My lack of posting is due to two reasons: 1) as it turns out, studying abroad is NOT a vacation from work (or at least not in China) so my priorities have been studying for daily quizzes and not on reflecting about my time abroad 2) I have also been traveling! Despite being busier and more tired than I thought possible, I am also happier than I have ever been.
This weekend I traveled to Singapore with my friend Lindsay, who has a sister studying abroad in Singapore. The country is the cleanest, most efficient, and best run place overall I have ever been to in my life. Singaporeans kind of remind me of koala bears - always happy and relaxed hah. And everyone is very civilized (a nice change from the hustle and bustle of Shanghai). It is also an incredible mix of countries and cultures, but the diversity works so well and makes the country that much more interesting. There are pockets throughout Singapore with large groups of people, i.e. Lindsay's sister lives right by "Little India". There is also Arab street, Chinatown, etc.
The weekend was fast-paced since we had so much to do in such a short period of time. After arriving on Thursday night we went to Lindsay's sister's apartment complex (complete with an amazing olympic size swimming pool in the court yard, tennis courts, an awesome gym, bowling alley, AND kareoke room...). We all changed and quickly headed out to a club with amazing views of the city. Singapore's night life is CRAZY - maybe even more so than Shanghai's. And everyone is SO friendly, so before we knew it we were making friends and being invited to lots of tables (all with bottle upon bottle of Moet...), dancing all night long. We woke up the next morning, had a morning swim (best hangover cure) and then ventured to Arab Street to explore. We ate delicious Turkish lunch then shopped along the adorable boutique-filled Haji street.
On Friday night there was a club opening and music festival, so in the afternoon we headed to the bustling Orchard Street to pick up our tickets and do a little shopping. Orchard Street is busy, relatively crowded, and overwhelming (a bit like a stretched out Times Square with better shopping). Orchard Street (and Singapore in general) has an absurd number of sparkling clean, enormous shopping malls. The mall food courts must also be noted - they are replete with every cuisine imaginable (including bizzare things like steamed cakes, "ice dogs", and cuttlefish risotto..)
The concert was at Marina Bay Convention Center and featured performances by Ludacris, LMFAO, Benny Benassi, to name a few... Somehow we ended up in the VIP section and a few of our friends even went backstage and hung out with LMFAO. Our friend Victor has a fake press pass (i.e. 'trespass') and showing it lets him go literally anywhere. He is also quite convincing. Lindsay, I, and our friend Rafa left on the earlier side and ended up at two clubs - Avalon and Pandora. Marina Bay is really incredible and the views at night are unmatched. Naturally, Singapore nightlife ended up taking its toll as we didn't rally the next day until 4pm and had brunch at 5pm. We went to a glorious restaurant called Wild Honey that only serves breakfast, but has breakfast dishes from all over the world.
A spur of the moment post-brunch decision brought us to yet another mall, to the FormulaOne ticket office, where Linds and I got passes for the night! Since we were already at the F1 entrance in the mall, we quickly bought a change of clothes at Topshop, got makeup and perfume samples, and transformed from hungover brunch to night out hah. F1 was also unbelievable. We saw the trials, and also Shakira and Shaggy performed. Shakira could not have been better and Shaggy was hilarious. Thanks to Victor's press pass, we got up front and then backstage after. Shaggy and his Jamaican crew were so funny to hang with and they taught us to speak with Jamaican accents.... Going to an event like this anywhere else would probably be pretty nasty but of course, in Singapore, everything was sparkling clean. There were even bathroom attendants at the porta-potties who cleaned the stalls after every use!
After grabbing late Indian dinner on the way home, we quickly showered (Singapore is SO hot and humid eek) and met up with friends down at Clark Quai - a cool mall/waterfront shop area with many restaurants, bars etc. At Attica, the smokiest place in the world we befriended a prince who was a crazy crazy guy and is coming to visit us in Singapore later this fall! We were so sad to leave on Sunday but because this is the best place in the world, at the airport we somehow got transferred from a not good layover flight to a non-stop flight on glorious Singapore Airlines!
