Okay, so this is probably going to be a pretty short post, as it’s pretty late now, and I need to go to sleep very soon.
Anyways, today 5 things happened, basically:
- I registered at the Global Lounge, so that I get my student card, which is a combined visa, student card and public transport system card.
- I bought a SIM card for my phone, so that I finally have internet. It cost me S$15, and it’s got pretty good deals that can be purchased for extra money, as well. Also, around this time, me and my friend Vasillis met a norwegian girl, with whom we ate lunch later. Her and a swedish girl from Lund, and an italian girl who was friends with the norwegian. I will try to keep this spontaneous networking up!
- I tried to get my way around the course registration system. Trust me, this is a serious IQ test. There is alot of struggles trying to pick out courses to read for the coming semester, as one has to first look up the course, then its dependent courses, and then its schedule… all without having any interactive links between the courses. This will seriously take alot of time, and I have thought about two approaches to this: 3.1 Make a list of all the courses, and rank them based on their schedules. Also, take into consideration the fact that you have to read at least 3 courses that are related to your master’s programme back at home. 3.2 Network your way through much of the process. Instead of trying to look up all courses online, try to look around on campus with other people if there is any interesting course you haven’t heard about. It is otherwise pretty hard to know which courses that are available, other than computer science courses.
- I went for a run and checked out the sports center. The run was 2-3 km longer than I wanted it to be, so I got all dizzy towards the end of it. Good luck I got to the sports center towards the end of the run, because there I met a very talk-friendly administrator who gave me all sorts of information on which sports are going to be available. I found out that I can, among other things, do water polo, kayak polo, diving, running and also a life saving course (I guess something like baywatch). Yeah, you’ve probably already figured it out; we had this conversation by a pool.
- I went outside the campus with the group of friends I made yesterday. We ate some bad dinner at a food court, and then we bought some beer to take back home with us. Then there was a pretty far walk to the nearest MRT station, where we charge our student cards with money for their public transport system. Waiting for ages on the bus, I impressed with my Consuela voice (Family guy). Lastly, we hung out with the beer in a lounge on one of the roofs in my building.
So many things to do, and I am constantly looking for more. I plan on sleeping ca 6 hours/night these first weeks, as I need to fix my schedule + networking + sports + get accustomed to the country/culture/people/Asia. I also need to set aside some time every day to plan ahead for things I want to do, as well as set goals for where my networking ability should be at (i.e. achievements I have made with networking). For example, one goal I have set now is to get invited to a rooftop party in the city center of Singapore. I will keep on making these benchmark goals. Hopefully, something quite nice will come out of it, and I hope to bring these skills back with me home.
Anyways, it’s getting late, and I really want to sleep now. Turns out this post got quite long anyways. Better for anyone who reads this blog, I guess. Oh, also, I have to update the code for this blog regularly. That’s another goal. Furthermore, I will try to post more photos soon.
Good night!