Food on campus- a photo guide^^

The semester is ending, and I've got a pretty extensive collection of the dishes around NUS campus so far! I've tried many dishes at UTown (Koufu & Flavours @ Utown), the Biz School, FASS ( The Deck) and once at Faculty of Science and PGPR food court. Overall, I must say food at UTown is of the best quality, with a wide range of selection and at pretty much the same price:quality ratio at other places around NUS.

In general, I spent something like 7 - 10 SGD/ day for all my eat-out meals, with a fairly wide range of selections that suit my nit-picking mood and taste:) Most meals on campus cost from 2 - 7 SGD, depending on what you choose & how good quality is the dish.  I like the Japanese stall in Flavours@Utown and the Korean Cuisine in Koufu the most, excellent price:quality ratio for a healthy meal! Here I'll show you many of the dishes of I've taken, with some comments about the price and the tastes:)

Sweet & sour pork meal at the Sichuan corner in Flavours@UTown (3SGD) - pretty horrible taste though+.+

Nasi Lemak Set (2.5 SGD only!)- the typical Indonesian dish with coconut rice, fried chicken wing, an egg, cucumber ad their special chili sauce!

A Korean meal set (5.5 SGD) with saba fish & pork with seaweed soup - pretty fulfilling!

Get the rice and pick the dishes to your taste - Chinese ready made food. Usually would range from 2.5 - 5 SGD

Japanese Tamago set @ The Deck (FASS) (4 SGD)- not fresh at all, usually have been fried since morning!

Chicken & Pork Bento (4.5 SGD) @ Flavours@ Utown Japanese- My favorite meal on campus:fulfilling, delicious,freshly made with variety!

Mushroom noodle @ The Deck FASS (2 SGD) - not so fresh or good at all, well again, you get what you pay:P

Hot Pot Noodle (4.5 SGD) @ Flavours@ UTown Noodle & Chicken Rice - very interesting & quite delicious Chinese dish, with different fish and some meat there!

Dry noodle (3.8 SGD) @ Koufu (UTown)- another interesting dish, a bit sour and strange to my taste, but I like it in the end!

Rice with Char Siu Meat @ Flavours @ UTown (2.5 SGD) - quite delicious, but obviously not fulfilling at all!

Chicken Rice Set Meal @ Flavours @ UTown (3.5 SGD)- another favorite dish of mine, pretty fulfilling and still healthy option!

Chinese "healthy" soup with carrot rice (6 SGD)- an expensive and horrible dish, bleh, never tried it for the 2nd time!

Mee Goreng (2.5 SGD)- an Indonesian noodle soup with quite strong herbal broth!

My courses- How are they so far?

Time flies by, and my rewarding exchange semester is slipping away:(( Anw, after some months here undertaking NUS courses, here are some of my personal lessons and opinions about them. I mostly chose reading-and-writing-intensive courses, where groupwork are kept to the minimum. These types of courses suit my personality better, and it gives a lot of flexbility for exchange students like us to manage our own schedule without affecting any grade-minded peers at NUS:P Keep in mind that these thoughts are my personal viewpoints, hope that they are of some use to you in your future course selection, should NUS be your favorite exchange destination.

EC3377 Global Economic History
Lecture: 2 hours/week
Tutorial: 2 hours/ every 2 weeks, group presentation (2-3 students/group) on a book
Grading structure: 50% exam, 20% book review (3 pages), 20% presentation (60’), 10% participation& attendance
Course materials: PPT slides, academic articles, popular books on the subject
Lecturer/tutor: Sng Tuan Hwee
Workload: Light to Moderate

Comments: This is my best course at NUS, the one and only course where I attended every lecture and tutorial since the lecturer was such an adorable, approachable and fantastic lecturer. The course uses economic theory and quantitative methods to understand the course of economic development of different countries. Students are required to read an academic paper before each class, which will be the main topic of the lecture each week. Besides, we are split into different groups and get and assigned book for the group presentation. Each book shows different perspectives about the critical factor that generate economic inequality worldwide, namely, biological endowment, culture and political systems. You mainly just need to skim through the book that are assigned to your group, get the main ideas, and your presentation and 2-3-page book review would be OK. If you read the course materials and the articles three to four times each, get the main ideas noted down, you'll do well in this course. Overall, it's a very enjoyable course with interesting insights into the past of long-term economic development, without too much "technical" economic stuffs, yet greatly enhances your critical thinking about the application of economics studies.

