You've got mail............... NOT.

Hello everyone. I just got home from a movie screening organised by "Die deutsche Sphäre" which is a German student club on campus. It is quite nice since there are a lot of Singaporeans studying German and they are very keen on talking. They will arrange a lot of activities during the semester ranging from food fares to a Chinese-German language tandem program. We watched "Lola rennt" today which I suggested Aurelia to get. She is one of the organizers of the club and I got to know her last week when I was in Chinatown with the other guys.

But what I actually wanted to say right now: When you go abroad to Asia and live in a hall, make sure neither your last or your first name begin with an L or W.
Unfortunately, I have both my names starting with these letters which means that whenever I want to check my mail in the mailboxes (which are ordered by letters and are for all 500 students living here) I have to go through thousands of letters addressed to Lee, Long, Lu, Lan and Wong, Wang, Weng, Wu.. and so forth. I was waiting for an important letter from my dad and guess what, I neither found it in the L nor W slot. Fortunately, an Indian friend by the name of Hari asked me if I found my letter that has been lieing around there for several days already. "No, which letter??!!" - "Well, in German Mister means 'Herr', right? It is in the H-slot, I've seen it there for a long time already." Aaaaahhhhhhh how could I know the mail man takes each word so seriously. Whatever, I got my letter and beg everyone to address letters to me in future with a # or with aaa. Then it should be on the very top.

Singapore can, Kuala Lumpur cannot

Mitlerweile sind schon vier Wochen vergangen seitdem ich in Singapur verweile. Echt erschreckend wie schnell die Zeit vorbeifliegt... Es ist noch nicht mal ein halbes Jahr, das ich hier studiere und schon ist ein Monat rum! Nun denn.. Singapore can. Das ist singlisch und nicht gerade schwer zu verstehen. Mitlerweile habe ich mich ganz gut an den Akzent und die Wortwahl gewöhnt. Man muss einfach immer mal ein Lah oder Meh am Satzende einfügen und schwupps hat man es drauf. Haha. Singapurer verkürzen oft Sätze und Satzgefüge und anstelle von "Yes, you can do that" sagen sie einfach "Can! Yes, can!" oder "No, cannot!" Echt ganz lustig, weil diese Abkürzungen einen treudoofen Eindruck machen, dass deren englisch eben einfach nicht so gut sei, aber sie dafür ja nichts können. Haha! Dem ist aber nicht so, im Unterricht wissen alle sich richtig gut und professionell auszudrücken.

Aber zum eigentlichen Thema: Kuala Lumpur cannot! Auf diese Weise würde vielleicht der Normalsingapurer kurz und prägnant auf singlisch meine Erfahrung mit Kuala Lumpur beschreiben. Dort ging es letztes Wochenende mit einer 6-stündigen Busfahrt hin und die Erfahrungen waren sehr verschieden. Mit Dabei waren die Ungarnfraktion Adam und Greg und der Finne Lauri.
Die Stadt an sich ist sehr sehr gegensätzlich: Auf der einen Seite gibt es viele hübsche Gebäude, angeführt von den Petronas Zwillingstürmen und allem Pipapo: das Wohl größte Shoppingcenter Süd-Ost-Asiens mit einer internen Achterbahn, ein gut ausgebautes Monorail-Metro-Bahn-System und natürlich fast überall Klimaanlage.
Auf der anderen Seite habe ich noch nie schlechtere Luft und einen übleren Gestank erlebt wie in den Straßen in Kuala Lumpurs Innenstadt. Auf den Bildern ist bei weitem nicht zu erkennen wie es wirklich aussah und zuging. Wenn man einmal dort war, lernt man erst die Sauberkeit, Ordnung und Sicherheit Singapurs zu schätzen. Deshalb nehme ich alle vorherigen Äußerungen Singapur sei gar nicht so sauber zurück und bin froh wieder hier zu sein!
Aber ich muss der Stadt lassen, dass das Konträre ihr einen gewissen Charme verleiht. Auf lange Sicht hin dort zu wohnen könnte ich mir aber wirklich nicht vorstellen. Es gab ein paar nette Orte zu sehen und ich bin mir sicher, wenn mir mehr Zeit gehabt hätten, hätte uns die Stadt bestimmt noch überraschen können. Aber der einzige Grund warum ich nach Kuala Lumpur wollte, waren ohnehin nur die Poserfotos mit den Petronas towers, von daher war alles andere Erlebte nur Bonus und Extras.
Alles in allem war es ein lustiger Trip mit den Jungs und wenn ich nach Malaysia wiederkomme, dann sicher nur zu den Stränden. Denn das ganze Land habe ich nicht mal ansatzweise kennengelernt.

