Singapore Study Abroad

I returned Sunday from a 3-week trip to Singapore for a study abroad class. The class was about international product development and design, and included students from the National University of Singapore (NUS), BYU, and Penn State University. It was a great experience. The students worked on teams including students from NUS and at least one of the other two schools, and they were assigned to develop a new product that would help improve the work of hawker centers in Singapore. Hawker centers are basically open-air markets where people sell all kinds of things, though it's mostly food. The students did a great job, and we really enjoyed Singapore.

Below is a picture of me at what is supposedly the southern-most point in continental Asia, though that's actually a bit funny, since a glance at a map shows you that there are other places nearby that are a bit further south.

I also visited Merlion Park, where there is a statue of a Merlion spraying water from its mouth. A merlion has the head of a lion and the body of a fish, and is a national symbol of Singapore.

Singapore is a fascinating country. It is a city-state at the southern end of the Malay peninsula, and is mostly comprised by a large island, with a few smaller islands around it. When it gained independence in 1965 (it was formerly a British colony), it established English as the first of its 4 official languages, and began requiring all school instruction to happen in English. As a result, the majority of the population speaks English, and all the signs, ads, and so on are in English. In fact, there are lots of people who consider English to be their first language, even though their grandparents spoke only Chinese or Malay. It's also very clean and safe - I never felt remotely threatened, even walking all over the city at night. They also have a great subway and bus system, so that you can get anywhere on the island fairly inexpensively.

Jennifer and the kids stayed home so that the kids could finish their school year. We spoke every day (sometimes several times a day) on FaceTime, but I'm glad to be home with them again. I brought lots of Singaporean candy and snacks for them to try. So far, they've liked several of them, but others they haven't enjoyed as much. We still haven't tried the Durian Paste, which is made from one of the stinkiest fruits I've ever encountered. I'm also still trying to get over jet lag, though I feel a lot better today than I did yesterday.