tuesday

Yesterday I registered for school. So ladies & gentlemen: I am an official NUS student by now. And yes i feel proud saying that :) Still have to work on my Visa next week though...
After registration I got lost in science complex with Christian. I you ask me, the whole campus is too much designed for cars, but not for pedestrians. This is why you can´t really walk straight to science faculty, but have to take the shuttle bus around campus... There is two shuttle busses going in circles around campus, one in each direction. There´s also two other shuttle busses, one of them called "Science shuttle" - did not find out where exactly it´s going. Shuttle busses are for free.

Lateron Christian, Petra and me went downtown. We seemed a bit lost, but all in all it was really interesting. The skyline was impressive, eventhough you can´t quite compare it to Manhattan downtown ;) Really interesting was the mixture of hightech with tropical vegetation. Singapore is a truly beautiful and damn clean city!

Petra, me and Christian heading downtown

skyline as seen from marina promenade

Christian hugging the safety cat (well he claims it´s a bear...)

All this is going to be a huge casino. I´ve never seen as many cranes in one construction site in my life! (They probably had around 50!)

In Germany (and most other "normal" countries) we have homeless people sleeping under the bridge. In Singapore they built Starbucks there... And no, I haven´t seen any homeless in the whole city so far...

the famous "merlion" (A mixture of mermaid and lion..)

[Wikipedia says: "The Merlion is an imaginary creature with the head of a lion and the body of a fish. Its name combines "mer" meaning the sea and "lion". The fish body comes from Singapore's ancient name back when it was a fishing village — Temasek — meaning "sea town" in Javanese. The lion head represents Singapore's original name — Singapura — meaning "lion city" or "kota singa" in Sanskrit and Malay."]

Petra posing in front of the merlion

Sunset by the river. In Singapore sun sets in only a few minutes around 8 p.m. already, leaving behind the glow of the city at night...

Airconditioning is very much appreciated. It´s about 30 °C / 86 F all day long, not really cooling down at night.

They have the cleanest subway tunnels i´ve ever seen! You can almost reflect yourself in the floor and ceiling...

by the river...

After walking around downtown we had dinner at some Hawker center in chinatown. The food is incredible cheap and really good if you pick the right one... Singapore also has a national fruit, called Durian fruit. As wikipedia describes it:

"Widely known and revered in southeast Asia as the "king of fruits", the durian is distinctive for its large size, unique odour, and formidable thorn-covered husk"
and: "The edible flesh emits a distinctive odour, strong and penetrating even when the husk is intact. Some people regard the durian as fragrant; others find the aroma overpowering and offensive. The smell evokes reactions from deep appreciation to intense disgust. The odour has led to the fruit's banishment from certain hotels and public transportation in southeast Asia."
On MRT (mass rapid transit) fine for bringing Durian fruit is up to 1000 SGD (Singapore Dollars). We also tried some Durian, and I have to admit, that this definitely is not one of my favorites! Its consistence is of mixed banana. Afterwards a taste of fried onions lays in your mouth you can´t get rid off. Weird...

Petra and me followed the two girls to Arab street for Shisha. We ordered a jasmin one, absolutely delicious!

Arab street area with its tiny houses

smoking forbidden...

yep, cockroaches...

we called it a night late... good night Singapore!