I have previously been to South Asia and my experience there was great, so the opportunity to do an exchange in Singapore was a very attractive offer which I could not miss out on. Singapore have several collaborative colleges with American universities, such as DUKE, Yale and MIT, which promised for plenty of interesting research projects. I was rather late with getting in touch with researchers for a project, I mainly browsed around and read up but never sent any emails. However, I was lucky (I do not encourage this strategy ;) and got hold of one, so within 3 weeks’ time I had a project and group leader.  I would however recommend starting earlier as this allows you to stress less. In order to find a project I went on to the NUS site and tried to figure out where to look.  My interest is mainly neuroscience so I looked up researchers in various neuroscience related centres such as;
DUKE-NUS http://research.duke-nus.edu.sg/nbd/index.php/component/profile/

SINAPSIE  http://www.sinapseinstitute.org/ 

Life Science Institute - Neurobiology/aeging http://lsi.nus.edu.sg/corp/research-programmes/neurobiologyageing/

A-STAR http://www.a-star.edu.sg/Research/Overview.aspx

However it is important to note that (according to the NUS exchange-coordinator I was in touch with) Karolinska "only" have an exchange agreement with Faculty of Science at NUS, or the main university NUS. So in order for your application to be accepted you either need to make sure your supervisor is directly affiliated with NUS and/or that the director of the institute you will be doing the project at accepts your position there, and tuition fee free! My supervisor called our point of contact for exchange at NUS and cleared things out immediately, so a tip could be to get your potential supervisor to clear any confusions with the exchange-coordinator at NUS.

 

When everything is set you should ask your supervisor to send you a pdf containing information that she/he will indeed take you on-board for a project which goes under the title  X and for the period you are there (semester 2 for me), and signing it off with contact details to your supervisor. You save and print out a copy of this document. You also need to make a paper copy of your passport, print an official transcript of your records over past courses, and a letter from your International Student Coordinator stating that you can go for an exchange. You will have to fill out an online application which you also have to print out and bring along to your International Student Coordinator at KI as these will be sent in to NUS over normal mail.

Next you wait till you get an email with confirmation that you have indeed been accepted to come for an exchange at NUS. The email will provide a list of important dates, the most urgent will be the student accommodation, and the most important will be your student visa application.

 

Before your trip you should also make sure to have all vaccines up-to-date, for Singapore you are pretty much only recommended to vaccinate against are hepatitis A/B, and typhoid. I did not vaccinate against Japanese encephalitis as it was mainly recommended if visiting rural areas, and few places are rural in Singapore, more on this can be found at http://www.vaccinationsguiden.se/vaccinationsguiden/landrek_.asp?land=SG . Also Singapore do have an active mosquito control (pesticide) to such a degree that I never encountered any mosquitoes during my time there.  

I flew into Changi airport in Singapore, the passport and visa control was rather quick, since I had all papers printed and ready, they simply looked them over quickly and gave me a tourist visa. In Singapore I was lucky enough to get student accommodation at University Town, and to get there you can either opt in for the for airport transport organized by the student welcome team, grab a taxi or simply take the MRT (subway). For the MRT you will have to get a travel card for which you tap in and out (you pay for the distance travelled). From Changi Airport it is easiest to take the East West Line to Tanah Merah, where you change to the same line but towards Joo Koon, get off at Buona Vista and take the Circle Line towards Harbourfront, get off at Kent Ridge. For a map over the MRT http://www.smrt.com.sg/Trains/NetworkMap.aspx . From Kent Ridge you can either take the Univeristy shuttle bus D2 and get off at UTown, or grab a taxi, for the short distance it will not cost you much. Here is a link to the shuttle bus service at NUS, which is all free http://www.nus.edu.sg/oca/Transport-and-Parking/Getting-around-NUS.html#krc .

If you got student accommodation you will have to register at the designated reception for each student housing. One week before the term starts you will finalize your student visa application so it is a good idea to arrive by then. The student visa is a somewhat quick process, granted you have printed, signed and organised your papers according to instructions given to you. There were a lot of people getting their student visa so it will take between 40-90 min the first day. A couple of days later you will just quickly collect your student visa card.

During the first week they had a some welcome events and information lecture which gave you information about the campus, some dos & don’ts and for people who are taking courses, they gave some information for that as well.

For my project there were not any introduction from the university, rather I had all contact with my PI, which had a quick introduction to the group, allocation of work desk and arrangement of access cards. I was rather quickly set up to start my experiments, which was good.

