y-e-s. yes.

we found Mexican food. & it was yum. They lost a lot of points though because you don’t get unlimited free chips & salsa. I know, right. What kinda Mexican place was this?!? Food was good though & margaritas were a little pricey. I miss Chevy’s happy hour.

On Wednesday at oh about 8pm we decided that we were going to Malaysia at 6am on Thursday. No real plan, just that the destination was Tioman Islands. Bus, train, another bus, taxi, & ferry ride later we got there. Before I start writing about the amazingly wonderful time I had I’ll tell you about the actual journey. As soon as you get into Malaysia you know you’re there. Not in a bad way, just in the way that it’s very different from Singapore. We’ll just say that Singapore has very high standards. It was nice to be in a country where you’re allowed to buy & chew gum! That was nice. The driving however, not so nice. Basically it’s like being in a race… first one there wins. Don’t mind the oncoming car coming towards you or the 2 feet distance between you & the car you’re following. Besides that the scenery was all verrry green. And the cemeteries look really cool… decorative I guess.

the island came to view & this is what we saw: tropical rainforest, clear blue water, & little beach bungalows. It was going to be a good weekend. That nite we had dinner on the beach, literally in the sand. I’d also like to input here that in large contrast to Singapore, Malaysia has cheap booze. Real cheap. After dinner a few of the locals hung out with us & started singing songs & playing guitar. These other guys, which I like to call the Italian Sugar Daddies, hung out too- like all weekend haha. Everything so far seemed too good to be true. Like things were too perfect. I kept waiting for zombies to come out of the forest… or it to turn out like Jurassic Park or something. The next day we went on a snorkeling trip to another little island. The fish are not shy at all, & it’s kinda scaries at first cause they get all up in your business. I felt like a mermaid. Then we went around the other side and saw the most beautiful beach I’d ever seen. Fer real. I just wanted to sit in the boat & stare. For a little I just rolled around in the sand because it was so soft, like flour. Then I went into the water & played with the fish. Sand, fish, repeat. The next few days were a blur because you kinda lose sense of time when you’re livin the dream. But there was a lot of laying on the beach, eating, sleeping, hanging out at the one bar. Also there were a ton of cats everywhere, which was gross but a little sad at the same time. & there were these HUGE lizards. Little baby dinosaurs basically. They were really ugly & scary looking. We didn’t get a chance to go on an adventure through the jungle tho… maybe next time! I had such an amazing time. & decided that if I fail at life I can move there and never wear shoes or wash my hair ever and be really tan. But we’ll see. 

by the way beer 4 for 10 ringgits (malay money) = roughly 70 cents a beer. niice.

singapore is a fine city

saturday was Singapore's 43rd Birthday.... and the entire population (literally) was celebrating. We went downtown for the festivities. Our high expectations were met with a lot of standing around & waiting for stuff to happen. I mean I guess it was alrite. There were just soooo many people. It was pretty cool how much pride the city/country has. A lot of people were decked out in red & white, there've been signs everywhere about this day, stores were having 43% off sales, there are flags hanging all over the place, and the amount of people that came out to celebrate was insane. The streets were all blocked off for the masses & for a parade and show that we've been hearing so much about yet didn't get to witness. There was an air show & fireworks. Both were not very spectacular. Oh & it rained. Not that the rain made a huge difference or anything... the temperature always stays the same & the rain ends after 15 minutes.  It was neat seeing the city at night.... it's pretty. one if the many things i love about this place is all the buildings, architecture, and design/decoration of things. It truly is a fine city and I have to keep reminding myself of where I am. 

today we went to sentosa. it is "what you call a tourist trap." really nice though. it's a lil mini i guess man-made island with imported beaches and is singapore's up & coming tourist attraction. the island is for entertaining purposes only. very aesthetically pleasing. they're currently building a couple casino's a a universal studios there. the construction going on there is unbelievable & massive. quite the sight. once you get past that tho you get to the jungle/tropical island paradise. it was a nice day at the "beach." 

we went shopping a few times. there is SOO much shopping to do here... there literally is a shopping mall at all the main train stations. The Harbour Front mall we went to yesterday was HUGE too... spent all day there and still didn't see it all. i find all these stores to be very dangerous. i've been trying really hard to be responsible with my money... it's kinda working. i'm also getting used to all this public transportation. sure it takes a little longer, but i like it a lot. i wish it was that way at home. i also didn't realize how westernized singapore is. everything is suuuper clean and new looking and i can definitely see why this country is going to be the next big thing. just about everything i can get at home, i can get here. except for freakin' mexican food ahhhhhh! workin on that though. i haven't had very much interaction with singaporeans, but i'm workin on that too. i have however, been learning some swedish from all these dang swedes i have to hang out with :) annnnd usually i could care not so much for the olympics. but something about being in a foreign country & hanging out with kids from all over the world makes for some friendly & interesting competition.   

