pretty long post.strangelyhumanDecember 23 2007, 09:31:18 UTC
Oh wow. It's amazing to think you've never actually lived in Asia but identify so strongly with the food. I recently met a British student doing her exchange at the UofC who used to live in Singapore and Hong Kong and has now moved to New York. It's really funny I think because while we have grown up with the same food and places (I grew up in HongKong before moving to Singapore), our cultural experiences are still immensely different.
You should definitely visit, Singapore's an extremely modern city which is something most people get shocked by, but at the same time it has so many idiosyncracies. There are so many weird facts about this city I don't even know where to begin. When I first moved to Hyde Park I would get extremely frustrated that I was so far from the shops and that I could not find places to deliver food after midnight.
You live in the shoreland? I was in fishbein, which floor are you from? The combination of staying in the shoreland and doing a Theatre/English major more or less isolated me from the singaporeans - they all stay in max p and are econ majors, i do not lie. But I live in Regents now which is International Student-land so I see a lot more of them. I think it really depends on where you live and what you're studying. I've never had a class with another Singaporean in it, and I'm usually the only Asian in all my non-core classes. Sad to prove most of the stereotypes true, I guess. I think the university tends to be isolating but I haven't met a single person who isn't open or interested in talking about different cultures and countries - which is really more than I can say for my other singaporean friends in lesser universities and find most of the students to be more ignorant and narrow-minded.
So many things interest me about Chicago and America. But sometimes I feel like they don't really exist - they're just ideas I got watching TV. E.g, I really wanted to find coffee shop culture here because of 'Friends' but it really seems ridiculous when I mention it to other people. One thing I'd really like to check out is Andersonville. I haven't made the journey up there and the whole idea of a 'gay neighborhood' is very new to me because there are none in Singapore - our government is generally homophobic and culturally we are very conservative. Btw, I'm Melissa.
You should definitely visit, Singapore's an extremely modern city which is something most people get shocked by, but at the same time it has so many idiosyncracies. There are so many weird facts about this city I don't even know where to begin. When I first moved to Hyde Park I would get extremely frustrated that I was so far from the shops and that I could not find places to deliver food after midnight.
You live in the shoreland? I was in fishbein, which floor are you from? The combination of staying in the shoreland and doing a Theatre/English major more or less isolated me from the singaporeans - they all stay in max p and are econ majors, i do not lie. But I live in Regents now which is International Student-land so I see a lot more of them. I think it really depends on where you live and what you're studying. I've never had a class with another Singaporean in it, and I'm usually the only Asian in all my non-core classes. Sad to prove most of the stereotypes true, I guess. I think the university tends to be isolating but I haven't met a single person who isn't open or interested in talking about different cultures and countries - which is really more than I can say for my other singaporean friends in lesser universities and find most of the students to be more ignorant and narrow-minded.
So many things interest me about Chicago and America. But sometimes I feel like they don't really exist - they're just ideas I got watching TV. E.g, I really wanted to find coffee shop culture here because of 'Friends' but it really seems ridiculous when I mention it to other people. One thing I'd really like to check out is Andersonville. I haven't made the journey up there and the whole idea of a 'gay neighborhood' is very new to me because there are none in Singapore - our government is generally homophobic and culturally we are very conservative. Btw, I'm Melissa.
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