Humans of UTR

“I took my International Baccalaureate (IB) exams last year in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. I’m from Medan which is in North Sumatra, Indonesia. Over there, we didn’t have to take formal examinations for our IB as a result of the pandemic and we were only graded on our project work and individual essays. Nonetheless, scoring a 45 out of 45 for the IB came as a surprise and it was definitely a challenge to score that grade. Outside of my academics, I love to play the guitar. I’ve always had a strong affinity to music, however, I was never taught by a music teacher. I remember literally googling “how to play the guitar” and then watching YouTube videos to teach myself how to play it back in secondary school. I guess seeing my peers being able to play musical instruments made me want to play a musical instrument too. Some of my favorite songs to play on the guitar are songs from Studio Ghibli, which is best known for its animated feature films such as Spirited Away. I also play songs from other films like How to Train Your Dragon.

I’m grateful for the opportunity to come to Singapore and NUS to study. Ever since I’ve been here, I’ve realized that it’s such a clean, beautiful country. If given the chance, I’d love to visit Europe or the Americas too – maybe in a few years when I apply for exchange. But I must admit that I do miss home sometimes. Because I miss my cat, Toto! I don’t have many nice pictures of the both of us, but here is a cute picture of me at a cat cafe in Japan. As you must’ve guessed, I love these furry creatures!”

“I’m a first-year student here at NUS studying in the Business Administration faculty. Even where I’m from in Jakarta, Indonesia, NUS is a well-known school and is very prestigious. I’m so glad that I can come here to study. This is the first time in my life that I’m living abroad and by myself, so this is a whole new ball game! I only moved into UTR at the start of November due to the COVID-19 restrictions. Before that, I was taking all my classes online. Nonetheless, I thought that my instructors and my peers were all really supportive and friendly.

I can’t wait to explore what the city has to offer! The first two sights I want to see would be Marina Bay Sands and Gardens By The Bay. Whenever I see pictures of these places, they look so beautiful that I’m sure they would take my breath away if I were to see them in real life. I’m also a huge foodie. Before I came here, I heard from a few friends that the Singaporean version of the famous local dish, chicken rice, is way better than anything I’d have had before in Indonesia. I was skeptical at first and thought that they were exaggerating, but when I tried the chicken rice at Flavours@UTown, I must admit that they were definitely right!”

“One of the biggest lifestyle changes I’ve made has got to be hitting the gym. I was never really a gym buff, but I wanted to start taking my fitness and strength seriously. It was like a switch turned on in my head. I feel like this decision pivoted my perspective because it felt that I suddenly had control over my physical body and strength for the first time in my life.

Watching my body grow physically and also feeling mentally stronger does give me confidence as a person overall. Moreover, when I need to take my mind off something, I can just hit the gym and my worries disappear. The best way I can describe it is that I lift my pains away. Emotionally, I feel lighter so I would say that gymming is definitely a great coping mechanism. I feel that when I’m in the zone, I can channel all my energy and focus into lifting and that motivates me to always want to achieve more and to push myself to the limits. The gym is where I have made some of my best friends. Despite the way some of them look on the outside, they are literally some of the most non-judgmental people I have ever met. The gym is a really healthy place to be in as there are lots of supportive people and the environment itself encourages you to be a physically and mentally stronger version of yourself.”

“Getting into NUS has always been my dream since I was a kid. Growing up, my parents always told me how great of a university NUS is, so the fact that I’m actually studying here is amazing and I’m so grateful for the opportunity. NUS is actually really well-known back home in Sri Lanka and I feel really fortunate as I think I’m the only student from Sri Lanka who is enrolled into the first-year cohort at the NUS Business School. I remember when I first saw the Business School building in real-life, I was mind-blown.

I’m pretty athletic so I love to do a variety of sports. I used to be a really strong swimmer but since there were COVID-19 restrictions, I haven’t really had the opportunity to train in the pool and build my stamina that way. That’s why I’ve started working out in the gym to get my exercise in. I’ve only been in Singapore for three weeks so far as I only managed to enter the country when the travel restrictions became more relaxed. I’ve got to go get my EZ-link card sorted and the first thing that I plan to do is to visit the Merlion! My girlfriend told me that she really wants to see a picture of me there beside it.”

