohoo! Also the kid that sat next to me has decided to rely on me for help. That better not be the finally seating arrangement, buddy.

Dance was exhausting. I didn't actually dance today though. I did the "Fitness Gram" which measures fitness levels. That meant the pacer test. Confession: I drop out when I start to feel dizzy at 20 something instead of pushing myself. I'm really NOT a runner. Stretching for a half an hour afterwards felt so good. I haven't lost any flexibility! Yippee!

It was new kid pizza day so I ate that for lunch. I actually didn't go with my buddy Rachel but a new friend Deepti (I'm so sorry if you read this and I spelled your name wrong!) and I went together and chatted. It's really nice having people I'm friendly with already.

Sat with Marianna on the bus ride home. She's also new and a sophomore, but way smarter than me. This girl is in AP Biology and AP Calculus! I thought I was smart in Alg2/Trig and now Molecular Bio!

Looong day. Went to the candy store afterwards. So yummy!

First Day of School Part II

Hi again,

So today was an 8 period day (instead of a 4 period day) and it was very tiring running up and down stairs all day long. Luckily, I had a free period to rest a little before lunch, however it really wasn't that restful because I was running around trying to find Appu.
I had to bring home a lot of textbooks today... and even more on Wednesday! Yippee!

I didn't get too much homework today but it's still annoying. I have one day that's a lot of work and one day that has dance, drama, free, and Chinese 1, which are all supposed to be relatively easy classes. I'm in Freshman biology which I am seriously considering changing because I think the class seems very easy. I mean, we're not even given textbooks or anything! I find that extremely weird.
Also while trying to get to drama class I ended up in the Middle School. Still don't know how I managed to get all the way there without noticing there was something wrong with the situation. Oh well.

I'm tired and forget what else I was going to say, so good night.

First Day of School Part 1

Hello,

So this is just a quick post I'm typing up at lunch. I've met some people like Appu (again!) and her friends Anika, Deepti, and more but I can't remember or spell their names. There are so many people here. I'm trying to remember faces but it's not working out too well so far. It's probably time to mention I'm not in the cafe or anything... I'm sitting on a bench. The cafe seems to have a reputation of being scary and in addition to that I don't really want to meet up with the girls I met the other day because Appu is cooler. Appu is delighted to know that she is cooler and I know because she clapped when I showed the the sentence above.

Part two coming at you after school!

Last Day of Summer

Ok, it's not actually the last day of summer because it feels like summer time year-around here...

But it's the last day of summer break! Ahh! Panic! Run around screaming! Panic some more!

No... no... no... that's not what I did today. Instead, we exchanged the printer Mom and Dad bought yesterday because I couldn't connect to it. Then we bought a TV.

 And it's not any old TV. It's a freaking huge I-don't-know-how-big HD TV. THAT'S 3D! Yes, everyone. We are getting a 3-D TV. So if anyone wants to visit, we can watch 3-D movies (specifically, Avatar) at my house.

Then we ate at Cedele's again for dinner. I had salmon which was lovely. As well as a strawberry-chocolate milkshake which was really strawberry ice-cream and chocolate sauce thrown into a blender for a bit, then poured into a cup. Wonderful. Since we were at Great World City, I should mention how cool the bathrooms are. Each level of the shopping centre has a different country theme. The level Cedele's in on is "Japan". I love Japan! The women's room had geishas on the wall and according to my dad the men's room had sumo wrestlers. Personally I would have put samurai on the wall, but hey I didn't design the place. Got school supplies after that, pretty standard though pencils and such are generally sold individually here rather than in bulk. One isn't supposed to lose one's supplies, I suppose. Afterwards my family went on an epic Sunday grocery shopping at Cold Storage. I do like that place. It has everything! Even Craft Mac 'n' Cheese! I'm not suffering the slightest here in Singapore. There are Ben & Jerry's everywhere here. I don't know how people don't give into temptation and get fat here. And seriously what is with all the cute babies, kids, and pregnant mothers? It's kind of ridiculous.

