So instead of summing up what I've been up to in Singapore, I decided to change things up...
   On one of our last days in Singapore, we had free and easy time to go wherever we liked so long as we were back by 7:00 p.m. at the YMCA Metro in order to make it to the Night Safari.  So, all of us divided into groups and we went off.  My group, which consisted of 3 guys and 3 girls went to off visit Little India, Chinatown and a few Hindu and Buddhist temples in between.  We took the MRT (subway) and ONE bus to get to Little India, where we had a mid-day snack of Roti Canai, dumplings, and Naan and then we shopped around the tiny, brightly colored shops one typically visualizes when you think of India.  We were able to visit a Hindu temple during an evening prayer time where different incense could be smelt from meters away, the drone of the pungi made the scene very relaxing and the sight of many Hindus praying was beautiful.  Although some kids in our group felt uncomfortable being in the temple during a ceremony, I felt very welcomed and fascinated by all what was happening.  Back to the story now...
   Once again, we took the MRT for 2 minutes to reach Chinatown, where we visited another Hindu temple and saw a Buddhist one, shopped and ate dinner at a couple of Hawker stalls. We thought we knew where we were going so we decided that we didn't need to rush eating our dinner and rather take our time to enjoy the food.  We assumed that since it was so easy to arrive at our destinations that it would be fairly easy to make our way back.  We might of miscalculated that...

   We knew the correct bus number that would get us back, but we didn't know which direction we were supposed to take it in. Since the streets are one way, it gets fairly complicated to navigate.  We gambled on which direction we were supposed to go and we learned after 15 minutes that it was the wrong one but we could transfer over to another bus that would bring us to the correct direction that would bring us to the YMCA Metro.  But the bus driver misunderstood us and assumed we were going to the other YMCA in town and gave us directions to go to there.  Fortunately, we asked the people working at that YMCA and they gave us directions to get us back.  Panicking because we knew that we were insanely late to when we were supposed to meet up, we frantically called our leaders, but their numbers weren't working.  We were all devastated that we were late because that meant no Night Safari for us. (That didn't make the situation any more sweet.) After getting off at the wrong stop one more time and having to wait for an empty bus to pick us up, 2 hours and 30 minutes past the time that we were supposed to be back by, we arrived at the YMCA Metro to find a group of other students who were late and didn't go on the Night Safari.  But at that point, all we could do was laugh and tell our story.

What we learned from this was...
-be extra specific when asking for directions
-make sure people can understand where you need directions to
-just roll with the situation
-you learn from your mistakes (now we know what to do if we get lost in another city!)
-stay as calm as possible because it doesn't help to be frustrated and angry. It just makes the situation more tedious for others.


On another side note, we were able to go to the Night Safari the next day after we explained our idiotic night to the program directors!  So everything turned out to be just fine, if not, then better than what I expected.