School: Day 2

Here at NUS we're on the British university system. This means that classes are "modules," class schedule is "timetable," the time it takes to get a degree is a "course," and that we're all "reading" for our bachelor's degree. Undergraduate students can major in medicine (it takes 5 years), do their residency, and be a doctor without going to grad school and in much less time than it takes in the US. Same for law. But in America doctors and lawyers are paid more comparatively than they are here - it's a draw.

I had my second class today, "Eastern Political Thought." About half of the students in the class were on exchange. Standing in the hallway before class, halfway around the world, I introduced myself to the person next to me. He was from California, knew all about Oregon - we had the same conversation I have with people from California in the halls of U of O. I blame California, but take solace in the fact that all the students from UC schools had their on-campus housing applications rejected and are living an hour away from NUS. Another reason why it's good to be from Oregon.

After class, I bought shark soup at the fair being held in the center of campus - it was a lot like egg drop soup, thick and ambery, with chewy bits of fishy meat that I suspect may have been crab or krab. More interestingly, I was shortly joined by three exchange students - Victor, Michael (finally! a name I can remember!), and Movy (not pronounced like movie). Victor introduced himself as being from Taiwan. I proceeded to make an ass of myself and ask if Movy and Michael were from Thailand as well? No. They were from (snicker) mainland China. We then had a very frank and fascinating conversation about everything that interested us in the others' culture. Why do Americans shake hands so much? Is Berkeley a private or public school - is it in the Ivy League? Why are there so many gun deaths in the US? We talked about neo-nazis, old nazis, Japan's WWII legacy in Asia and the US; I asked about the schism between Taiwan and mainland China, they pointed out that we made an unlikely group to talk about that. I decided to leave off questions about free speech, democracy, and the oppressive communist regime for our next talk. They were nice people and we exchanged numbers; I hope to see them in the future.

Sorry I don't have any pictures for today. Trust me that the inside of this university looks vaguely similar to every other university, and that the differences just aren't interesting. So here's a photo from a couple of days ago.


The Hindu Sri Mariamman Temple in Chinatown


Fountains abound in this city. Good Feng Shui, apparently.