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The first week seemed like it flew by: I got settled in my dorm, met my roommates, started classes, and then BAM — it was the weekend already.
At first I thought it would be challenging sharing a dorm room with 5 other people, but I’ve actually found that I like it. My roommates are all really nice girls, and I chat in mandarin with my three Taiwanese roommates a lot. Everyone has been really helpful with any questions or concerns I have and it hasn’t been too hard getting to know people: I try to go with the mindset that other girls are probably shier than me, so I try to be a bit more outgoing and initiate conversations first.
The first week of classes was mostly sitting in courses and deciding which ones we’d like to take. Since I’m in my senior year, there’s a limited number of classes I can take that will fulfill my degree requirements; there were some cooler sounding courses, such as ”The High-Tech Industry in Taiwan”, but I had to settle for some core courses and an elective: Organizational Behavior, Financial Management, Information Management, and Global Leadership. Although the fall semester here ends in January, all of the professors have been very accommodating in letting students that need to leave early (such as me) to do so in December. Most of them got their degrees in the U.S., so they understand how the university calendars are different.
With the exception of one class, Information Management, I’m taking all of my classes in English. The College of Commerce teaches a lot of their courses in English with American textbooks because they believe teaching the way U.S. business schools do is the best way to give their students the best advantage. As one professor put it, English is the language of business, and Taiwanese students should get used to listening, speaking, and conducting their projects in English. I guess this system works out for me since I can take Information Management in Mandarin, while still having the textbooks and tests in English. However, after sitting in on many of my classes, I have to say I do admire the Taiwanese students in my courses; I couldn’t imagine taking business courses in English when I have difficulty communicating in that language.
A typical morning market in Taiwan. This isn't the one my auntie works in, but it's similar.
After a week getting the academics all sorted out, I hopped on a bus and took the metro to meet up with my mom at an auntie’s house. My mom has been here a week and decided to go stay with her friend, who I call “auntie SuFang” in Chinese culture, for a couple days before she flies back to Seattle. I haven’t seen auntie SuFang since I was little, probably around 7 or 8 years old, and so I was really excited to spend some time with her and my mom. SuFang owns a clothing store in a Taiwanese morning market and lives right above it. My mom and I stayed in her house and spent most of the day with her downstairs at the store, chatting with the neighborhood housewives that stop in during their morning stroll or grocery trip. It was really nice to be completely immersed again into a completely non-English, Taiwanese culture; I felt 100% at home.
Spending time with auntie SuFang made me remember how funny and easy-going she is, which made me very reluctant to leave and go back to school Monday: I wanted to spend more time with her! Hopefully, in the next couple months, I’ll get the chance to go back and see her again. It would be nice to leave the “exchange student” atmosphere and plop back into the simple Taiwanese daily life I enjoy so much.
Wow, China really is an amazing place. All the historic sites that we have visited have been nothing short of breath-taking. Being able to connect what I have learned about my heritage to the actual places where it all happened is an amazing experience. Over this past weekend we visited the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, and the Forbidden City.
we definitely pushed our physical limits. After many stops for pictures, countless water breaks, and a little bit of socializing, we finally reached the end of our painful hike and climb to the top of the section. Just as we had imagined, the view was amazing and we really felt chills being able to say that we had climbed the Great Wall. However, what really made the experience great was the way down. At one end of the section, there were both gondolas and toboggans that the public could ride to get down from the Great Wall. Of course we chose to toboggan and it was probably the most exhilarating thing we did in Beijing.
has his actual body inside, and I think I can speak for everyone when I say that you definitely feel chills walking through. It was crazy walking through the memorial of such a prominent figure that made such an impact on history, and it’s a feeling that I’ll never forget. After some pictures in the actual square, we moved on to the Forbidden City. After hearing so much about it and seeing parts of it in the media, the Forbidden City still exceeded my expectations for how beautiful it would be. Although many royal structures were designed similarly, the size and history of the Forbidden City awed all of us.
Regardless of how many days you stay here, India never stops amazing you. In New Delhi, I found the Islamic influences in India and a new picture of insane humidity and traffic. In Agra, I found the wonders of the world from the Taj Mahal to Akbar’s tomb and the families who turned rocks and tarps into homes. In Mumbai, I found slums where people living in far worse conditions than me, living unimaginably content lives. In Pune, I found Tata motors, the Nano, and proof that India is definitely coming up as a powerhouse in the global economy. In Goa, I found open beaches and Portuguese influences in buildings, language, and food. In Bangalore, I realized just how far India has come in terms of information technology and why it 
has surpassed so many developed nations with its abundance of knowledge. In Mysore, I found majestic palaces and wonderful silk in a variety of colors.
