So today I wandered around campus some more and made a trip via bus and train to Arab Street. In total, the trip took about 45 minutes and cost less than a S$1.50. I had lots of time to think about some observations I have made in the past couple days and now yall get to hear them :)
This while super-strict act that Singapore has going on; For those tho door not know, there is no J-walking (crossing street w/o cross walk), spitting, chewing gum, etc etc. Some strange things. Also, vices, such as alcohol and cigarettes are heavily taxed (twice the amount you pay in the US total for them) and ANY amount of drugs is an immediate death sentence. No joke. Chris (ERAU grad who is showing me around) and I were talking, and he had an interesting idea about why they do this. I thought it was just for show, let tourists see how perfect Singapore is and they get more $$/tourism, etc. He thinks its their way of making a better society, by meaning that the government took a look at other neighboring countries and saw what problems they had, and this was their way to fix them. Interesting idea. I expected there to be stricter followers. Now, I haven't seen any drugs or drunks or litterers, but I did see a young girl chew gum on the train today which blew my mind because its illegal to BUY, POSSESS, SELL, and IMPORT gum here, so how in the world did she get it and why is she chewing it on public transportation? And this J-walking thing. You would think they would put in a little more cross-walks, but no, wrong assumption. It's very frustrating, like walking around school for instance. Many of the sidewalks are fenced in so even if you wanted to run across the street you cant. Or if you are at a 4-way intersection, you have to walk down once road to cross and down that road to cross...etc just to get to the other side of the street. They do put these zip-zag marks in the road (like shoulder markers) near cross walks so if you are temped to break the law, you can see these and know a cross-walk is near. Nobody follows this rule. On campus, everyone J-walks. And in the city too. I've seen 2 patrol cars since I've been here and they were both in tourist-central.
I saw a soldier today on the train. I've seen two sailors hanging in the city central in whites, but I got a good look at the solider during my 35 minute train ride. The uniform was the EXACT style the new AF digi's are expect they are a little more bright-green in camo color. Same patch placement, pockets, etc. Singapore in place of US, still had a name tape. His right soldier had a patch with a crossed sword and torch encircled in crssing branches with the words "to lead, to excel, to overcome" under it. The one thing that was different, was there was a long skinny patch where his would-be rank would be, which he also had none. He had a black beret in his pocket with another branch-encircled Singapore flag in it. He looked like he weighed 90 lbs and was 18. Singapore had a surprisingly large armed forces, considering its size and lack of immediate enemies. Back in the day, when it was still a colony of Britain during WWII, the Japanese reigned terror down the Malaysian peninsula, and then beat the Malay army and occupied Singapore. The Japanese secret police then began "purifying" the population of anti-Japanese supporters and ethnic Chinese people. They inflated the price of basic necessities and many many died. The US and Brits bombed Singapore in hope of sending the Japanese away, but in the end it was the atomic bombs that forces Japan to leave Singapore after surrendering.
I have to walk through a couple of car garages/parking lots to get to this particular bus stop and noticed the cars today. They are all very nice, BMW's , nice Hondas, Mercedes, and they all look brand new and are clean and shiny and defect-free. I believe these are student's cars, as the professors have their own halls on campus and keep their cars there in their personal garages, so these must be students. I guess I must be attending the wealthy school...? Speaking of professors, one of Chris' friends was telling us that if a student or anyone else is caught staying overnight in a professors hall for any reason, they will (both professor and student) have to pay the sum of $50/day for the entire time both had lived in campus (so if you were a senior, that's $50 times 4 years of school) plus lose your house plus if you are int'l, your visa will get pulled and you get deported. Harsh.
There are four languages for all signs here. English, Chinese, Malay, and Hindi. I also noticed when brushing my teeth last night and this morning that I haven't seen anyone else enter the bathroom at all. This is very odd to me. The students in the halls leave their shoes outside their doors, so I know that the dorms are full of students, since the hallway is littered with shoes. But when does everyone brush their teeth, shower? There was also nobody at breakfast this morning. I was the only one, kind of odd.
Arab street was BEAUTIFUL! There was a huge white/brown mosque right in the center and textiles galore! This is the place to go to get clothes made. They have Swiss, German, India, Malay, every kind of fabric at every kind of price, I had alot of fun browsing today! I ate at a restaurant which I later noticed had a 'C' from the sanitation department and he gave me ketchup with my Veggie fried rice...?
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