Tag: shivaniinsingapore

By shivaniinsingapore

On Wednesday, November 7th, my exchange friends and I watched the election results from a TV lounge inside one of our residential halls. In all, there were fifteen of us from five different countries. Since Singapore is thirteen hours ahead of the US, we all met up around 9 AM to watch the news reports as the polls closed.

When most of the news networks announced  that President Obama had won, my friends were all extremely happy. Several of my Singaporean friends also were excited about the results of the election. However, what I found most interesting was the fact that people were willing to skip classes and tutorials to watch the results with us.

Most of my friends were extremely curious to figure out how elections work in the US in terms of how the electoral college works, as well as what it means to be a majority in the House and Senate. Thus, a lot of the American students spent a majority of the morning explaining our political system, as well as how checks and balances work. ...continue reading "Election Results"

By shivaniinsingapore

Everyone always jokes that there are only two favorite hobbies of Singaporeans: eating and shopping. It comes as no surprise then that Singapore has a very unique culinary culture.
Food in Singapore can range from very expensive ($20+ Singapore) to extremely cheap ($3-$4 Singapore). The cheaper places tend to be located in these places called Hawker Centres. Hawker Centres are known for serving very traditional foods of Singapore, along with other local Southeast Asian dishes. They serve anything from Singapore's very own specialties  such as Chicken Rice and Chili Crab, to authentic Indian food, all for a mere $3-$4 per dish. Some of these Hawker Centres are even open 24 hours! The way a hawker centre works is that you simply walk up to a stall that seems to offer what you are looking for, order your food, and wait a couple of minutes for them to prepare it. If you'd like a drink or even dessert, you would have to go to a different stall that is especially for either drinks or desserts. ...continue reading "Food in Singapore: The brief synopsis"

By shivaniinsingapore

This past week, I had the opportunity to visit the 800 + year old temples of Angkor Wat, situated near Siem Reap, Cambodia.

My friend and I arrived in Siem Reap on a Tuesday night and took a cab to the hotel; after we put our bags down, we headed straight back outside to go visit the Night Market. We got a Tuk-Tuk driver (tuk-tuks are this form of transportation that has a motorcycle or moped attached to a type of carriage in which passengers can sit). In Cambodia, there are no meters- you have to negotiate the price before you travel. Our tuk tuk cost us about $2 US for four people to go to the Night Market. I also should probably mention that the unofficial currency in Cambodia is the US dollar, and that there are ATM machines that dispense US currency (they do not, however, accept change!) The Night Market was intense; there were tons of small shops selling almost identical merchandise: cotton printed pants, Cambodian silk scarves, jade Buddhas, and temple artwork. The market was packed, and each shopkeeper would try to grab our attention by saying, "Hello lady!" We decided to hold off on the shopping until Thursday, and kept walking. We got dinner on a well-known street called Pub Street; my friends got a traditional Khmer barbeque, in which the waiters placed a makeshift grill on the center of our table and provided them with 5 different types of raw meat: beef, snake, crocodile, kangaroo and shrimp. It was up to my friends to cook everything properly and eat it. I, on the other hand, had Cambodian rice, which was very good! Our meal was very cheap too (I paid about $3 for everything)!

...continue reading "Chum reap suor Cambodia!"

By shivaniinsingapore

My classmates at NUS are fairly different than my classmates back home...their typical lives differ vastly than what I am used to in many ways.

The first difference I noticed was that these students appear to study MUCH more than what I am used to. The students in some of my classes can be seen at the library reading and sometimes re-reading the required texts/articles. When asked why they re-read assigned readings, I was told something interesting. I was told that since these classes are based on a bell-curve, only a couple of students can obtain the top mark of an A+. Thus, a lot of the students spend countless hours trying to practice memorizing the readings and create their own conclusions in hopes of being able to obtain a great grade. I, however, have never re-read a textbook unless I was studying for an exam and did not understand some of the material. I noticed that some of the students are used to memorizing texts rather than applying and understanding the significance behind some of the readings. After discussion with some local students, I found out that they have been raised to memorize. Their college entrance exams, called the A-Levels, apparently require some level of memorization. One local student mentioned that having a great memory would secure a very good grade on the exam. Overall, there are far fewer essays/assignments in my classes here than back home, but the weekly discussions in tutorials or in classes require great understanding of the readings.

...continue reading "Life as a Singaporean Student"