EC3394 Economics and Psychology
Lecture: 2 hours/week
Tutorial: 1 hour/week, group presentation (1-2 students/group) about an academic article
Grading structure: 50% exam, 20% referee report (3 pages), 20% presentation (45’), 10% participation & attendance
Course materials: PPT slides & academic articles
Lecturer/tutor: Wong Wei Kang
Workload: Light to Moderate 

Comments: As I did my thesis in behavioral economics in the previous semester, this course seems to be a mere revision for me. The course introduces students to the main themes of behavioral economics, the new frontier interdisciplinary field between economics, psychology and neuroscience- after all, we humans are not as rational as our economic models desire us to be! The lecturer is decent, although a little bit monotonous as he always just recites from the lecture slides --> no need to go to lectures pretty much! Although pretty much recommend that you should attend the last lecture, as the prof will solve some problems that will appear in the final exam. The tutorial setting is a bit ridiculous, in my opinion, since each week one group will present a summary of an academic article that only they have read, and the rest just sit and listen passively, pretty much- yet it's compulsory to attend=.=.

EC3312 Game Theory and Applications in Economics
Lecture: 2 hours/week
Tutorial:1 hour/week, weekly exercise & assignment correction
Grading structure: 50% final exam, 35% midterm exam, 10% assignments (2), 5% participation & attendance
Course materials: PPT slides, A Gamer in Game Theory - Robert Gibbons (65 SGD at NUS COOP)
Lecturer: Sun Yeneng
Tutor: Wang Peng
Workload: Moderate 

Comments: I always find game theory to be such an intellectually stimulating field in economics, yet it was touched upon very slightly in the Micro course at Aalto. This course serves as a perfect next step introduction to the field, teaching more in-depth about simultaneous/sequential game with asymmetric/symmetric information (Nash equilibrium & Bayesian equilibrium). The course pace goes pretty steadily, with weekly exercises corrected at the tutorials very thoroughly and two graded assignments. The lecturer, although has some soporific impact on the students, is very approachable and attentive to students’ pace of learning in the classroom. I really enjoyed the tutorial sessions with Ms. Wang though, she explains all concepts and exercises in a very comprehensible way, so if possible, get her tutorial sessions if you can:) The exams are a bit tricky,

PS2234 Introduction to Comparative Politics
Lecture: 2 hours/week
Tutorial: 2 hours/every 2 weeks, discussion of course materials
Grading structure: 45% final exam, 35% take-home midterm exam (individual), 15% participation & 5% quiz
Course materials: PPT slides, Politics textbook (75 sgd at NUS COOP, but you can photocopy everything from a borrowed library book)
Lecturer/tutor: Subhasish Ray
Workload: Moderate (LOTS of weekly readings) 

Comments: If you are interested in gaining a general knowledge about the politics of major countries, this course is for you. The course readings give you a comprehensive picture of the political culture and systems of certain countries worldwide ( the US, Japan, India, China, Russia,etc), after which you could use the comparative tools to evaluate the effectiveness of each system in appropriate context. I enjoyed the reading materials, which were very student-friendly and instructive, but the lecturer's teaching is just abysmal. There are like 10 slides per 1.5-hour lecture, and he mostly just digresses somewhere, sometimes repetitive and never hits the point. The tutorials also follows his impromptu style, just throw some random questions, then he answers, mostly to his favorite students. I personally think that it's better for me just to take Global Economic History, and not this course at all, as some parts are repetitive yet at much lower quality level.

