06-05-2009

I'll be disembarking from Singapore later today. Singapore is a fine city.



This is the room where I took my last exam, only a third or so of the students in the room can be seen here. The room was very large and students from four different courses were taking their tests there.
This is the fabled Merlion: half lion, half fish, half silly. Legend has it that the Merlion comes once every century and spits water on your face.

All the other countries have friendly, museum style embassies, but the American embassy looks like an evil fortress. I'm not sure I was even allowed to take a picture of it.
It's good to know that if there is some sort of attack or disaster you can just go chill in a large concrete fortress.

If you are going to Singapore only take shorts, and leave plenty of room in your luggage for new stuff. This is my advice to you.

24-04-2009

I spent the last couple of days in Bintan, Indonesia, a nearby island just a little bigger than Singapore. Bintan is known for its sweet beaches and resorts. I went there with three fellows following my second exam for the purpose of rest and relaxation. I got all that I wanted and at an affordable price. My sunscreen was confiscated so I may have gotten a sunburn for free as well.

We stayed at a small resort for a steep 7 USD a night. Most of the time it seemed like we were the only people there; since it was midweek the whole place seemed deserted. However there were plenty of incredibly hospitable employees who helped us with whatever and what-have-you. The weather was beautiful the entire time we were there, but it was even hotter than Singapore.

One of the two pools at the resort, the water was actually warmer than I would have liked:

We stayed in a more traditional hotel style room, rather than one of these sweet bungalows, not by my choice. The beach where we played volleyball and Frisbee:


This is the restaurant in which we had our dinner. As you can see, we were the only people there.
My last paper will be this upcoming Tuesday. I was disappointed to find that our grades probably won't be released until June, and even then only the final grade is given. I will never know how I did on my projects, labs, or final exams.

15-04-2009

I have now completed my first of three finals. Finals are spread out over the course of three and a half weeks, quite different than the one and a half weeks given at RPI. Students here tend to take a much larger course load so the extended period is desired to accommodate the plethora of exams. Students also spend much more time studying because the exam is worth such a large percentage of your final grade; the average final exam is worth seventy or eighty percent of your grade.

The exam itself is extremely intense. They fill entire halls with hundreds of equally spaced desks, all facing the same direction. They sent out final exam regulations requiring your electronic signature. Ten minutes prior to the start of the exam, an "invigilator" reads off actions that will result in expulsion, over the PA system. Calculators must be checked and all memory erased. The exam has a dress code. The whole thing was rather intimidating and there was a loud thunderstorm during my final which added to the ominous atmosphere. I believe I passed though which is what ultimately matters. I would have liked to take a picture of the regulation examination hall but would be scared of getting expelled for bringing a camera into the hall; it seemed like a high security military research facility.

Most manikins in South-east Asia do not have heads, but for the ones that do this is standard procedure:

I recently experienced a laptop tragedy. In an attempt to play a network game with an off-campus local, I installed a free network adapter from the Internet. It did not work and as a result of installing it my computer FLIPPED out and would not let me access the Internet. My mouse cursor was spazzing out and windows would not shutdown properly. A number of people spent hours trying to fix the problem and spending a couple hours at the campus tech desk did nothing for the problem. Normally I would take my laptop to the RPI help desk and let them work their magic but that resource is unavailable here. I eventually bypassed the issue by installing Linux; when I get back to RPI I can re-image. Linux is fun but it makes using some applications very difficult...


This tree has cool roots. There is a chap in the background named Graham; he attends college in Buffalo.

30-03-2009

Singapore is an island, but it is very close to the mainland of Asia, close enough that the difference is spanned by a bridge. The bridge is over untroubled waters and it is over said bridge that my companions and I traversed into Malaysia. We left NTU at 9 pm, and a took a bus across the border. At 12:30 we got on a bus headed towards the capital of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur (KL).

