The Bridge

Friday started like any other day... no... let's scratch back to start! So the day started with the orientation to the university and of course we were late like ten minutes with my roommates. But that was okay, because when we reached the classroom there was still like 50meter long line to get inside the lecture hall. First of all the lecture hall was vast and full with exchange students from all over the world sitting on benches and stairways. Actually, the things that i can remember from the orientation are like blaa "no alcohol" blaa, to do blaa, to join blaa, sports clubs, blaa "no smoking", blaa party?, blaa lets go get something to eat and then biggest applause ever! All the universities and schools here in Singapore are strict with alcohol and smoking, it's just not allowed inside the school's premises. So what's up then?

The first thing you have to know and will learn to know about Singapore as an exchange student is "the Bridge". Is the place for all the exchange students to hangout, hold a pre-party or gathering before hitting the clubs. The Bridge is an actually bridge and it's located in the Clarke Quay area. The Bridge is a gateway to a vast amount of clubs on the other side. Beside the Bridge you can find a 24/7 open 7-11 shop thats sell also alcohol for a more reasonable price than the clubs. Usually in a club a beer is around 15S$~10€. So we aren't hitting the clubs so often (I'll be saving money for traveling). Every week there is some special nights like Ladies night that will blow your tiny little mind. We'll get on to that later. But you should keep in mind that the 7-11 beside the Bridge is more expensive than other shops anywhere else (but it's still cheaper than in clubs).

As I have told you previously I'm starting to be like a little bit of a tour guide here. And now it's true, I'm an arranger for events like gatherings, pre-parties and abroad trips. And I've actually been added as an admin to a NUS Exchange Student 2011 Facebook group where we keep all our stuff in order and everything for people to see and participate. At the time of the first planned  gathering on friday 29th of the July we had already managed to grow the size of the group to a 450 exchange student. We are a non-profit social group (travel + parties + chill-out/chat + etc.) mainly for the exchange students attending NUS in 2011 or inters in Singapore for social cohesion activities. We want to bring different people from different countries together in a relaxed and fun local or overseas setting.

So on thursday we announced a planned get-together gathering for new exchange students that would take place on friday. Because almost everyone was new to the Singapore we arranged a gathering in UTown between the GR towers. There we told everyone how to get to the Bridge either by taking a taxi in a groups of four or by heading with a bus to closest MRT station. Either way, from there everyone went to the Bridge. The first gathering was just all about making new friends! We wanted to arrange the gathering on the Bridge and not in any club due to the reason that you actually can't talk inside the clubs can't you? It's just too loud for chatting and making new friends. The Bridge was a success, there were around 60-70 exchange students chatting and getting to know each other.

I stayed at the Bridge till there were no one else there cause we had to take care of everyone. After everyone had left we then took a cap with my local friend and left to get some food from a still open food court in Commonwealth. Around 4am I was home and started planning for the saturday (actually I was chatting with friends back in finland which was quite nice). Around 5am a couple of my new made friends here in UTown GR found me on Facebook and asked me to come over on the balcony on story 12 of our tower... We (i, one finnish girl and one norwegian girl) were there listening music and chatting until 7am. It was that time when we noticed that the sun had already started to rise, so it was time to go to sleep and we said goodbye.