For the exchange you had to pay a student service fee 30.81sgd, health service fee 58.85 and 90sgd fee for processing and issuance of the student visa. I got a student accommodation and before I arrived I had to pay an acceptance fee at 200sgd, and later the whole rent for the full stay upfront. Rent will probably be your biggest cost in Singapore, since accommodation is sparse, much like Stockholm. My student accommodation didn't have a kitchen, since it was located at UTown they wanted you to eat from the local food courts on campus. There are plenty of food stalls and a couple of restaurants in UTown. The prices in the food courts are pretty low, so for 15-40sek you can easily get a filling meal. However, in the long run you will become tired of the selection as most are rather greasy, so eating out in the city is a welcomed relief from the food courts.

At the famous and infamous hawker places that are in Singapore, prices are very affordable and lands you a meal for 15-55 sek. However going for restaurants will quickly cost you more and can easily reach normal Swedish prices and more. International fast food places like McDonald's and Burger King etc cost as much as in Sweden. Alcohol in Singapore is easily acquired in, if not all, most grocery stores, 7-11s, and IKEA, prices being pretty much the same levels as in Sweden. Most night clubs that I visited had entrance fees, generally around 100-200sek, however you were almost always treated to a complimentary drink.

I lived 30 min away, by bus, from Duke-NUS where I did my project. I had a direct bus (nr 33) just outside UTown that stopped closed to Duke-NUS, which I took every day. At first it seems that commuting with public transport is a lot cheaper in Singapore. However to commute almost every day like I did, and almost only with bus (cheaper than the MRT), will land you a monthly cost of 450-650sek per month, so around the same price as a monthly SL-card. Taxi is a lot cheaper in Singapore then in Sweden, a 20min ride will cost you ca 75-100sek. Even though taxis are cheap, you obviously save more on taking the public transport, which works excellent, both buses and MRTs are pretty much always on time, even at peak hours.

As I mentioned previously, I stayed at UTown graduate residence. The application is quite early on, so as soon as you have received the confirmation email from NUS with all your application details, you should make sure to file an application for student housing, granted you want to stay there. I shared the apartment with 3 other students from Europe and India. The apartment I had was very nice, not worn down and lying within campus, which have both a general practice and hospital within talking distance. The mattress was rather "plastic" so a mattress cover under your sheets was needed. Another downside was that I sadly did not get a room with air-conditioner, the room had a roof fan but I still woke up all sweaty as the room temperature quickly rose in the morning. Despite lacking a proper stow (the kitchen was only fitted with a microwave) it did have a sink and fridge/freezer plus cupboard. Lacking stow you ended up going out to eat every day, which is not too bad, although it makes it a wee bit troublesome if you miss your “national” cuisine, since you cannot cook it yourself and have to rely on IKEA or other restaurants. If you plan not to stay at a student accommodation or are out of luck for getting one, NUS have information on how to go about: http://nus.edu.sg/osa/has/other-accommodation, others have also suggested this site: http://www.easyroommate.com.sg/ .

I did a research project for my Master Thesis, and how you experience your research project will very much depend on who your supervisor is, the culture and dynamics within the research group you are in. In my group there was sadly some division in the group, so it was not such a tightly bonded group. This of course did influence certain aspects of the laboratory and not all duties were conducted routinely. We did however have regular group meetings almost every week, during which some people presented their progress since last time. Since the group consisted of 12 people everyone presented once every 4^th week, and from which discussions pursued. What we did not have was journal clubs, which I felt was a bit of let-down as it helps you develop your scientific reasoning, by getting insights to how other interprets an article.

Another aspect that I found missing was that I was not offered any courses to some of the techniques that I used, more specifically to the use of confocal microscopy. Even though I knew the principal behind confocal microscopy, I have never had any practical experience with it or the software around it. My supervisor showed me, to the best of his knowledge, how the machine and software worked. It was not until the very last week that some of the lab colleagues with more experience of confocal microscopy showed me how you take high quality images.

The principal investigator (PI) was mostly busy and not my primary contact in the laboratory, which is quite often the case in research groups (from my experience). I had a very good postdoc as a supervisor who I could turn to for my questions, and who later helped me direct my project when some setbacks occurred. I did have some one-to-one meetings with my PI, but they were only on my own initiatives, as I felt she should know what I am up to.

When it comes furthering your understanding for the project, it was as with all projects, you are expected to further your knowledge on your own. In some groups you will have discussions about the underlying science for motivating the practical experiments and how to put it in the light of other scientific publications that are out there. I was given a few papers for the science behind some key experiments we were doing, and from there I went on my own to find publications to use for my report, but also publications that my postdoc found useful for the experiments. What I did miss a bit, which was much related to the culture in the group, was fruitful scientific discussions in general. However this is again nothing you can generalize to other research groups at DUKE-NUS. Some neighboring groups had PI’s and group members that had vivid discussions about the science between them, so in the end it depends on which group you will have. My PI and supervisor did not expect me to spend an excessive amount of time in the lab, however even if 12 hours/day was not expected of me, the nature of the project sometimes required my attention to such working hours or longer.