A silly thing happened that I will describe. We got to the bus interchange in Johor Bahru at about 11:30 and bought four tickets to leave at 12:30. There were three of us but our friend Pavan was going to meet us there before we left. Pavan tends to be a little late so we didn't start to worry until about 12:20 when he still hadn't shown up. There are a dozen or so different bus companies from which one can choose, and we had no way of letting Pavan know which bus we had chosen. The bus was running a little late but at 12:40 we got on to be on our way. The bus started, and then stopped abruptly and the lights went on. Pavan got on the bus, asking us for money to pay his taxi driver. He had not known that we would be on the bus, and would have otherwise had no way to pay for the taxi. However we were on the bus and loaned him some money for the taxi and so we were on our way.

We arrived in KL at 4:30am. KL has two main attractions which a tourist is supposed to visit: the Patronus towers and the Batu caves. On Saturday we went to the Patronus towers. For a few years during the nineties they were the tallest in the world, and are still the tallest twin towers in the world. There is a skybridge (the tallest in the world) at the forty first floor which we waited two hours to see. It was WORTH IT because I SLEPT and THERE WAS A GOOD VIEW.


The steel monolith itself:

The second day we went to the Batu caves. The caves and the towers are very pleasant to visit and there is not much else to do in Kuala Lumpur so that is why we did these things. The caves were used as a foundation for a Hindu temple complex. There were many monkeys all over everywhere. Much more numerous than squirrels but less numerous than pigeons. The cave was fairly big and impressive. Here you see the stairs leading up to the cave temple:


Here you see a monkey giving me the stink-eye:


This essentially concluded our Malaysian excursion; we returned to Singapore Sunday night.

21-03-2009

Look at this:

This is a toilet related device, it is found all over southeast Asia, in male and female bathrooms alike. I do not understand its purpose, it does not seem practical for any application. I do not appreciate its presence as it takes up the space of almost two normal stalls.

Last night I went for a 24 km Singaporean bike ride. I went hoping to travel around the island, getting a good look from the ground up, but we ended up only biking along the east coast. It was still a good time, the ride was organized by the church Adam has been going to and there were about one hundred people there. We split into three groups and took a bike path down the coastline. It took place at night to avoid the daytime heat; we didn't get back until about three. Nothing very exciting/unexpected happened. This is a completely unrelated photo of something I saw awhile back in the mall:
Here is a bit of the campus where all of my lectures take place:



I've got myself a number of projects that are all due at the same time in about a week. I don't really know what quality/quantity/content of work is expected so I am hoping my local teammates will bail me out la. Stay tuned for more nicely planned and structured blog entries.

07-03-2009

The last day in Thailand I went with Tyler, Nick, and Steve for a tour of Bangkok. The trip was organized by the hostel; we drove around in a large van with six other tourists and did tourist style activities. The first stop was a war cemetery, SO INCREDIBLY EXCITING. In actuality this stop was the least interesting for me all day, but we were on our way in just a short span of time.

We were then taken to the Chao Phraya river for lunch. There was a small eatery built on a dock/raft on the river and we were given an all I could eat lunch as part of the trip cost. Immediately afterward we took a brief ride on a bamboo raft down the river; the river was moving relatively fast so we just took the current back to the van.

The next stop was an elephant ride. There were maybe ten elephants and each one had a small platform, large enough to seat two, strapped to its back. The "driver" sat on the elephants head, shamelessly whacking the elephant at random moments for no apparent reason; this slightly bothered me. It was a bumpy ride; an elephants back is not stationary, it rolls side to side like an exaggerated version of a horse.

Next we went to a water fall; it was pretty chill. I do not have any photos up to this point because I had already gone through the second pair of batteries I had brought along. There was enough juice to turn on the camera and take one or two pictures before it died, but I was saving it for the main event. I refer to the Tiger Temple.

The Tiger Temple is a Buddhist monastery in which tigers are kept and domesticated. It is a major tourist attraction because the tourists can have their photo taken with the tigers. Having your photo taken with a tiger is nice because most people are unable to do this and because tigers are generally great.