Erwähnenswert ist noch, dass man immerhin das Handeln in Kuala Lumpur sehr gut lernt. Denn es versuchen dich grundsätzlich alle Leute auf der Straße abzuziehen. Von den Taxifahrern, bis zu Händlern in Chinatown oder Passanten auf der Straße. Die Taxifahrer benutzen (mindestens bei weißen Gästen) grundsätzlich keine Meter, sondern verlangen von anfang an einen total lächerlich hohen Standardbetrag. Das gleiche gilt auf dem Schwarzmarkt in Chinatown wo man von der billigen Plastik-Rolex bis zum Gummi-Gucci-Gürtel alles bekommt. Die kann man natürlich schnell runterhandeln, aber es lässt einfach einen faden Beigeschmack. Ständig wird man natürlich gefragt wo man herkomme und wenn man erstmal Deutschland sagt (was ich vermieden habe, aber meine Kumpels zu meinem Übel ständig erwähnen mussten) kommen sie sofort mit irgendwelchen Standardsätzen wie "Saubillig! Saugut!" und ich frage mich wer denen so einen Scheiß beigebracht hat.. Das kann nur ein deutscher Turist gewesen sein, der sich darüber gefreut hat ein Stück Plastik für 30 Euro gekauft zu haben, in der Annahme die Rolex-Atrappe wäre echt und hielte auch nur länger als einen Tag.
Nach dem ganzen Sightseeing am Samstag hielten wir es für eine gute Idee eine Fußmassage zu kriegen. In dem Viertel unserer Herberge gab es sehr viele kleiner Bars und viele nicht gerade vertrauenserweckende Menschen, die einem Massagen aller Art versprachen. (Fragt lieber nicht welche)
Wenn ihr mal da sein solltet, tut euch selbst einen Gefallen und lasst euch nie von solchen Leuten volllabern irgendwo oben im Haus Massagen zu kriegen ohne vorher die Lokalitäten sehen zu können. Das taten wir nämlich zuerst und sind dann in einem richtig üblen Etablissment gelandet, wo es gestunken hat, nicht genug Stühle da waren und plötzlich Männer anstelle von Frauen unsere Füße massieren wollten, was nicht die Absprache war! Geht lieber in einen der Läden auf Straßenhöhe wo man reingucken kann. Da war es dann am Ende sehr gemütlich.
Apropos: Dass Homosexualität in Malaysia mehr geduldet wird als in Singapur mussten wir zu unserem Leide Freitag abend hautnah feststellen als wir es für eine gute Idee hielten in einen Club gegenüber unserer Herberge zu gehen. Ich bin schnell in Partylaune auf die Tanzfläche und mir war schon mulmig zumute als mir die ersten Typen mit V-Ausschnitt bis zum Bauchnabel entgegenkamen. Als ich dann aber ein waschechtes Double des Village People Polizisten mit einem Indianer eng miteinander tanzen ansehen musste, ist es mir dann auch endlich aufgefallen und wir sind dann genauso schnell wieder verschwunden. Den anderen fiel dies nach Anmachsprüchen wie "Hey, how's it going?" und "Are you lost?" schon vorher auf. Yep, wir waren mehr als verloren da drin. In der Shopping Mall musste ich das gleiche dann noch bei einem Polo Parfümstand feststellen als einer der Verkäufer mit einer Flasche hinter mir herlief und rief "Hey, let me put this on you! Especially for you!" Aaaaah... Naja, einen Lacher ist's wert.

