Adventures in Southeast Asia

Natalie Sutton is a junior Business Administration major from Chapel Hill, NC.  She received the Phillips Ambassadors scholarship to study abroad through the National University of Singapore – Kenan-Flagler Business School exchange program.

I find myself very comfortable with my life in Singapore now.  The city is extremely clean, developed and Western, which facilitated my transition to life in Asia and eliminated my fear of culture shock.

It is a tropical island that is the only true “city-state”  in existence.  One can travel across the island in about 45 minutes by car, although I am now accustomed to the efficient “MRT” or metro network and the public buses. I miss driving so much, but love living in a big city.

The government of this tiny republic is incredibly involved in the people’s lives and poses strict fines on littering and jaywalking.  Drug trafficking is punishable by death!  In terms of my assimilation to the culture, the two toughest challenges are definitely the weather and the food.  The weather is so hot and humid.  It will be 95 and sunny and then literally all of the sudden you will hear earth-rattling thunder and a monsoon rain will commence, creating a flash flood in minutes.

There is an extremely powerful “food culture” here and a common greeting is “Have you eaten?” I am finally pretty proficient with chopsticks. You can find every type of Asian and international delicacy throughout the city, and if you eat in the “hawker centers” or small individual food stands like food courts in our malls, you will never pay more than five Singapore dollars for a meal … so about $3.50. Eating and shopping eating are their favorite pastimes here.

As such a young country characterized by different peoples and formed through foreign investment, Singapore is still struggling to define its “identity,” and only the generation born here can truly call themselves “Singaporean.”  The majority of the population is Chinese, however, there are many Malays, Indonesians, and Indians. The four official languages are English, Mandarin, Tamil, and Malay, but most commonly you hear the fast, complicated dialect called “Singlish”.  Singapore was just voted the number one place in the world to do business and has developed from a third world fishing village that was part of Malaysia to a first world country in merely 44 years.  For a country that lacks all natural resources except water, this is pretty impressive.  Singapore literally has to import everything and relies on foreign investment, but it serves as a business hub for the world. 

Speaking of business and development, I am in the National University of Singapore business school.  NUS is renowned as one of the best universities in the world, and although there is school spirit, the dynamics are completely different from UNC.  I feel strange not being involved in many different activities and organizations.  Singaporeans are very reserved and motivated.  Their work ethic is inspiring.  Last week, I initiated the 1st Annual “NUS Show Your Love Week” in conjunction with one of my teachers, four of my classmates, and a student organization.  We asked students to do a different task each day for one week. (For example, tell the bus drivers and canteen workers thank you and surprise a friend with his or her favorite snack.)  It was so wonderful to see more interaction, happiness and expression in the faculty, staff, and students.  It was certainly crossing some cultural barriers (I am a little too expressive for these people) but I hope it will become an annual tradition.  It was a very rewarding way to honor Eve Carson’s legacy and share the Carolina Way.

One of the greatest aspects of study abroad in Singapore is the opportunity to travel.  So far I’ve made to to Bintan, Indonesia (poor, yet picturesque beach island); Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (the bustling, progressive capital city famous for the Petronas twin towers and fascinating Batu caves Hindu holy site); Phnom Penh, Cambodia (capital city and famous for the tragic Khmer Rouge massacre); Siem Reap, Cambodia (the amazing Angkor Wat ruins of Khmer temples where Lara Croft: Tomb Raider was filmed); Bangkok, Thailand (very modern and absolutely gigantic with unbelievable Buddhist temples); Phuket, Thailand (beautiful island hit by the 2004 tsunami), and Kota Kinabalu, Borneo, Malaysia (a breathtaking tropical paradise known for the tallest mountain in Southeast Asia).  I hope to make it to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam and Bali, Indonesia before I leave for the semester, but we will see.

I have been blown away by all that Asia has to offer.  I’ve learned more from my travels and my interactions with people than I will ever learn in the classroom.  I stand out as a tourist and foreigner wherever I go but always find warmth and acceptance.