PS2203 Ancient Western Political Thoughts
Lecture: 2 hours/week
Tutorial: 2 hours/ every 2 weeks, discussion of course materials
Grading structure: 50% final exam, 15% 1500-word essay, 25% 2000-word essay (both individual), 10 % participation & attendance
Course materials: selected readings from ancient texts
Lecturer: Dominic Cooray
Workload: Moderate ( LOTS of ancient text readings) 

Comments: As I’m very much into philosophical thinking and profound political thoughts, this course isan eye-opening experience. The contemplative feeling when you read about the thoughts on justice, happiness, leadership, ruling, etc of Plato, Aristotle, Thucydidies, etc is just simply rewarding. However, one warning is that the ancient dialogues pose a credible challenge to those averse to ancient text readings, since the language used is fairly archaic and at some point very arcane to readers. But if you can take it, munch on it, and you'll enjoy it to the fullest. About the lecturer, notwithstanding he's not an inspiring story-teller about the lives and philosophies of these thinkers,is very interactive and supportive towards students. Personally I would prefer more hours on Aristotle's thoughts and less on the St. Augustine's ideology, but well, I enjoyed the course in any case!

That's all for now, ahoy and see you in the next blog!

Traveling in S.E.A 101- tips in, tips out!

Singapore, the definite choice for any adventure-craving souls in the wild jungles of S.E.Asia!

Inside Singapore? Hmm, yeah, there are some places that you should see, to get a sense of Singapore, just a little warning, pretty much every marvel on this tiny island is man-made, even forests and sounds of singing birds:)So yeah, when you want real nature and real sense of adventure, venture out of Singapore to experience the truly Asia! I'll have another post about what to do in Singapore, but for this post, I'll just discuss about other exotic destinations in S.E.Asia.

Singapore has the best flight connections and deals to virtually any parts of Asia, there are numerous cheap airlines to various destinations in Asia and Australia! Check out Tigerair, AirAsia, Jetstar Asia, when you want to fly to popular places in Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, even South Korea, India and Australia. You can just subscribe to their mailing list, and they'll send you some crazy deals from time to time. So pretty much you can just book as late as a few days before your intended trip and the fares are still pocket-friendly J If you want to compare prices of different airlines, a highly recommended site is www.skyscanner.com, which offers fairly extensive list of all airlines to your preferred destination.

One tip about Tigerair, I found an Indonesian travel website called www.tiket.com, if you intend to book any flight tickets from Tigerair, check out from this page first before you check from the official Tigerair page. Almost 99% sure you'll get a cheaper deal from tiket.com, and for exactly the same tickets:)

And not just by plane, it's also extremely easy to venture into Malaysia and Indonesia via bus from Singapore. You can easily reach Kualar Lumpur, Melacca, Johor Bahru,etc in Malaysia with a bus,  for only 20-something SGD =))

Overall, I traveled to Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam, not so many places as my other exchange friends, since I want to explore the place well. I traveled quite often to Vietnam to visit my family during the exchange semester; most of my other traveling plans are executed only by the end of the semester. 

From my own experience, I highly recommend a visit to Tioman Island, Malaysia; Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam for the unexploited nature/snorkeling lover. If you are a devout shopper and Buddist, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City and Bali is a must for your travelling checklist in S.E.Asia.  If you'd like to see a civilized city situated between magnificent mountain ranges and sandy beaches, with the best seafood on offer at a remarkably reasonable price, Da Nang& Hoi An in the middle of Vietnam is for you. 

And it's a must that you have to see the Lunar New Year festival, usually happening in the beginning of February, at places like Ha Noi, Bali or Bangkok, where you'll witness the authentic traditions that we honor for generations.  Ticket prices usually skyrocket during this time, as almost every Asian want to reunite with their families, so you should buy the tickets much earlier in advance, if you plan to go somewhere else instead of Singapore during this time.

In the following posts I'll go into detail about each travel destinations that I've been to:)

NUS Campus & the fabulous UTown!

NUS campus, is nothing that you could ever find in Finland. And University Town, is another thing that will take your breath away. It's like a self-sufficient city, with free shuttle buses taking you to your classes from faculty to faculty, with various food courts that suit the tastes of numerous cultures around here. Anyway, I'll mainly just put pictures of NUS campuses and UTown here for your reference, as you must come and experience the campus for yourself, to really get the hang of it:)

One thing that is worth noting is that you should have a printed version of the campus map prior to your trip. This would save you from a lot of navigation troubles that you will bump into in the beginning of the semester. Especially when you need to run around to find the faculty, and beg them to get you in a course during/after the Add/Drop period.

