S'pore Day 1

Hey Guys,

Well today was definitely an adventure, with ups and downs, but I rolled with the punches and learned a lot!  First thing, early this morning before we went to bed NHL hockey was on TV which was pretty cool, although I won't be able to stay up long enough to watch most of the finals.  Sleeping was a little rough, my bed is ultra-firm to say the least, I am beginning to wonder if the concrete floor would be softer...but I did sleep haha even if I may have been walking like the tin man for portions of today.  Russ and I were up at 10:30am here this morning, and we immediately decided to explore today.  We found out that the hotel offers a shuttle service that drops us off at the Hyatt on Orchard Road which is kind of a downtown shopping center, so we went for it.  Little did we know after the 10 minute ride that the shuttle was a one-way only ride!  We walked all around the first shopping center we saw, they are nothing like back in the states.  Each center is typically 8-10 stories high and they sell a variety of goods from electronics to food, and clothes.  I bought an adapter so I could charge my computer and phone and camera (sorry not too many pics today) for $10, and we were in need of an alarm clock, so naturally we asked the store clerk.  Well, the cheapest looking shitty alarm clock carried a hefty price tag...$65!!!  We told the guy that we could buy it at a Walgreen's back home for $5-6, and then he instantly looked up his price.  He ended up coming down to $35 and insisted this was at cost, but smelling bullshit Russ and I decided to pass, so we still need to buy one tomorrow.  Then I had a phone with me that could be used here so I wanted to buy a sim card, well we got an array of pricing, and it ended up costing me $45 but the man assured me that it had 60 minutes of local calling on it, and 20 minutes of international time which was much more than the ones for $10 would have afforded me.  He was also the only seller who did not need a passport to complete the transaction which I thought was weird.  Russ and I were fairly hungry by this point so we began to look for food.  All of the places around the Orchard Road area were very expensive ($22-40 per person) so we kept walking and finally found a Wendy's where we had lunch for $8 per person.  At this point we decided to try to locate the MRT (Not MTA and definitely a Subway...first lesson learned the hard way because nobody understood what I was talking about)  I finally found a woman who realized I was in distress, she was in her mid to late 40's and acted just like a mother to Russ and I.  She literally walked us right to the station, helped us purchase our MRT cards for use on buses and the subway, tried to help us find a bus route book, and even lead us to a grocery store, so thank you whoever you are, you were a godsend!  After spending about 45 minutes following this lady and trying to memorize as much as I could, we located a store that sold hangars, and I bought a 10 pack for around $6 so that was nice.  After finishing our review of the Takashima S.C. we walked outside and tried to find a way back to the apartment.  This turned out to be no easy task!  After about 45 minutes of walking trying to find the bus stop for route 190 we finally found one, and ended up on the 171...luckily it went in roughly the same direction but we had to walk about 2 miles from where we got dropped off to get back to the hotel.  We quickly changed clothes and headed down to the pool, where we swam for about 45 minutes to cool down.  Realizing on the walk that there was a grocery store much closer to the apartment than the one we had found on Orchard Road we decided to stock up so we could avoid the high costs of restaurant food.  Well we were wrong again!  We picked up enough groceries to last 3-4 days sparingly for a whopping $126!  Talk about culture shock!  Well we carried our loot back to the apartment which was about a 1.5 mile walk due to a shortened route that we tried which worked in our favor, and I started prepping to make dinner.  Our "stove" is more of a hotplate, which took 45 minutes to boil water, and roughly the same amount of time to cook anything to the desired level...needless to say but I told Russ I will not be cooking any more for the remaining 2 months we will be here.  So today was a learning experience with many ups and downs, but overall it worked out ok I guess.  My only issue is that I ended up sweating so badly that my thighs ended up chafing very badly throughout the day, and I am not sure how I will fight that on a day to day level.  I am slightly disheartened by how expensive everything seems to be here, and I hope we catch a break and start to find some of the famous street vendors with inexpensive food.  Otherwise, I am afraid this internship may cost more than I make.  Anyway I wont ramble because I am exhausted right now and would love to try to get some sleep before tomorrow, because I am sure it will be more of the same.  I have attached a few pics so everyone can see parts of what I saw today.  I am sorry there isn't more, I just spent most of the day wide eyed and open mouthed looking around, and when I wasn't doing that I was trying to read maps and bus routes.  Tomorrow I will do my best to get some shots of the apartment, and other things as well.  As always please keep me in your thoughts and prayers, and know that I miss all of you very much right now, and I am trying a bit harder than I thought I would to avoid panic mode, which I am hoping will subside by tomorrow or soon anyway.  I love you all, goodnight and you will see more soon!

Love Always,

Brian

P.S. Some of the pictures were taken in Tokyo at Narita airport.