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Tag: Singapore

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By shellytakessingapore

If you were to walk along the streets in UTown, the NUS equivalent to the Vern at GW, on any given day, you will find dozens of table stalls with students promoting their clubs by selling trinkets, snacks, and handing out pamphlets. Sometimes, if you're lucky, the university will give clubs the opportunity to advertise their club by hosting games such as darts, ring toss, and more. For every stall visited, students receive a sticker on a business card sized tracker sheet and after collecting six or more stickers, students can redeem the sheet and collect an additional prize.

There's almost never a reason to be bored at NUS. In addition to the weekly club fairs, the residence halls at UTown also host student friendly events each month. One such event that a fellow GW friend and I attended was called ArtJam. As we walked out of our dorm, we could hear pop music blasting in the air and dozens of people lined up to collect blank canvases and painting supplies. The purpose of the event was to relieve any stress and anxiety due to midterm exams that were happening that week. While I was fortunate to not have any midterms this semester, ArtJam provided me with an outlet to express my creativity. I designed a t-shirt for myself using green and black fabric pens and paint. I enjoyed creating my shirt so much I asked the staff hosting the event if I could have a canvas to make another painting. The staff was incredibly friendly and even offered me some snacks to eat while I painted. Despite being artistically challenged, I painted the silhouette of two women dancing against a red and gold background (see picture). NUS students, on the other hand, are talented painters who perfectly captured scenes from nature and human life. In addition to the ArtJam, the UTown Residence Hall Staff also host music jams and personal effectiveness seminars. One seminar that I attended taught public speaking skills by the Singapore World Champion of Public Speaking from the Toastmasters Competition in 2016. Throughout the session, I learned valuable skills to improve my presentation and speaking ability and had the opportunity to meet local students who live in the same hall as me. Another event held by NUS was a health screening that allowed students to get a free checkup on their body weight, blood pressure, fat percentage, and more. This information helps me to understand how healthy my body is and if there are any health areas of concern.

So how does one find out about these events? Like GW, NUS uses OrgSync to advertise events held throughout campus. All one simply has to do is sign up by clicking "I will attend" and a reminder email will be sent to the student on the day of the event. NUS also does a good job of advertising these events by putting posters up around residence hall elevators and cafeterias. The turnout for these events is quite impressive and the organization of each event is incredible. NUS boasts the best campus life and it has rightly earned that title. Next week, NUS is hosting wellness series that include activities such as terrarium making, yoga sessions, and even pet therapy. I look forward to attending these sessions as I know I will gain new skills, friends, and memories!

 

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By tanvibanerjee

The “dreadful” finals season is upon NUS, and all the study areas are chockablocked with students. Anxiety levels are skyrocketing in NUS, and the university is blasting emails with important tips on how to deal with exam stress. One of my favorite ways to calm down and relax during exam season is to escape to a movie theatre!

In DC, I miss being able to watch Bollywood movies in cinema halls. So, the diversity of movies available in Singaporean movie theatres has been very exciting for me. Singaporean cinema halls not only play the standard Hollywood blockbusters but also cater to their diverse patrons by screening latest Bollywood, Tamil, Chinese, Japanese, Malay and Korean films! The best part about these films? They come with subtitles in different languages.

Here are 3 great Singaporean places for a unique movie session:

1. South Asian films at Bombay Talkies and Rex Cinema Theatres

I grew up watching Bollywood films, and they hold a special spot in my heart. However, Bombay Talkies and other Rex Cinema theatres screen not only Bollywood films but also the latest Tamil, Telugu and even Malay films. Most films have a screening at least once a day, but since these movie theatres are small and tend to screen more than five films, each film’s shows are limited.

These movie theatres also have special offers for students and senior citizens. Students can get two tickets at S$10 and senior citizens can watch a film for S$5! ...continue reading "Unconventional Cinema And Where To Watch It"

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By tanvibanerjee

Phnom Penh hides in plain sight. On one hand “Under construction” signs and levelled land, promising development and economic growth, dominate the Cambodian capital’s landscape. On the other hand, the city’s troubled history finds a way to narrate itself through the city’s periphery to the Killing Fields, and the absence of historical buildings in its proximity. As I walked around Phnom Penh this weekend, all I could see was a people trying to live the “Cambodian dream” and overcome their traumatic past.

For those unfamiliar with Cambodian history, by traumatic past I refer to the genocide that took place in Cambodia by the Democratic Kumpuchea’s leader Pol Pot. Almost 1/4th of the Cambodian population was systematically wiped out through brutal killings between 1975 and 1979. Many were brutally tortured and most continue to bear physical if not mental scars from that period.

