shellytakessingapore – GW Blogs from Abroad

It’s not a goodbye, it’s a see you later

AdminMay 7, 2018December 17, 2018

It was a sunny day when my plane was descending from an eight hour flight from Doha International Airport into Singapore's Changi International Airport. As I looked out the left window, I could see the famous boat like structure on top of Marina Bay Sands, the Singapore Flyer Ferris Wheel, and even the Supertrees. When the plane finally touched the ground and came to a stop, my first thought was "This is it. I'm actually here".

I didn't think that these past five months would have gone by as quickly as they did. There were certainly dull times throughout the semester where the days went by and all I had done was stay in my room and do some work. However, as I have to come to learn, studying abroad doesn't necessarily mean doing something new every moment. Often times people studying abroad say they have been enlightened or have changed as a person. While I can't necessarily say that I have changed, I have learned a lot more about the world through the lens of the locals in Singapore and the countries I have visited. I have enjoyed having meaningful conversations with my fellow exchangers about their home countries and how their culture is similar and different from my own.

Looking back on my semester, I don't have many, if any, regrets. There are some things that I wish I had known before coming to Singapore. These things include basic things like sunscreen (it costs so much here!), an umbrella (despite all of the sun, it rains at any given moment in Singapore), and also general assumptions such as spending. While the food in Singapore is cheap, I have found myself being constantly low in cash. Singapore is mostly a cash based economy. The country is moving towards being cashless by encouraging people to pay with NETS, the Network for Electronic Transfers. NETs is a national electronic payment system that is owned by banks in Singapore including DBS, OCBC, and UOB.

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Biting the Bullet: Discussions about gun control

AdminMarch 26, 2018December 14, 2018

By shellytakessingapore

On December 12, 2012, I was sitting on the bus with two of my friends going back home from school in sophomore year when I first heard about the Sandy Hook shooting. One of my friends vaguely told me that there had been a school shooting that day. In that moment, I didn't know much about what had happened and assumed it had meant one or two people had been shot by the police on school grounds. As I watched the news and learned about the age of the children, the number of victims, and other details of the atrocity, my mind went blank. Why would anyone do such a thing and how was it possible for the perpetrator to acquire these guns? Instead of receiving assurance from the leader of our country, I watched as President Obama cried on national television and pleaded to Congress for reform on gun laws. There was no way that Congress was going to sit back and not implement serious change regarding gun control. There would be justice for the 28 lives lost on that fateful day in December.

Six years later, the list of mass shootings has only increased to include the Las Vegas shooting, the Orlando nightclub shooting, Sutherland Springs church shooting and, now, the Parkland, Florida shooting. For all of the shootings besides the most recent one, my friends and I would watch our representatives send their "thoughts and prayers" instead of acting and providing productive results. We would argue with each other on social media on our opinions of the second amendment and angrily watch as members of Congress did the same. This time, I am out of the country and on the opposite side of the world where I am surrounded by students from almost every nation. This time, my discussions include topics like the gun laws and shooting statistics in other nations. While talking to a local Singaporean friend about the shooting, I learned that few to no Singaporeans own guns. Singapore has some of the toughest laws in the world regarding gun possession. All gun owners need licenses which can easily be denies by the licensing officers. Any illegal possession of guns and ammunition can result in harsh punishments including imprisonment and/or caning.

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Recess Week! (Part 2)

AdminMarch 19, 2018December 14, 2018

By shellytakessingapore

"We're finally here!" my friends and I said as we sighed with relief and disembarked from the train. The ride from Ninh Binh to Hue, the third destination on our trip in Vietnam, was a gruesome 14 hours long. After setting our belongings down in the hotel and freshening up, we went out to explore the Imperial City of Hue. Located in the central portion of Vietnam, Hue was home to the Nguyen emperors and briefly the capital of the country. My friends and I walked along the busy streets to the Citadel, a declared UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was amazing to roam the same hallways that emperors from the past. Hue also has dozens of charming coffee shops and restaurants that serve dishes from all around the world including American, French, and Italian. One of my best meals in Vietnam was a curry chicken and rice dish during a friend's birthday celebration dinner in Hue. Unfortunately, our visit in Hue lasted for a day as we had a bus ride to Mui Ne the next morning.