“I picked up hiking as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. I needed a way to get some fresh air into my system and hiking was the perfect way for me to do so. Usually, I hike by myself. The picture above was taken in front of the S9 building at the Science Faculty. My most frequented hiking route is the one where I start at UTown and end at Henderson Wave Bridge. I always time my hikes perfectly - I’ll start at 4pm and make it just in time to catch the sunset at the bridge. Along the way, I’ll pass by Gardens By The Bay too! That’s what I really love about Singapore. There’s greenery everywhere! There was this other time where I hiked from UTown to Orchard Road. The route was about five kilometers long, so it was pretty manageable. After I complete my hikes, one of my favorite things to do is to indulge in a nice meal after. I was pleasantly surprised with the concept of “coffee shops” or “food courts” when I first came to Singapore as you can find so many delicious foods at such cheap prices! One of my go-to meals after a hike is Ban Mian which is a noodle dish that has soup, green veggies and some meat in it too. Although it isn’t spicy like the food I tend to have back home in Chengdu, I still think it’s really tasty. You can always add some chili to the dish if you want that extra kick.”

“The highlight of my NUS experience thus far would have to be having the opportunity to go for a summer school course on Finance at the London School of Economics. In the beginning, not going to lie, I was pretty intimidated. The course was an introductory course which covered so many new concepts and I struggled trying to balance schoolwork, travelling and making friends. Fortunately, I quickly assimilated to the culture there and soon enough I was thoroughly enjoying myself! In fact, this picture was taken on one of my short weekend trips to Oxford! Once borders open up, the United Kingdom would be one of the first places I’d want to visit again. That three-week stint in London only feels like the beginning.

I’m so glad that I signed up for this summer school opportunity the moment I saw the email inviting students to register in my mailbox. I had always been very keen on the idea of exchange since my Freshman year, but I knew that there was no guarantee I’d be able to go for it. It’s competitive to go for exchange with the Business School as we have this points system which determines not only the partner schools you go to, but also if we can even go on exchange in the first place! I did end up having the opportunity to go for exchange in Bocconi University in Milan, however, I was recalled as that was the semester that the COVID-19 pandemic had hit. On the flight back, I was really upset, but then realized that I should be grateful for even having the chance to experience a little bit of Italy with its gorgeous sunsets and its lovely weather. I can always go back!”

“The first CCA I joined after enrolling in NUS was NUS E-Gaming, or NUSEG for short. When I was a freshman in 2018, I remember that the CCA didn’t even have a proper booth being set up at the annual Student Life Fair and their welcome tea was only attended by a handful of people. Despite these factors, it still felt natural for me to join NUSEG as gaming has been a hobby of mine for as long as I can remember, and I was excited to make friends with fellow gamers.

Shortly after joining, I signed up as a member of the Executive Committee because I wanted to help organize more events and spread word about NUSEG so that more gamers could join and share their passion with likeminded friends. Since then, despite all the long hours and hard work, it has been a really satisfying journey to watch the club grow from only 200 members to almost 1000 now!

Despite the ongoing pandemic affecting most CCAs in NUS, NUSEG has managed to continue hosting events without many problems due to the online nature of computer and mobile games. Thus, I’ve been successful in making lots of friends and will be sure to treasure these happy memories long after I’ve graduated! Many people tend to ask us about how we cope with juggling our studies and gaming, but my answer is that it’s not much different from having other hobbies like watching movies, for example. It’s simply a matter of having the self-discipline to manage your time!”

“I studied Environmental Science in my undergrad years before doing a Masters in Environmental Engineering, and finally, I’ve ended up here – doing a PhD in Chemical and Biological Engineering. Even then, what I’m researching on for my PhD is still focused on the environment. I analyze the environmental impact arising from a business or a product. For example, if you’re thinking about public policy and you need someone who is knowledgeable on the impact a business or a product is on the environment, then I’d be your go-to person. I never actually knew that I’d end up in this line of research. It was only when I started to study Environmental Science when I first entered university that I thought to myself that this looked really interesting and promising. Unfortunately, back home in China, this is not a major that can land you a job easily. That’s why I decided to come to Singapore as I think it is much easier to land something here. I’m really grateful for the opportunity not only to continue studying what I’m really passionate about, but to also live independently here in UTown Residences. I’ve only been here for a semester so I’m still exploring what this place has to offer.”

