After coming off of a 16-hour flight from San Francisco to Singapore, I noticed that the airport was very quiet. Landing at 5 am, I wasn't expecting the airport to be hustling and bustling but with the number of people, there seemed to be a calm and relaxed air, very hot though. When I first arrived at NTU's campus, I noticed it was very large, so much so that there needed to be a minibus system for this campus that housed 37,000 students and faculty, and once classes started you felt the sheer number of people. This is because the queues were quite long, especially at peak lunch times. Lastly, the first day is the most hectic as you are trying to set up a stable living condition and service all at once.
As I developed a routine, which took a longer time than I would hoped, it became easier to center myself in the hustle and bustle. As for classes, I found the rigor to be about the same if not easier than GW classes. Now, at the halfway point in the semester, I still have the opportunity to talk and meet with new people, with people being open to developing friendships even further which is in direct contrast to college where people tend to close themselves off very quickly. There is also a level of hustle travel culture as Singapore is geographically pretty tiny, but still, there is a lot of activity densely packed within this country.
Going forward, I hope to get to know my professors more as they tend to be more approachable than American professors, and trying to be more disciplined in my studies as we are picking up on assignments.
Autumn Carpenter
Fall 2024
GW Exchange - Nanyang Technological University
Elliott School of International Affairs
International Affairs Major