My name is Alexis Troy and I have had the pleasure of spending a week in Singapore amongst 20+ other students on this 2-week Singapore Business study abroad. Prior to arriving, a quick Google search shows Singapore as a country with expansive wealth and beautiful greenery. It is safe to say that these pictures are quite similar to what I have had a chance to see thus far with a few notable key differences. The first being the people and culture in places such as Chinatown and Little India. In Singapore, it is more common to see people of similar ethnicities to be in certain places within the country. For example, Tamilians are the largest South Indian community in Singapore, and they can be found majorly in the streets of Little India as opposed to Chinatown. What makes this different in the United States is that the United States is always in the act of ?blending? everywhere you go, whether it be culture, language, experiences, etc. It can be difficult to find large hubs of one culture/people in comparison to Singapore?s two main hubs, Little India and Chinatown.
Another key difference from standard stock images is the effect of Singapore?s size. While I knew Singapore was an island, I did not expect to be able to ideally reach one end of Singapore to the other in a little over 30 minutes. That is thanks to Singapore?s extremely efficient MRT system (Mass Rapid Transit). The MRT is a much more efficient underground railway system than the most commonly known underground transit system we know in the States, the New York Subway. With limited space to work with and land to reclaim, Singapore?s solution to prevent the overcrowding of vehicles was to make the act of owning and traveling in a car extremely expensive, thereby making the MRT more appealing. In Texas, everyone has a car to get around town because Texas is so large. You could be driving in Texas for three hours in any direction and still be in Texas. Whereas in Singapore, only the wealthy own cars which are often new, brightly colored luxury cars.
I hope to see and experience more within the cultural hubs of Little India and Chinatown, from the food to the shops that make up the streets. I also hope to see more of the differences in dress, language, and way of life that I have seen thus far.