I honestly can’t believe the time flew by so fast! I am all packed up and down to my last 24 hours in India. I am sitting in front of my computer as one hot sticky mess, thanks to a coating of sunscreen and bug spray, preparing myself to spend my last night alone due to the fact that both my roommates leave tonight. It really did take me the first two weeks of the trip to start to get used to life in India and now that it is coming to a close I feel that I am at a point where I could stay longer. That is, until I realized I subconsciously started scratching my bug bites, and come to the conclusion that my body will welcome the change.
number of breaks we had to take, I can’t imagine it doing it at a later time when the sun has risen and it is several degrees hotter. As it was, once we finally made it to the top we were able to be cleansed of our bad karma and given chai before we headed down the mountain to meditate at certain caves. It was quite the experience and once we made our way down the mountain we returned to our hotel and met up with our group, who were excited to hear about what happened. When our two-day excursion came to an end we were all ready to go “home.”
During our recess week in late February (also called reading week because it is right before the midterms), we planned an exciting trip to Cambodia and Thailand. Our seven-day-trip was packed but enough to let us indulge ourselves in the local cultures and heritage.
no A/C bus where one of my friends had to sit in a plastic chair in the aisle, suffer the burning sunlight, and breathe in the flying dust from the mud road. Nonetheless, we arrived safely in Bangkok, where everything is very very inexpensive. We visited the extravagant and beautiful Royal Palace, visited temples, shopped, and had a nice dinner overlooking the Bangkok city. On the sixth day, we flew from Bangkok to Phuket. Phuket is a very touristy place; there are pubs and clubs everywhere. And finally on the eighth day, we flew back to Singapore and started studying for the midterms.
There is only about a month left in my exchange, and I am getting busier with projects and studying for finals. Sometimes I walk on the streets here in Singapore and I would go, “Hey, I seriously AM in Asia!” I have tried speaking Singlish, had two days Chinese New Year holidays when I normally wouldn’t, explored the beautiful Angkor Wat, walked through the extravagant Royal Palace in Bangkok, paid an entrance fee to a temple in Phnom Penh that applies ONLY to foreigners, rode in Tuk-Tuks, and bargained yet still paid premium for taxis. I am so glad I bothered with the application process and everything (though it wasn’t all that tedious anyway), ‘cause I seriously AM in Asia and enjoying every minute of it!
This is a blog on my travel experiences in Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, and Thailand. My first formal tour of Singapore was when I just got to Singapore. I had a tour of the city with two other friends with the help of their local buddy. My second tour was back in late February, my friend Bob from Taiwan visited and we had the chance to tour around Singapore a little. Bob was an exchange student at UW and we met in Speech & Science class. We walked around Fort Canning Park and Clarke Quay, took pictures with the Merlion, and had Hai Nan Chicken Rice, a famous local dish. Singapore is really compact, it is a city state with everything inside neatly organized.
My Malaysia trip, was really a short trip to Kuala Lumpur. One weekend back in February, my friends and I took a trip to KL. Flying around Asia can be really cheap with the budget airlines. They are strictly no-frills (meaning food, snack, and water are for sale only; yes, even water is not included in the ticket fare). We flew Tiger Airlines and stayed at Tune-Hotel.com, a budget hotel by another budget airline, Air Asia. Because we spend most of our times outside the hotel, staying budget is a great way to save money. It didn’t occur to us that Kuala Lumpur had much to see as we were not interested in spending time at museums. It is an urban city and the things to do are shopping, shopping, and more shopping.
It has been a little over a month since my arrival here in Singapore. And I thought yeah why not let me write my blog on National University of Singapore. So here it goes!
Course load wise, most students here are taking 5 classes, even those on exchange. But I am taking only 3 classes because I figured if NUS really is harder than UW, I should not overload myself and instead try to do the best I can while taking the minimum required credits. I am currently taking BECON300, FIN350, and ACC225. My classes consist of a weekly 2 hour lecture and a quiz section, both meeting once a week. The professors and tutors (as they call the T.A.’s) here speak Singlish, even in lectures. Maybe some professors do have an American accents but the professors and tutors I have, don’t. Except for my Econ professor, who studied in America before and has an American accent. Sometimes the accent detracts me somewhat from paying attention in class, but it is bearable overall.