Chinese gardens and Chinatown

Typisch für uns Austauschstudenten war gestern mal wieder ein richtig schöner Sightseeing Tag dran. Mit Adam, Lauri, dem Finnen und zwei weiteren Ungarern ging es zu den Chinesischen Gärten. Es war eine unterhaltsame Tour. Ich habe schon des Öfteren gehört, dass es viele Chinesen gibt, die Bilder mit Europäern haben wollen. Das haben wir dann zum ersten mal selbst erlebt, als sich eine Gruppe von vier Mädchen mit uns ablichten lassen wollten.
Der Höhepunkt des Tages war aber zweifelsohne das Schildkrötenmuseum. Dort gabe es eine Sammlung von über 3000 Schildkröten-Figuren aller Arten und Variationen zu bestauenen: aus Plüsch, Plastik, Holz, Stein, Anhänger, Talismänner, Statuen, etc. Laut dem Guiness Buch der Rekorde die meisten Schildkröten an einem Ort. Das tollste waren aber die 1000 lebenden Schildkröten, die man sogar füttern durfte. Man stand auf einem Steg und plötzlich kamen von beiden Seiten Hunderte von hungrigen Kröten angeschwommen. Ein wirklich einmaliges Erlebnis und ich kann jedem raten, der was für Tiere übrig hat, dorthinzugehen.

Endlich habe ich es auch geschafft, mir eine eigene Decke, und Bettbezug zu kaufen. Diese Nacht habe ich auch endlich mal richtig gut geschlafen, was garantiert an der Decke gelegen hat. Einfach nackt im Bett zu liegen mit einem Ventilator an der Decke, der einem konstant warmen Wind zubläst geht das schlecht.

Später am Nachmittag ging ich mit Tse Siang, De Hoe, Shareen und noch einem Mädchen, die alle Singapurianer sind und ein bisschen deutsch sprechen nach Chinatown zum Essen und Sightseeing. Es war wirklich sehr amüsant und gemütlich mit denen. Tse Siang hat darauf bestanden, mich einzuladen, das es seine Gastfamilie in Deutschland auch bei ihm so gemacht hat. Fand ich sehr nett von ihm. Ich hatte aber ein paar Einwände, da das schon nicht sehr billig war, aber da ich ohnehin vergessen hatte Geld mitzunehmen, lies ich ihn nur unter dem Versprechen, ihn das nächste mal einzuladen, bezahlen.

Etwas beiläufiges: Allen Austauschstudenten sei geraten, sich das Registration Booklet, das die Schule ungefähr einen Monat vor Abflug losschickt, Seite für Seite genauestens durchzulesen. Ich habe das natürlich nicht gemacht und so von mehreren Dingen nicht erfahren. Zum Beispiel, dass man sich vom Flughafen hat abholen lassen können und dass es im auf der NUS Webseite einen Guide für Austauschstudenten gibt, der alle wichtigen Informationen enthält, was man z.B. unbedingt mitnehmen sollte und was nicht.
Tja, so hatte ich jetzt eben für zwei Wochen keine Bettwäsche. Letztere hat aber meine Deutschlandflagge sehr gut ersetzen können.

Einweihung

Endlich ist es soweit! Mein Blog ist eröffnet und jetzt dürfen alle interessierten Leser und Leserinnen an meinen aufregenden Erlebnissen in Singapur teilhaben.

Da ich diesen Blog auch an Menschen, die der deutschen Sprache nicht mächtig sind, sende, werde ich einige Beiträge in englisch und einige in deutsch verfassen. Wie es mir gerade passt. Dann darf sich keiner beschweren!
Anbei gibt es das Tagebuch, in das ich den letzten zwei einhalb Wochen ab und an geschrieben habe und in dem meine ersten Eindrücke geschildert sind.

ENJOY!!!!

