September 27, 2009
A Trip to the Library
I had a few hours to kill between my awesome seafood lunch at Clarke Quay, and going to the F1 Singapore Grand Prix (today was race day). So like any good MBA student (ha), I went to the library to do a bit of studying. Singapore National Library was mentioned as good place to go, although I was foretold it is very popular and often gets quite crowded.
I proceeded to their Study Lounge on the 5th floor, and I must have been greeted to what appeared like a massive high school slumber party. Calling the place ‘packed’ was a gross understatement – there were kids sitting on the ground studying. Their textbooks were laid out like a fortress, marking their territory and protecting them from other invading students. Some kids were taking naps on the sofa seats. I had trouble just strolling around to survey the place. Needless to say every seat and table were filled. I proceeded down to the library book level and the situation did not fare much better – kids were also on the ground with their books and laptops. I finally managed to find one seat that was free, and considered myself lucky for the next few hours.
Could this be the only public library in all of Singapore? I can see that it’s a very nice and state-of-the-art building, but it seems as though all Singapore library goers converge into this place. When you have kids studying on the floors – it’s time to open up more public space. I’m not Singaporean, but of all the things that public funds can be spent on, this makes pretty good sense.
Unless I get an urge to study on carpet floors, I won’t be making another trip to this library again.
September 15, 2009
The Pace of Life
An interesting observation after commuting around S’pore for a little while: Singaporeans don’t seem to like ‘doing other things’ when they commute or travel. This is about as well as I can describe the phenomenon, and I would classify it as a bit strange.
I’m the type to leave home carrying my breakfast and a boxed drink, listening to music, sometimes holding a set of case notes to read before class. I’ll finish my breakfast by the time I reach the bus stop, then start chatting on MSN and will furiously type on my phone until the bus reaches the school. I’ll likely keep typing while walking through campus until I reach the classroom. My observation of life in Hong Kong is similar; people are always eating, drinking, doing multiple things on the go.
Not so for the people in Singapore. It didn’t strike me until last Friday, after I bought a drink at 7-11 and was walking through one of the busiest shopping malls during after-work hours. The mall was extremely crowded, and I started to notice that I was basically the ONLY person holding any type of food or drink walking through the mall. It was so strange I actually started to get a bit self-conscious and wondered if I was doing something wrong. I then came to the conclusion that most people don’t eat or drink when walking on the streets, in malls, or at bus stops. On the buses and MRTs, people are generally very quiet – hardly anyone talks, neither on their phones nor to their friends. This is very unlike public transit in Hong Kong and other Asian cities (i.e. Japan) where people are yapping nonstop to each other and at their phones.
Maybe this is the culture of Singaporeans, maybe there are some other reasons that I, as a foreigner, do not quite grasp. I enjoy noticing these little quirks and cultural differences as I stay here longer. I’m sure there will be more to write about in the near future.
September 11, 2009
The MBA Experience
My Typical Week in Google Calendar
MBA life is busy, there’s no need to sugarcoat that fact. I think the school’s intention is to see if it can fill up your Outlook/Google calendar so much you can barely see any white space in between events/meetings/classes. I now have to colour-code my events so I can tell them apart, otherwise my calendar just looks like one big event when you look at it from far away.
When I see my classmates, I think our end goals are all the same: Input = your life for 17 months, Output = good job with a hopefully higher salary in the field that you are aiming for. But the activities that we choose to fill our student lives with are very different, I think it breaks down to the following core line items:
- Study, homework, projects, case studies –> so you can graduate
- Meeting people, network, share experiences –> broader perspectives, future contacts
- Getting involved with school clubs, student council, volunteer –> altruism, hate to say it but it also makes the resume look good
- Things for your health (eat, exercise, clean) –> hopefully to survive, mentally and physically, to get past this year and a half
- Party, drink, more parties and planning weekend trips to beach islands –> hookup (if you’re single), but alcohol is just a good way to de-stress
The reality which I currently face at this moment are: 2 midterms, 3 case studies, 3 networking events, 2 workshops/training sessions, and a badminton tournament – all in the next 5 days. Mind you, a bunch of my activities are self-inflicted. Having just organized a badminton tournament, I’ve also started to take guitar lessons up on campus, and I’m starting to volunteer for Junior Achievement of Singapore. I just went for training this evening and will be teaching the JA Titan program during October.
It feels like 24 hours really isn’t enough for one day, but I’m having a great time trying to balance all of these activities. Reading break is coming up soon and hopefully I can catch my breath at that time.
August 31, 2009
Hawker Centres
I love hawker centres, or here they’re just called food centres. Almost a month here in S’pore and I think over 90% of my meals have been from a hawker stall, whether it’s on the NUS campus, or somewhere around Clementi (where I live). In North America I guess you would call them ‘food courts’, but unlike NA where they’re overun by chained fast food places, hawker stalls here are mostly just ‘mom n pop’ shops (which makes them great).