At the first point their was a long line waiting to be led through the dozen or so tigers lounging in the canyon. Two helpers would lead you through, one literally dragging you by the hand and the other taking pictures with the camera you better have brought with you. It was funny because I felt like a little kid; I am serious she was dragging me by the hand. The tigers were all chained to the ground; they are quite friendly but I guess they might accidentally hurt someone with their unknown strength. It seemed strange for the tigers to lay still in what appeared to be a staged pose. I am unsure if the tigers were forced into this or not. This is me with a tiger:

At the second point there were much fewer people and only one baby tiger. They let you go in without being dragged and one helper took photos. It was my dream to get a small tiger bite as a souvenir. I would make sure it scarred so if anyone asked about its origin I could say "tiger bite..." I felt this stage was my best chance because the tiger seemed playful and the helpers weren't being too controlling. I tried giving him a hug but he turned around and started trying to bite me; bingo. Sadly at this point the trainer rushed over and started hitting the tiger on the head; when he let go of my shirt they dragged me away, seeming sort of angry with me...

Nick ended up getting getting a bite which resulted in a hole in his shirt and a small scratch on his side. I was incredibly jealous; if he picks the scab enough it would probably scar. Great fun regardless, now I want a pet tiger. This completed the organized trip for us, and by the time we got back it was time for a late dinner. Later that night I rounded off the vacation with an hour-long Thai foot massage.

At the McDonalds in Bangkok where we regularly went for ice cream:

05-03-2009

Monday morning we took a train from Bangkok to the Cambodian border. We were up late Sunday night and we had to leave for the train at 4:30 am so I didn't bother going to sleep. It was an old-school train which was stellar; it had big open windows and I could have hopped off the back if I wanted to. The whole ride was quite enjoyable; it was about six hours which I slept most of, but while I was awake it was great to see the Thailand countryside as we rolled past. We played some card games which I was later told is illegal in Thailand. Here are my fellows boarding the train:

We had some trouble at the border: we had to take tuk tuks to get from the train station to the border, but they dropped us off at a little sketchy outpost where they wanted us to buy our visas. Some people had started to fill out the applications when someone else pointed out that this was likely a scam, so we had to persuade the drivers to take us to the actual border. Then we had to wait a long time and fill out forms for the visa and give them our passports and money; the whole thing WAS A HASSLE. Finally we had a three hour taxi ride through Cambodia to get to the guest house; I SLEPT through most of the ride. By the time we worked out our accommodations it was late so we just ate some dinner and went to sleep. On Tuesday and Wednesday we indulged in the Angkor Wat temple complex.

Tuesday I woke up at 4:15 am and ate the continental breakfast so we could leave by five. The owner of the house, Eric, has a detailed route/plan for visiting Angkor Wat that looked very thorough and enjoyable. The idea is to bike to the complex and hike up to one of the less visited temples in time to watch the sunrise, but due to delays ( the girls in the group kept going back to their room for only God knows what) we didn't leave until almost 5:30. We ended up missing the sunrise but it was incredibly overcast anyway so I'm not sure if we really missed out.

We spent the rest of the day biking around, generally following Eric's guide to Angkor Wat: one of the eighth wonders of the world.

Tuesday morning we woke again at 4:15 in an effort to see the legendary Angkor Wat sunrise; this time we took tuk tuks so we made it in time. We hired a tour guide who followed us around for the whole day, speaking with a strong accent that prevented me from benefiting too much from his wisdom. He mostly just narrated the Hindu stories that accompanied the temples which is not so much what I am interested in. I would rather hear about THE STRUCTURES THEMSELVES, which were very impressive. It was on this excursion that we witnessed Angkor Wat itself, the feature temple of the complex.

We spent a lot of time in tuk tuks, travelling from one temple to another and to a small mountain. I found the tuk tuks very conducive to sleeping so I indulged in this behavior. We hiked up a 1.4 km trail to a temple on what must have been the only mountain in Cambodia; Cambodia is VERY FLAT. The hike was fine and there were some very nice views. We past a tour group of senior citizens; I was astonished at the ease with which they ascended this treacherous height. One old Chinese man had a foot long clump of hair, one centimeter in diameter, coming off the left hand side of his chin.

