Singaporoars

• Mood: Optimism
• Listening to: her in these lights
• Reading: was reading picoult
• Watching: some disney movie bout a cute toaster
• Eating: nasi ayam
• Drinking: water

So Singapore….lets see. The bus was okay, comfortable enough although me seat was a wee bit cramped with all the bags since the overhead compartment was full. Funny thing was that the bus (this was executive coach) stopped at the Sungai Besi toll Rest stop and went out to buy us all McDonalds breakfast. You’d think an executive coach would serve you nicer food, or at least not buy it on the way.

The immigration was a joke, the Malaysian side anyways. There were no customs! I mean, there was a customs place, but no one was there to check anything!
crossed the bridge, which I’m not sure was the causeway since it was so empty, reached Singapore immigration where they did check our stuff. Very enthusiastically, too. The customs officer was so chatty; it was funny, but nice.

Singapore is just like Malaysia but a little bit different. They have more trees, planted ones, whereas in Malaysia they cut down all the tees by the roadsides. I like that about Singapore, the nice, shady trees. Got to the bus station, got off, and had to look for a hotel. First went to this place called Hotel Hamilton, just a few meters away. They told us to come back at 5pm (it was 2) so we went to look for other places. Went to hotel 81 elegance which was e-x-p-e-n-s-i-v-e for a supposedly budget place (109 Singapore $ approx 240 Rm, which would get you a very nice hotel room in Malaysia) so went to look elsewhere. Found the Hive after walking around for a bit, it was cheap and had a totally cool atmosphere (backpackers hostel) but was FULL. -_- in the end settled for hotel 81, which was small, had no windows, and smelt like cigarettes but was clean enough.
Rested for a bit then headed out at around 4.20. We wanted to take the MRT to the city centre, but spent an hour looking for the station, when actually it was just 10-15 minutes away. We took a big huge loop when we should’ve just walked straight.

The place where we stayed (lavender) was pretty empty, so I was wondering “where the heck are all the Singaporeans? Isn’t Singapore supposed to jam packed full of people?” Well, my questions were answered when we got to Orchard – it was sooooo crowded!!! And my brother wouldn’t stop saying, its just like Korea, he’d say it like every 15 minutes. Personally, I didn’t see the point of Orchard Road. All the malls sold the same expensive stuff, with the same shops, and had the same eateries (3 McD’s per mall at around 12 malls in Orchad = obesity. Singaporeans do love their fast food…) so we walked up and down the street, looking for a money changer, then looked for a place to eat, besides fast food, but we weren’t sure of the halal-ity of the places, so ended up in BK after all, even if it was freaking expensive. (Malaysians so take their food for granted – everything is halal so no worries)

Then we went to the esplanade, by that time it was already night, so all the lights were on. It was very pretty, not what I expected out of a durian looking thing. There was also this art exhibition inside the lobby, ‘Continuous Line Drawings’ or something. They were made by NUS students and were really nice, and good too. Walked down to the Merlion, hung around a bit and took so many pictures, then walked to the Padang, across which was a nice building but I don’t really know what it was. Oh, and behind that building there was a thing, it looked like a UFO, but it was obviously some sort of building. By now our feet were feeling royally butchered, so we got back on the MRT to the hotel, this time deciding not to take the scenic route.

Back at the hotel watched ESPN, found out that Man U won and Chelsea drew (Yaaayy!!). Super goal from eagles too.

We planned on getting out at 10 am since my aptitude test was at 11.30, and we did get out, like at 10.15-ish. Took the MRT to Clementi, then went to the bus stop and waited for bus # 96 to take us to NUS. Waited. Waited. Waited. Then finally 96 showed up, we got on, and the driver told us if we’re going to NUS, we should go wait at the interchange up the road. We were like, ??? but went there, where we had to wait again, for like 20 minutes, until he finally showed up (he must’ve had food poisoning or something). By then there were only 10 minutes left for me to get to NUS and find out where the heck the test was taking place. Got there at 11.35 and had to sheepishly walk up the lecture theater as inconspicuously as possible, and plonk myself down on seat 93. The examiner was giving out instructions, half of which I missed. Then I read the question, and it says

‘using the materials given, design an abstract model to illustrate the theme ‘lightness and heaviness’.

