Expedition Matt: y u so like that!

Hey guys. I'm sorry it took me SO long to update this thing. I've been busy! What can I say?

I guess this whole 'school' thing that I have been avoiding finally caught up to me. Pretty good though, I managed to float through the first month! Haha, don't act so surprised... this is pretty typical. Some good news though, I do like my classes for the most part and they are not very hard. My history of Singapore class is awesome even though I am one of 3 exchange students in the class who had no prior knowledge of the country. Did you know that Singapore was instrumental in creating 'free trade' in ports, all thanks to one Brit; Thomas Stamford Raffles? Also, did you know that the morning after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour on December 7th, 1941, they immediately set their sights on Singapore because of Singaporean Chinese nationalistic views and the boycotting of cheap Japanese products? Seems pretty trivial, and maybe I flew through those readings a bit too quick, but for such a young country there seems to be a very deep and rich history. I could go on for a while, but I'll save that for my final paper.

My other classes are good too, just a bit more 'engineering' related. Process control is good, even though there is a lot of math involved. And my Environmental courses are good too. I can definitely see myself heading towards an environmentally conscious career in the future. Seems like a positive thing to put hard work and energy into... maybe? I guess step 1 would be to stop taking super long showers! I'm terrible at that!

So, here's a quick summary of the last 2 weeks since I've been neglecting my blogging.

The weather has been pretty crappy to say the least. It's still extremely hot, but it has been rainy and overcast pretty much every day. We get the occasional ray of sunlight, but it's nothing compared to the first few weeks where we got spoiled!

Two weekends ago, I stayed in Singapore in order to get a bit more organized and save some money (hah). Ended up going down to the Esplanade in downtown Singapore because I had heard that there was a music festival of some sort. The plan for the night was to grab a few drinks and listen to some live music. Drew and Jenn took off to find some cheap drinks, and ended up finding a bar/club called DXO where we could get 26 dollar towers or 80 dollar bottles of Absolute (that's pretty darn cheap in Singapore). Ended up drinking 2 bottles and 2 towers between like 6 of us hahaha. When I got home at 4am, my roomate was still up so we had a nice little heart to heart for half an hour hahaha. Saturday I went to Suntec city for an electronics fair. Not a good cure for a hangover, let me tell you. Loudspeakers everywhere, about a hundred billion people on 5 floors and a crazy look in the eye of every gadget hungry Singaporean. However, there were a LOT of sexy girls around. Eaaaasy boy. Sunday was easy-breezy and the rest of the week was pretty much the same. Managed to say 'no' to everyone on Wed night, and stayed in to get some good sleep and save some money. That was a nice change! Not to mention I was extremely healthy and active this past week. Either a swim or a workout at the gym every single day. I finally caved in and ate Subway as well which was a GREAT idea. Fresh veggies have never tasted so good! And olives, ohhhh man. It's tough to deal with when everything that you eat here is either deep fried, cooked in oil or, well, white rice. I have had an insatiable craving for a nice steak, grade A Alberta beef complete with mom's mashed potatoes and a huge salad and a glass of MILK. Dammit! Mom! I'm placing a take-out order from the other side of the world, send it express please!

Hmm what else? Still rainy, however it makes it a little bit easier to sleep at night. This past Friday night I had some beers on top of the Arts and Design building (the fancy curved one with grass on top) and burned some incense that I bought in Little India on Thursday. Then had some wine at the staff club and went out to this cool little bar in Emerald Hill with Dakota, Max and Alisa. Good fun but expensive! Saturday I went to the mall and did a little shopping and took it easy that night. Oh and on Thursday we stopped through Clarke Quay and caught some Mid-Autumn Festival displays! Take a look!

Sunday was busy though, so it deserves its own paragraph! Myself, Dave, Evan, Chris and Alisa had breakfast at Canteen 2 and headed out to Pulau Ubin. Pulau Ubin is a small island off the North Eastern coast of Singapore which is known for its ability to remain virtually undeveloped while S'pore booms through the 21st century. In order to get there, we had to sit through a bus, a long MRT ride to the other side of the island, another bus ride and then a bumboat ride from Changi Ferry Terminal to the island. In total, about 2 hours via public transport. The bumboat ride was awesome though! Little tiny boats which can carry 10 passengers and will not leave until they are full. We didn't end up waiting longer than a few minutes, but at 2.50 a person it wouldn't be a huge deal to pay for the entire boat. The first captain took us cross-wind (?) into a couple huge waves and for a land-lover like myself, I was convinced the boat was going to flip! On the island, there were probably 5 different places to rent bikes and I opted for a more expensive bike ($20/day) while the others got $6-10 ones. Oh man, I missed biking!! For the most part, we stuck to the paved road that went around the island, but Dave and I got adventurous and did some of the mountain bike trails around an old quarry. They got pretty technical on some ups and downs, and there was also a small freeride track with a teeter-totter and some boardwalks. On our rented bikes, they weren't the easiest things to do haha! Oh and special mention to Evan for popping his back tire and then riding the 4km's back on just a frame, and also to Chris for getting stranded when his chain popped off :P

Lets see, we spent a couple hours in the morning biking and met up at a cafe in the village. Grabbed some local seafood (including some mussels with tails and eyes!?!) for lunch and re-fuelled with some water. Then headed to the east end of the island. There we found a boardwalk around the corner of the island where, when it is low tide, you can see all sorts of ecosystems mixing in the shallow pools of water. Unfortunately today, it was high tide and we really didn't see much. Not to mention we got stuck in a huge downpour! Luckily we had a shelter close by where we waited it out, but not before Dave and I danced around and cooled off in the rain.

The colors on this picture kind of suck! The pink was unbelievable. I'll post a high quality in Flickr when I finally get my account set back up. :)

Overall the day was a huge success! We were all sweaty and hot and tired and gross and wet and covered in salty sea water but those are the days that I feel the most alive. What a great feeling. After we got within one bus ride from NTU, we stopped at Jurong Point Mall and grabbed some sushi for dinner. Great ending to a great day!

Okay I am pretty much done, and in need of getting some work done prior to the start of my vacation on Friday! The trip is pretty much set. Friday I head to Koh Phangan, Thailand, for the full moon party which is Sunday night. Monday night we travel to Phuket for a night and then I will say goodbye to the others who fly out Tuesday morning. From there, I will travel alone to a super nice resort and spend 4 nights there. Saturday I fly out of Phuket to Bangkok and then from Bangkok to Udon Thani where I will catch a bus to Vientiane and meet up with the girls. A week in Laos and then its back to real life for a bit in October!

Oh and a quick mention of last night. We headed down to a stadium to catch a local Singaporean 'football' game, which we got free tickets to from the International Student Center. It was pretty cool to see, but not all that exciting! Ahh well, one more thing down and off the list.