02-03-2009

There is an extremely large quantity of markets in Bangkok; it seems like I spent HALF OF MY TIME there going through markets. Thursday night, Friday, and Sunday were mostly spent at markets. There were even markets that we did not go to. It was at these markets that I made my first purchase since coming to Singapore, and also what I hope to be my last; I do not like buying things. Here is a street market:


There was the Night Bizarre which was two blocks of conjoined shops; I estimate one hundred different shops, each privately owned. It was only open at night, 10:30 to 12, thus the name. It was at this market that I purchased my green silk boxers with elephants. We left the Night Bizarre in a tuk tuk.

I will now talk about the tuk tuks. Bangkok is full of taxis, and it is full of tuk tuks. A tuk tuk is basically the front of a motorcycle attached to a two wheeled cart, it looks like this:


A tuk tuk can seat three comfortably, but we loaded on five. For shorter distances tuk tuks are cheaper than taxis, but get more expensive as the distance increases because they are relatively very slow. One of our taxi drivers went up to 140 km/h; I believe the tuk tuk maxes out at about 30 mph, note the variety of units.

Saturday we went to the temples. To get to the temples we took a fun long-tail boat ride down the Chao Phraya River. There are many temples in Bangkok, MOSTLY BUDDHIST. Some of these temples were incredibly impressive in detail, while others were only impressive. Locals got in for free while every one else HAD TO PAY. There was a recurring theme throughout the trip of only foreigners being required to pay for things. I don't quite understand why they need so many temples, I would just make one nice large one and have done with it. Here is the inside of a temple, featuring the very prosperous Buddha:


Here is the outside of a Buddhist temple:


Some of the temples had "sacred relics" of long dead Buddhist saints. These relics appeared to be little rocks and gems encased in fancy jewelry boxes, but were supposedly actual remnants of the Saints' bodies.

Besides the silk boxers I also purchased a cool pair of lightweight pants which I wore to the temples because shorts were not allowed.

01-03-2009

Have you ever taken a ride on a Thai Saab JAS 39 Gripen? Or have you been diving with sharks in the gulf of Thailand? Zip-lined over the Chao Phraya river valley or been charged by a wild water buffalo? Neither have I, but that doesn't mean I didn't have a good time this past week on my trip to Thailand and Cambodia. I was gone for nine days and did a number of things so the corresponding blog entry will be divided into multiple parts, hopefully providing a more thorough and extensive synopsis of my adventure. I may edit previous entries during the construction in order to preserve a balanced series.

Thursday afternoon I left Singapore with ten NTU comrades. We used Tiger Airways which is the cheapest in southeast Asia; round-trip tickets cost less than two dollars before taxes. WHAT A FLIGHT; I slept MOST OF THE WAY. We landed in Bangkok after TWO AND A HALF HOURS. We then split into two groups for ease of hostel arrangements and took taxis to our destinations. My initial opinion of Bangkok was that it smelled poorly. I may have an unfair perspective since Singapore is possibly the cleanest city in the world, but I never got over the pungent odor of this very large city. This is Bangkok:


We stayed at a very nice hostel called Lub D, four nights before Cambodia and another two after. For the first four nights the eight of us stayed in one dorm-style room. This is that room:


Almost every street in Bangkok I visited had people selling things along the sidewalk. Things like food, clothes, knickknacks and patty-whacks. That night we walked for a few blocks and came to a little side street with some small, outside, restaurant-style food vendors. I ordered Pad Thai which I believe is the signature Thai food and I very much enjoyed. While waiting for the food we were delightfully surprised to see a small elephant walking up the street. At first I thought there was just a wild elephant meandering through Bangkok but it turned out the owner was selling food for tourists to feed the elephant. The elephant patted me with its trunk and grabbed at my camera. It turned out the owner was saying 'no photo' but I took this picture before that revelation; the elephant is standing next to the table upon which we ate:


Friday night Adam's aunt invited all of us (twelve at this point) to a dinner at a German Brewery. This was the most costly meal of the trip at 500 BAHT. I suspect that it actually cost more but Adam's aunt made a hefty contribution towards the bill. I was given a mug of German beer which was refilled anytime its contents dipped below midway. There were many courses of Thai food that we passed around and ate while being entertained by Thai entertainers. The restaurant was gigantic; a thousand or so guests sat at tables arranged in front of an enormous stage where a variety of performances took place. There were acrobats, jugglers, dancers, singers, bands, AND MUCH MORE. The lighting and such resulted in poor photo quality; this photo gives the best idea of the ambiance we are dealing with:


I ended up eating what I thought was a green bean but what turned out to be one of the hottest peppers I've ever encountered. It was very uncomfortable for the next twenty minutes or so and I couldn't eat anything without extreme discomfort. Luckily it subsided and I continued my gourmet consumption. I had liver and pig intestine, yummy.

