Erina Szeto

I've been planning my study abroad semester since I entered college mostly because I thought, "why not?" and by my junior year I wanted a change of pace from Berkeley. I had visited Singapore for a week before and chose it for a number of reasons: it's (possibly) the best food city in the world, I have family there, it's a gorgeous city/country, and there are unlimited travel opportunities. National University of Singapore is the flagship university in Singaporean higher education and seemed like a great place to study.

There are so many. I went on a week-long sailing trip in Indonesia with a bunch of Singaporeans and one Taiwanese student, one German and one English professor, a New Zealander captain, and two Indonesian crewmen (goes to show the sheer variety of people you meet in Singapore). I remember sitting on the netting over the prow staring at the open ocean and having these long winding conversations with people about everything imaginable: Singaporean politics and social issues, their experiences in national service, traveling and working abroad, childhoods, secret societies, history and geology, etc. As much as I value learning a different language, it really helped that we all spoke English because we could have these intricate conversations right away. When we weren't jungle trekking, snorkeling, hiking volcanoes, and exploring coral islands, I read stories that our captain had written about his adventures; he's been sailing around the world for most of his life and has more interesting stories than anyone I know. In the evenings we all sat around the table and ate nasi goreng for dinner and even had some grilled sting ray once, and we slept on the deck at night. This was by far the best trip I've ever taken.

I wouldn't say I had many big challenges, but here's an odd one. Many of my friends and I were sophomores and juniors, and thus were trying to apply and interview for internships at home during our study abroad. The time difference often forced us to do Skype interviews either around midnight or 6 in the morning--not the best time to be interviewing. Not being at home and physically present for the internship search process is definitely problematic and somewhat stressful, but we did our best to stay on top of things and were happy with what we were offered.

On weekdays, I woke up pretty late and took the shuttle to get lunch at the arts and social sciences canteen (amazing yong tau foo, hainan chicken, and bee hoon with sambal). I attended a two hour lecture and headed to the central library afterwards to do readings for class. I grabbed dinner with friends at one of the two canteens in University Town and ice cream or Gongcha for dessert. In the evenings, I hung out with friends on campus or took a bus or the MRT downtown for swing dancing, a jam session, or a night out in Clarke Quay. On the weekends, all bets are off. Half the time I would be in another country and the other half I would be wandering around Singapore.

I typically take an engineering curriculum at Berkeley, but at NUS mine were almost all humanities classes. I took history courses in Chinese migrations and war in Indochina, a course in marine technology, and a course in geomorphology. I ended up with one final exam, a lot more reading than I normally do, and maybe three or four papers to write for each class over the semester. For me, NUS had much less lecture time and the workload was lighter, but I know not everyone shares this experience.

I really appreciated the constant sense of adventure and willingness to do what I normally wouldn't. We all acted like this was our one chance to do anything we wanted to do. I regularly sang jazz in front of strangers (something I've never done before) and had a lot of fun doing it. I learned how to cross the street in Vietnam without feeling like I was about to die. I discovered that I love fish balls and hot noodle soups, even when it feels like a hundred degrees outside. I traveled by myself in Thailand and earned two scuba diving certifications. There's so much I never would have expected coming into study abroad.

It helped me realize that I'm perfectly capable of living abroad and feeling comfortable in a new place with new friends. I would love to go back to Singapore, and I would absolutely consider living abroad again in the future because I know now that it's doable and incredibly rewarding.

If you can, study locally relevant things; you'll come to feel that you know the place much better than if you took courses that could be offered anywhere. It's easier to make friends with other study abroad students than local Singaporeans, but if you try to reach out it'll pay off. Also, just generally keep your eyes and ears open for the millions of opportunities that are out there.