Apparently my friends and I really enjoy sitting in the same space for dozens of hours because after spending 14 hours in a train to Hue, we embarked on a 23 hour journey in a bus to Mui Ne. To keep ourselves busy we played card games, took multiple naps, and told each other scary stories in the night. Luckily, we were in a sleeper bus which meant that the seats reclined almost all the way down. Along the journey, we stopped at a city called Da Nang around 5am and had to switch buses. However, the second bus took over two hours to arrive which meant I saw the sun rise as I waited. The wait was not too horrible as I discovered we were one street away from the beach and saw the sun rise from there. Eventually, we reached Mui Ne and found our lodging consisted of several huts that had mattresses on the floor. Unlike the other destinations in Vietnam, Mui Ne has a unique geography. It consists of both beaches conducive to fishing and sand dunes similar to those found in a desert. Often times, Airbnbs in Vietnam will either provide tours for guests; we took a three hour tour through several different attractions. The first place we went to on our tour was the Fairy Stream, a light stream of water that flows through the sand dunes. The second location we went to was the fishing village where we saw the boats from the edge of a cliff that overlooked the South China Sea. The last two locations were white and red sand dunes where my friends and I rode a jeep up and down the steep dunes. We also rented plastic boards to slide down the dunes.

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Keeping Up With Shelly

AdminMarch 19, 2018December 14, 2018

By shellytakessingapore

It's 7am. The sun is starting to peep through the apartment buildings that were glistening with lights across the park just a few hours ago. You wake up two hours earlier than expected and pull down the blinds to go back to sleeping blissfully in the dark. However, being on the 15th floor of UTown Residence Hall and having nothing but a single fan and the fresh air from opening windows to keep cool, the environment around you quickly starts heating up. Your room starts becoming stuffy and suffocating and you wish you lived just a few floors below to enjoy the luxury of having an air-conditioner in your room.

Finally, at 9:15am you roll yourself out of bed and brush your teeth. The face cleanser slightly stings your eyes as you frantically try to splash water on your face using the metering push faucet. The residence hall maintenance staff had replaced the traditional double handle faucet for this more environmentally friendly faucet within the first month of your exchange. This has proved to be the most frustrating part of your dorm experience. While Fine Foods across the dorm serves Kaya toast and coffee, you are accustomed to eating cereal for breakfast. So, you grab the overpriced milk container you bought from Fair Price and pour yourself a bowl of Snowies, the local generic brand of Frosted Flakes. Sighing as you sift through the colorful shirts and pants you brought from home, you inevitably change into the pair of Thai pants you bought in Bangkok and a cotton shirt. In constant 90 degree weather, the key is lightness and comfort, not fashion. Today you have two classes: a lab for your biology class and your philosophy class on environmental ethics.

The lab starts at 10am so you sprint as the D2 bus approaches the UTown bus stop. During lab, you and the local classmates in your group review types of data collection methods for your semester project. You and your group mates joke about the monkey videos shown during class and you learn more of the Singaporean lingo. Next, you restlessly wait around for the A1 bus to arrive as your philosophy class starts 20 minutes after your lab ends. A gust of freezing air greets you as you enter the classroom and learn about Islamic environmental ethics. After finishing class at 3:30pm, you talk about the quirky professor with an exchange friend and local friend. Your local friend is deciding where to study for the summer. Why not choose Boston or D.C! However, you weren't able to convince him in time as he has decided to study at the University of Hawaii for the summer.

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Recess Week! (Part 1)

AdminMarch 13, 2018December 14, 2018

By shellytakessingapore

This past week (Feb 23rd to March 4th) was spring break at NUS. Like many exchangers, I used that time to travel to other countries. My friends and I made travel arrangements for Vietnam and Bangkok, Thailand. We had originally planned to travel through as much of Thailand and Vietnam as we could. As I have mentioned in one of my earlier posts, expectations do not match reality when it comes to traveling. We quickly realized that traveling to both countries was not feasible as we would be spreading ourselves too thin. Unfortunately, we had already booked flights for Bangkok and decided to visit the temples and night markets in the city for one day. While we were able to experience many of the main attractions Bangkok has to offer, one day simply is not enough time to truly appreciate the city. Nevertheless, my friends and I flew to the first of five cities on our itinerary: Hanoi.