“During the circuit-breaker period last year, I was going through a lot of personal problems and it took a big physical and mental toll on my health. I was eating unhealthily and I never exercised at all. This was exacerbated by the work-from-home situation. As a result, I noticed that I was gaining a lot of weight. I could not wear a lot of my clothes and this deteriorated my mood even further. One day, I decided enough was enough and I made a commitment to myself that I would exercise an hour a day and to also put good food in my body. I looked up exercise videos on YouTube and doing those exercises turned out to be really fun for me! I’ve since inculcated exercise into my daily routine and I’m glad to say that I’ve lost the weight that I had put on.

The circuit-breaker period was a milestone in my life. Being able to lose the weight that I had gained during that time made me feel that since I could control my weight, then I could control everything else that was going wrong in my life. My mindset shifted completely and I felt like I could do anything. When exercise started becoming a part of my daily routine, my friends and family also started to lead a more active life and that too gave me the motivation to keep at what I was doing.”

“I did my undergrad in the US and I took a gap year before coming here to complete my PhD in Psychology. You could say I got a good mix of the Western and Eastern education. I went to the US when I was 18 and since I had studied in China my whole life, I experienced a huge culture shock when I first arrived there. In general, people had a very different way of thinking, it’s difficult for me to pinpoint just one specific thing. I think because I was also studying Psychology, these sorts of things naturally stood out to me. It was truly a transformative experience as I realized that different people could have such different ideologies. When I was studying in high school back home in China, I never had the freedom to choose what classes I really wanted to take. Over there, the focus was really on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects, but I had always preferred the Humanities. Coming to the US really allowed me to pursue what I truly wanted to do. I got into creative writing.

For a creative writing class in my senior year, we were tasked to write about “fictional individuals”. I decided to go to one of the museums and write about the thoughts of different people who looked at the same abstract painting. I thought it’d be pretty interesting as the output would be an amalgamation of different perspectives. Basically, what I wanted to emphasize was that even a simple colour block painting can be interpreted very differently by different people as everyone has had different experiences in their lives.”

“Ever since I was in Eighth grade, I’ve had a flair for hacking. I remember that at that young age, everyone had this fascination of hacking into each other’s social media accounts such as Facebook or Gmail. I decided to test my abilities, so I jumped onto the bandwagon and set up a phishing site of my own to con one of my friends. I sent him the link to this fake site and it turned out that he actually gave me his login credentials! Of course, as I’ve gotten older, I want to use my talent in an ethical manner. That’s why I’m now specializing in Information Security in the Computing faculty.

When I was back home in India last year and the whole country was in lockdown, I entered a few competitions where the aim was to find bugs in a company’s software. It’s common for big technology companies to organize this sort of thing and if you manage to discover a vulnerability, they usually reward you with money or some swag. I’m really proud that I managed to find a bug in Facebook’s and Google’s website! Whenever I manage to exploit a vulnerability that I’ve spent so much time trying to figure out, it’s like a moment of epiphany! It feels so good knowing your time and effort has paid off.”

“One of the most unexpected discoveries of my adult life has been the pleasure of walking in the city. I was greatly inspired by twentieth century European literature on walking and inhabiting urban spaces. Growing up in New Delhi, the heat was never amenable to exploring the city on foot, but winters were always wonderful. As a child, my father always insisted that I walk nearby distances whenever I could. I didn’t appreciate it much then, but today I walk miles in whichever city of the world I’m in. I feel like I’ve learnt so much in those walks.

Despite driving around the city or taking public transport, the pleasure of mapping the streets through your strides is beyond comparison. I like to think of myself as a ‘flaneur’ - a term attributed to French poet Baudelaire - to describe a person who walks around in the city aimlessly. Walking gave me access to a different sense of time and existence in the busy-ness of urban life. One sees so much stillness and movement in buildings, people, birds, vehicles, advertisements, street art, and just the overall structure of a city. One learns of so many ways of life, and that too in a way unique to oneself. No two people can walk the same path at the same time, after all.

I’ve only been living in UTown for over a month, but it's the walks to the ERC, food courts, FairPrice and bus stops that have slowly created a home for me here.”