Singapore: Enrolment & Banking

03-01-2005
Woke at 10:50 this morning, which is very much a Tristan thing to do. I had thought that because I was here, and everything that was associated with it, that perhaps I would change and be suddenly able to wake up early, but alas no, it is not to be!! Hahah!! I found out today from Tim that we can't get net access till tomorrow Whilst this is definitely not a long time to wait, because it was expected I am a bit annoyed now - I want net access!!!

The rest of the day was fantastic - I finally bought a camera from Far East Plaza [Orchard Rd] (which apparently takes the number 1 place at the top of the Singaporean 'Blacklist' of retailers not to shop at, but the place I bought from seemed very nice and the camera works, and the warranty card is there (both for Singapore and international), so I am very happy so far. For those of you in-the-know with digital cameras, it was a Pentax Optio S5i, which I bought for S$550 or A$440. Considering the same camera in Aus is at least $650, I was pretty happy!

As an aside, during our travels on Orchard Rd, Tim and I visited Borders (the bookstore), and discovered the slogan of the Expat magazine (for those Expatriates who are living in Singapore away from their home country) was 'Living well is the best revenge'. Revenge for what??!?! For living in Singapore...for living in Asia??? I am assuming it is probably in reference to living away from home, but still, it could be far more subtle and less us-verses-them!

From Far East, Tim and I once again returned to Sim Lim Square, and the Changi Prison Museum. Sim Lim remained unchanged, but the museum was a very somber experience. The museum itself is quite small, and the chapel has been recreated or moved from its original place, but that does not detract from the events. The displays are well laid-out, and the abundance of quotes and first-hand reports really add a personal scale to such a large event. It bought me very close to tears, especially reading all the 'In memory of' notes in the chapel. So many lives lost, and for what .... ?

What surprised me (aside from the honesty with which the Singaporeans have dealt with WW2) was the fact that the original prison location has been maintained, and is now a women's prison. It just seems quite surreal and almost sacreligous to re-use such a horrific place for modern purposes. In Sydney I think the site would have been maintained, and definitely not re-used. The memories and ghosts there would be too hard to handle.

Dined again at Clementi - quite possibly the best food in the world for under $4!!

04-01-2005
Live as an exchange student began for real today, with the day ending with me knowing people!! Hooray!!!

I woke up rather early (8:30ish) and went to find a bank. I had been told, and read, that there was a DBS (the main local bank) branch at the National University Hospital (NUH), which is located on campus, about 5mins walk from my room. However, after a 20minute walk to and around NUH, I could not find it anywhere. ATMs yes, branches no. I even asked at the main information counter, and they just smiled and said no. Damn!!!

So from there, I went to Clementi by bus and opened an account. In Singapore, you take a 'Q' number, and wait, and each counter (when free) serves the next person from a central queue. Seems to work really well, except their queues are HUGE!!! At least DBS has a seperate area for new accounts. They tried to cheat me by telling me my minimum deposit was S$500, when they knew for well I was under 21 and therefore it was S$1. Grrr!

At least that is done now!!

From there, I went to registration, and found out they had my email and internet account activated in AUGUST 2004!!! So they COULD have sent it to me, but no, that would have been too hard apparently.!!! Grrrr again! At least now I have internet access - you don't know how important email is till its gone!

From registration, I met loads of people, 25 from the University of California (mostly Berkeley), 3 from Holland, and one in my cluster from Scotland. Very cool! Because of this, we ate really early at PGP (6pm!!), and watched cheesy Singaporean tv - a show about exchange students called 'Big Unknown' which had a Polish guy going to SMU (Singapore Management Uni), and their sitcoms (Living with Lidia especially). They are awful!! But they are so bad they are good. They give a real insight into Singaporean culture, life, and especially, their language. They have 'Singlish', which is English, with key phrases in Malay and Mandarin added, oh, and 'lah' put at the end of every sentence! It's interesting to say the least.