Last month, my friends and I took a trip to the Singapore zoo.Here we saw a large number of different animals. The most interesting part is the architectural style of the zoo that shows south-eastern culture.
In conclusion, the zoo is really worthwhile!
After a two-day break, we ushered in an orientation and friendship event in SUTD.
I took the MRT with my fellow friends, we got off the train from Upper changi station and came to SUTD, which is also where I will study and live as an exchange student. SUTD is Singapore University of Technology and Design. This is a university that has just been established for ten years. Its scale is not large, but the curriculum design and education concept are very advanced. This is why I came here to study.
Although I have seen pictures of it online, it still impresses me with its modern design and wonderful plant decoration in the middle. Soon, we came to the think tank of orientation, and the staff of SUTD started to introduce our exchange program to us. I noticed that not only Asia, but also many students from Europe and the United States came here to study. Next is game time, and we know each other through games.
After learning about the new school and making new friends today, I am really looking forward to my future life.
On a gentle night in September, I set out from Hangzhou and got on a plane to Changi Airport. After a few hours of flying, I woke up from my sleep and saw an illuminated island out of the window. This was Singapore’s first impression of me, quiet and vibrant.
After getting off the plane, I felt Singapore’s charm as a multicultural country. I saw many people with different skin colors and different clothing styles at Changi Airport.
The first problem I encountered was that I did n’t know how to take a taxi. In my home country, we all used an app called didi taxi, but this app is no longer available. I googled and found that people use the app called Grab here, I downloaded it, but there is no suitable payment method. Finally, with the help of passersby, I learned that today’s first MRT is about to depart, and the Anglican house I’m going to is not far from the MRT, so I came to the MRT station near the airport. After more than half an hour on the subway, I arrived at Tanah Merah MRT station. Leaving the MRT, I followed the direction of Google Maps to the Anglican house where I would live for three months. After rectification, I was tired, lying in bed, thinking about my future life, feeling excited and nervous. Although I just finished summer research intern from the United States, studying in a new country is still so exciting. I will cherish the opportunity to learn and feel the charm of Singapore’s multiculturalism.
On the first weekend of my own travel since I came to Singapore, I went to the center of Singapore, where there is a world-renowned hotel-Golden Sands Hotel. The sight of the real thing is more shocking than the photo. It is opposite to it It is Singapore’s famous Ferris wheel. In the evening, the sunset light on the Ferris wheel makes it look like a sunset on the seashore. It is very beautiful. At night, the Ferris wheel will change all kinds of wonderful lights. But due to lack of time, I regret not being able to board the Ferris wheel to watch the beautiful night view of Singapore.
However, I went to Gardens by the Bay, where the plants and buildings are very beautiful, very local characteristics of Singapore, it is very refreshing. On the same day, I also encountered a marathon event. Everyone dressed up as Batman. There were many people involved, men and women, young and old, and their happiness infected me, making my journey more fun.
Before coming to Singapore, I had a strong willingness to find out something on my major and myself.
First was the understanding of design. In my home university, we refer design more to an art concept. It is a major on visual and feeling. But in Singapore, although many pillars are named with design, the meaning to that is quite different. It is more similar to arrangement. For example, if you are in ISTD, your design mission is to well arrange a project, from its code to its database as well as user interface. Sometimes art is considered little in the process. One of my profs once said UI designer was strongly needed in current society. It shows that the computer science not only helps complete users’ objects, but also is used to fulfill uses’ feelings. And in our group work in SUTD, I am in charge of UI design of our project. I used to think I learned little in my university, but in our group work I started to feel that I could think of problems from the perspective of a designer, I could find different views with others. Anyway the education I got in my home university has a vogue but deep influence on me.
Besides, I was hesitating what to do in the future, keeping studying for master in China or going abroad. So I used this experience in Singapore as a trial for figuring out whether I could overcome studying overseas. Although learned a lot and made many progress here, I still find I am not suitable for studying abroad. Maybe this experience will help me and give instruction to my choice in the future. That’s what valuable indeed.
Lastweek, the whole team of a class went to our local teammate’s familly for dinner. This was the first time I went to a local’s house, his families were very enthusiastic to us.
Cause that the topic our team chose was about frozen meat, so that most of the dishes are meat. There were sesame oil chicken, roast chicken, fried fish and fried shrimp. All of them were very delicious.
During the lunch, we talked a lot about life in Singapore. They recommend many famous local food and deserved attractions to us, we also told them some great chinese food. Many of his family could speak Chinese, so it was not difficult for us to understand each other.
It was really a good nigh!
Before leaving we went to the underwater world on Sentosa for a visit. Before going in, I think it’s just a small museum with underwater animals, but in fact, it’s far bigger than I have expected. There are so many rare animals in the museum and the dolphins are really cute!
The week before last week, students living on the 5th floor of Block59 had an interesting event: decorating the 5th floor in Christmas style!
Some used green and yellow decorative ribbons to make a Christmas tree with a big bow on the top. Some used colorful paper tapes to decorate the boxes near our doors as a gift box, and put beautiful paper flower on the cross. And some cut red and green clothes into the shape of Christmas socks and put cute items on it, then sticked those socks to everyone’s door.
After several night’s hard work, now our floor is filled with Christmas atmosphere! And we won the first prize in the housing decoration competition.
Now Christmas is coming. What will a tropical Christmas be like?
The last stop was the Night Safari, which we have learned on the English book in middle school.
Owing to the bad light environment there, I didn’t take many successful photos for memory.:(
Zoo is too common for everyone, but exploring at zoo at night will be a different experience. We met so many animals moving at night on the tram, although I didn’t remember them. And there was a show where you could see cute animals and their special skills, such as the little coati helping with classifying trash, and beautiful birds flying around among audience and back to its owner.
In one word, don’t miss Night Safari if you come to Singapore.
In Singapore where you can’t miss is Sentosa.
It is valuable to buy a ticket for the cable car. So you needn’t bear the long distance to the land and can enjoy the beautiful scenery from the up view.
The first stop was certainly the Universal Studio for sure. There were so many interesting activities with theme of movies published by Universal Studio. The one I like most is Despicable Me, so I bought a lot of unicorns at the goods shop. Apart from the two main roller coasters, there were also other several ones. One activity I used to think is an indoor exploration, so I took it with my mom. But then we found it was actually an indoor roller coaster with swift going down and losing gravity. But I’d like to introduce the activity of Transformers. Although I never watched its movie but I felt the activity exciting and interesting.
After the exciting experience in Universal Studio, then why not have a slow and romantic trip to the beach? There are three beaches in Sentosa where you can reach almost the most southern land of Asia. But make sure you can bear the sharp shells in the sand, otherwise don’t take off your shoes. Standing in the sea, facing the cool wind and watching the sun going down, what a wonderful time!
At last, if you still have energy, shopping at Vivo City will be a good choice!
TF LEaRN Programme @ SUTD 