Singapore nightlife and NUS hall life

Wow, the last week went by very quickly. all my classes have started and i had a hard time figuring out which ones i should take this semester. the add and drop system at the university worked alright, but unfortunately were a lot of business classes already full. the whole choice of modules was a big burden to me because i felt very overwhelmed by some of the classes' workloads.. this semester will definitely not be a fun semester as for many other exchange students. I will have to take 5 modules altogether whereas most exchange students only take 3-4. Also, I could not take the Chinese language class which I would have to take as a 6th module and this would definitely be too much.

Last week Saturday I went to the Night Safari together with Valerie who I met at the MOS. Well, I don't know what the big thing is about seeing animals at night during their night activities. Despite the fact that I did not bring my glasses and could not see much, I cannot imagine that watching outlines of dark small creatures can be much fun. One should rather go by daytime, then pictures are also possible to take! But I have to do that another time. :)

Wednesday night was definitely an unforgettable experience. Adam, the Hungarian, invited me to come with him and two other Hungarian dudes to a Hungarian party. The party turned out to be a fashion show, movie release kind of party with some people that have something to do with Hungary. The people were all high society looking, very nice and were dressed up. Before the party no one actually had the slightest idea about what exactly the event was going to be about or what was going to happen. Adam only knew about it from another Hungarian friend who studies his MBA here and said there's gonna be some Hungarian TV channel and free flow of foods and drinks.
The funny thing was first of all, that no one of us had to show any form of ID etc. The party was just on the 10th floor of a quite big hotel and inside there was very nice decoration and a huge dining hall with a pre set up fashion show stage. Since no one checked I have the fabolous idea of crashing all kinds of hotel parties in the same way in the future. Whatever. Inside we could drink free beer, wine and lychee vodka and even got served a big buffet in the end. Like I said the stage looked very catwalk like, and so it happened that suddenly we were all shown a fashion show which was quite interesting to see. We talked to some of the hostesses, took pictures, I got to know some Danish guys, which is always funny here to do.. if they suddenly see someone speaking Danish so far away from home, they are really happy and friendly! I also got several compliments on my good Danish, which was really nice to hear because I do not think it is that good. At least not as good as it could have been!
After the party was over at about 11:30 we went to Zouk. Unfortunately I have no big and great memories of the night anymore but I know that we met with Tse Siang and Jenna to party. After I drank the first drink, a white russian, I hardly know what happened or tried to appreciate or find out why the club is so popular around the world and supposedly better than Ministry of Sound.

We came home at about 3 am and I had to go to a lecture at 9 where I was still drunk and tried to avoid throwing up... aaahhh never alcohol again! At least not beer and wine and booze.... But that's what one says everytime after one got totally wasted anyway.

Thursday night we had a block dating dinner.. During the introduction hall a dating game took place throughout the whole hall. All freshmen, boys and girls, had to find a date with one of the seniors in the hall who must, however, live in another block. But in order to find a date one had to do something very special for that person. And here the people really went nuts about it. One guy for example decorated the girl's room full with heartshaped balloons, cooked dinner, and served it outside on the rooftop with a candle light dinner. Seriously, I would have liked to find an own date but I could not be bothered aksing around the hall: "Hi, my name is Lutz, are you a senior? Do you have a date already?" This would have been a little bit embarrassing.. So eventually, I ended up with no date. But I thought that should have been cool, because the seniors that organized the party said they would match some people that haven't found a date. In the end, they did not do that, though! Very disappointing..
I actually tried to find a date two days before and was planning to catch her heart with the best idea ever. No, not by baking a seafood cake. I was going to learn the Chinese love song called "I love you" by "David Tao Zhe" by heart. I was already practicing but it was hopeless because no one of all the people here was willing to translate the whole song for me word by word. And without knowing what I was singing about it would have been lost potential to learn the song by heart, wouldn't it?!
The biggest part of the population speaks fluent mandarin by the way. Everyone of course is accustomed to Singlish but that is just like a second language for the people. Everyone's mother tongue, the language they think in and can more identify themselves with, is nearly always the native tongue of their ancestors.
But coming back to the dinner: eventually I found Wan Ru from Malaysia who lives upstairs as my date. She is from my block and a very nice girl because she helps me all the time with all the things I need and lent me a lot of things already... She was also a very lucky girl, because she got my unique and rare dinner gift: a bar of German Milka chocolate! Woohoo!!

