It has been 6 months since I visited Singapore for a summer school program at NTU. I must write something about that month there, which left a lasting impact on me. With that being said, I don’t want to delve too deeply into it and just show something I encountered.
In this part, I will write about the flight, living and studying aspects.
Tours, eating and other sections will be included in the next part.
got on board a southbound seven eighty-seven
It’s in the early hours of the morning when I boarded the plane and when I arrived in Singapore, it was already past 4 o’clock in the morning. By the way, the facial recognition machines at the customs had a very low accuracy rate and that resulted in I was questioned by the customs officer for a long time.
living
We lived in Boon Lay at the beginning and Queen’s Hotel for the last 10 (?) days.
Boon Lay
In my perception, it’s counterintuitive to recognize that its appearance is more like a village in China than a modern city.
Simple fruit stalls, aged comic book store, Chinese supermarkets run by Taiwanese immigrants and electronics stores (which have been replaced by online shopping in China) can all be found here.
Marina Bay
Can’t understand this arrangement because it’s quite far away from NTU. It takes almost 1 hour to cross the whole Singapore and arrive at NTU.
But the buffet breakfast in the hotel is exceptionally delicious, especially its eggs and milk.
However, aside from being far from NTU, this is indeed a great place to stay. The landscape, such as that famous sky wheel here is picturesque, and it is conveniently located near NUS and various shopping centers.
If I had to choose between these two places to live, I will choose Boon Lay for its cheap foods and rents prices (geographical location is not that important for the convenient public transportation in Singapore).
studying
The studying experiences didn’t really impress me too much. Actually it’s pretty similar to studying in China: the professor lectures in the classroom and I read my papers on my laptop. The content of the classes was rather cliche, the basic of machine learning and deep learning, basic big data, or something just like this, without delving into anything more advanced or innovative. It’s clear that the professor Yong Ee hou, who graduated from Harvard University, is quite talented, but it’s also apparent that he lacks enthusiasm for these boring classes. I’m not saying he’s not good, he is indeed a good professor and has given me some very useful advice.
Luckily, the segment where we engage in discussions with the doctoral students in NTU is quite engaging. The doctoral student who spoke with us was quite charismatic, he talk to me alone for a long time, giving me some critical advice in science research. During our discussion , we also shared our personal stories.
