Author Archives: jtm5184

Sikh Temple (Singapore)

                Singapore is somewhat of a melting pot of different cultures.  Since it was settled much later than most other Southeast Asian countries, the population is a mixture of various cultures from the surrounding region.  Singapore has four official languages- Chinese, Malay, Tamil, and English (left over from British imperialism), with English and Chinese being the main two.  There is fairly even mixture of a number of different religions as well.  The mixture of Asian cultures makes for unique experience in practically every cultural avenue.

I am very interested in a sympathetic view of things that I don’t necessarily agree with, but such views are difficult to come by and are often stumbled upon by accident.  One of these accidents came when I visited a Sikh temple a few days ago.  A few friends of mine went on a tour of the temple the previous weekend and invited me back for a free Sikh dance lesson.  My time spent in the temple turned out to be far more of an eye-opening experience than I had expected.

Specifically, I was moved by the sense of community and compassion shared by the members.  After the lesson, we were urged to have lunch downstairs in the cafeteria where hundreds of members are fed multiple meals every day for free.  I am unsure of the economic status of most of the members, but it seemed to be an impressive system of private welfare, where anyone struggling would have a place to eat a few warm meals every day

I was not allowed in without a head covering, but one of the men outside provided me with his so I could eat.  Inside, the people went out of their way to make us feel comfortable, insisting on serving us and making everything as easy as possible.   I have no idea what I ate, but it was actually quite good.  I am generally skeptical of any kind of religious faith, but my experience in the temple was a nice reminder of the other aspects of religion that I don’t often consider, such as instilling a strong sense of values and community.  I came away very impressed and even made a little donation, which was really the least I could do considering my whole day there was otherwise free.  I didn’t bring my camera with me, so unfortunately no pictures this time.

In other news, I have a trip to Bintan, Indonesia planned for this weekend (a  4 day weekend since I have Mondays off and Tuesday is Hari Raya Puasa), and I booked a flight to Thailand for my week off in late September.  I’ll be there for close to a week, so I’d like to visit another country (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, etc) while I’m up there.  If anyone is familiar with the region or has a recommendation, please let me know your recommendations!


Location: Sikh Temple, Singapore

Beginning Days

jtmpanoramic.JPG

              I’ve been in Singapore for almost two weeks now and I’m definitely feeling settled in.  I’ve found a nice group of friends and have met a bunch of new people.  Of course, the other Penn Staters here are the coolest!  People tell me Singapore is a weird place to study abroad and perhaps they’re right.  But I think the weirdest places often have the most to offer.  At the very least, weirder places attract weirder people, which is great if you’re looking to make some interesting friends.  So far, it has felt more like a vacation/summer camp than a study abroad, but with classes starting tomorrow it’s looking like that will change.  I’ll be taking four classes here, but rumor has it that they are more challenging than classes at American schools (ie they grade on a bell curve here).

                Two weeks probably isn’t enough to see most countries but Singapore is different.  Singapore is small.  Before I left, a few people asked me “Which country is Singapore in?” not realizing that Singapore is its own country, or a city-state as it is often called.  This isn’t to say I have seen the whole city by any stretch, but I’ve certainly seen a lot.  My first impression it that for such a nice country, it is really a shame how little Americans seem to know about it.  The only thing most of my friends seem to know about Singapore is that you can’t chew gum here (which isn’t completely true- but more on that in another post).  Southeast Asia has a reputation for being unsafe and poor, but Singapore is actually the complete opposite.  I think most Americans would be surprised to learn that Singapore is safer, cleaner, richer, and, in my opinion, nicer than almost any American city I’ve visited.  This wasn’t the case fifty years ago, but the amount of progress Singapore has made over the past half century is nothing short of astounding.


jtmdowntown.JPG

                The country’s infrastructure and small size makes it very easy to travel around.  The public transportation system of busses and trains will take you anywhere in the city for a couple of dollars, and all of us exchange students have been taking advantage of that almost daily.  Singapore has all of the things a typical city has- the harbor, the financial district, China Town, etc, and over the past few weeks I have at least seen the main attractions at each site.  Some highlights so far have been the food, zoo, nature hikes, downtown, and National Day.

               National Day is Singapore’s equivalent to July 4th in America.  It seemed as if almost all five million people in the city came downtown to watch.  My school books a prime location at the harbor every year for “Rag Day,” where all of the school faculties put on performances with floats, videos, and choreography.  Afterwards, we have some of the best seats in the city to watch fireworks and the rest of the festivities.  Conveniently timed only a few days before classes, National Day was a great way to have some fun and learn about Singaporean nationalism and culture before the semester begins.

jtmnatday.JPG

Yes, there is a boat on top of those buildings.


Location: Singapore, Singapore

Singapore Intro

After 30 hours of travel, I arrived in Singapore last night. I’m still getting used to the time (it’s about 3 AM here and I just woke up a few hours ago!) but everything has been going great so far.  The campus is beautiful- everything is brand new and there are multiple new buildings being constructed nearby.  The building I’m living in opened just a few days ago so my cohort will be the first people to live here.  I live in a a 6 person apartment, though we all have single rooms, in a 21 story building with a nice view of the city from the top.  I’ve only met one of roommates so far but the rest should be arriving soon.

Traveling here was hectic as expected.  I flew from New York to Tokyo on a 13 hour flight, had a few hours in the Tokyo airport, and then flew 7 hours to Singapore.  Apparently the Japanese are a lot more interested in visiting America than Americans are in visiting Japan as I was the only non-Japanese person on the whole flight.

Modern planes are getting nicer and nicer.  I had a total of 3 meals, and a personal flat screen TV with on demand movies, TV shows, and even video games.  I divided my time between ipod, video games – a racing game, tetris, and various puzzle games, reading – I finally got around the Dan Brown’s newish book, The Lost Symbol,  and movies – 3:10 to Yuma which was fantastic.  I threw in a few hours of sleep here and there too, but not nearly enough.

Today, I was able to a little bit of exploring around campus and the city but I’ll touch on those more in later posts once I know I get a better feel for the area.

Overall, I hope to use this blog for two main purposes- First, to let friends and family see what I’ve been up to.  And second, to discuss various interesting things I come across.  I hope that the second purpose will be enough to keep the blog interesting enough so that even people I don’t know might still read my posts.

My plans are to write about some of the following topics:
-Culture
-Food
-Beer
-That really cool Boat Building
-Travels in Southeast Asia
-School
-Weird laws
-Things I’m doing
-Things I’m thinking

But I’ll just play it as it goes and blog whenever I feel I have something interesting to share.  Before I go, here are some pictures of my room, building, and area:

Thumbnail image for room1.JPG
Thumbnail image for room2.JPG

My building is the tall one at the top rightbuilding123.JPG

quad123.JPG


Location: Singapore

First Post

Hello!

This is just a test post to make sure the blog is up and running.  I fly to Singapore on July 28th so the real blogging will start then!  I’ll make a post beforehand to preview the blog and my time abroad too.

I think the best way to keep up with this blog is to add me to an RSS feed- a program which informs you of updates and allows you to read my entries without actually checking the website to see if I’ve made an update.  I personally use Google Reader (www.google.com/reader), which is simple to set up, especially if you already have a G-Mail account.  Just add the website of my blog (http://geoblog.psu.edu/author/jtm5184/) as a subscription, and it will give you all of my updates each time you open your Google page.  I use this to keep up everything I’m interested in, from sports to current events, as it is a lot easier than checking each web page I visit to see if it’s been updated.  I highly recommend this method to friends, family, and anyone else looking for an easy way to keep up with everything.

Back to write more in a month!


Location: State College, PA