One of them was my tuk tuk driver, Mr. Chan Tou. On the way to the killing fields, he told me his own story. Mr. Chan Tou’s father, a well educated man, was a teacher. The Khmer Rouge branded him as a traitor and convicted him for crimes he did not commit. Mr. Chan Tou’s father and mother did not survive the genocide.

...continue reading "About Phnom Penh"

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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.

...continue reading "Biting the Bullet: Discussions about gun control"

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By tanvibanerjee

In grade school, I had to memorize a poem. I don’t remember much of it but this one line, “As gardens grow with flowers English grows with words.” In Singapore, its diverse and multi-lingual population has made its own contributions to the English language. Thus, creating “ Singlish.”

In my previous blog posts, I have talked a lot about the prevalence of Singaporean English or “Singlish” amongst the local population. While exposure to Singlish has allowed me to learn some Malay, Tamil and Mandarin words, Singlish has also thrown some curveballs at me. As such, I have misunderstood a lot of people, which in turn has led to some rather unexpected outcomes!

MISUNDERSTANDING NUMBER 1: It’s not all about ME.

For the longest time, whenever someone said, “I like me” or “me good lah” I thought that people were talking about themselves. While I was really excited about the self-love and positivity that some of my local friends displayed, I couldn’t understand the context in which they used the sentence.

A few weeks ago, I found myself eating home-cooked noodles prepared by my family friends’ elderly mother. As aunty (the term by which older ladies are often referred to in Singapore) served us the dinner, she pointed at her granddaughter and said, “She like me.”

...continue reading "“She likes Mee” and Other Things That I Misunderstood in Singapore"

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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.

...continue reading "Recess Week! (Part 2)"

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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.

...continue reading "Keeping Up With Shelly"

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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.

...continue reading "Recess Week! (Part 1)"

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By tanvibanerjee

People often ask me where to eat and what to eat in Singapore. My advise is simple - In Singapore, eat like the locals do.

WHERE TO EAT IN SINGAPORE?

If you find yourself in Singapore, walk to the nearest Kopitiam or Hawker Center! Don’t let the names fool you though. Kopitiam might translate to a “Coffee Shop” but in the modern Singaporean context, Kopitiams refer to food courts for local food. Over the last five decades, redevelopment and urbanization in Singapore have led to the eviction of local street hawkers from the streets. Instead, the government has allocated special complexes that accommodate the food stalls of erstwhile street hawkers.

The Kopitiams have traditionally been social hubs. Before the majority of Singaporeans moved to government-owned high rise flats, they lived in villages, also known as Kampongs. In these villages, kopitiams became places where villagers caught up with local news and gossip. For many, Kopitiams and hawker centers became places of employment. Yet, it is the food in Kopitiams and hawker centers, which has continued to play an important role in ensuring their perpetuity in Singapore.

In most Kopitiams and Hawker Center, the food is almost as diverse as Singapore’s population. Some shops are dedicated to special dishes such as Chicken rice and Satay sticks, but the majority of shops specialize in a particular cuisine. Thai, Indonesian, Malay, Indian, Hokkien and more cuisines are represented in Singapore’s local Kopitiams and Hawker Centers. However, the best part about these food places has to be the price! Most of these food centers serve a variety of dishes and cuisines for less than $5!

...continue reading "Food 101: A Brief Introduction To Local Singaporean Food Culture"

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By tanvibanerjee

“Choping: The art of reserving a seat in any public space with the help of a personal belonging including but not limited to a packet of tissues or your wallet.” 

In NUS, the art of choping during midterm season reaches new heights. There are laptops, wallets, keys, and napkins on chairs and study tables. One time I came across a study table “choped” with a huge fluffy pillow that had a note on it.

“Don’t nap on me, it messes with my owner's head space.” The note said.

Like GW, almost all study spots in NUS are perpetually occupied during the mid-term season. In fact, some students have taken to choping seats at the local 24/7 McDonalds and I’m still struggling to find my “study spot”. I never thought I would say this, but I miss GW’s Gelman Library. Terribly.

The midterm season in NUS generally lasts from late February to early March. Furthermore, as professors can decide upon the format of the mid-term exam, it can vary from subject to subject and from class to class. My Global Governance class had a classic short answer style exam. However, for my South Asian cinema class, I had to present on a movie that we watched during the week.

...continue reading "The Learning Curve: Midterms and ‘Choping’ in Singapore"

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