Teh Bing

Making friends here with other exchange students is incredibly easy. That unfortunately does not hold true for some of the local students. Only having class on Wednesday and Thursday does not make it any easier. Most of the full time students will only speak English when speaking with a native English speaker, but I will not let that stop me.

I have managed to make one friend in Hall 7, and his name is Teh Bing. He doesn’t speak any English, is always sitting around the Hall 7 common room, and I honestly am not sure if he is enrolled in any class. We first met in the common room, and since then I see him every day at Hall 7. We usually just acknowledge each other with eye contact, but I am going to try to get to know him better as the semester goes on. Unfortunately, he does not have a visa. I only mention this because a lot of people create stronger connections through travel, but Teh Bing will not be able to tag along with us.

I will be providing updates about my friendship with Teh Bing throughout the semester. I want to try and get close with at least one local!

Pulau Ubin

On January 14th, I was given the opportunity to go to a small island off of the coast of Singapore called Pulau Ubin. The island was originally inhabited by a few thousand people around 60 years ago, but most moved away once all of the granite had been cleaned out of the quarries. We were told that only a few hundred locals live there today, and that seems correct with what we saw.

The program was through NTU, and it was only for exchange students. We were broken into groups which helped me get to meet some other awesome students. I met some students from Pittsburgh, Maryland, Toronto, South Korea, and more. We were led by two NTU students who were also Singapore natives.

The island is not that large, in fact, I’m pretty sure we walked most of it in the 4(ish) hours that we were touring it. It’s mostly very dense forest, but there are some paths that are built into the water. We weaved in and out different parts of the island until we could barely walk anymore. The hills took a toll on everyone, but the scenery was great enough that we kept the complaining in our head.

Here are some photos that I took:

Hall 7

Before reading this, cue the song ‘The Way I Live’ by Baby Boy Da Prince just to get you in the mood for what you are about to read.

To preface my housing situation, I will explain NTU’s housing application to you. When I clicked on the student housing tab of the exchange portal, I was prompted with a question: “Do you want to be considered for on-campus housing?” Upon confirming, another box popped up that said simply this: “Thank you. You will receive your decision on December 1st.”

The day eventually came around, and within our UIUC group message we figured out that we had all been placed in different halls around campus. I was placed in Hall 7. Pictured below: an actual screenshot of the message that came in the UIUC group message just minutes after I posted that I was to be set up in Hall 7.

How bad could it really be? I will tell you, it is bad. Hall 7 is actually made up of a few buildings, mine being Block 38. The room, pictured below, is essentially a concrete box.

Upon arriving, I opened my door to see half eaten bowls of soup, scattered homework with Chinese writing all over it, and a lot of bugs. The Hall 7 staff that was helping me with my luggage apologized profusely and had me wait in a common room while his staff cleaned the room. I was off to a great start! To add on to the poor quality of the dorm, it is in the corner of campus hidden away from everything, including all 9 UIUC students who live at the other end. It’s also situated at the bottom of the massive hill that campus sits on top of, which makes commuting miserable. In the street photo below, I am standing at the top of the hill, and Hall 7 is at the bottom about 1 mile in the distance.

Not to put any images in anyone’s head, but I sleep in nothing but my underwear and a very thin sheet. I have never not had the luxury of air conditioning, and it truly is hard. I can barely handle waking up sweaty every morning, which really puts into perspective how lucky I am to come from where I do. It has taken me just 10 days in Hall 7 to notice an evident change in culture. That’s what studying abroad is supposed to be about, right?

For those keen enough to spot the second bed in the photo, I do have a roommate. His name is Tristan, and he is another business student from France! He’s awesome, and it will give me a chance to test whether or not I’ve retained anything from my 7 years of studying the language.

While I do complain about Hall 7, it’s alright. I am really only ever here to sleep and shower. I’m out all day, everyday, and that’s how it is back in Champaign as well.

If you’ve been reading the blog, be sure to let me know. I’m curious as to who might be!

My Newest Friend: Rice

Being the melting pot that Singapore is, there are so many different cuisines available for me to eat daily. The canteens (A.K.A dining halls) are typically made up of a few different windows with different menus and cuisines. I have tried a lot of them, and plan to try all of them by the end of the semester.

One recurring meal so far has come from one of the thai food windows in Canteen 2. I usually order the steamed meat dumplings with chili oil! Most meals are typically S$5 (the S denotes Singapore dollars), which equates to roughly $3.50.

We’ve also been eating as a group at a lot of hawker centers, which is basically tons and tons of food stands packed very close together in an eating area. Everything is very cheap, and so far everything has proven to be very good!

I have also learned to love rice. At home, I really did not eat white rice ever, and when I did it would only be because someone did not order chicken fried rice, a travesty, I know. Here, I eat it with every single meal. For breakfast I will usually have a small bowl of white rice and some fruit, and then I’ll have it with meat and vegetables for dinner.

The best meal I have had so far has come from Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Rice and Noodle. That is one long restaurant name! The owner, Chan Hong Meng, was the first ever hawker to be awarded a Michelin Star. I was eating a meal cooked in a restaurant that had been awarded the highest of awards, and I had spent the equivalent of $5. I got the Char Siew Rice. It's barbecued pork over rice! Here’s a picture of it:

Updates - 1/8/2017

The first five days in Singapore have been an experience, and quite frankly it feels like it’s been an eternity since I left Highland Park.

