Tag: Shavani

By shivaniinsingapore

I officially left Singapore for winter break on December 3rd and have been in Gujarat, India since then. I don't think a single blog post could accurately describe how amazing this experience has been thus far. Looking back on my first semester study abroad experience, I can honestly say I would not have learned as much as I did by staying in the states. By 'learned', I am not referring to things textbooks can teach you, but rather about life experiences and cultural experiences.

While studying in Singapore, I had the opportunity to meet people from all over the world. I had friends from Australia, Sweden, China, Canada, France and of course, locals from Singapore and the US. The hardest part of finishing up my semester was saying bye to all these wonderful people I had met. I'm unfortunately the only one from my groups of friends that is returning next semester, but am looking forward to all the new people I will get to meet next semester. Additionally, I am planning a trip to Australia to meet up with my friends from Melbourne that I met this semester. ...continue reading "Goodbye (for now) Singapore!"

By shivaniinsingapore

Finals are over! I left Singapore last week, on the 3^rd of December. It was a rather difficult process saying bye to all the new friends I made while studying abroad. I will miss each and every one of them greatly and hope I will be able to meet them either in their home countries or in the US sometime in the future. The other difficult part of wrapping up my study abroad process was packing- I did not realize how many things I managed to accumulate over the semester! Although I will be returning to NUS in January, I had to pack up my whole room and place things in storage because of their housing policies. ...continue reading "Hello India!"

By shivaniinsingapore

I'm currently in the middle of finals at NUS, so I figured it probably would be fitting to talk about how academics at NUS work. Through discussion with  local students, I found out that NUS is an extremely competitive school. Students that wishes to attend NUS has to take competitive exams known as A-levels that basically determine if one can get admission to the university and what faculty (medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, law, arts and sciences, business etc.) they may enter. Apparently, top scorers on A-levels who are also well-rounded in terms of extra-curricular activities may potentially gain acceptance to medicine/law/dentistry (which are considered to be top faculties by some of the locals I talked to). ...continue reading "Academics at NUS"

By shivaniinsingapore

When people find out that I'm studying abroad for an entire year, they always joke about how I get a "year-long vacation". However, I don't think that's the best description for it...I've learned so much in the past four months. I also don't think any text book or travel channel could teach me the valuable lessons I've learned while in Singapore. Three ways that studying abroad has helped me is through adaptability, self-sufficiency and self-reliance. ...continue reading "What I learned from studying abroad"

By shivaniinsingapore

Even though I am across the world, I, along with my friends here, will be watching the election results just like we have been doing for each debate. Although we are twelve (now thirteen) hours ahead because of daylight savings time, we all manage to somehow find time and watch the debates together. This coming Wednesday, we all have decided to watch the election results in real time, so that means we will have to meet up in the morning time. ...continue reading "Election Time!"

By shivaniinsingapore

I had the opportunity to hear the song Gangnam Style in August. It was extremely popular amongst some of the local students at NUS. I heard it while in my theatre class and was taught the dance. I personally like the song because of its beat and fun dance moves.While this song is not sung by a Singaporean, it still is played numerous times throughout the day on the radio. Gangnam style, for those not familiar with the song, is written by a Korean rapper who goes by the name Psy. It is accompanied by a distinct set of dance moves. The lyrics of the song basically are talking about the Gangnam district of South Korea, where apparently people who live there have lavish lifestyles. The video to this song can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0 ...continue reading "Oppan Gangnam Style!"

By shivaniinsingapore

One of the best things about Singapore is its public transit. One can literally get from one end of Singapore to the other within the time frame of an hour and a half to two hours. The public transit system here is referred to as the MRT, and to use it, you must have an EZ-Link card (identical to a SmarTrip). There are four basic lines: the Circle line (this is the line that contains the stop for NUS called Kent Ridge) , the Northeast Line (this line has Chinatown and Little India on it), the North-South Line (this line contains a major shopping district called Orchard Road, as well as "downtown" Singapore, known as Marina Bay), and finally, the East-West Line (this line contains mainly residential areas, as well as one of the largest street markets for shopping). You may only have a minimum balance of 3 Singapore dollars (SGD) before the system forces you to add a minimum of $10 SGD; traveling on the MRT usually costs anywhere from $1-$2 SGD one way.

...continue reading "Singapore’s Public Transit System"