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!!!