Some words about facilities provided by NUS would also be useful for you. So you are free to use any gyms/ swimming pools/computer rooms (this is 24/7) on campus since you have to pay for the facilities already before you are in NUS, using your student card. Printing is, unfortunately not free, but it's not hyper expensive either:) If you print/ photocopy at the Central Library, it'll cost you 4 cents (SGD) / A4 black-and-white page, at UTown PC & Macs Commons would be 5 cents. You can use your EZ-Link card (the travel card basically) to pay for the printing at the work station, there are designated machines to handle that. I strongly suggest printing from the Central Library, not because it's slightly cheaper, but also because if there are some problems with the printer or your printing materials, they have staffs readily available there to help you out. I once got some problems with printing at UTown in the earlier week, and I had to call some ITcare to ask for help. And believe me, Singlish is not a very comprehensible language, especially via phones +.+

Okay,here comes the pictures^^

NUS lecture hall (LT13) - typical size for a class of 50-70 students

A part of NUS campus near Kent Ridge MRT station - 15' by bus from UTown:P

UTown by night

Utown by day - many sellers of various random & cute things are around from time to time!

UTown residence elevator & corridor area

NUSSU & NUS Economics Welfare package for exam preparation=))!

LiNUS - the mascot of NUS^^

Tioman Island, Malaysia - a gem in the deep blue sea.

 Tioman Island - the most breathtaking and adventurous trip for me during my exchange studies!

 I went to Tioman Island with a group of four other exchange guys by bus and ferry for a weekend, it definitely took forever (~8 hours) to reach to island, but it worths every enduring moments=))! First we took the MRT towards a station near Little India, where we took the bus to Johor Bahru, you can just buy the tickets at the bus, no need to buy anything in advance. We needed to get off the bus for border control at Woodlands station, it's pretty painless procedure, after which we got on the bus again to go towards Johor Bahru. It took around an hour to reach there, and yeah, the moment you cross the No Man's Land bridge, you can't ignore the stark contrast between the infrastructure between Singapore and Malaysia. 

Despite its shabby and dishelveled appearance, Malaysia, definitely, looks, more authentically Asian than Singapore: less planning, more freedom, more all-over-the-place, but, very Asian I must say. Anw, once we reached Johor Bahru, we tried getting a bus to Mersing, and had some little time to see around the Johorb Bahru bus station. Messy, brim with street vendors, shouting sales people, antique-looking buses,etc rekindled me of the bus central station in Ho Chi Minh City. Something that is obviously non-existent in the well-groomed Singapore.

The bus ride to Mersing was a real exhilirating experience, with two-hour roller-coaster woop on the curvy highway. Which, is teemed with nothing but palm trees after plam trees. Two and a half hour long,phew. Once we reached Mersing, we struggled to find the port for the ferry to Tioman, gosh, in the scorching heat of tropical weather=.= How I longed for the superb signposting system in Singapore at that moment! Anw, by some magical karma, we managed to find the port just in time for the ferry departure, got crammed onto the ferry for 2 hours more, until we reached our heaven destination. The magnificent island looks like an unexplored gem in the deep blue sea, which is fully blanketed with tropical forest. We took the boat to the North of Tioman to do snorkeling near the Coral Reef Island, which is the reputed spot for snorkeling and diving activities. Here comes some picture proofs:)

The crammed ferry to the island

North of Tioman Island beach - so crystal clear that you can see hundreds of fish from the shore!

 

 

 So apparently my group stuck to the budget-is-my-priority rule, we opted for the cheapest available accommodation on the island called Puteri Salang Inn, after asking around a little bit. It was fairly decent, I stayed in the same room with 2 other guys, with our own bathroom, and no bed bugs^^And we paid like 4 euros/person/night - not too bad for a heaven island! Anw, the rest of the day was quite normal, we went to the beach, did a little swimming, and then had dinner at a local restaurant.

The beautiful beach of North Tioman

Now the restaurant and Malaysian food here is quite a disappointment though, price-wise and taste-wise. Some dishes were more expensive than in Singapore even, yet tasted worse. But well, we didn't have much of a choice, there were only like 3-4 restaurants around the North of the island.

