"Heaven Sent"osa Island

One brilliant afternoon in "Lu" of class, Professor Lu and Professor Zhou took us to Sentosa Island, which is a small island off of Singapore with museums, parks, beaches, and other attractions. We arrived around 3 pm and went through the "Images of Singapore" museum, which was a history museum with wax figures and displays - pretty cool, except I opened a door that said "Toilet" to use the bathroom, and there was a wax man inside! Ahhhhh! Very funny. Singapore is an incredibly diverse place and is so funny in delivering messages to people. English is almost always used, and it's extremely clear and basic. Probably because it's everyone's second language, although the only language they can use to communicate. Throughout the museum you'd see murals with really happy children jumping and pointing your way through the building with words like "This way to the end!" or "It's not over yet!!" - I've also noticed that communication in Singapore is geared towards getting everyone excited about its diverse, family-oriented culture. Like a typical advertisement is an excited kid with his dad or something. It would probably be funny to y'all at home because the only advertisements we see in the U.S. about Asia are the poor children who need nourishment.
That brings me to another point: Asians aren't starving - there is a lot of food! And you better believe that people like to eat. I guess they stay so small because they eat noodle bowls and rice with vegetables all day. This is good for me except rice has permanently expanded my stomach. :-) We ate well at Sentosa Island - chicken nuggets and fries. (We're such "damn Americans"!)
Continuing on Sentosa Island... after the museum our obligations to class and the professors were over, so we split up and proceeded to tear up the island! Jennifer, Karinna, and I went to Underwater World, which was a neat aquarium... we saw a fish that resembled a mermaid, and we thought maybe that westerners made up mermaids after seeing this in Asia for the first time and not knowing what it was? It's a theory. Anyway then we met up with another group to watch a dolphin show. The dolphins were pink and cute and so fun to watch! I'd never seen a show before. We met the whole group at a beach bar next to the water and some of us ventured across a bridge to the Southernmost Point in Continental Asia, which was a right next to the bar. The above picture is taken from this bridge... I like this photo so much that I think I'm going to submit it to the Study Abroad photo contest at Tech!
And the best part comes next: a few of us caught the Musical Fountain Laser Show right at dusk... wow! The fountain is overlooked by a huge Merlion statue, the symbol of Singapore - that was neat too. Not only was the fountain incredible, but the lasers were so technologically advanced and actually used the water as its backdrop. I was so entertained. To top the night off, our group decided to take the Skybuckets back to Singapore. My friend Patrick made us feel great by telling us that our spines would snap if the bucket fell into the water, but we wouldn't die.
After our upscale cab ride home and adventures coming to a close for the day, I did what I do almost every night: crash hard! What a great day in Singapore.