For My Second Act of Civil Disobedience...

...I read a book in Borders and didn't buy it!  (For those who are wondering, it was Kurt Vonnegut's "A Man Without A Country" and an interesting read.)

I have spent my first few days getting to know the layout of the city.  I feel pretty comfortable getting around and I have explored much of what Singapore has to offer in this short time.  (I have already hit up the Singapore Art Museum, and the Asian Civilization Museum--for those archeologists/anthropologists in the crowd, this one was particularly good.)  Today I met up with Ravi, a native Singaporean who happens to be a good friend from college, and he gave me a tour of Singapore via car, and it was great to hear his historical commentary.  He was also kind enough to drive me to the Tisch Campus where I got my first glimpse at campus.

Subtle observations:

Aesthetically, I like Singapore.  I love the architecture of the city:  it's a very modern city, and no two buildings look the same but it still has some old-world charm:  you know how much I love that kind of juxtaposition.  But the amount of shopping malls is enough to drive me mad; it's a hard city to walk through, so you often have to go through underpasses or overpasses that take you through miles and miles of shopping malls.  It's a very consumer-oriented society. And there are always "deals" and the "deals" are always changing.  The verdict's still out on if I'm going to like living here or not...but I guess it'll help to have a place to live before I can accurately make that assessment.

-At lunch the other day, I bought a soda to take with me, so they got out two plastic bags, put ice in one plastic bag, poured the soda in the bag with ice, which was in the second plastic bag, put a straw in and closed it up.  I literally was drinking out of a bag!

-The MRT Stations:  Wow.  Incredibly easy to use, the MRTs are air conditioned AND the stations have marble benches and marble floors.

-in some places, the escalators don't start moving until you approach them.  woah.

-at the movies, they give you a ticket with an actual seat number.  and you can get sweet corn as a snack (as in, what you'd get off of corn on the cob).  it was yummy.  I went to the movies to see Journey to the Center of the Earth, you know, because all the hype regarding the 3D movie!  Except the catch was, they didn't show it in 3D.  It was still entertaining...