McCombs BBA Study Abroad Blog

I have now been in Singapore for a whole month, and I can’t believe how fast the time has flown by! It has been an amazing experience, and I am really enjoying my time here! I have made a really close group of friends that I hang out with often and travel with. I have also gotten accustomed to my new classes and professors, and I LOVE the Business School here. Here are some  highlights from the past month…

August 9th was National Day in Singapore, and we celebrated by wearing red and white and attending the parade and fireworks show. The parade was mostly a display of all the military vehicles in Singapore, which are pretty impressive, I must say. The parade was followed by an AMAZING fireworks display! It was probably the best fireworks show I have ever seen, and they were right over the water at Marina Bay, which is bordered by a beautiful skyline. 🙂

I traveled to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for a weekend with the other five students that are here from UT and a few of our new friends who are exchange students from Europe. We stayed in a hostel in Chinatown, and this was my first hostel experience, so it was a lot of fun! We bought tickets for the Hop On Hop Off tour bus, which allowed us to visit a lot of the tourist sites in Kuala Lumpur. We visited the Petronas Towers, the National Monument, the KL Tower, and few other really neat sites. We also visited Batu Caves, which is a Hindu temple nested inside of a giant natural cave structure and requires you to climb a flight of two hundred steps! Kuala Lumpur felt so dirty after living in Singapore! But, the tourist sites were amazing and definitely worth seeing.

This past weekend, we spent the day at Sentosa, which is a man-made beach and island resort in Singapore. It was very relaxing and beautiful, especially during the sunset. It is nice to have Sentosa so nearby… it’s perfect when you’re in need of a getaway! I’m sure we’ll be going there again sometime soon.

My friends and I have also signed up for a scuba diving trip! We are getting certified next week and then going on a diving trip on September 10th to Tioman Island with a group of other exchange students. I am really excited (but also nervous) but I think it will be beautiful! I will let you know how it goes!

I tried out for the hip hop team here, and I found out yesterday that I made it, so I am super excited to dance and make more local friends! This is the team that I joined: http://www.nus.edu.sg/cfa/our_talents/dance/danceblast.php

Other than these few exciting tidbits, I have spent my time getting accustomed the culture here by trying local foods and visiting various sites in Singapore. I am really glad I chose to come here for study abroad, and I am also very fortunate to have made some amazing friends here that I know will last beyond this semester! I can’t wait to see what the rest of the semester entails!  🙂