In regards to tomorrow being my first day of school, I'm not certain if I'm more excited or nervous. I think nervous at the moment. Orientation made me more nervous, which is slightly ironic, but I feel like I sort of know the general location of my classes. Except for dance and drama. Those classes are special and get to be in their own person wing in the middle of nowhere. I'm not really looking forward to lunch tomorrow. Or any amount of social time. Having never been the new girl until now, I have no idea what to expect tomorrow except for what I've heard and what chick-flicks tell me. As I generally fall asleep during chick-flicks, I'm working off what other people have told me. And that's mostly that they got lost and ate lunch in the bathroom, which I have no intention of doing. Well, I have no idea where I'm going tomorrow and with my luck I'll end up in the middle school or something weird. I think it's time to get ready for bed even though during the summer I'd probably be just getting home, eating dinner, or wasting time on the internet. So good-bye summer vacation, I'll miss you.

Since I'm going to be in school now, I may end up writing less than I already am. While slightly pathetic, I'll make sure to post at least weekly. Or every three days. Or in the case of the first week, probably every day because I'm hoping for a light homework load. Which seems unlikely.

WOO I'M A SOPHOMORE! NOT A FRESHMAN! THANK GOODNESS!

Orientation!

Well, good evening everybody!

Sorry I haven't been posting much lately, we pretty much do the same thing every single day. But not today!

Today we went to SAS for the New Student Orientation. It was a whirlwind of speeches, playing those "get-to-know-you" games (why oh why?), and walking around the campus. My buddy Rachel was a very good tour guide, which was nice. We also got our parking sticker and my parent's ID cards.

So: The Classes!

Biology: Really, really amazing bio room that all the Bedford kids should be jealous of and a teacher who surfs and likes the Beatles. Does it get better?

Algebra II/Trig: Nice teacher. Really sweet.

English: Small town teacher! It was nice talking to her. And she's got a freaking couch in her classroom

Chinese: Nice teacher

History of China: Clever teacher. He seems really interesting. And the textbook doesn't weigh 700 kilograms either

Dance: Possibly the nicest teacher/person I've ever met. She's going to help me find a Chinese dance studio, isn't that nice?

Drama: Odd, but super cool teacher. Can't wait for Drama! Did I mention he has a freaking stage, complete with lighting, in his classroom?

Random Other Tidbits:
- I'm going to try out for the play. It's called "30 Reasons Not to Be in a Play" and the way it works is I get to read a main character's monologue to audition. Eeps
- Loads and loads of new kids are moving here from China. Like, white kids. It's fascinating
- The school classroom numbering system rivals the BHS hallway naming system in logic. Seriously, what the heck?
- If there's an interest, an SAS student is into it.
- There are an incredible number of clubs
- I will be hiking up and down stairs ALL DAY
- I have never seen such a big cafeteria in my life.
- There's a rock-climbing wall in the gym.
- There are... four? Dance studios. Holy shiitake mushrooms.

No hable español...

Today was fun, but tiring!

Went to SAS really early in the morning (we left at 7am from our apartment, which is early for me!!) to take the Spanish placement test. And it was freaking difficult. The focus is quite different here, because in Bedford we learned more cultural stuff like medical words, car mechanic, fine arts, and places in Latin America. Well, apparently all they learn is grammar here. Because I saw tenses on this placement test that I never knew existed. Spanish III, here I go again. 

Ok, I don't actually know where I placed or anything, but I'm a bit worried about that. 

Afterwards, found my mom talking to an Indian lady. I can't remember her name, but her daughter's name is Appu and she's super nice. We were all talking together and they waited around for us to get the bus information as well as the white polo shirts. Once one gets washed I'll put pictures up of me in it with all the different skorts and stuff. It was funny buying polo shirts. The girls like their shirts tight so they look good (so American) and the guys like their shirts baggy (potato sack). Actually got a taxi with Appu and her mom because they live down the street from us, then went grocery shopping. My mom and I have decided we like Fair Price more because it's easier to get to from the apartment, has a better set up produce section, and sells the best ginger beer/root beer ever. At least in my opinion. 