The next morning, we book a boat tour to 3 heaven spots for snorkeling, and this was definitely the I-LOVE-IT part of the trip! We paid something like 70RM/ person (~16 EUR) for the tour, including all snorkeling equipments, which is a bargain! It's my first time ever doing snorkeling, and, to add some spices to the adventure, I don't even know how to swim +.+ But I've got such an accommodating friend who helped me out with the equipment and such, and yes, I managed to discover the sea aquarium with my very own eyes, for the first time ever:) F-A-N-T-A-S-T-I-C! 

The problem was, I felt a bit sick, since early morning of the day: running nose, sore throat, and a bit of a fever. And then, snorkeling for 3-4 hours under the intense tropical sunshine. Without really much food in the stomach saved for the tiny pancake in breakfast. BUT, as if it wasn't dramatic enough, my courageous and energetic gang decided to trek through three mountains to the middle part of the island. Right after lunch. Without much rest from the snorkeling @.@ And that was not a suggestion, it was an offer that I couldn't turn down. Because otherwise, I would be stuck in this Northern part all by myself. And I didn't really know how to go back to Mersing or Singapore by myself. And I was the only girl in the group. SIGHED=.=

OK, well, bear it and grind it, all luggage on, and here I trekked. First time ever through the tropical forest mountain. With a feverish head and stuffed nose. With pretty much no signposts or trekker-friendly route, our only "guide" was the electricity line running through the island forest from North to South. NICE! For the first time ever, I felt like I turned on my survival mode during the entire 3-trekking trip, given the sketchy image of the bumpy mountain route that my not-so-clear mind managed to capture. All I knew was that, if I didn't focus and keep carry on, I'll be left behind in this deserted forest or fell off the cliff to be friends with monkeys around here+.+ Here are some more pictures for your enjoyment! 

Here we started, and I've got like 9kg of luggage on me+.+

Yep, the route wasn't very easy!

Gosh my shoulders were so exhausted with all the luggage!

Yay,we managed 2 mountains already, 1 more to go only!

The spectacular beach midway to ABC!

But yes, yes, we made it, and I made it, against all odds I was still alive and kicking, reached the destination without any damages except for the little scratch from a tree branch:) We spent one more night in ABC, and of course, at the cheapest accommodation possible, so we are talking about the price of 2.5 euros/person/night, with similar accommodation as the previous place, though a little better. I must say the middle part of Tioman is a bit more developed than the Northern part, restaurants served better food at cheaper prices, and there are more affordable hotels and inns around here. We reached the place at around 7 PM, then just headed for dinner after settling down and relaxed for the rest of the day. 

OMG, my fever. It just didn't know how to restrain itself. Like the recalcitrant teenager on the run. The next morning, my nose was completely stuck, my throat was so sore that I couldn't really talk properly with others. And my head was seriously hot. And we had to wait like 5 hours, until 2 PM or something, until we got the ferry back to Mersing from here. And then another 8-hour journey back to Singapore +.+

I swear never have I ever felt so jubilant to cross the border control to Singapore, to catch the first sight of NUS. For the first time ever, I was basically rapturous to be on my bed in UTown residence, safe and sound. After all the feverish mumblings and cold shivers on the bus, I made it, back to UTown,phewwwwww!!!

That was  definitely my most memorable trip in S.E.Asia, not just because I was sick and did all those adventurous things, but also because it was a really remarkable island! Tioman, I'll see you again in the near future!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NUS academic system & environment

Ok, so after a few weeks of exposure to the courses, the study environment, etc, here are my personal impressions and accumulated knowledge about NUS academic system.

