My NUS journey

I woke up early to the sound of the pouring rain . It was 7 am in the morning , and I was supposed to have breakfast provided by the compulsory meal plan here . The night before , after I have come to terms with my home sickness , I have decided to wake up early today and have the breakfast . But , it was raining . So , I did what most average people in their right mind would do : Go back to sleep . 

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The next time I woke up , it's already 12 pm . It's amazing how fast time could pass by when you sleep . It's almost like a time-travelling tool , to the future . Just one nap and bang , 5 hours gone , just like that ! I raised the curtain up the window and looked outside .

The view from my window.

The view across my window is yet another condominium-like hostel , complete with balcony that was filled with a barbell set , a coffee table and other miscellaneous equipment . This wasn't the standard of living you would expect an university student would have , though my friends told me that it might be a professor's house or a married couple's apartment .Such is the luxury of accommodation that they offer here.  Of course , the price does not come cheap . I am staying in a single bedroom apartment that costs around $500 per month .. in that respect , one can only imagine what would the cost of the apartment , fully furnished , and come equipped with balcony would be . * $hudder$*

Since it was a weekend , and I haven't officially started my schooling term yet , I decided to explore nus by walking around the campus .The love of walking and exploring new places was ingrained in me since young . Since walking is the  most ancient means of transportation from one place to another , and also since it's the most cost effective one ( i.e FREE ) , I love it . It would be the best way to explore and get to know every nook and cranny of NUS. Though , life seems to always has a way of messing up with my schedules , and this time it did it by raining , again . Still I was obstinately persistent . So, I went out , with an umbrella and still by walking . 

Inevitably , the atmosphere was anything but comfortable , walking on a rainy day on a muddy road , where splashes of waters bouncing off the floor would hit your leg as you walk . In retrospect , it was my fault because I was wearing a short pants with a slipper rather than long pants and covered shoes . Oh well ...

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Anyhow , here's a summary of what I have found out in NUS after a 2 days of exploring it.

First thing's first . Singapore is a super modern country . Seriously , the technology that the normal people are using here is way more advanced in Malaysia . However,  I got no complaints for that because it made my life a whole lot easier and convenient . 

Tap the room card to the little sensor device below the door knob to open your doors .  It's time to throw away your keys people !

 From top to bottom : Room Card , Student Card , Bus Card

Case in point : Access to nearly every facilities here is granted by using a card . Here , I don't even have to bring any keys out because the cards act as key to everything . You want to borrow a book in library ? Use the card . Want to get some food in the dining hall , use the card . Want to go in your room ? Use the card . In fact , this room door key replacement concept is so abstract to me that I have no idea how to go in my room the first time !

Next, the lighting system in my residential colleges uses a smart motion sensor to detect any movements of people. It will only light up if there are people nearby , otherwise it will always be switched off . Cool huh ?

Also , they have a vending machine for nearly everything that you could think of . Even electricity !

The Central Library .

Photo credit to Soon Vin

Equipped with nice , soft-tone lighting and state of the art facilities . This library in NUS here looks and feels comfortable . They provide a lot of books here ( obviously , duh ! ) as well as study rooms and computers with internet access . Kind of the same with the one in my home university , except that it just looks so much nicer and modern .

Photo Credit to Soon Vin.

I was amazed that even a non- graduating exchange student like me could borrow up to 20 books . And there's quite great amount of fictions , academics and non-fictions book which can never be found in my home university library I guess . I borrowed Steve Job's biography by Walter Isaacson ! :D






One of the convenient tool here is this Library Book Drop point . You can find this book drop point available in many place strategically placed around the campus as to ease the return of a borrowed library book . All you have to do is just place the books that you wanted to return to the nearest Book Drop point near you and that's it ! You don't have to purposely go to the Central Library every time to return books . Convenient huh ?

Food

Another thing I notice here is it will be hard to find any traditional hawker centers ( imagine sitting nearby a tree , in an open air environment, without the comfort of air-cond , replaced instead by only the breeze of natural wind , waiting for your hot steaming meals to be served by the waiter ) . In Singapore, they are increasingly being replaced by food courts, which are indoor, air conditioned versions of hawker centres located in shopping malls and other commercial venues. In NUS , you don't have to worry about food as there are many choices of food ranging from Western, Chinese , Indian, Japanese , Vietnamese , Korean , Japanese and many more type of cuisines . 

My Hostel's Dining Hall . 

I was lucky that the Residential College that I stayed in provide a compulsory meal plan that gives me the choice of meal between Western , Chinese , Muslim and Indian cuisines . Oh , these set meals also come with free flow of mango juices , coffee , milo or just plain water too ! :D And did I mention that the meals are quite nutritionally balanced too ? They provide the caloric values and other nutritional information of the meal for those who are more health conscious . Amazing . 

In the case that you get tired of eating the normal food over and over again , and you happen to have a bit more spending power , go ahead and indulge in Starbucks , Sakae Sushi , and many more restaurants and cafes which are conveniently located IN my residential college . Seriously , they are all just a stone's throw away from where I stay . Sometimes , it made me wonder if I am really in an university campus or a mall .

Transportation
The transport system in NUS is infinitely more efficient than that of my home universities . The bus comes on time and at a commendable frequency of every 10 minutes during schooling days . There's a MRT station inside NUS too so you could get outside through the MRT . ( MRT connects to nearly every places in Singapore ) . Then , there's still buses and taxi . Even if everything else fails , there's always your reliable legs to depend on :) 


*PS Thank you very much , Sheng Di for being my tour guide in nus , and for accompanying me despite the rain . ( P.s never knew you read my blog too lol . Hope you see this ! Haha ) Having a presence of a familiar Malaysian friend certainly did ease my home sickness more :) * 

That's all for now folks , there will be more to come in the future , hopefully ! :)