15-02-2009

I am enjoying the money denominations here.  The best part is the lack of pennies; everything is tax included and rounded to the nearest five cents, most things to ten.  Also there is no dollar bill, just a dollar coin.  This seems to make your pocket change much more valuable; I always buy my breakfast with the previous day's change.  Instead of a quarter they use a twenty cent piece, and their two dollar bill is as common as our one.  I like this because there always seems to be a nice way to make change.  There is a McDonalds on campus which is slightly more expensive but is fast and convenient.  I eat there way more than I ever ate fast food in the US.  There I probably had fast food once every month or two, while I have been getting it here maybe twice a week.  And few days go by where I don't buy one of their fifty cent ice cream cones.  These vanilla soft serve cones are a joy to behold and I feel like they are helping my assimilation.  Everyone from RPI has these cones as well and a couple tend to have three or four per sitting.  I hope they are not too unhealthy.  

Holidays are indeed very big in Singapore.  It is not just one day, but any holiday seems to have at least a week of celebration to go along with it.  Valentine's day (aka "Friendship Day") was yesterday but they have been celebrating all last week.  Lucky draws, sales, promotions, contests, and what-have-you were ongoing themes throughout.  I got some free cookies which was nice and some free makeup and body wash which wasn't as practical.  I declined twice but they kept pushing them on me so I just took them to make them happy.  

I was very surprised to see this hanging on a bulletin board near the laundry room; I had definitely thought Thanksgiving was an American holiday only:

There's also a nice bit about mosquitoes. 

I have not yet mentioned the laundry.  Using the washing machine in the hall is free which is nice.  There are no dryers which wasn't as nice.  This is not such a big deal because everyone leaves their clothes out in the hallway to dry on racks.  Sam bought one early on and lets me use it.  It is very hot so clothes don't take too long to dry.  There are actually drying racks for just this purpose right outside of everyone's window, but I choose not to use them partially because many times you see clothes on the ground from where they have fallen from someone's rack. Here are the drying racks on the side of our hall building:

08-02-2009

Yesterday was the OSA FunBuzz 2009. All of my other RPI compatriots besides Sam went to the Philippines for the weekend, but I stayed here as I cannot afford three hundred dollars for a two day excursion. So Sam and I went to the FunBuzz which is like a field day event where thirty teams of ten compete all day in each of five different games. OSA stands for Overseas Students' Association; the idea was that each team should be comprised mainly of international students. Normally the event would cost each team twenty dollars to compete but as usual NTU's International Student Centre was eager to bail us out of that overwhelming two dollar fare.

The rest of our team consisted of three Iranians, three Indians, and two Indonesians also all from NTU; Sam and I were the only "westerners" at the entire event. There were five games: a six-legged race, pushball, gladiator jousting, wargh games (laser tag), and blanket volleyball. I don't think I will describe each game because it wouldn't be that interesting. Teams were awarded points for each game depending on how well they did and totals were added at the end to place the teams. First, second, and third placed teams received voucher awards for fifteen hundred, one thousand, and five hundred respectively. Our team placed fourth; bummer.

Jousting was the most fun, probably because I seemed to be fairly good at it. Each player only went twice but I won both rounds. The two contenders stand on two short inflatable pillars mounted on a giant inflatable mattress and try to knock the opposition from their respective pillar by whacking them with an inflatable battering ram. (I call it a battering ram for lack of a better description.) Most people would attempt to lunge at their opponent, smacking them in the face with the end of the weapon. This strategy worked most of the time because nobody seemed to want to accept that this was going to happen and that they should do something about it. (At least I assume that is why it usually worked.) Anyway, using my superior battle tactics I realized that a solid defensive stance was the key to victory in this epic struggle for immortality. By the time it was my turn I was a little peeved at the other team because they just kept smacking people in the face and seemed a bit unsportsman like to me. So I stood my ground and gracefully deflected the attempted face-smack, leaving my opponent off balance with his jousting pole up in the air. I then gave him a light nudge in the torso and watched with satisfaction as he helplessly crumbled to the bouncy surface below.

