Good Will (Room) Hunting

My first few days here were pretty hectic. I can feel the compression and tightness, it's not sheer pressure. (At the point when I edit this post in my 4th week here, the pimples are breaking out like mushrooms after the rain on my pretty-boy face T_T)

From the moment I set my foot on Singapore's soil (9th Jan), I'd been hunting for a place to stay. Although I can put up at Shih Tak's place temporarily, but eventually I would need to get a place of my own, soon.

The first room that caught my attention was located at Clementi, priced at $310/month. I contacted the advertiser and hurried over with Shih Tak that evening itself as the market in Singapore is god damn competitive (Now you see it, now you don't.). True enough, there was already someone in the flat negotiating with the landlady. This is the first time I realized that the property owners here actually have the luxury to interview and select the tenants. After the viewing, the landlady took down my contact number and asked some questions like whether I could commit to a 2-year contract and if I am okay to stay in the same flat with another married couple. (Then something really stupid happened. Sometimes, it just doesn't pay to be honest. 做人不可以太老实啊!) Anyway, I don't really like the condition of the room despite the fact that it's cheap as one glance at the room, it's spacious but somewhat old and dim.

The owner of the second room (also at Clementi) I went for viewing is a very warm, passionate and accomodating young staff in NUS. Though the rental is quite expensive for me and I didn't settle for the room, we became friends. Every now and then, I would bounce into him while having breakfast and we will chat almost on anything and this lightens up my day.

Registration Day on the Jan 10 is smooth-going. The schedule stated that the registration will start only at 9am, but when I reached at half past eight in the morning, it had already commenced and there was this queue formed by multi-national students. This is so called SRT (Singapore Rubber Time) is different from the MRT (Malaysia Rubber Time). One always start ahead of schedule and the latter, later:p Within 15 mins and the registration was completed, got my student package, student card, scholarship contract, and submitted my bank account details to the finance department. Efficient!

After 3 tiring weekdays in the new environment, I went back to Kluang for the weekend, still unable to secure a place to stay. My dad just said," 船到桥头自然直." which meant everything will take its own course naturally when the time is up and assured me not to worry too much. And guess what, miraculously, that Sunday morning itself, I browsed through the off-campus accomodation site in the NUS intranet, called an owner for an appointment, rushed back to Singapore for the meet up and voila, I got a room in Dover with a reasonable price, 5 mins walking distance to school. Good deal, huh:)