Living in a hall can be very funny. But I noticed that it can also be very very annoying... The past few days I was forced out of my dreams in the morning regularly at 6am, because each day an alarm clock has regularly been ringing for more than half an hour in a room of the opposite building to my room. Apparently the owner was not in the room or he might have done the same as me: sleeping with ear plugs. Of course, that building does not belong to my hall anymore, meaning that it is sheer impossible to identify and kill the culprit!

Meanwhile, I think I really have put on some weight in the stomach area... The food is just too greasy and rich on carbs. There is rice with literally every single meal! Fortunatley, there are a lot of block sport activities coming up where we compete in all kinds of sports such as basketball, soccer, handball, hockey, takraw, frisbee against the other blocks here in the kent ridge hall. it is gonna take place the whole next week and seems to become very funny!

Have I already mentioned that Singaporean (or Asian people in general?) usually eat hot dishes for breakfast? Basically it is the same kind of dish you get for lunch or dinner: some rice or noodles with some veggies and tofu. I really need to get used to this.. What shall I do without my cold cereals in cold milk? Milk is quite expensive over here, but they luckily have a same tetrapak like milk costing about 1,40 SGD, which equals about 70 Euro cents. Not too bad! And it tastes very similar to German milk. With this I can survive for the next couple of weeks but I think I still need to find something else. Maybe I should start making yoghurt!

Technologicallywise, Singapore does not seem to be much more developed than Germany/Europe. Cell phones are the same kinds here and the prices are also not much lower. Also I haven't found any cheaper hard disks yet, but I am going to do that tomorrow at Sim Lim.
And here some Chinese phrases I am trying to learn: Wo bu hui jiang. Wo shi cong wang shang. xue de.

Singapore's hot!

Thursday I went to the National Day Parade together with the girls from Wednesday night. Valerie, Enlin, Stacey and her buddy Frederik from Danmark. He was quite a fun guy to hang out with and after we had enjoyed the parade on a big place opposite to the city hall on this big screen, we split with Enling and went with the other two girls to a special foodcourt close to the place they live in. Getting around here is usually done through the MRT. Mass Rapid Transportation. Eventhough that day there were a couple of 100.000 people in the city, and it was very very packed, there was alsways a constant flow in the lines.
You never had to wait a long time at the very same spot which was quite impressive. I think it must be the fear of going to jail in case you stand still and are not quick enough.. ;-)

Speaking of them, the police were not as strongly present as one might imagine. Even at the ceremony I have not noticed a lot more policemen than usual and definitely not as much as you would have in the US for example. I am sure, they are there somewhere, but just not visible. Jenna told me the first day that there are a lot of undercover policemen. But I actually do not want to find out!
I guess there is no need for constant physical respresentation because of all the other mental things going on. In the MRT, for example, short movies about how to detect terrorists are repeadedly shown. A really corny movie about a person placing a bomb in the MRT is constantly displayed saying "ACT NOW! BE SUSPICIOUS" creating a constant paranoia within people. I don't think it is the best thing to do. On one hand it is helpful, but on the other it is so exaggerated. I just think it wouldn't help anyway but just increases the constant fear of such a threat.

Whatever.. The parade night ended with the four of us eating hot chili crab and later on drinking tiger beers underneath an escalator in an empty mall playing drinking games. It was really quite random!

Yesterday, on Friday I went to the ICA with Adam (AGAIN) to finally get our application done. The day before that we arrived to late and had to leave which sucked. As one can see staying at the ICA is not much fun. It is the immigration office and serves long waiting lines for free. At least I could take a nice shot of me and the skyline in downtown as you can see to the right.

Last night I finally met Sue-Lyn again who was an exchange student in Aarhus. We went to a Thai restaurant down by the Esplanade and had a great time. After that she took me to the Merlion and a very fancy hotel. I will see her again for some other touristy attractions for sure. Last night I also met Dennis and all the other Danes on my way home in Holland Village and I had a fun talk with the Copenhagen girls!

