Whew, we have lots of ground to cover today. :)
Sunday was my last day of sightseeing in Singapore. Katie and I had pretty much worn ourselves out on the first 2 days so we decided to take it easy. Our first stop was the botanical gardens! They're huge, and mostly free. There were tons of families having picnics, and it's definitely a cool place to hang out. I love that Singapore has so many lush green areas to counteract the big city feel.
My favorite part of the garden was definitely the orchid garden. They were gorgeous! It was a little too hot for me to spend too much time enjoying them, but they were really pretty. I took tons of pictures!
After the garden, we walked around in Orchard Road, a huge area known for its shopping (especially the ritzy variety). We saw a ton of designer shops along with a really cool art museum. Here's one of the sculptures inside...cute puppy!
Our next stop was the Charlie Brown cafe! Apparently they're all over Asia...Peanuts characters are really popular there. The food was nothing to write home about, except for the crepes.
They have little characters on them! I had the Charlie Brown one and Katie had the Lucy, but they also had Snoopy and Woodstock crepes. Adorable!
The rest of the day was pretty uneventful! We had a mac and cheese party with some of Katie's friends (which was excellent), and went swimming at the campus pool and went to bed early. XD
Monday I went to classes with Katie! She had 3, all of which I don't remember the names for. I first attended the class on physics applications to medical equipment - for example, the lecture when I was there was on radiation and the various machines used to dispense the treatment. We had a lovely talk during the break about the nuclear plants at Fukushima - it was nice to talk to someone who knew what was going on. XD Afterwards, we went to the opposite side of campus for lunch. Before that, though, we stopped by the school market. All of the buildings on campus are clustered into groups (science, arts, engineering, etc.) and are their own islands, kind of. You take the bus to get from cluster to cluster. And each cluster has a huge market! A bunch of people set up tables and sell things, usually clothes and jewelry. I found fork and spoon earrings. XD
Lunch was in the huge cafeteria in the arts building, more like a hawker center than anything else. I had Chinese food, which was okay. After that I went to Katie's Malay tutorial session. She had a Malay dialogue book which I borrowed from her to try and learn a bit, because the lesson didn't make any sense to me. I managed to learn "Apa khabar? Khabar baik" (How are you? I am well.), "Nama saya Kelsey" (My name is Kelsey), and the various greetings (Selamat siang, for example, is good afternoon). It was fun. :) Her last class of the day was about natural conservation of Singapore, and I must admit I wasn't a huge fan of the class - it was the same conservation stuff we always learn!
We had dinner in the canteen (ie cafeteria) in Katie's dorm, and I got to have pad thai! It was tasty. And afterwards we headed out to Clarke Quay, the area of Singapore known for its nightlife! The cab driver we had was a really odd guy...he talked to us about all sorts of things (but especially safety when crossing streets/exiting cabs and our boyfriends). XD Clarke Quay is gorgeous at night!
We also went to a bar called The Clinic. All of the bars and clubs in Clarke Quay are themed. A lot of them are themed around foods - Indochinese, Mexican, Brazilian, Japanese, and more. But some are really quirky, like the Clinic. It has a medical theme! You sit in wheelchairs or on couches that look like medical beds and you can get drinks that come in "IV drips" and big syringes. We decided not to get any of those because they were super-expensive (there's a really high alcohol tax in Singapore, probably to discourage drinking), but I did get to try a Singapore Sling. We then just wandered around Clarke Quay some more before heading back home. It was a great last night!
And Tuesday was probably the longest day of my life (no, really). I woke up at 3:30 to catch a cab at 4 am to get to the airport for my 6 am flight. I had my last fresh-squeezed juice and a quick breakfast before heading through security. Note the "Texas Chicken" sign. :) This state follows me everywhere! My flight from Singapore to Nagoya was fine - I watched a really silly Japanese comedy and chilled out on the plane. I had an hour and a half layover in Nagoya, where I picked up a few last-minute gifts as well as my last shaka-shaka chicken (T.T I'm going to miss that) for lunch. While waiting for my flight, I sat next to a really cute American family who had just adopted a little boy from Vietnam. They had a son about the same age, and they were getting along really well. :)
The flight from Nagoya to Minneapolis was not a very pleasant experience. I sat on the aisle (big mistake), with a woman and her young daughter sitting next to me. The daughter wanted to get up every hour or so. X.X Add that to an inability to sleep on planes and an hour and a half of solid turbulence and I was SO ready to get off that plane.
I was so excited when we landed in Minneapolis because I could text people again! I spent my 5-hour layover going through security (no big deal), eating at Chili's(my second lunch of the day!) and catching up with friends. When the plane took off out of Minneapolis, I was dead asleep. And then I arrived in Dallas at 8:30! (yes, still Tuesday).
I must admit, it was a little emotionally exhausting to arrive back in the states. When I got to baggage claim in Dallas and saw my parents, I almost burst into tears. Sort of silly, isn't it? During all of this mess of dealing with leaving early, I've teared up all of twice. And then, the waterworks turn on as soon as I get home. But, life is starting to get back to normal. My first day home I slept in until 2 and schlepped around the house, but I've done quite a bit since then! 2 weekends in College Station and quite a bit of time spent at home trying to get my summer plans squared away. So much to do now that I'm back!
So, with this last post I'm afraid the chronicle of my semester abroad has come to an end. I wish it could have lasted longer, but I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it! I like that I will have something to look back on to remember the trip by.
Your last language lesson of the blog is the word "sayonara". Everyone knows that word, right? If you ask anyone on the street what Japanese words they know, the first that come to mind will be "konnichiwa" and "sayonara". But "sayonara" has a more specialized meaning than goodbye. "Ja ne!" or "Ja ato de!" or "Ja, ashita ne!" (bye, see you later, and see you tomorrow respectively) are used on a day-to-day basis. Sayonara is a word used for more special occasions, in which you're saying goodbye to someone you may never see again (or will not see for a while, at least). So it's a much more formal saying. I'd say it's proper for this post, since it is my last!
For those of you considering study abroad or even traveling in Japan (or elsewhere!), I highly recommend you go! Japan is an amazing place, full of really cool things and incredibly nice people. And my study abroad experience couldn't have been better, even with all of the "fun" we've dealt with lately. I've made so many good friends and had an awesome semester where I wasn't overloaded with work and had time to just relax. I feel like I've come back with a totally different perspective on life. So, JCMU, thank you! And to the rest of you, thanks for listening. :) I hope to see you soon!
