First Days

During my first 24 hrs in Singapore I visited Ion Orchard and Clarke Quay.

Ion Orchard is the ultimate shopping mall. There are four floors with one floor dedicated to a huge food court. The mall opened in 2009 and features many familiar shops; Zara, Mango, Bershka, but also American stores such as bebe, 7 for All Mankind, Steve Madden. There is a huge M&S store with a special food section (if you crave some porridge or tea biscuits) and there are also some small boutiques that remind me of the Asian-themed stores in Camden Market, London.

At Ion Orchard, I was overwhelmed with choices. There were so many options! Perhaps too many?

One store was amazingly awesome; I had never seen anything like it. The name read “kikki k: Swedish design” and it featured stationary products that would make any organizational freak (ahum) drool. Link: www.kikki-k.com

Clarke Quay is a popular area filled with restaurants, outdoor dining/lounging, and a bustling nightlife. The scenery represents a colorful colonial lifestyle – perhaps representative of what I will be experiencing these next few months. It's a great place to have drinks and I think I'll be coming there quite often.

Last night I met other exchange students and a really nice guy (he was almost local) showed us where to go and we actually ended up at a comedy club. It was my first time experiencing stand-up comedy and the people on stage were actually pretty good! A lot of jokes about Chinese sizing , eating culture, and Singaporean habits were made.

Prime example: "Singaporeans eat more meals a day than that they walk up steps in one week." It just ain't fair how skinny some of them are! Why weren't those genetics passed on to us? :P