Some order to the chaos

(A picture from our first day in Singapore - getting used to the climate and the large amount of activities ahead of us!)

Today was the first day of just classes and nothing else, so it's been a big break for everyone (especially those that want to go do their own thing!) Every day, Monday through Friday, we have classes from 9-12 and usually an afternoon activity or an evening activity. Instead of an activity, today our History professor showed us a movie called Singapore Dreaming that was absolutely WONDERFUL. It gave us all a lot of insight on a hidden part of Singapore and yes, there were subtitles so we could understand what was going on :)

One thing about Singapore is that, being a nation that separated from Malaysia in the 1960's and having been formed solely of immigrants from other nations, the "native" Singaporeans are nonexistant. Race is a very big thing here and there are four main categories that people are placed into: Chinese, Malay, Indian, or Other (including Caucasians, Eurasians, and Peranakan - a fusion of Chinese and Malay). Since these are the main types of Singaporeans in the country, there are four official languages and EVERYTHING must be made available in these languages. From this, the Singaporean culture has created their own mixture of languages called Singlish
though we haven't been exposed to it very much thus far. If I learn any new words, I will share. :) This made the movie really interesting, however, as there was an occasional English word thrown into the mix - it was exciting!

(A picture of me in front of the skyline of Singapore! It's extremely hot here and very tropical, but very industrialized and modern. Singapore isn't really like any other place out there!)

In my classes, we have our Southeast Asian History course from 9 until 10:20, have a break, and then resume with the Politics and Economics of Southeast Asia from 10:30 until 12. The readings have been overwhelming so far, to say the least, sense it is all incredibly dense material - but we are all still just trying to get used to being in Singapore, too! :) Our History course is taught by Dr. Ser Hwee Quek, an NUS professor (who actually teaches American Studies to her other students!) The other course is taught by Professor Layna Mosley and Professor Andrew Reynolds, both UNC professors who came with us on the trip. A lot of our afternoon activities (like our trip to the various Boards that govern different aspects of Singapore) will give us a lot of insight on the information we're learning in our classes! This past week, the events were more of a basic introduction and bracing us for the massive amount of learning ahead :) The one notable learning trip was to Parliament, which I can talk about later, as well as our trip tomorrow to the Hwa Chong Institution, a school in Singapore!