Intro

Hello my name is Amina Pratt and I am a rising senior majoring in biotechnology and am currently studying abroad in Ghana where I will be interning at a local women’s organization. I arrived in Accra, Ghana on May 20th around 8:30 pm. As soon as I stepped off the plane, and I mean stepped off like took the stairs, I was greeted by the heat and humidity of a country that experiences a relatively “tropical climate”. After waiting for 5 hours, ok it was more like 1 hour but it felt longer, we finally made it through customs gathered our belongings, met up with our professor and went to dinner.

Dinner was interesting to say the least; because it was so late the restaurant didn’t have a lot of options that were still available, so I ended up getting Chinese food. Yes Chinese food, there is actually a lot of that here and it wasn’t half bad. After the restaurant our professor revealed to us that we would not be staying at the location we originally thought and would be living in a bungalow…. whatever that is.

When we arrived at the house we realized that a bungalow basically meant a ranch house, Oh yeah and they were fixing the drains outside our house, which meant we had to walk a plank... Yep a plank and carry our luggage on it just to get into our house, this was definitely an interesting experience.

After finally getting inside the house we all took a look around, picked our rooms and then realized that we had no air conditioning, we definitely would not be living in the lap of luxury but at least we have fans. Overall Ghana isn’t so bad if you can get use to the random black outs, the bugs and lizards then come on over Lol.

P.S. I’m sorry for the delay but we don’t have internet in our house and I only have access at my internship. and this is the path leading to our house. 

Ah yes, the beaten track...

So I have been in Singapore for a couple days and the weather is hot, hazy, and humid. Walking outside is like walking into a wall...a wall of stickiness and sweat. It is, in fact, so hot that I have become emotionally involved with my air conditioning unit. Okay, I'm kidding, but even the locals complain about the heat!

In addition to the heat, thunderstorms are common. They are about as common as finding Starbucks walking down the street back home, though much less popular. Unfortunately, they do not appear to take away from the heat and only add to the humidity. A lot of the people I've talked to have unanimously agreed that the weather is the worst thing about Singapore.

On to more interesting things though: I have started my internship. Amidst the piles of journal articles and lab equipment though, I realized I needed supplies. No, not pipettes and the list of chemicals from the back of the orgo text book. I needed things like 2-ply and soap. So I asked some co-workers to point me in the direction of the nearest supermarket. Note: I did not ask for directions to get to the supermarket, I am incredibly talented at getting lost with or without instructions. Also, according to my post-doc buddy, being a married guy, he doesn't have to know where to get groceries. Lucky guy.

So, I began walking until I came upon a field. Now, I have been encouraged at points in my life to step off the beaten track. That forging a new road would be rewarding and fresh. Well, someone beat me to it... 

Now as far as tracks go, I'd say this one looked quite beaten down. It was also, well lets say, moist, it was very moist. Also, it was filled with snakes.

Now I apologize, I don't have any pictures of the snake that hissed and lunged at me. My fight or flight response does not have a “take picture of offending threat” option included. I don't think that would've have been evolutionarily beneficial either. Talking to a co-worker later, it seems that the snakes in Singapore are somewhat common and usually aggressive. Hopefully they're mostly ferocious garden snakes. A little ways further...

An example of how cross-cultural this country is.

Finally...

Ah the familiar stinky sock smell of durian that accompanies nearly all Chinese grocery stores. And to the victor goes the spoils! Also, green bread!

Apparently pandan is a plant that produces the chemical that gives white bread its distinct aroma. Adding it to bread seems a bit redundant I think, but hey! Green bread! Now if only I had some green eggs and ham...

Oh, also, there was a train station around the corner...doh!

Ah yes, introductions...

Hello! My name is Andrew Tang. Since my last name is a whole syllable shorter, most people just call me Tang. I'm a Biotech major at Rutgers University and am working in Singapore this summer. Due to some firm convincing from the Rutgers Study Abroad office, this blog will be dedicated to my experience abroad, rather than, I dunno, cats or something.

Anyways, I have pretty much just gotten to Singapore. As such, I haven't been able to see much. So, this first post will now be dedicated to the journey over:

I took 2 planes to get here for a combined 24 hours in the air. Now a small discussion about air travel:

I have a small fear of airplanes. Some people would say that this fear is irrational. I would disagree. I see nothing irrational with being uncomfortable being trapped in metal coffin 30,000 feet in the air. Emergency exit procedure at 30,000 feet? Illusion of safety (as you can tell, I hate flying).


So 24 hours in the air is a long time. A full day moves pretty quickly when you're on the ground. In the air though, it's a different story. I watched a movie and 4 tv shows, read a bit, and took a nap. Then I transferred flights...

At this point, I was quite nauseous. I also found out that security at London airport gets suspicious of people stumbling about and falling asleep with a black bag in the airport gates. After a small incident I was on the next flight, where I had to endure a baby crying for 13 continuous hours. I also discovered that I was the only person on the flight with any knowledge of Spanish. Mind you, I wouldn't say I'm competent with the Spanish language, more like competent enough to function in Taco Bell. Anyways, despite my painfully bad command of the language, I managed to help an elderly Spanish lady through immigration. Saving the world one lost soul at a time!

And that's how I got here. Now, pardon me as I attempt to stave off the horrible jet lag...but I will leave you with this

Oops, that's about cats...

P.S. Because my command of the English language is only marginally better than my command of the Spanish language, my wonderful girlfriend back home will be editing these posts, so you'll have her to thank for any sense of coherence =]