When we were in the elevator to our apartment, this really tall man was in the elevator too, going to his apartment as well. I mean it when I say really tall. I'm talking, like my mom wasn't even shoulder height to him and she's 5'3. So that guy was at least 6'5, we thing. Probably closer to 7 feet tall. I can't get over how tall that guy was! He made my mom look like a dwarf!

School starts Monday... oh goodie. 

Happy National Day, Everyone!

HAPPY NATIONAL DAY!

National Day is Singapore independence day. There are fireworks and all kinds of lovely celebrations. However, I don't think we're doing any of them. 

Went to Demsey Hill again for furniture shopping today. Bought dressers, side tables, and a bed end table. It was really funny because the people at the furniture shop we like starting waving at us as soon as we got out of the car. They remembered us. They also were very helpful because they knew we were going to buy something!

Had steak for an early dinner today. It was at this place called "California" which if you ask me is a bit weird. Then had Ben & Jerry's Phish Phood Ice Cream. I am not suffering here in the slightest. 

So, How Do You Make Rice in a Rice Cooker?

I officially have no idea what time it is, what day it is, etc. And neither does my computer, that claims it's still August 4th. I guess that's what happens when you don't get up until 11:something AM because you were talking to your friends the night before. Oh well.

Today was our first breakfast in our apartment. It was lovely because we got to use the toaster oven and coffee machine. Even though we all forgot we didn't have any sugar.

Then later on, we tried the rice cooker out. We've actually had a bad experience with a rice cooker back in the States that quite frankly did not cook the rice one bit. So we were a bit nervous and naturally since I didn't read the instruction manual I messed it up the first time I hit "start" but eventually it all worked out and we had steaming yummy rice. Now all I need is some Ryuk or Zulk or FLOSS! I have no idea how to spell it but it's shredded BBQ'd pork and super yummy. At least to me. Maybe you have to grow up with it, like I did from stealing it from Jackie at lunch. If you're reading this Jackie, gosh darn it I miss you.

Went to Takashimaya today with my mom. She bought a bright red cloth cart thing to wheel groceries around. Other people have them too... but not BRIGHT RED! I was amused the whole time in Cold Storage, which is kind of part of Takashimaya. We thought we were going to cook dinner here at the apartment and make pasta. Here's the thing though. The stoves here run on gas, and the gas comes in a tank that you have to purchase. Well, we all kind of thought we had ordered a tank or somehow had a tank with gas. We were all wrong. So now we're waiting for- get this- Mexican delievery. We'll see how "Mexican" this is, I guess. I'm slightly skeptical.

Observation List:

- People really seem to like KFC around here
- Don't go shopping on Sundays. Everyone else does too
- Avoid sales people when you can. Some are very helpful, some just kind of follow you around and bug you
- You can buy every variety of meat ball you can imagine here. Fish balls, chicken balls, beef balls, shrimp balls... the list goes on and on
- Buying things in bulk seem popular. Like 5 kilo cans of Milo
- If you get lost in Takashimaya, asking for directions gets your turned around even more. All the designer kiosks selling Dior, Prada, Gucci... all look exactly the same when one is tired and carrying groceries

Finally!

Yippee! Woo Hoo! Hurray! Yes! Wicked! YEAH!

We moved into our apartment today! We actually rented out a 13 person seater van with a driver to get us over here because there was just so much stuff it would have taken an obscene number of trips in my dad's car. And he can't lift things because of his back anyways.

Here's how everything looked in the dining room of the temporary apartment with my mom sticking her tongue out and posing:

Finally, we got everything up to our apartment and left almost immediately to go to Great World City. There are lots of great shoppes there, but we really ended up spending a lot of time in Best, which was a lot like a Best Buy. We bought a rice cooker, toaster oven, hair straightener, electric toothbrushes... really interesting stuff, I know. We also found a really good hardware store, which to be frank, I didn't think would exist in Singapore because there's just so much fancy stuff a hardware store seems random. But there was, and it had like everything. To make up for our lack of interesting buys, there were stores that had the most random, strange, and downright "modern" furniture. Such as this chair.