i really want to write as often as possible (both so that i can remember & to keep you updated) but i'm realizing that it's really hard! not only is it hard to find time to sit down and write & upload pictures & try to keep in touch with everyone, but i have bad memory haha. when i finally find time to write i can't remember anything and it seems like life here has been boring or something because i can't remember anything i did. i guess maybe it's the opposite that i'm having so much and so many things happen everyday that time is flying by too fast for me to catch it. 

i know i know it suck at posting pictures.... but here's some randoms. enjoy.

the art,media, & design building at school

the roof has grass on it. guess you could say it's where the cool kids hang

all the disco balls in the 54 room at Ministry of Sound!!

doing a lil pre game @ the staff club

happy birthday singapore

national day

air show... sooooo crazy, i don't know how they do it
the city... people in the streets
sentosa island
nanyang don't mess around

dance dance dance

wednesday nite in singapore is ladies nite. every place on the island, every wednesday. so last nite, the team (as we're calling ourselves now) went out to world renowned club Ministry of Sound. and it was amazing. long story short- we danced till the wee hours of the morning because we're ballers like that, and it was one of the funnest nites i've had ever.

fer real tho, this place was pretty sick. it was huge. it had several different rooms, all with different themes, all ready to party. annnd it had the biggest disco ball i've ever seen. almost as big as the rock that's about to fall on you on the indiana jones ride at dland. we got bottle service & a booth and it was berry niiice. i seriously could go on & on about this place, it was so much fun. it was retro nite (lame) in the main room, which also had a rotating dance floor. the hip-hop room was cool & i got my gangster groove on for a minute. they had a 70s theme part too & that was probably my favorite because of all the faaabulous decorations. but at about 2am they started playing all house & techno (finally!) in the main part and well uh i pretty much lost my mind. & my shoes because after 4 hours of dancing they were hurtin. the sound the lights the everything was ridiculous. at 4am we were still dancing, and since clubs here let you dance dance dance all nite long there little signs of slowing down. haha & claud you know better than anyone that alllll i wanna do is dance. eventually, even tho i didn't want to & even tho the party wasn't ending, we decided to leave. got to bed by about 5:30am and woke up 2 hours later for class. dang it. anyway, it was quite the nite for The Team. 

but, it's not all fun & games & laying out by the pool & going to the on-campus bar every nite & being in a beautiful country & hanging out with people from all over the world. i'm here for my education. & like i said before, they don't be messin around. they have a school-wide policy that the final MUST be worth at least 50% of your grade. they haven't had mutiple choice tests since like grade school. it's definitely going to be challenging... but already i can tell that i am going to learn so much. i'm a nerd, i like school & learning maybe almost more than i love alcoholic beverages  & dancing all nite (jus kidding mom & dad geeez. like i would mean that.) the only bad thing about the classrooms is that the temperature is SOOOO effn cold. i need to bring pants & a jacket so that i don't become frozen to my desk. other than that the classrooms are way nice. nice new shiny clean.

it's so crazy that i've barely been here for a week. it seems like it's been sooo much longer. in a good way though. everyone gets along so well, we feel like we've known each other for forevers. we're already planning on going around & visiting each other. i couldn't have asked for a better time so far. ooohhh & it started raining a little while ago. & i mean RAiNiNG! it's monsoon country baby. scary kinda with the thunder/lighting but pretty cool besides. 

i have lots & lots of pictures too, i'll prolly put some up tomorrow. time for sleepy... 2 hours of bed last nite just ain't cuttin it :)

smell ya later!!

day 1

today was the first day of school, & even though i only had one class it seemed waayyy long. oh that's probably because my class is 4 hours long!! they don't joke around here. actually, the teacher is pretty chill. he graduated from university of Maryland & studied abroad as an undergrad so he kinda understands the mindset of all the exchange students. 1st day of class here was nothing like 1st day of class at sdsu. we had an entire lecture for starters (no "here's your syllabus k bye"). we also had to do the whole introduce person sitting next to you ice breaker- interesting fact & expectations for the class. not kidding, half of the class' expectation was to "ace the course." their interesting fact was that they were black belts in some sort of martial art. me & the other exchange students i was sitting with were last to go & i guess you could say our interesting fact & expectation had nothing to do with acing the class or having a black belt. 