There's an overwhelmingly intense academic atmosphere among the degree students at NUS. Like. Seriously. The one grand plan since the day they enter university is to get an A in a course. And apparently it's not that easy there, because NUS uses bell curve grading system, which means all students are ranked relative to their classmates. The number of A students could not exceed 5% of the class, in most cases, and professors are supposed to honor that rule. So you can just imagine, if you are in a class where everyone scores above 90% and you get some wherein the 80-range, you'll fail the course?!?!? This grading system, coupled with the already competitive character of Asian students, unfortunately yet predictably, has generated the hyper-competitive relationship between students, to the point that I don't feel it's healthy at all. I've heard many unbelievable stories from my friends who study in the Business School - the supposedly most prestigious and competitive school in NUS, about how some can go to any lengths to achieve an A in a course. Anyway, on the bright side, if you are really into studying seriously, you'll have very serious students to work with =))

Now let's briefly talk about my view on my course selection. So I chose 5 courses, corresponding to 20 MCs under NUS system, which, according to NUS definition, would mean 50 hours of of work a week, including lectures, tutorials, laboratory sessions, assignments, and independent or group study (!). Sounds like WTF huh? Well, as exchangers, why so serious about these estimated required hours? We'll survive by all means, just enjoy the life and traveling=)) I've never heard of a single case of exchangers to NUS who has failed a course, no matter how neglectful they could have been here. Because of the bell curve, only less than 5% of a course participators could fail, so unless you do absolutely nothing for the course, I doubt you could fail one. 

As all my courses are at 3000s level, they all have roughly 40-50 students/ course, from which we will be divided into our chosen tutorial time slots. Therefore, in the tutorial sessions, you will usually have around 10-15 classmates there, which leaves a lot of room for discussion and interaction with the teacher. NOTE that while lectures are not compulsory to attend, all tutorials are, and your attendance will be recorded. This is also how the lecturer assesses your attendance and participation grade for the entire course. Anw, this grading part is the most ambiguous part in the assessment, in the end, no one knows how they are assessed relative to other students, and how active should one be in the tutorial sessions=.=

Ah yes, about course materials, NUS has the most affordable textbooks for their students sold via NUS COOP, at a much much cheaper price than wherever you buy. NOTE though, you guys MUST first check out the IVLE second-hand booksale forum from other NUS students to see whether you required textbooks are available there. In most cases, they often are, especially if you choose a popular course with many attendants. For me, I found my Game Theory coursebook there, looking perfectly new, at only 30SGD, whereas if you buy the book from NUS COOP/ Forum bookstore, it'll be 65 SGD :). I also bought an Econometrics and Math textbooks from some students via the forum, useful for my future studies, since they are such a bargain and they seriously are brand new!

Exams, you may wonder. Most exams at NUS are conducted in two hours only, be it Math course or Essay-based course. That is a bit of a challenge for us Aalto sudents, since we are very used to the four-hour setting at Aalto, where you can just take your time to a certain extent. I run out of time in some exams, especially though that demands some calculations, since the professor usually make the exam really longggg=.= So yeah, you need quite some practice to get your head in the game before you take the exam, otherwise, you'll run out of time and curse yourself afterwards. In the exam, it's just read, think for 2', and then do it, no time for prolonged meditation on any single question!

More to go about NUS campus in the next post!

NUS course selection - first challenge!

NUS courses!

NUS offers a remarkably wide range of courses, and as an exchange student, you are pretty much free to choose any courses, subject to the approval of your home university and the fulfillment of prerequisites. I strongly recommend NUS exchanger-to-be to check the course offerings for exchange students available for the selected semester on their website. Read carefully the REGISTRATION GUIDE, all information is basically there (just type it in Google, you'll get the link, there's no point in trying to find through their sophisticated webpage=.=). Here's the page for you to start http://www.nus.edu.sg/registrar/edu/ng.html#l5

As an undergraduate level exchanger from Aalto, you'll need to take 5 courses at NUS to fulfill the 30 ECTS requirement for the exchange studies. You can choose 10 courses from their offered courses when you apply online, out of which maximum 5 courses will be granted to you. BEFORE you submit your list of favorable courses, the next VITAL step, check out their Timetable building https://webrb.nus.edu.sg/ctt/builder.aspx  , plug in the codes of your selected courses, your faculty and semester and check whether there are any clashes in terms of timetable and exam dates. NUS is particularly strict with this, should there be any clashes in the lecture/tutorial/exam date, you will NOT be allowed to take those courses together by any means. Thus, to avoid the unfortunate situation that you might not get any courses, check in advance, choose the suitable courses and choose 10 courses, not 5 or 6 or 7 or 8, to maximize your chance of having enough courses before your semester starts!

