Tanvi Banerjee – Page 2 – GW Blogs from Abroad

By tanvibanerjee

“We will... we will...rock you...” we panted as our paddles cut through the water with the beats. It was a surprisingly rain-free day in Singapore, and the weather was perfect for a dragon boat race at the Kallang Water Basin. However, when the instructor first yelled “Paddles up” at us twenty amateurs, I realized that this was going to be a long day.

Growing up in the landlocked suburbs of New Delhi, water sports had never been a big part of my life. The Yamuna, Delhi’s river, is too dangerous to paddle or row in. Now, imagine my surprise when I first encountered people rowing in the Potomac! Unsurprisingly, Singapore is a haven for people who enjoy water sports. Swimming is one of Singapore's most popular recreational activities. In NUS itself, there are three big pools open to all students. Local community pools are also relatively cheap. Furthermore, the public beaches in Sentosa and Lazarus islands are clean and safe for a good swim. Other popular water sports in Singapore include kayaking, paddling, and dragon boating.

So, when my exchange university decided to organize dragon boating for exchange students, my interest was piqued. I wanted to try out water sports for once. However, only 120 students could go dragon boating, and unfortunately, I wasn’t one of them.

...continue reading ""Paddles up, Go!""

As an international student at GW, I am used to long flights, layovers, and the TSA. However on the 7th of January, as the plane circled over the small city-state of Singapore, I could feel my heart racing. Instead of the familiar lights of Dulles that greet me every semester, I could see oil rigs, boats, and a turquoise blue sea. And then, there it was— Singapore, bathed in the soft light of a January dawn. As I peered out of the window, I could see tall skyscrapers, gentle hills and winding roads dotted with cars. ‘For a small city-state, Singapore does not look all that small,’ I thought as I looked out of the window.

While Singapore is much smaller than other sprawling metropolises like New York, and my hometown, New Delhi, it is more than 5 times the size of Washington D.C. Unfortunately for me, I had no previous knowledge about this and had assumed that one could easily walk from one end of Singapore to another in a matter of a single day. On my second day in the country, I told this to an elderly lady on the MRT (Singapore’s Metro), who laughed and said, “Can lah! But would take more than a day ah.” Tickled with my ignorance she went on to tease me, “Aiyyo! Don’t walk too much lah, you might reach Malaysia.”

Singapore’s proximity to Malaysia and other Southeast Asian nations, as well as its history as a trading port, has allowed Singaporeans to become a very diverse people. Malay, Indian, and Chinese are just a few of the broad ethnic identities that Singaporeans identify with. In my first few days in Singapore, I learned that these identifiers were more complex. A local friend described herself as a Hokkien Chinese Singaporean, while another described themselves as an Indian Muslim Singaporean!

...continue reading "Singapore? Can lah!"