Hanoi
Located in the northern half of the country, Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam. Upon exiting the airport in Hanoi, I felt like I was back in Boston. The weather is significantly colder in Hanoi than it is in Bangkok and Singapore with an average temperature of 60-65 degrees. The most memorable attraction I visited was the Hỏa Lò Prison. The Hỏa Lò Prison was used by French colonists in the early 1900s to imprison Vietnamese people and American soldiers in the Vietnam War. It was shocking and saddening to see how small and isolating the cells in the prison were. While Hanoi has numerous attractions to offer, it is more often used as a location for accommodation due to its central location in northern Vietnam. Many tourists take day trips to other regions in Vietnam including Sapa Valley, Ha Long Bay, and Ninh Binh. Due to time constraints, I was not able to visit Sapa Valley and Ha Long Bay. I know that in a future trip to Vietnam, I will make sure to explore those regions.

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Coffee: A student’s best friend

AdminFebruary 23, 2018December 14, 2018

By shellytakessingapore

Across universities, cultures, and people, college student's best friends are naps and coffee. With temperatures ranging from the mid 70s to 90s, the heat in Singapore, among several other factors, steals a lot of my energy and leaves me fatigued. To combat this issue, I have found myself taking more naps during the day than I normally do back in the States. While napping does help me regain energy, it requires staying in bed more often and takes a lot of time out of my day. Therefore, coffee has been an effective source of energy. However, I learned the hard way that the type of coffee and way of ordering coffee is not the same in Singapore as it is back home. After committing a few cultural faux pas, I believe I have mastered the proper way to order coffee in Singapore.

In Singapore, the term for coffee is the Malay word "Kopi". Kopi is a sweeter, richer version of coffee. The beans are usually roasted with butter and then brewed through a small sack made of cloth. As a substitute for fresh milk, Kopi is served with condensed milk which adds an additional sweetness to the drink. When I had my first cup of Kopi, I immediately noticed how it was much sweeter and thicker than coffee that I was accustomed to. However, for those who enjoy a less sugary cup of coffee, Kopi can be modified to several different versions. The two most common versions of Kopi are Kopi O and Kopi C. Kopi O is served without milk and with sugar. Kopi C is served with unsweetened condensed milk and no sugar. Kopi is also very cheap in Singapore and costs SGD$0.80 (USD $0.60) for one cup. It is often served with toast that has a coconut jam spread called kaya. Just as the java jacket protects you from burning your hands from the hot coffee, a small plastic bag is wrapped around the coffee and allows you to carry it without holding the cup (please refer to attached picture).

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The Truth About Abroad While Abroad

AdminFebruary 20, 2018December 14, 2018

By shellytakessingapore

In my previous post, I mentioned ways to get around Singapore. However, another important component of the study abroad experience includes traveling to nearby countries and exploring other cultures as well. Often times, friends will post their crusades in other countries on social media. While the pictures seem to portray simple, fun adventures, what isn't shown are the numerous hours pouring over details about flights, lodging, activities, and meals.

Even before arriving in Singapore, I had a vague idea of other countries I wanted to travel to visit while studying abroad. This list included countries such as: Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Laos. As days turned into weeks and I continued to remain in Singapore, my anxiety about traveling increased. I had created an unreasonably high expectation for myself regarding traveling. For me, studying abroad meant doing something new everyday and exploring new countries every weekend. However, the reality is far from this idealized theory. Below I have listed some myths that I believe people have about traveling to other countries.

Myth 1: Everyone's schedules will align perfectly.
The experience of traveling to other countries is enhanced when friends join along and explore together. In an ideal world, all of the friends that one makes while studying abroad have the same class schedule. This schedule would consist of classes from Tuesday to Thursday so that Friday to Monday can be dedicated to traveling. Unfortunately, this is often not the case. On my trip, I have friends whose classes end around 6pm on Friday. I, myself, have classes on Mondays that start at 12pm. Moreover, the situation becomes even more nuanced when more people are factored in. While it can be frustrating to have to limit traveling to certain days throughout the weekend, it is important to be flexible and accommodate everyone. A benefit of traveling with a group of friends as opposed to traveling alone is that you can feel safer in an unfamiliar place.

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