we had a nice little mix going on though. at our one table i met someone from canada, spain, sweden, scotland, & denmark. not bad eh? the classroom itself was super nice & super air conditioned. the singapore kids are hardcore though. this weekend is national singapore day & so on monday there are supposed to be no classes. however, the teacher put it to a vote to see if anyone wanted to come to lecture and THEY WANT TO COME IN ON THEIR DAY OFF. the exchange students were alone in voting against it. let's see, that is like deciding that on the 4th of july we want to come to school, and are going to come to school, even though it's a national holiday and we have it off. what the frack? at home we'll take any reason we can to cancel class.

they don't have toilet seat covers anywhere here & that kinda grosses me out. they also don't have paper towels or napkins either. so you're kinda s.o.l. on both of those... good for the environment though i guess. they have a really nice ppol here at school. like olympic nice. so my goal is to 1) become a better swimmer and 2) make it all the way across the pool. if you don't know, i am a terrible swimmer. so i think it's a pretty good goal. i also seem to be getting used to the weather a little... and the time change. finally. i'm so happy to be here and every single person i've met has been so incredibly nice. except for that one girl who gave us wrong directions to the club but i guess that was daniels fault for being mean haha. i also got new shampoo & conditioner here, & am even thinking about getting my hair trimmed at the salon on campus. again, if you know me then you know this is kinda a big deal... love me hair!! 

don't judge me

it was after 3am when i wrote that last post... you can assume the state of mind i was in. anyway, i finally took some pics! in no particular order:

NANYANG (don't forget to say it fast & asian, sounds better) 

looking out the train window

girl we saw on the train... nice.

welcome to my crib

green waffle mmmmm

they have condoms everywhere. better safe than sorry

walking around

just a few of the many swedes

ummm

dear diary. i mean blog.

singypore is a lot of fun. yesterday we had orientation & it was pretty lame. but, we have been hanging out with a bunch of swedish peoples & they are very nice... probably some of the nicest people i have ever met! there's a lot of swedish people here. i have also been hanging out with other girls from other parts of the US and they are very cool people too. i like those girls a lot. today we went shopping to Orchard Road. I am almost convinced that I didn't need to pack anything at all- no joke I can buy everything from back home here in asia land. Orchard Road has lots of berry nice stores- for example Louis Vuitton, MAC & Chanel. But I didn't go in because I knew if I went into many of the many high end stores I would probably absolutely make a purchase. So instead i'll hold out a little so i don't spend my money all at once. buuuut even the little "janky" mall had lots of cheap clothes & shoes.

we had a big dilemma today- we realized that booze is so super expensive here. no joke it was $21 american dollars here to buy a bottle of andre's! UHHH I'M PRETTY SURE THAT COSTS LIKE $2. the freakin malibu run was locked up in a case like at was super high class & shizz... wtf? fifths os alcohol were well over $50 US dollars. we all realized that alcohol is WAYYY too expensive here. but we also realized that the breakfast literally costs us less than a dollar. lunch or dinner don't cost much more. so why so much $$$ to get a little drinky drank on?? guess it all evens out?

oh, & they have waffles here. not breakfast kind, but kind that you can eat whenever you want thru out the day. & they are green. no joke, they look they are neon-ish or glowing. they also mcdonalds & KFC & subway & other shizz like that here. but im gonna try to stay away from it, only in cases of emergency will i break in to eat it. 

we went out tonite & it was so much fun. oh diary i am having such a marvelous time so far. i makes me sad because i can already tell that our time here will be up before we know! however, all of the US kids have been hanging out with all the swedish peeps. states & swedes!!! & we've been having the best time. it's so weird to hear about the rest of the world's thoughts about the US and what they been taught to do in school... it makes me dislike the US even more. but that's an entirely different story :)  

singapore has turned out to be very different from what i thought it would be! i can't even explain it. it's so very modern here. people are very nice & it's a pretty legit island so far... probably not what you think.

diary, i'm sorry i don't write in you more often, but sometimes i am just so busy. also, you know that i suck at taking & uploading pictures. i'll going to try & work on that. anyway i think that's all for now. i do feel bad for ran, cuz i called his cell phone like 17 times 2nite & yelled at him... even tho he did nothing wrong! i guess i was just frustratedd, trying to be in contact with with everyone at home. but i'm glad things are going so good, we have been so dum for the past 4 years- we're both getting too old for all that noise... & dats what's up! i love that dummy :)  

peace out diary, till i remember what else i wanted to tell you!

loooove, syn

p.s. i'm SOOOOOOOOO excited all the great treats people back home will be sending me once i figure out my address...