In Tampines West Community Centre, we volunteered to help the children who participated in the Yeah! Program. One the way back, I thought that we were not ‘helping’ them though, but rather played with them.

The children have specific names for different kinds of people around them., ‘Couches’ are those who will stay with them, nurture them and give them stars. ‘Mentors’ are those who constantly come in a period time but one day will stop coming. So they will not feel like someone is leaving them again and again.

We are mentors.

The children can be naughty and childish, but they are more artless and cuter. Once a girl said to me ‘Are you an alien? Cuz I am’. And one day when we were going to play floorball, a boy carried the kettle for others. He was switching the kettle from left hand to right hand, and then from the right hand to left hand. I asked them if he needed some help, he just smiled and kept going.

We played badminton and floorball with them. It was five and we were showered in the afternoon sunlight, running, jumping, laughing.

The first weeks to learn in SUTD is pretty hard for me.

I find it really hard to understand what professor is talking about since the topic is academic so there are lot of new words.

Also, the learning model here is very different from what I had before. SUTD forces more on software technology, no matter on modeling or using real data to do analysis, but in my home university, we pay more attention on hand drawing and remember a lot of principles to judge mostly by Personal inference . Simply speaking, we use different software in daily learning, so we exchange students have to learn a new software while local students can operate them skillfully.

Lucky, I find Singaporean really friendly. They will ask me whether I need help. When I can’t understand the request of professor or meet question on software, I can always turn to them and they will never get impatient.

The canteen in SUTD is has a diversity of food, such as Chinese food, Korean and Japanese food, Indian food, and halal food. The canteen opens the whole day from 8 am to 7 pm. Students can freely choose which time to go to eat. In the canteen, it’s common to see students have a group discussion or celebrate a friend’s birthday. The canteen is an outdoor dining room. The birds can easily fly in and eat the food residue.

The food I like the most is the Healthy Soup. There are pork ribs and healthy vegetables like tomatoes, potatoes, etc. And the dishes there also tasted like Sichuan dishes in China. Through talks with the owner, she really came from Sichuan province.

Korean food is also very popular, there is always a long queue in front of the window. Actually, I haven’t tasted the Indian food yet, because some of my friends have tasted and seemed not accustomed to the flavour. While I will try it someday!

We have been in Singapore for three weeks, the course is being carried out in an orderly manner, and we are gradually integrating into the local life.

This week we went to the National Gallery of Singapore. I admire the Singapore government’s level of care for the infrastructure of society. We also went to the Singapore Design Center to see the award-winning Red Dot Art Collection. Of course, after watching the 50-year Singapore design collection, I feel very fortunate, especially when I saw the work of a teacher who once came to Zhejiang University to lead us together. I hope that I can also make some works that can inspire other people’s heart.

We saw a group of students rehearsing on the grass opposite the National Museum of Art. I enjoyed this comfortable time.

We arrived at Singapore on 2th Sep. Because I had never been to here, I felt curious about the city. It is a quiet and orderly place, where people are strictly guarding the social order.

This is our first week to be exchange in SUTD. In the middle of the week, we start to have our lessons. To have lessons taught in English, it is really a challenge for me. When I was in China, I do not have too much experience in communiacating with people in another language. The lack of experience made me afraid to talk to others initially. After several days, I gradually felt accustomed with the unfamilar environment and communicated more fluently with locals.

Part of us live in anglican house, the hostel of anglican high school. The environment around the hostel is very livable, far away from the centre of city. With little cars on the road, it is pleasure to have a walk after dinner. After purchasing the daily necessities, the room becomes comfortable.

To help us get to know the city better, SUTD arranged a buddy day for us. A group of local students took us travel around the school and some famous places in singapore. We were divided into four groups and had a race to finish different tasks. Through the interesting race, I had eaten lots of special food here and got to know the history stories of the city. Thanks for the buddy day, I gained meaningful experience.

The experience here is fresh and exciting for me. I become look forward to the following days to get to know the city better.

 

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2018/09/03-2018/09/09

Singapore is not big, but there is still a hill worth climbing!

They call it the highest hill in Singapore.

When we started to climb, what we faced was a long, steep ramp. We were almost defeated before it ended. Then was normal stairs.

I felt a bit tired since it is my first sports in Singapore. However when we finally reached the highest point, I got really happy because I could say that I had toughed the top of Singapore.

On the orientation day’s afternoon, we explored Singapore, amazingly yet roughly, together with buddies from SUTD.

It was not a normal trip but a race where we five groups competed on how many tasks fulfilled within the allotted time. We were quite efficient to make tasks done, since we just took a picture together with the target buildings mentioned in the list and tried our best to order different snacks for lunch. It’s worth mentioning that we did win the biggest package of candies finally.

To some degree, this trip was my first exploration of Singapore’s diversity. What impressed me was its strong cultural inclusiveness, as well as the orderly and well-designed urban public space.

Exploring Singapore – Episode 2

The Amazing Race gives me a great opportunity to discover the most special aspects of Singapore. We have buddies from SUTD and exchange students from China, South Korea, Finland, Sweden, together we visit the landmark of Singapore, taste the local snacks and experience multiple cultures.

We have tasks to finish of course because ‘Amazing Race’ is a competition among groups. We didn’t hurry to finish the tasks as much as possible, but instead enjoyed our times together and shared things about our own countries.

As an architecture student, it was fun and meaningful for me to actually be in the buildings we saw on the Internet. We visited the Art and Science Museum, Marina Bay Sands, Theatres on the Bay, Helix Bridge etc. And in Arab Street I visited the famous mosque Masjid Sultan where rituals happen.

The amazing race had been colorful just as the buildings we saw during the day.

Upon arriving in Singapore, I was quickly attracted by the tropical plants and unique architectural style. Also, when walking on the streets, I can strongly feel the nature and the harmonious relationship between plants, animals, and human beings.

The sidewalk here is surrounded by grassland and other unoccupied places are also covered by big scale grassland. Obviously, the government emphasis on the green rates and try to make the country a natural space to live in.

I also take the bus for the first day arriving in Singapore, the distance between each bus stops is quite close. When you need to take a bus, you must see every bus passes by carefully, and remember to wave to the driver. the metro transportation in Singapore is well-developed, we can easily reach the majority of sites in Singapore.