I didn't start panicking about moving away until the day before I was about to leave. I turned to my cousin Ntanya and said, "OK, I am officially really nervous." It was the first moment of real doubt and fear I have had about the whole thing. As I said my goodbyes Ayoka whispered in my ear, you got this, you can do this and that was exactly what I needed to hear to get me on the damn plane. This is what I have wanted to do for so long so just suck it up and do it! Once I got on the plane, I treated the trip like any other plane trip so I wouldn't freak myself out too much. I continued to have this same strategy for the days that followed. Every day when I wake up I make a miscellaneous list of things I need to get done for myself. Today, I had a shopping list; get mouthwash and facial wash and universal chargers. There something about checking off these simple items off my list that give me a sense of accomplishment. Because my life is in such flux and in such uncertainty right now I guess it’s nice to be able to handle the mundane things.
The first thing I
did when I got here was go to the school and meet up with a few of my
classmates. I met about 20 people and can't remember any of their names.
I hung out with a lot of them for the remainder of the evening. I started
to feel fatigued and jet lagged by dinner time and I managed to stay up until
8pm. I still feel like I am just
visiting and not living here but I guess that will change when I get my own
place.
The
housing process requires much patience on my part. I don't have a
roommate yet and I still need to set up a Singapore Bank Account, but it’s the
logistics of still needed to get my atm card that is the huge drawback at this
point. I keep reminding myself I just got here a few days ago and I really
need to just give myself a break. Reaching out to my fellow classmates has been
very valuable and something that helps put things in perspective, because we
are all pretty much in the same boat.
Today
was the most fun I have had here so far. Invited Eduardo, a guy I hung
out with the day before, to dinner that evening. Throughout the day I
met up with other people and told a number of people about the dinner and
Bumsue also decided to come. We both waited for Eduardo to come, but who ended
up showing up was Eric. Apparently when both Eric and Eduardo called me
to give me their phone numbers the night before I mixed up the two numbers in
my phone, so when I originally text Eduardo, I was really texting Eric.
Because Bumsue was expecting Edward I couldn't really play it off so I
had to tell both of them what I had done. We all got a really good laugh
about it and I explained that this situation was just an example of the many
situations that ends up happening to me. Despite the awkward Martinaism
moment, we had a fun time at dinner and decided to go see the fireworks
downtown for Singapore’s National Day Festival. It was my first time
downtown to get a good look at the amazing architecture and famous buildings
Singapore is most known for. It was a good night!
I
am not sure how I feel about Singapore yet and I'm not sure how I feel about
living here. However, I can say that I
am excited to be in this program with a number of really talented people who
share the same passion as I do for film. I knew that coming into this
program I would encounter people much younger than myself, but I also knew they
would be teaching me as many things as I would be able to teach them.
That is exciting and I look forward to working with these students.
The idea of being able to just create a body of work that represents my
point of view is utterly exciting.