Then my mind went absolutely blank and the clock kept ticking. Everyone around me was either furiously sketching, or already taking out their scissors and snipping away. The only thing I could think of was my pop-up book at home, so I tried to make this fan-pop-up-earth thing, I cut it out, and coloured it, and was trying to figure out how to attach it to the base when the instructor guy announces that we cant use colors. GREAT. That’s half an hour gone, and only another half to think of something else. I ended up doing this really weird and equally lame construction of the letter ‘P’ and I was going to do the same thing for ‘b’ but there was only 10 minutes left so I just did this cutout and made it float with a stand thing. The P was soooo ugly…my rushed construction was all junky looking and not smooth and crisp and flawless like I envisioned….Then I cut out this horribly ugly bird and stuck it on the ‘b’. Then I made up some lame-o reasoning of how ‘Pb’ is the symbol for lead, which is known to be one of the heavier metals (that’s what you get when you mom is the Chem teacher), and it symbolizes the weight of the earth and how it is underground but being bought to the surface. Then I just said the bid symbolizes freedom from burden, or lightness. LAME!!!

Then comes the second question, and I’m supposed to describe the qualities of two different pictures, each in 5 words. One picture was a kettle, the other was this house. I guess this is where my A* in O level English came in handy, and my alien-ish hobby of reading the dictionary (laugh all you want but its fun!)The third question told us to reinterpret the model from question 1 and design a seating structure/piece of furniture based on the same theme. Those were okay I guess, but not superb. I don’t know the benchmark for this test, so I have no idea how I did. Except I know my model was ugly, and it was so embarrassing we had to march down 4 flights of stairs with our models…

My interview was scheduled at 3.20, and it was only 2, so we walked around a bit, looking for food, and found a McD’s, which was a lot cheaper than the ones in Orchard. I guess it has to cater to students’ budgets.
I have no idea how I did in the interview, because I never had one before. I didn’t even prepare for it, until my bother asked me what I was going to say in the interview. I told him, don’t I just answer questions? Can you believe I actually argued with the interviewee guys? Okay well, not argue in a fighting way, more like a discussion without a point of agreement. He was asking me about what buildings I liked, and I said the Sultan Abdul Samad building, and he asked what was behind it, and I said the Klang river, and he said, “no, behind that”, I told him it was Masjid Jamek. And he said, “No, that’s on the north.” So I was like, “umm..okay but I’m pretty sure its behind, and the criminal court is also behind it.” Then they dew this map-sketch thing, and they were adamant that Masjid Jamek is on its left, but I KNOW its behind the building, on the right. Anyways in the end I just let it go and they moved on to other questions about its history, (thankfully I knew a bit about it and remembered all the right names)

I was the last interviewed candidate so I was just outside the room organizing my stuff with my bother after the interview, then they walked out, and said, “oh I liked your drawings” (I brought my art along which they looked at, especially this one

[link])

and “are you considering landscape designing?” To which I stupidly said. “No, not really. I don’t like trees.” (but I love trees!) and hastily blubbered on how I don’t know how to deal with them etc etc. (???) what I was really trying to say is I don’t have green thumbs and I don’t like drawing trees!
My brother thought my interview went well since they said they liked my drawings but I’m not too sure. Oh they also said “I hope you did well on your aptitude test.” Does that mean they liked me, and thus hoped I did good so I would be accepted, or did I do so bad that the only thing that could save me was the test? conspiracies….

We planned on going to Bugis and the Arab district, but we only had an hour so had so breeze though Bugis Junction and then rush of to the MRT to catch our 6 pm bus. We made it just on time, as in, we got on the bus and it went.

Okay I know its just Singapore, and people go there all the time, but not ME!! I hardly go anywhere, thus the jakun-ness. Next time I’m gonna do Singapore good and proper.