After nearly 30 hours of non-stop travel, and very little sleep, we arrived at roughly 6:00am on January 3rd. Jason (another UIUC student), Lauren, and I waited patiently for some other UIUC students to come in on a flight from Shanghai at a Starbucks in the airport. After splitting into cabs, we rode from the airport to NTU.

I will get into specifics of the past 5 days in other shorter posts, but here are some of the culture differences that I’ve written down that I think are cool, funny, or just notable:

• There are campus busses that you have to hail. If you do not put your arm up, they will not stop the bus. I have missed multiple busses so far because I have forgotten. Luckily, they come every 5-8 minutes.
• You have to back into parking spaces in Singapore. You can not turn into a space, you have to put your car into reverse and carefully back it up. I guess this is actually better, as your vision will not be obstructed and there may be less accidents when pulling out of spaces. One time I got really excited because I saw a car pull forward into a space. My excitement quickly turned to disappointment when I saw the driver only use that as a means to perfectly back into the space opposite him.
• Escalators have two lanes…...that’s right, you read that correctly. The left side of the escalator is for people who want to just stand and be lifted up/down. The right side is for people who don’t have time for the stationary lifestyle, and want to walk up or down while it is moving. They will mercilessly push you out of the way.

I am only now realizing that the differences in culture that I’ve listed are all transportation related. I’m so glad you’re taking the time to read my incredibly diverse writing.  

Pre-Departure - 12/31/2016

To whom it may concern,

It is December 31st, 2016, and tomorrow I will be leaving for my semester abroad in Singapore. It will be the longest trip that I have ever taken, and I could not be more excited about it! I will be flying with the increased time change, and I will arrive at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore on January 3rd!

The internet is mercilessly hailing 2016 as the “worst year ever,” and in some regards, I agree. The first half of my sophomore year was dramatically harder than all of freshman year put together, there seems to be civil and political unrest in every country in the world, and Antonio’s Pizza at the University of Illinois has gone out of business (only to be replaced by Cracked, which is a food truck-turned restaurant I am quite fond of, but I am sad nonetheless). With that being said, a lot of people have been asking me if I have chosen to go abroad this early because both my life, and the world are getting crazier day by day. My answer: no.

There are several reasons that I’ll be in Southeast Asia this spring. First and foremost, it works well within my academic schedule. I am interested in some academic programs on campus that, if enrolled, do not allow students the time to study abroad or hold winter internships in their junior and senior years. Second, a lot of the positions that I would be able to run for as a junior across the organizations that I am involved in are year long positions, in which case I could not run if I planned to leave for one of the semesters. While I don’t know if I’ll be accepted to these programs, or run for these positions, it is still good to go abroad now and keep these options open for myself. As for my classes, going abroad now rather than later does not have much impact, and I will still be graduating on time (shoutout Mom and Dad, I know you’re waiting to read that).

The next most common question I get asked is why I have chosen to go to Singapore. My reasoning is less concrete, but it has seemed to satisfy everyone so far so I am not changing it. Scrolling through Facebook and social media every day, I see that people are in Europe all the time. Whether they are students or not, it seems to me that it is more common for people (at least the people that I know, I should clarify) to travel Europe when they have the time and money. This makes sense to me, as Europe has smaller countries, and a lot of cultures can be seen by country hopping in a short amount of time. I’ve already been to Europe a handful of times, obviously not extensively to the point where I can say I “know” it by any means, but it wouldn’t be unreasonable to say that I’ll likely go again. The fact of the matter is, it is far less common for someone with my background to hop on a plane and explore the different cultures of Asia. After talking to students who participated before me, I determined that the Singapore program through the College of Business at UIUC would be the right fit for me. Singapore is also an English speaking nation, however, apparently for the first week or so I’m going to be writing down slang words that I need to pick up on. This is going to ease the culture shock.

As far as my classes go, there is not much to them. I will be taking two classes online through the University of Illinois, and two classes in person at NTU. I don’t know which classes that I will be taking in person, but you will all know as I do. The same goes for other things such as my dorm room, the campus, etc.

I am not, and have never claimed to be much of a writer. Consequently, I am not much of a blogger. I am more of a math kind of guy! (L-O-L) With that being said, I will still try and write vividly about my experiences. A big misconception about Singapore is that it’s a dense jungle where everyone lives in bamboo huts. SPOILER ALERT: it’s not. I will have wi-fi available to me, and I will try to post on here at the very least once or twice a week. If I don’t, please don’t get mad. If I do, hooray! Once I take enough pictures I’ll start putting them on here as well.

This trip will be the longest I have ever gone without seeing my family and some of my friends. In the mandatory study abroad seminars on campus we were all warned that it will be very emotionally exhausting at times, but I will not let that get to me. I will obviously miss each and every one of you, but like I said, I will not be living in an internet-less bamboo hut! I will be keeping in contact.

One final note worth mentioning is that I will not be traveling alone. There is a pretty general unwritten rule that if you have trouble finding me on campus in Champaign, just look for one of my best friends: Lauren. If you find Lauren, you will typically find me. The rule still applies for this semester. She’ll be in Singapore as well. Same flight and everything.

If you’ve read this far, I applaud you. I certainly would not have. Words are hard!

Until next time,

Peter