TIP! If you wanna travel during the semester and end your semester early for more traveling, this is the time for you to check all the exam dates and lecture&tutorial times of these courses:) I have many friends who managed to have courses only from Monday to Wednesday, and they are all off for traveling almost every weekend without any problems=))

One thing for sure, you do NOT want to participate in their so-called Add Drop period at the beginning of the semester- a REAL HEADACHE! If you have all 5 of your favorite courses accepted and enjoy them after trying them out in the first week, you can forget about this. BUT if you don't, as in my case and many others who chose mainly Business modules, you are gonna have very interesting times going to different other classes to try out, wait for add drop period, add, wait for approval, blah blah blah >_< Anyway, it's not fun at all, since you won't have access to the course materials of your intended course on IVLE system ( a system similar to Noppa & Optima at Aalto), and you can't simply switch the courses that you don't like with your intended ones, and you'll need to get permission from Aalto International Office again about your new course choice.

Anyway, after the first 2-week hassle with the course selection, I manage to secure my 5 courses from Economics and Political Science as below.

EC3377 Global Economic History
EC3394 Economics and Psychology
EC3312 Game Theory and Applications in Economics
PS2234 Introduction to Comparative Politics
PS2203 Ancient Western Political Thoughts

TIP: Ask from the International Office at Aalto an approval paper for all the 10 chosen courses that you will apply in the NUS system, you'll stand better chance of securing the courses from NUS. If you can't get enough 5 courses in the notification from your NUS application for some weird reasons, immediately contact Aalto International Office and ask them to help you out with it. In my case, NUS offered me only 4 courses by mistake, and they never really answered my e-mail requests to the point, but when I asked Minna from the International Office to help me, I got my 5th course in no time:)

I major in Economics at Aalto, but I don't necessarily think that I've had enough training in Economics as I've wanted, so I take more "exotic" courses here. I want to enhance my critical thinking skills and brush up my writing skills, which, is unfortunately seriously deficient in studies at Aalto so far. Besides, as I want to further my academic career in research, these courses suit my purpose better than any of the Business courses offered at the School of Business. So unlike many other students, I have all my courses exclusively at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS), not at the Business School:P

That's all for now, next blog to go, I'll give you guys some insights about the courses that I have chosen and the academic environment in NUS.

Singapore/ NUS 101- the pre-departure crucials

Well ahoy ahoy everyone from the ever-bustling Singapore!

Yes, you are reading the first virgin-guaranteed blog post of a never-have-I-ever-done-blogging-before exchanger from Finland to Singapore this Spring 2014! Welcome to my ramblings about the ups and downs in the land of Merlion:)

In this first post, I'll just cover some official registration stuffs and housing choices. In the following posts, you'll gradually see my exposure of Singaporean quirkiness in terms of food, mentality and all my eye-opening experiences with other exchangers from all over the world^^

First, let's go through some of the "red tapes" paperwork that you need to deal with:) Guess what, it is incredibly smooth with Singapore, even for a third-world Vietnamese citizen like myself, whose passport usually causes a suspicious look on border control guys:P

Practically speaking, Student's Pass, after the University has accepted your exchange application and has arranged everything for your In-Principal Approval (IPA) Letter, you will just follow their instructions, apply and pay everything online (freaking cheap, we are talking about 90 SGD for BOTH Visa & Student's Pass- soooo in love with Singapore about this matter!) to the Immigration and Checkpoint Authority (ICA) website. And hell yeah, 3 days only, you'll get your In-Principal Approval Letter.

Afterwards, if you need a visa to enter Singapore, the University will send a PDF version of this Letter to your e-mail, and you'll use it to enter Singapore. In my case ( n in the cases of all Finns), this is not necessary, so all you've gotta do is to fill the Immigration Card on the plane to Singapore, give it to the checkpoint person, and then give the Departure Card to the ICA people arranged by the University on campus to convert it to the Student's Pass later. Just remember to print ALL necessary documents, online payment receipts, etc indicated in the Registration Guide and the university e-mails, and take photos BEFOREHAND, just to save yourself some troubles with finding the printing and photo places in the huge campus of NUS in the first few days:)Anyway, you don't have to even freak out if you happen to forget any documents or your photos, on the registration date, NUS & the Immigration Authority will have everything there for you: forms, photo-taking corner (cost something like 5 SGD I think), printout machine, etc.