That's it for now, I will have to get going to get ready for the RagnFlag day!! It's gonna be fun!!!

Singaproe Nightlife 101

The last week was just very amazing. Singapore is to my surprise not as clean and strict as I have always imagined. I mean, of course it is very clean in all the business and public areas but you can still find a lot of not clean places. Yes, I know, you find places like that everywhere. But the reputation of Singapore, being such a totalitarian and strict state, I was of the opinion that licking the floor at really every single little place would be as healthy as a glass of milk in the morning!
Just to explain a little more in detail: I have seen a lot of places downtown where there was garbage and cigarette buds on the street in front of the stores. Also, it was a big suprise for me that smoking was abandoned here in Singapore only on July, 1st this year. Thus, a lot of people still smoke. The other thing I thought was very surprising is that I have seen several cats wandering around in the streets. A cat might just lie right on the sidewalk and sleep while people are passing by trying not to step on it.

Singaporeans are very very friendly people. I have heard about that a lot of times before coming but exactly the same thing happened to me as to so many others: when I was asking someone for the way on campus that person actually went back halfway where he came from just in order to show me the way. I mean an easy explanation would have done the job too..

Last night Adam and I went to Ministry of Sound with some sweet Singaporean girls who were Adam's buddy and her friends. Inside MOS it was as packed as I had never seen it before. One could hardly move from one place to another. But that gave me a lot of private time with one of the girls when I took her to the bar and back ;)
Prices here in Singapore for beverage are just an outrage. A shot of Jaegermeister, which I of course had to introduce to the ladies, was 11 bucks, which is like 5,5 euros and almost equal to a whole bottle in Europe. Anyhoo, we had a splendid time because we don't need fun to have alcohol and the girls knew how to dance and how to have a good time! Somewhere I have read that Singaporeans have a great nightlife and party hard, that was definitely the case that night.

We came home from the MOS at 6am this morning, and went to eat at a small Indian stand on the way home. There, the food was rediculously cheap, 1,50 for a pancake with some spicey sauce. I don't remember the name.. kappa or something like that? Ah no it is Prata! We also enjoyed the company of a rat right next to us in the bushes. I seriously could not believe my eyes. I mean, this is Singapore. But at least the rat was quite tame and did not bite. Unfortunately, I did not manage to take a picture of it but people would not like to see it anyway, I guess.

Yesterday I visited the Little India district with Adam and Ravy the American Indian guy. We ate from banana leaves and had a mango shake. I absolutely love mango! I would like to eat mango in any kind of dish... shake, ice cream, pudding, you name it!

First day impressions

The first day was really one big experience. I met a lot of different people and already visited some bits of the city. I had no sleep in like 30 hours and consequently, I've been really tired the whole day which made time pass by so quickly and let everything seem kind of unreal.
The flight was smooth and the Doha airport where I connected between flights was quite impressive. It is pretty small but looks very unique and neat. The temperature outside was at least 35 degrees in the middle of the night and one could feel a constant heat that was really burning. Luckily, Singapore is not like that eventhough it is really hot here as well. In the night it can be quite a problem falling asleep if one is not one of the lucky owners of an air condition!
When arriving in Singapore I found out that there was a buddy greeting program which I didn't know about and consequently did not participate in. I can therefore recommend every future exchange student to read the university's registration book very carefully because it says it all in there!
Nevertheless, I still met Jenna who is the buddy of French-German exchange student Aline. Jenna also took care of me after I arrived and showed me the way to the dorm. I also met Juanita a local girl I have been chatting with for the past two months. It was really exciting seeing her in real life for the first time! Unfortunately, we did not have much time because I had to hurry checking in at the NUS. Having arrived only at night I could experience already some nightlife..
Jenna invited me to come with her to a bar called Timbre and meet some of her friends who study German. There was a really good life band and the mayor even gave a speech. There was a special "Speak good English campaign" going on. Later on the guys showed me a couple of times that jaywalking is quite common over here. My challenge to spit on the street was to my surprise, however, not accepted.