This photo was taken during the wargh games. The competition was very intense and I was scared for my life so you can imagine my annoyance at having a large camera shoved in my face while I am trying to avoid death at the hands of four enemy contenders. The photographer, a member of the OSA, was there pretty much the whole game just snapping away; I was tempted to accidentally whack him with my gun as I suddenly spun around to face my foe.

Here is the majority of my team; they gave us these shirts along with a small bag of freebies so I did come away with some small compensation.

05-02-2009

I discovered the explanation as to why Singapore cars all seem clean and new. The reason is that they are all new. It appears to be a complicated situation, but the gist is that Singaporeans must pay for a certificate of entitlement when purchasing their automobiles. This totals thirty to forty thousand dollars and I believe is why the population of drivers is so small. (The cars themselves are incredibly expensive as well.) This payment however only lasts ten years at which point the certificate must be renewed, possibly at a heftier price. For this reason most people elect to just buy a new car or trade in their old one. Also, cars are built with only a ten year lifespan in mind, so it is very rare to see a car that is older than this.

Something else I find unsurprising yet interesting is the complete lack of American cars. At least half of all automobiles are Toyota, the rest being mostly Asian with some European models mixed in. The buses are actually made by Volvo, which did surprise me; all the trucks and utility vehicles are Toyota. The models are almost all different too; I haven't seen a Prius or a Camry but there are a half dozen other Toyota models I had never heard of before coming here.

In the center of this photo is an example of one of the Singapore trucks I had mentioned earlier. It doesn't seem like there is any limit to the number of people that can sit in back for a ride. This one was a Toyota:

I make up for this fascinating material with another photo of the arts building:

02-02-2009

This weekend the infamous "Changay Parade" was held at city hall. This is an annual parade following Chinese New Year and is a big deal. The President and Prime Minister and whoever else all come and say a few words. The parade was free to attend but in order to get seats to see the actual show you need tickets which cost fifty dollars plus. A handful of international students were selected to receive free tickets from the Internation Student Centre and they just happened to pick all of the RPI students. We also received free NTU shirts to wear to the parade.

This was easily the best parade I have ever seen. Floats were accompanied by large groups of dancers and performers, each representing a different group or organization. There was a large stage in the center where acrobats and such performed as the floats passed. The following is a picture of the NTU float:

28-01-2009

We just finished a four day weekend here, in celebration of the Chinese New Year.  There is no "new year's day;" Monday and Tuesday are both considered "Chinese New Year."  The original plan had been to spend the weekend in Malaysia, we had already booked a hostel, but due to unavailable transportation I ended up staying in Singapore.  This was still good as I did something new/old and exciting each day.  

Saturday I went with a few others to Pulau Ubin, a very small island off the north east coast of Singapore.  This island was fairly dirty and smelly but in a nice way; it gave me a pretty good idea of what a third-world country would be like.  We rented bicycles for four dollars a piece and just rode around the island for a few hours.  This is us jumping:

Sunday was New Year's Eve so we went to China town to get the full Chinese experience.  There was a large quantity of people congregating there.  There were plenty of balloons and fireworks, the latter being mostly obscured by the large building seen in this picture:

 

Monday was the Singapore Bird Park, which is a zoo for birds.  As advertised there were nine thousand birds in the park.  There were large cages for viewing, large enclosures for walking through, and bird shows for watching.  We were in a large seemingly open yet actually enclosed space that housed thousands of tropical birds where they were handing out cups of sugar water to feed the birds:

People would hold out the cups and one or two parrot-looking birds would land on the edge and start drinking.  These birds were very friendly and allowed you to get very close.