Second, yes, the housing, the ONE crucial matter of your next four-and-a-half-month, and you don't wanna screw it:) In NUS, exchange students are more guaranteed to get on-campus housing, as compared to NTU or SMU (yeah, this guy doesn't even have a housing campus concept>_<). After you have received the PDF acceptance letter from NUS confirming that you have been allocated an on-campus housing, you'll need to apply to their stipulated system within certain time frame with three preferences.

TIP: Check out the campus map to locate the available housing options, so that you can make a prudent choice about your desired locations (near classes,good facilities,etc). Also, check out the NUS Housing page http://nus.edu.sg/ohs/future-residents/graduates/utown/rooms.php (for instance, this is exactly how my room looks like in UTown Residence, in a 4-room apartment!) and look at all the accommodation condition, prices, etc. Generally, the Halls of Residence (like Sheares, Raffles, King Edward, etc) mainly has local/degree students with lots of their own activities & a COMPULSORY meal plan; PGPR (Prince George Park's Residence) has a lot of Chinese/Vietnamese students and in fact is in a pretty run-down condition with hot & no-wind-at-all rooms, whereas UTown is the newest with the most exchangers on campus. So yeah, depending on whatever suits you,just apply for it^^

And here's the vital part: ALWAYS choose UTown Residence/Tembusu College/RC4 or any complex that is IN UTOWN (aircon or non-aircon, it doesn't matter really that much, you'll get used to the weather in no time) if you are to enjoy the en suite lifestyle and mingle with other exchangers! Rumor has it that as NUS wants to impress the world about how cool a university it is, it will put as many exchangers as possible into the most fabulous on-campus student's residence - the UTown Residence:) Mostly in these two buildings, there are either exchangers or graduate students, so you basically live in a super duper international neighborhood with people from all corners of the world! and there are so-called Resident Assistants (RAs) in these two buildings who organize very interesting activities FOR FREE or at a very negligible price for exclusively UTown residents. Some highlights include the Tea Art Appreciation session at the famous tea house in Singapore (visited by Queen Elizabeth II!), museum exhibition, Dining in the Dark, Professional Camera Workshop, Fruite tasting sessions, etc. Just make sure you check the bulletin board and your NUS e-mail regularly, you'll seriously be bombed with many invitations from time to time!

My room in UTown Residence costs something like 350 euros/month, much much more expensive than what I paid for in Helsinki, bur considering that I could live on campus in a furnished apartment, with weekly cleaning& toiletry service (living room, kitchen & bathroom), water/electricity/fast Internet included, within walking distance to food courts, gym, swimming pool, classes and with this is very very affordable!


Here are some photographic proofs for you!

Utown Residence building view from the NUS Infinity Pool

My lovely bedroom! I shared the apartment with 3 other wonderful roommates from Sweden, India and Tunisia!

NUS Utown Green and panoramic view

I've heard from the International Office Representative that from next year onwards (2014/2015), the housing-on-campus situation is unfortunately more constrained for most students and particularly for exchange students. The reason is that NUS will close down some of their dilapidated housing residences for renovation, and thus the housing supply will plummet:( Therefore, anyone who is going to NUS for exchange next year, be prepared for off-campus housing and get to know as many NUS exchangers from Aalto as possible to arrange the Plan B housing option soon enough!

After a 10-day pampering myself with my family treats in Vietnam, I officially set off to little Singapore on 07.01. Three weeks have passed since I officially set foot on this little yet remarkable island to start my fabulous journey with National University of Singapore.The weather has been exceptionally nice, ranging from 21-30 degrees Celcius only! Yeah, but this is only a weird exception to the weather here, all the locals are like"WTF" when we ask them about the weather here! I'm still waiting for the moment when this UTown Green turns Yellow, as many people have talked about:))

That's all for now, in the upcoming blogs, I'll have some comprehensive discussions about Singaporean culture, food, NUS courses and on-campus lifestyle, as well as some remarkable traveling experience!

See you soon^^