Singapore and Project Hope

Hey everyone,
Just thought I'd give you a quick synopsis about my time in Singapore. After check-in on Friday, which took quite some time, (it was definitely organised chaos!), we met some of the other PH volunteers in the group and we learned about our berthing assignments. It's really not that bad because in all honestly we don't spend much time there (except to sleep and shower).
We were placed on liberty until 0200 July 5th. This gave us time (which we had not initially anticipated) to explore Singapore, and that we did. We took full advantage of the Metro system (which is amazing here) and the bus system and the tram system, and of the kindness of the locals! Singapore is a pretty easy city to navigate and we hit all the major spots that everyone in our little group wanted to see as well as enjoyed a great variety of their culinary delights. Though I must add, we did not always know what we were ordering! They almost always were amazing dishes.
We even took a ride on the Singapore Flyer which allowed us to enjoy and amazing view of the city.
One thing we are learning about ship life is that when the mess hall is open, you better go eat! Even if not hungry!
When we leave the ship we have to sign in and out and wait for permission to leave the ship. Sometimes we get saluted (that's pretty neat) and otherwise we just get told "permission granted".
Anyways, we should have internet access on the ship tomorrow. So I will write more and add more pictures once I organise the ones I have taken already.

The picture above is of some of the PH Volunteers as we set off to explore the city on Saturday morning

These are our sleeping arrangements. there are 100 to a roomSingapore is a very CLEAN city and the fines are pretty steep for any offense committed.
We had to be conscious of not chewing gum and of not keeping our hands in our pockets!

Dawn and I at check-in. We were really tired here (note only 3-4hrs of sleep)

Our first glimpse of the USNS Mercy!

Tomorrow morning we set sail for Indonesia. And we muster (meet with our departments) at 0630. That means we really have to get some sleep
until later....