I did not have any sugar water because it cost three dollars but was so fortunate as to have just such a bird perch unprovoked on my shoulder.  This was a fairly unique occurrence; many people were taking photographs of me and I felt very full of myself.  A jealous Chinese man approached me from behind and attempted to relieve me of the bird via his cup of sugar water.  However he was only successful in startling the bird which kicked the cup, emptying it all over my shoulder, and flew away.

Another slightly less exciting adventure took place at the "Birds of Prey" show.  For part of the show a flock of a dozen or so Red Kites were released into the amphitheatre.  Keepers would sling small scraps of meat into the air so the Kites would swoop down and catch them.  I was chosen as a volunteer to "help" sling shot a piece of meat at the Kites, very exciting.  As compensation for my hard labor I was given a postcard of the fabled and exotic "bald eagle."  This was actually quite disappointing because previous participants had received Ben & Jerry's coupons.

Yesterday Sam and I went to the Singapore Art museum.  It was relatively small and contained only modern art, some of which was very impressive.  Photographs were not allowed in the galleries.  

26-01-2009

The grading system at NTU is a fair bit different than what I am accustomed to at RPI.  There a typical course consists of two to four exams throught the semester, a final, and homework assignments, all contributing relatively evenly towards the final grade.  My classes here have one midterm worth 20%, and the final, which is essentially your entire grade.  One of my classes has homework but it is not collected or graded.  This system encourages a general slacking procedure throughout the first few months of school.  I have heard a couple locals explain that they are on vacation until finals start at which point they study furiously and then vacation starts again.  I have been trying to stay up to date on my class subjects but it is a little more difficult.  

This is the front of the campus art building which is possibly the coolest building I have every seen.  I don't have any classes there but I like taking pictures of it anyway.

23-01-2009

I want to talk now about someone here we call Klein.  Klein's real name is Bui Quang Khoi and resides in Vietnam.  He is Sam's student buddy as well as one other student's from RPI.  A student buddy is an NTU student assigned to an exchange student in order to help them learn the ropes of NTU and Singapore in general.  I haven't seen my student buddy since the second day I was here but Klein has been a great buddy to me and everyone else ever since I got here.  Klein hangs out with us a few times a week, gives us advice, and answers all our questions.  He stutters frequently and is a phenomenally nice guy.

This is Klein and me at the sushi restraunt on campus.  Pricey but pretty good.  The sushi comes around past all the tables on a conveyer belt and they charge you at the end based on the quantity and colors of your plates.

During the second week we were required to purchase our Student's Pass and I was having a hard time with the payment methods.  The Student Pass is the equivalent of a student visa and without it I would be illegal and unable to come and go from Singapore.  It only cost forty dollars but they would only except payment via Cash Card.  I discovered this on the only day we were given to purchase the pass. I went to the seven eleven to purchase the card for fifteen dollars, but actually putting money on the card requires a special machine which was broken.  They told us to go to the library where there was another such machine but it turned out to be broken as well.  Klein to the rescue.  Klein actually payed for four of our Student Passes with his card ultimately preventing our immediate demise. 

This past Saturday we went to Finale V, a show in celebration of the Vietnamese new year Tet. The show was loosely based on American Idol; there were ten contestants who each performed one piece and at the end the audience voted for their favorite "star".  Klein and his band were the third act and they performed Eric Clapton's "Change the World."  The band was awesome and everyone wa

s completely amazed at how Klein sang; he stutters when he talks b

ut he has an idol quality voice.  There were about one thousand in attendance and Klein won the popular vote by less than twenty.  The ten of us (who Klein got in for free) and the people we convinced sitting behind us felt mildy responsible for Klein's success.  Klein and his group A+:

Wednesday night ten of us went to the Raffles Hotel for the Hall XVI Chinese New Year dinner.  It cost fifteen dollars and we recieved an eloquent eight course chinese dinner.  There was entertainment and the dinner was followed by an orange eating contest which our table won.  We all had to wear red for the occasion.

20-01-2009

"I like the word 'gumption' because it's so homely and forlorn and so out of style it looks as if it needs a friend and isn't likely to reject anyone who comes along." -Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance