My motivation

What experiences do you want to bring home in your suitcase after your exchange semester? That is the question you should ask yourself when picking your exchange destination.  Maybe you want to experience new cultures? Learn a new language? Or maybe you just want to add another top university to your CV? The number of reasons to consider when making your choice is infinite and everyone will value these reasons differently. I made my pick based on two objectives, I wanted to go to a country with a substantial biomedical research investment but also a country that offered the possibility of travelling. As I was going to write my bachelor thesis during the exchange semester, the university ranking was not as important to me as the research possibilities in the country. I picked Singapore. Singapore is a world leader in several economic areas and it puts a lot of efforts into research with the aim of becoming one of the world’s leading biomedical research hubs. With this devotion Singapore spent over SGD550 million (≈SEK 2900 million) building the research complex Biopolis which are nine skyscrapers, and more to come, containing laboratories focusing on biomedical science. Hence, Singapore fulfilled my first objective and being situated in South East Asia it easily fulfilled my second objective too.

The application process

In my case, application to the exchange program was one year in advance during the spring semester. After BIONK accepted my application to National University of Singapore (NUS) it was time to find a supervisor for the bachelor thesis. It is vital that you are aware of all your deadlines and you should not rely on someone else without double checking the dates. Once you know which university BIONK has accepted you to, you should start looking for a supervisor. I recommend you look for a supervisor during the summer as this might take longer time than you think. For NUS, application deadline was at the beginning of October and by this date you must have found your supervisor. As most labs at Biopolis are part of A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology and Research) I looked through the departments on their website (http://www.a-star.edu.sg/) and contacted several labs of interest. As your exchange is with NUS you have to make sure that your supervisor is connected to NUS, for this reason it might be easier to find a supervisor at the university. I picked a combined lab at the Genome and Immuno-building that focuses on the generation of antibodies.

Visa problems?

Once you have been accepted by NUS you have to apply for visa through an online system called SOLAR. This system is quite straight forward, however, most of us applying to Singapore had problems logging in to the website and it seemed to be a local problem. Even though we contacted immigrations about this issue they were not able to help us. Strangely the website worked on the phone and outside Sweden and therefore you could solve this by doing the application on the cell phone or over skype with a friend outside Sweden.

Start looking for apartments…

NUS offers very cheap campus accommodation which you apply for in the same application as when you apply for university. However, in Singapore you get the chance to live in a condo with pool and tennis courts and therefore I took this chance! Of course it was much more expensive than living on campus (which is extremely cheap), but comparing to the rent in Stockholm it didn’t differ too much. If you want to live in a condo start looking at the websites before you leave to Singapore so that you can get an idea of which condo you want to live in and what you can expect to pay. Here are two useful links for your condo search: http://www.singaporeexpats.com/ and http://www.iproperty.com.sg/ the first links provides you information about the condo, the second link is to find the agents that have the condo apartments and for info on the prices. Five of us from the biomedicine program decided to live together in the condo and we decided not to sign any contract till we were in Singapore and therefore we booked a couple of nights at Travellers Inn in Little India through http://www.hostelworld.com/. I will write more about finding condos in a later section.

Early semester start!

Keep in mind that the NUS semester starts very early in January and that before semester starts there are introduction days that you might want to attend. I had to write the Molecular Medicine exam in Singapore as this exam date was after NUS semester started, if this is the case for you make sure to arrange it with the course administrator.

Flights

I booked through Travelpartner, which later turned out to be a hassle as I was not able to change my return dates nor book extra baggage. The flight to Singapore was with AirChina with a 6-hour transit in Beijing. AirChina is pretty cheap, but not very comfortable and lacks entertainment system. The return flight was with Lufthansa with a 2-hour transit in Munich, this flight I recommend as food and entertainment system was really great! Book early!

Semester start at NUS

The spring semester at NUS started very early (before the semester at KI ended) on January the 10^th, for this reason I had to write the Molecular Medicine exam at NUS. Introduction days started even before that on the 4th of January, however, as I had not arrived yet I missed the first days but I was able to attend the registration, which was probably good as I was able to apply for my student pass at NUS instead of going to immigrations. When you arrive at the airport in Singapore from Sweden you will get a visa upon arrival (visitors pass) and then once you come to registration at NUS you will apply for the student pass which you receive a couple of days/weeks later. Beware that you are not allowed to leave Singapore after you have applied for the student pass till you actually receive it. As my classmates and I spent the first couple of days contacting agents and looking at apartments afterwhich we had to study for the Molecular Medicine exam I cannot tell you much about the introduction organized by the students at NUS.

Vaccinations

As you are going to Singapore and you most likely will do some travelling make sure to check what vaccinations you need and that your old ones are up to date. Some of the mandatory vaccinations were covered by KI so you should double check that. Vaccinations you anyway should have are Hepatitis A and B, make sure that especially your Tetanus is up to date. Do consider to get Typherix (against Typhoid) and Dukoral (against tourist diarrhea), these are relatively cheap. Make sure you know what vaccinations you need for the surrounding countries in case you will travel. For example, some parts of Vietnam you need to take anti-Malaria pills or even Japanese encephalitis vaccination, however this vaccination you need to take several months in advance. As the later vaccination is quite expensive you might not take it, therefore make sure that you have mosquito repellent (very effective) which is safer than any vaccination. Also there is Dengue fever in many urban parts of Asia and the best protection is not to be bitten by mosquitoes at all.  

Bank account?

I did not get a Singaporean bank account as I used ICA Banken which do not charge a fee nor an increased exchange rate when withdrawing money outside Sweden. This worked well. However, the payment of rent, electricity and internet we did over a Singaporean bank account from one of the people living in a flat, so if you are several classmates sharing an apartment it might be good that someone signs for a Singaporean bank account.

Examples of costs:

Mobile phone usage: SGD 0.05/sms and SGD 0.10/min

Taxi from airport to downtown: SGD 20

Bus/MRT: SGD 1-2 (pay by distance)

Taxi ride from downtown to NUS: SGD 10

Lunch (inc. drink) at NUS: SGD 4

Meal at hawker center/food court (inc. drink): SGD 4-6

Meal at restaurant: SGD 25

Pint of beer at a pub: SGD 12

Club cover charge: SGD 20-30 (including 2 drinks)

Bottle a wine in the supermarket: SGD 20+

Box of cereals in the supermarket: SGD 6

Café Latte at Starbucks: SGD 5

The apartment

Six of us shared an apartment at the condo Parc Oasis (MRT station Chinese Garden). We found this apartment three days after arrival by contacting one of the agents from the previous mentioned websites. We were able to move into the apartment about three days after signing the tenancy agreement. The apartment was huge, there were three bed rooms, 2 bathrooms with showers, 1 bathroom with only a toilet, a big living room, kitchen, storage room and laundry room. When signing the contract we had to pay 1 month rent in advance, 1 month rent as deposit as well as ½ month rent as agent fee. All of this is paid in cash and as there is a limit to cash withdrawal make sure to plan this ahead. The total rent of the apartment was SGD4000 (about SEK 21,000) this included some furniture and once a week cleaning. The condo also offered facilities such as a swimming pool, tennis courts and a gym free of charge. You also need to sign a contract with SP services which is the electricity and gas company. As it is very warm in Singapore you will most likely always use the air conditioner when you are in the apartment, and this unfortunately leads to high electricity bills. For the big flat we lived in, we paid about SGD 300 per month for electricity. Internet costs are about SGD 125 per month. Hence, living costs per person (shared bedroom) is about: SGD 740 (SEK 3850) in Parc Oasis Condo.

Location-wise Chinese Garden was really great. The condo was just next to the MRT station and it only took 12 min to get to Biopolis, to NUS there was a direct bus that took about 20 min. There were also at least two food courts very close to the condo, one of them was open 24/7. As we lived close to the food court and you can get dinner for less than SGD 6 (30kr) we never used the kitchen other than for breakfast. It’s nice to leave a country as Sweden where you can only afford eating at home to a country where you can eat out everyday.

Moving out of the apartment

When you return the key you should get back 1 month deposit that you paid the day you signed the contract. Check what is says about air conditioner maintenance as it usually says in the contract that you have to do air conditioner service once before you move out. Other things you need to think of are to cancel your internet and SP services contract. When we signed the contract with SP service we had to pay a deposit of SGD 500, we had some troubles getting this money back as the person who had the Singaporean bank account left Singapore early and SP services had no where to transfer the money. We solved this issue by calling customer service and arranging them to write a check which we picked up at the office. 

The exchange in general

I think my exchange was a very different experience compared to what most other exchange students go through. As I only did one module at NUS corresponding to 7.5 hp I did not spend much time at the university. The other 22.5 hp of the semester I was at the lab doing my bachelor thesis. Singaporeans are very hardworking people and they have long working days, although in theory I had time to go to class, I in reality didn’t go to that many classes as I usually was in the middle of experiments. It becomes very time consuming to leave for a class twice a week when it is in the middle of the day and therefore I decided to do the online/webcast lectures instead. Yes, my exchange was different than others, but I believe it was for the better because I actually had the opportunity of working in a lab in Singapore! Although I barely obtained any experiences of the school system or classmates of NUS, I gained vast experience of the inspiring and productive working atmosphere that presents itself at Biopolis, the biomedical hub of Singapore. Instead of meeting classmates, I met colleagues, as I said, the exchange was different but no way for the worse. 

No language problem...

The Singaporeans speak what they call Singlish, which is a mixture of English and a Singaporean accent. However, I never found the language to be a barrier and I felt that I could understand them and they understood me most of the times. As 42% of the population in Singapore are foreigners there are so many different cultures, most of these are Chinese, Malay or Indian. This makes Singapore incredibly globalized and it is difficult to specifically say what the Singapore culture is. Every single sign and everything that is announced is in English, so there was really never a serious problem in relation to language. 

In Singapore

As the working days were very long, most weekdays just simply ended at the food court with my flatmates. However, during the weekend there was more time to explore the city. There are many places to go to in Singapore and as food is such an important part of their culture there are so many places to eat at (cheaply!). The food culture is what I will miss the most from Singapore, or actually Asia in general, no matter where you are there was always some kind of food court where you could get good food for little money. Otherwise you can of course always go shopping in the endless number of shopping malls and shopping districts in Singapore – it is part of the culture to spend a Friday night in shopping malls. There are some nature reserves and parks you can explore, the Zoo is very nice and in East Coast Park you can go wakeboarding, rent bicycles or inlines. For the lazy days you can go and lie at the beach of Sentosa Island or see a movie at the cinema for a couple of SGD.

Night life in Singapore is also a large part of modern Singapore culture. People will always sit out under the sky at food courts eating and socializing until very late in the night. Areas such as Clarke Quay are full of restaurants, bars and clubs and on the weekend most clubs are open until 5.00. Wednesday nights are ladies’ night when girls get in for free and/or get free drinks. You simply cannot miss out on the party scene in Singapore. The most popular club amongst exchange students was Attica, Zouk, New Asia Bar, etc. And when you get tired of the Asian food, a great place to go is Brewerkz in Clarke Quay and grab delicious homemade hamburgers.

Travelling

Although my weeks were covered in hardworking hours at lab I somehow managed to get away a couple of weekends to the neighbouring countries. Singapores location is really good for travelling and many of the budget airlines (JetStar, Tiger airways, AirAsia etc) fly from here. Some of the places where I went was to Indonesia (Bali), Malaysia (Pulau Tioman, Pulau Rawa, Malacca) and Vietnam (Hanoi, Halong Bay, Sapa, Hoi An). Malaysia is a nice getaway as you can spontaneously just take the public bus over the country border and a couple of hours later you are at a paradise island such as Rawa or Tioman. To go to Bali you probably need to extend your weekend with one or two days, make sure not to miss the fantastic cultural experience in Ubud. The highlight of my travelling experience was in Sapa where I did a homestay with the local Hmong people in the rice fields of Northern Vietnam. If you go here you need several days (so do it before or after your period at lab) and then you can combine the trip with going to the capital city Hanoi and sleeping on a boat in Halong Bay. Hoi An, in central Vietnam, is a small beach and tailor town that not too many tourists are aware of, do not forget to tailor make your winter boots! Finding good and cheap hostels in Asia is not very difficult and I booked pretty much everything at www.hostelworld.com.

Summary

Singapore has so much to offer and I can only say go there! As a biomedicine student if gives you a great career opportunity as Singapore  is investing so much in biomedical research. By working in a lab there you will get an immense amount of experience! I think this a very valuable gain for my future both at KI but also any where else in the world. Any lab experience is good of course, but the pace the lab experience is collected in this atmosphere is quite impressive. Biomedicine is a broad and international education and you can only gain in opening your doors to a country like Singapore. For me, working abroad always creates new perspectives and you start to realize how many different career opportunities there are in the world.