Copyrights to whoever designed the chair, blah blah blah. But ok seriously? Why would you ever put this chair in your home?!?!

While grocery shopping, I noticed 1 kilogram of cherries is $46 dollars here. Needless to say I will never bake a cherry pie here in Singapore.

So I'm tired, so goodnight!

FURNITURE!

Ok, I'll admit it. I got bit with the lazy bug and I didn't feel like posting yesterday. But anyways, our furniture (some of it temporary) was delivered yesterday. This would include the TV stand, coffee table, temporary couch and chairs, parent's bed and really fat mattress, my bed and mattress, and dining room set. It was pretty amazing watching the work-men bring everything up through the service elevator! There was so much stuff!

I'm starting school in 10 days, which I am now kind of panicking about because I haven't done my summer reading yet. Or really looking into a Chinese dance/ballet studio. Oh shoot.

Video of the furniture a bit later when I can find my connector cable.

Other news:
Ran the washing machine in the apartment for the first time today. Mom and I thought it was broken until we pressed the "start" button again and the thing turned on.

Fireworks Video and the iPhone 4

Hi Everyone,

Sorry about the general lack of posts as well as the lack of firework video. I finally got the video working, as you can see at the end of this post.

Today I went to SAS to get my ID card, meet with my counselor, and sort out the parent card. It wasn't overly interesting, though I managed to get dance II and dance III in my timetable instead of dance I or something like that. My courses are: Biology, Algebra II/Trig, History of China/Japan, Dance II & III, English 10, and Spanish IV.

Also got my iPhone 4 from Singtel today!! YIPPEE!

Video Delays... and Other Stuffy Stuff

Well, thank you iPhone for making videos very hard to remove off of your memory card. Partially due to laziness of not wanting to spend the time trying to figure it our and partially due to having no freaking clue how to fix the unknown problem, the fireworks video is currently delayed. I did the beginning and transitions, but I can't get the video to run. I'm going to try to fix this tonight and get an upload to YouTube by tomorrow.

Anyways, I've had an interesting couple of days. Ended up at Gleneagles hospital yesterday for a really bad stomach ache that we were worried was due to my appendix, but I was fine. Thank goodness. Then went to Courts and IKEA again and actually purchased stuff. For example, a scale, my father's "shaver" (not a razor, apparently), coffee maker, water boiler, etc. We were there quite late and it ended up being relatively fun. 

Today, Mom and I explored a bit and went to Fair Price, which is a cheaper grocery than Cold Storage, that's actually by the apartment. However, we took the Orchard Road Scenic Route which involved a lot of walking. For some reason, we always get a watermelon at the grocery that we then get to haul all the way back to our temp apartment. Glorious. We also discovered a massive sweets shoppe next to the Fair Price as well as where the local skate park is. There were a couple of guys skating around. 

I've always wanted to try skate boarding.... should I try it? To try or not to try...?

Anyways, had dinner back at the temp apartment. Mom is still on the hunt for a good mop. 

Observations:

- Music that was popular roughly 6 months ago is popular here now. For example: "Bad Romance", "Monster", "Like a G6"...

- Bubble Tea is available almost everywhere. 

- Sales people are pushy

- Cold Milo is a good antidote for very spicy food, in my opinion

- If there's a sale at an expensive store, don't be fooled. They either take loads off really ugly items/items that don't fit anyone or they take S$2 off something flattering

- There's a lot of cute things sold at stores here. KAWAII!

- There are a lot of double standards. For example, store ads. The H&M poster has a white girl with blonde hair on it, but she's tan. I find this confusing because Asian people don't really like tan skin. Can someone explain this to me?!

Anyways, sorry about the video. Hopefully it will work soon.