Much like at KI, Duke-NUS and NUS had a lot of scientific seminars and lecture that you could attend, every day there was at least one seminar to go listen to.

Luckily in Singapore the official language used in academia and government authority is English, so it was very easy to follow seminars, find your way around the city and to do your shopping etc. Singapore have four official languages, these are English, Malay, Mandarin, and Tamil. A great majority of Singaporeans speak English, however in some parts of the city, such as china town, you can still come across people who do not speak English, for which gestures and pointing did the talking. Courses in all three non-English languages was provided for those who wanted to take the opportunity to learn them.

Singapore is a country with many cultures, with British culture underlying the authorities, you have a great mix of cultures blooming side by side, with all its different cuisines. I mostly spent time with Singaporeans who had Chinese cultural heritage and did not experience too many cultural clashes. One thing was that I did learn was that; how you leave your cutleries when not eating, as in how they lie across your bowl can have a certain interpretation for the older generations (i.e. signal the honouring of someone who passed away).

In Singapore it is common that you live at home until your thirties, much due to the shortage of apartments. Thus, as I experienced it and was explained to, it is much part of the culture to spend time with your family quite often. One different which influenced my whole stay was kopi, the local coffee. At first very sweet, as they add condensed milk to it, however as I went on to discover, and with little help from my friends in the lab, I figured out that you could regulate the sweetness of your kopi by learning the different “kopis”: http://www.mrbrown.com/blog/2011/11/how-to-order-kopi-like-a-pro.html . Another thing I noticed is that a lot of things in Singapore are sweet, the food, the bread and the beverages. If for example ordering a cheese bun with your kopi, the cheese bun would have sugar sprinkled on top of it, and many dishes were also quite sweet.

 

At NUS sport is a big thing, there are plenty of students’ sports clubs to join, from water sports, ball sports to archery. There are official tournaments and minor get together tournaments, especially for football. There are also several gyms and swimming pools on campus for students to use for “free” (they do after all pay tuition fees). I fancied to get involved in climbing and was one of the lucky once to become a member of the climbing club. Due to their small bouldering room, they have limited places, so if you want to climb you better sign up quickly, why not send them an email before you even arrive: nusclimb@gmail.com. To find other sports and recreational activities I suggest to have a look at http://nus.edu.sg/osa/src/recreational/nus-students-sports-club. There are several student martial art clubs at NUS, I got myself involved in Nam Wah Pai, a martial art founded in Singapore.

There were several activities organised for students by the student committees on campus, quite often they had concerts on campus where student bands could perform. There were also several trips and outings organised. If you join a sports club, it is also very likely that they will organise outings for the club members, which can be very fun to join!

Singapore with its rich multicultural society offers a fantastic selection of food, there are some superb hawker places (which are affordable) such as Chomp Chomp that offers excellent sea food, Old Airport Road, and Lau Pa Sat. It is easy to find really good restaurants, only downside that the prices are much higher compared to the hawker places. One thing I did miss was a good music scene for live performance, I searched the web for good jazz places and live music spots, but none of the once I found reached my expectations. However there are some cool night clubs, where 1-Altitude, a rooftop bar, offered the best view over the city on level 63, recommended a visit. It is good to make friends with some Singaporeans, as they will know which places to go to, as the turnover of music bars and clubs is quite high in Singapore, as goes for shopping malls. Getting a good connection with Singaporeans can be hurdle, it is wrong to generalise, but I would say it took a long time till I found some who were willing to tag along for happenings. However, this all comes down to who you meet. I would say though, that you should expect the same or similar “cold shoulder” that you can come across in Sweden.

If you for some reason would find yourself isolated not by choice on a Friday night, there will always be the opportunity to go to Clarke Quay (MRT stop with same) which hosts a lot of bars, clubs and restaurants, but most importantly “the” bridge where exchange students and local students gather at night to socialise.

There are several parks that may be worth a visit, depending on your interest, you have Haw Par Villa for traditional Chinese folk lore, Fort Canning Park which has concerts and festivals at times. Moreover you have got the botanical gardens and Gardens by the bay, which is worth a visit at night or dusk for the light show.

My exchange have influenced my perception of research, much deu to that it made me realized how different a research group can be to another, and how much the PI actually influences the group. So it has made me much more aware that for the future research groups that I get in touch with, how important to ensure that you not only find a project you like, but also do make sure the PI and the group dynamic matches your expectations and values. Moreover my exchange also influenced me on where I could see myself in the future, as in terms of research interests and locations in the world. Overall it was a fun time, I made some really good friends, and I got some really good experiences and skills with me. Especially useful will the cell culture and confocal microscopy be for my future career and profession.