First Impressions

August 19, 2014

I have officially been living in Singapore for two weeks! First thing’s first: a bit about Singapore. Singapore is an island country located in Southeast Asia. Singapore has four official languages: English, Mandarin, Tamil, and Malay. Singapore also has three main groups of people that predominately make up its diverse population: Chinese, Indian, and Malay people.

I chose to come to Singapore as opposed to any other country offered through CMU Study Abroad for several reasons. I have to admit, when I first entered college I had no idea where Singapore was located on the map.  If you would have asked me as a freshman where I planned to study abroad I am pretty that Singapore was nowhere on the list. I chose to come to Singapore because after doing research I had only found great things about it. Singapore was warm, the program was exchange which means that it was comparable to the price of attending CMU for the semester, they offered interesting classes in my field, they had good food, and it was very safe. I also noticed that my Southeast Asian cultural knowledge was lacking a bit so what better way to learn about the culture than to immerse yourself into it?

My first impressions of Singapore were mostly positive. Upon first stepping out of the airplane I noticed that it was much hotter than I had expected. I had experiences 85 degree weather before but with the humidity of Singapore, I felt like it was in the 100’s. It also rains quite a bit, almost daily.   Cars drive on the left side of the street and the steering wheels were on the right. Some people drink warm to hot water regularly instead of cold. Customer service (even at McDonald’s) does not always come with a smile; American cashiers are more polite. Their MRT trail system is extremely efficient here. After getting a bit lost, I am able to find my way around the entire country! Everyone seems to be truly excited to learn as much as possible, they are very academically driven. That also comes with a competitive side. I also noticed that many people are very familiar with American culture: everyone seems to know about different states, music, television shows, celebrities and everything there is to know about life in the States but not many people that I have met have been to the States. 

I am very please with the academic system in Singapore, everyone seems to be so hard working. Upon getting registered for my courses, which I found extremely complicated, I attended each class during the first week. It was after week 1 that I realized that courses here were going to be very serious and would require a lot of time. I'll be sure to post my progress as the semester continues!