Its going to be a while before I can blog again as I am leaving for a 11 day backpacking trip in an hour. We are going to Cambodia, Thailand, and ending in Hong Kong! So exciteddd
This weekend I traveled to Singapore with my friend Lindsay, who has a sister studying abroad in Singapore. The country is the cleanest, most efficient, and best run place overall I have ever been to in my life. Singaporeans kind of remind me of koala bears - always happy and relaxed hah. And everyone is very civilized (a nice change from the hustle and bustle of Shanghai). It is also an incredible mix of countries and cultures, but the diversity works so well and makes the country that much more interesting. There are pockets throughout Singapore with large groups of people, i.e. Lindsay's sister lives right by "Little India". There is also Arab street, Chinatown, etc.
The weekend was fast-paced since we had so much to do in such a short period of time. After arriving on Thursday night we went to Lindsay's sister's apartment complex (complete with an amazing olympic size swimming pool in the court yard, tennis courts, an awesome gym, bowling alley, AND kareoke room...). We all changed and quickly headed out to a club with amazing views of the city. Singapore's night life is CRAZY - maybe even more so than Shanghai's. And everyone is SO friendly, so before we knew it we were making friends and being invited to lots of tables (all with bottle upon bottle of Moet...), dancing all night long. We woke up the next morning, had a morning swim (best hangover cure) and then ventured to Arab Street to explore. We ate delicious Turkish lunch then shopped along the adorable boutique-filled Haji street.
On Friday night there was a club opening and music festival, so in the afternoon we headed to the bustling Orchard Street to pick up our tickets and do a little shopping. Orchard Street is busy, relatively crowded, and overwhelming (a bit like a stretched out Times Square with better shopping). Orchard Street (and Singapore in general) has an absurd number of sparkling clean, enormous shopping malls. The mall food courts must also be noted - they are replete with every cuisine imaginable (including bizzare things like steamed cakes, "ice dogs", and cuttlefish risotto..)
The concert was at Marina Bay Convention Center and featured performances by Ludacris, LMFAO, Benny Benassi, to name a few... Somehow we ended up in the VIP section and a few of our friends even went backstage and hung out with LMFAO. Our friend Victor has a fake press pass (i.e. 'trespass') and showing it lets him go literally anywhere. He is also quite convincing. Lindsay, I, and our friend Rafa left on the earlier side and ended up at two clubs - Avalon and Pandora. Marina Bay is really incredible and the views at night are unmatched. Naturally, Singapore nightlife ended up taking its toll as we didn't rally the next day until 4pm and had brunch at 5pm. We went to a glorious restaurant called Wild Honey that only serves breakfast, but has breakfast dishes from all over the world.
A spur of the moment post-brunch decision brought us to yet another mall, to the FormulaOne ticket office, where Linds and I got passes for the night! Since we were already at the F1 entrance in the mall, we quickly bought a change of clothes at Topshop, got makeup and perfume samples, and transformed from hungover brunch to night out hah. F1 was also unbelievable. We saw the trials, and also Shakira and Shaggy performed. Shakira could not have been better and Shaggy was hilarious. Thanks to Victor's press pass, we got up front and then backstage after. Shaggy and his Jamaican crew were so funny to hang with and they taught us to speak with Jamaican accents.... Going to an event like this anywhere else would probably be pretty nasty but of course, in Singapore, everything was sparkling clean. There were even bathroom attendants at the porta-potties who cleaned the stalls after every use!
After grabbing late Indian dinner on the way home, we quickly showered (Singapore is SO hot and humid eek) and met up with friends down at Clark Quai - a cool mall/waterfront shop area with many restaurants, bars etc. At Attica, the smokiest place in the world we befriended a prince who was a crazy crazy guy and is coming to visit us in Singapore later this fall! We were so sad to leave on Sunday but because this is the best place in the world, at the airport we somehow got transferred from a not good layover flight to a non-stop flight on glorious Singapore Airlines!
Its going to be a while before I can blog again as I am leaving for a 11 day backpacking trip in an hour. We are going to Cambodia, Thailand, and ending in Hong Kong! So exciteddd
