I took an 11-hour flight from Honolulu to Taiwan on January 7th with a 9-hour layover in Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, followed by a 5-hour flight from Taiwan to Singapore. Upon arrival in Changi Airport on January 9th, I purchased a prepaid SIM card from a Singtel booth near the baggage claim area. If you have an unlocked phone, you should be able to switch SIM cards and carriers easily. Update: In hindsight, StarHub seems to have better roaming coverage plans. I was unable to use the Singtel data plan in Penang, Malaysia and decided to purchase a separate plan for use in Penang. Others with StarHub were able to directly deduct from their existing data plan. I arrived in Tembusu Residential College in University Town at around 8:45pm via Uber. I recommend arriving in the morning so that you have time to purchase bedsheets, pillows, clothes hangers, towels, etc. at IKEA on Alexandra Road. I slept on the plain mattress on the first night. You may purchase a router, plug adapters, and just about anything else you may need at Clementi Mall. Buy a 2-pin (US) power strip that has a 3-pin (Singapore) main plug for your dorm so that you won’t need more than one plug adaptor for use outside of your room. I purchased the D-Link DIR-605L Cloud Router for just S$29 at Challenger on the 4th floor of Clementi Mall. NUS does provide an Ethernet cable. Plug adaptors can cost as little as S$2. However, demand is high with exchange students from NUS, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), and Singapore Management University (SMU) flooding the nearby stores. I spent the first week alone in my 6-bedroom apartment on the 17th floor of Tembusu College. The 5 local students moved in on the Sunday before the start of classes. I found out that they have all been staying in the same apartment together for 1-2 years previously. Our majors are all different, ranging across mechanical engineering, political science, computer science, philosophy, communication, law, and business. Aside from the 6 single rooms, we share a common living room area, two showers, and two toilets. In Tembusu College, there is a common lounge on every floor, laundry machines on the 9th and 17th floors, and a pantry on every three to four floors (one per house). The house system in Tembusu College consists of endangered Asian animal species: Shan (Snow Leopard), Ora (Komodo Dragon), Gaja (Asian Elephant), Tancho (Red-Crowned Crane), and Ponya (Red Panda). The house committees organize events from time to time. I am in Tancho. I'm lucky that the laundry room, refuse disposal room, and pantry all exist on my floor. Throughout the first two weeks at NUS, I attended a number of orientation and welcome events, including the International Students (NG) Orientation Briefing, the NUS Biz Welcome Tea and Welcome Party, and the SEP Orientation Briefing and Welcome Party. I recall my first meal in Singapore, breakfast in UTown’s Fine Food, the morning after arriving. All exchange students were in the same boat of not knowing anyone, but eager to meet everyone. The first week was a hectic period of trying to remember the countless names, faces, and facts of everyone I met.
Interning in Singapore
Non-graduating exchange students are not allowed to work or intern, paid or unpaid, while studying abroad in Singapore. Exchange students may decide to apply for a work pass after the academic term and after turning in the Student’s Pass. You may visit here: http://nus.edu.sg/cfg/students/international-students or the ICA’s website for the most up-to-date information. This is bittersweet. It feels odd to not work and have so much time, but this will allow me to become more involved in interest groups and clubs, travel more, meet more people, etc. Registration Part II and Student’s Pass Matters I completed Registration Part II, where I received my NUS Student ID (aka Matriculation Card), and submitted the Student’s Pass application documents on the NUS campus. Upon submitting the application documents, I received an appointment slip to pick up the Student’s Pass on campus at a designated time the following week. Business Module Registration The module add/drop system and timeline are different for business and law modules. We were given details regarding registration for business modules at the NUS Biz Welcome Tea. I was not able to change the modules allocated from the NGE Application until the add/drop period, however, one of my modules changed without notice (FIN3101A to FIN3101B). During the add/drop period, I successfully added two courses (ACC1006 and BSP2001). During the appeal period, I successfully appealed FIN3101B to FIN3101A. Before the deadline to drop modules, I dropped BSP2001 (Macro and International Economics) since I had yet to receive approval from Shidler’s OSAS of course equivalency with BUS 313, and FIN3103A (Financial Markets) since only two finance courses are transferrable to Shidler for credit. The following is my final course (module) schedule, fulfilling ACC 409 and two finance electives: Comments are closed.
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ABOUT ME
Keng-Chia Chao BBA Candidate in Finance, Accounting, & Management Information Systems Shidler College of Business, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Archives
May 2018
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