The Important Stuff

So pretty much, my posts have been about the fun things going on in Singapore so far, but it might be a good idea to give information about some of the important things like classes, transportation, etc. soooo here we go!

Transportation
Pretty simple, and cheap. Coming from Hawai'i this transit system is amazing. The main means of transportation for college students is called the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) its basically a computer automated subway system that travels all through Singapore. The trains come about once every 5-10 minutes and take you  almost wherever you want to go. When you initially buy the card you use to pay the fair, its $12, but you get $7 credit and can refill it whenever you want. Careful though, you can only refill with a minimum of $10 at a time... I didnt realize that once and had to borrow some money from a friend until i got to an ATM :-p. There are also your typical buses and taxi services that are easy to catch as well.

On campus, since it is so huge, they have complimentary shuttle buses that run every 10 minutes or so and go to different parts of the campus which is really convenient because it's so hot here!!

Class Registration
...one word. Crazy. So unlike our school when everyone adds classes based on your class standing, here everyone registers at the same time. For exchange students, the classes were picked for us from a list of about 10-12 classes that we would want to take. My advice is to pick as many classes as you can that will help you graduate, as early as you can. Also, each faculty (or subject) has a different registration time and method. So for example, I am currently in both the business faculty and the arts and sciences faculty. So when I wanted to add more business classes (because they only gave me one) I had to follow a completely separate system for trying to add classes then the arts and science method. If that isn't confusing enough, the local students have it even worse. On top of all of that they have a bidding system in order to register for classes..which doesn't sound like a bad idea, but definitely took me a while to understand, I'm just glad I don't have to deal with that!

Dorms/ Meal Plans
The dorm (or hostel as they call it out here) that I am staying in is actually brand new. It's similar in comparison to our freshman dorms at UH. I live in a whole separate complex just for the hostels called University Town which is right next to campus. It has about 7 residence halls and a bunch of places to eat, a campus bar, and an amazing studying facility with access to free usage of Macs and PCs.

The meal plan is mandatory for some halls, but not for the graduate housing (much like our apartments at UH). The food they serve is pretty good here. We share a dining hall with one other residence hall, and it serves a good variety of food. Asian cuisine is the most popular, followed by Muslim, and then their idea of Western food (which honestly....is pretty bad so no one ever eats it!)

Sports
NUS has a TON of sports to do. Everything from water polo, to rugby, karate, and even kayak polo (water polo with kayaks!!). There are plenty of clubs to join here for sports which i will check up on and give a more in depth update next week.

That's all the info I have for now... classes start tomorrow so I will have a better idea of the class work load then!