Almost every HDB complex (where majority of Singaporeans live) has a hawker centre below one of its buildings. I think I already know seven hawker centres within 10min walking distance from my place. Hawker centres exemplifies the controlled and structured environment that is Singapore. At almost every hawker centre, you can expect at least these following stalls:
- Chicken Rice
- Western Food
- Indian Food
- Congee / Noodles
- Seafood
- Beverage / Drinks
Of course some centres will have more than others, that’s what makes it interesting to travel around and experiment. A lot of centres will have Claypot Rice, which is one of my favourite dishes. I also love what they call EconoRice here – basically the ones where you pick 2 or 3 items + rice. We have those at the Asian malls in Vancouver, but the word EconoRice is new to me – I love that word LOL.
Also notice that there is always a dedicated stall selling drinks, you have to buy your drink at this stall as none of the food stalls will sell drinks. I don’t think you can ever achieve this type of specialization and centralization in North America ;)
People will say that I only love hawker centres because I haven’t gotten bored of it, which is probably true in some ways. I see many young Singaporeans heading to Long John Silvers (fast food fish-n-chips – yuck) and Subway. Never say never, but I don’t think I’ll be visiting those places for a long time.
Some good food sites that I have come across:
- ieatishootipost.sg: blogs Singapore best food
- 10 Favourite Singapore Hawker Food
August 18, 2009
Dude, Where’s My Car?
One of the things about living in an Asian city is that you have to be prepared to take public transit as your main mode of transportation. I grew up as a young kid in HK, worked there briefly and regularly go back every couple of years. So it’s not like I don’t know what an Asian city is like. But living here in S’pore, and living a student life, makes me really miss my car!
On a regular day I have to carry at the very least:
- laptop and adaptor
- books
- notepad and pen
- folders for class notes
- water bottle and an umbrella
Now I’m playing badminton on campus a lot, add:
- shoes
- t-shirt and shorts
- towel
- racquet
My morning routine almost always include the highly skilled game of ‘How to carry everything on my back and take the bus to school‘. Today I resorted to taking my 36L trekking backpack (the one I used on the West Coast Trail) just so I can shove everything into one bag. I looked like a real dork around campus (no one carries a backpack that big here), but oh well.
I miss having a car, I just want to throw everything in the trunk and take off. Here in S’pore it’s damn costly to get a car. I won’t even explain all the cost that goes into owning a car, but there are things like Certificate of Entitlement (COE), import duty, registration fee, an additional registration fee, road tax. Then not to mention insurance, gas, tolls on highway/CBD area.
I think I’ll stick to my 36L backpack for now.
August 15, 2009
Here’s another go at it…
I was at a Sentosa party tonight, and a bunch of my classmates and I were chatting about campus activities, student clubs, and MBA life in general. We recalled something that was said to us in our orientation: “Enjoy your next year and a half as a full-time student, because you’re probably never going to get another chance at it in your life.”
And this is quite true. The reason we’re doing an MBA is not for our love of academics. We all hope to graduate, get a decent job and ascend up the corporate ladder. Most, if not all, of us will not go for another degree after this.
So what does this all mean? Not sure about the rest of my classmates, but for me it’s doing those things that I missed out on during my undergrad years. Back then it might have been due to apathy, a lack of understanding of the real world, or just focusing too hard on courses. Now I’ve given myself another go at it, at being a student again, and this time there will be no excuses. This all sounds very nice and fluffy, and I’m not known to be a theoretical pie-in-the-sky kind of guy. I’ll stop here and come back when there are concrete results to all this gibberish writing.
~Art
August 10, 2009
Hello World! Hello Singapore!
Today marks a full week that I have been in Singapore. The past 7 days feels like a mad rush to establish the basics of a (modern) life: bank account, mobile plan, immigrations paper, furniture shopping. I feel like I’ve dropped a few rungs in Maslow’s hierarchy and am desperately climbing back to a familiar level.
Today was also the first day of class at NUS, marking the beginning of a 1.5 year MBA program that should bring plenty of adventures and excitement. Coming in without a large set of expectations and keeping an open mind, hopefully possibilities will open up that I never knew existed before!
Interestingly, today also marks exactly a month since I left my last job in Vancouver. Looking back on my last 3 weeks in Vancouver, it was a whirlwind, make that a cyclone, of activities. When you have a limited amount of time left, you naturally spend it with the people, and do the activities (i.e. food, sports, places) that are most important in your life.
Constraint is a necessary and positive thing in life. Abundance breeds complacency, and this is no time to be complacent.
~Art
