Studying at NUS: 5 bad things!

So I don’t really think the post needs much explaining… here are some things not so good about studying at NUS.

1) The Rules, oh the rules:

In case you didn’t know, Singapore is a country with national service, meaning all the male Singaporean students who come to NUS would have been in the military for just under 2 years. So the state obviously deems them of appropriate age to shoot guns, parachute out of planes and blow things up (Actual national service experience may vary). Backwards then perhaps, that the same people they will allow to do aforementioned dangerous things “shall keep his/her door open or ajar whenever a member of the opposite gender is in the room.”

I mean, it’s a rule that I know is joked about by exchange students and not taken all that seriously among residents, but it does convey the general feeling that students at NUS aren’t really treated like adults. I mean, is two adults of the opposite sex behind a closed door really that bad NUS? It could be argued, that for once its the lesbian and gay students who aren’t oppressed by this rule, free to do as they please behind the privacy of a closed door (So long as it isn’t gay sex which is actually against the law here (sigh, c’mon Singapore it’s 2016)… so go NUS for helping out their lesbian and gay students… inadvertently…kind of?!

More on rules…the residence which I’m staying in has a whole demerit system which has different levels of demerit depending on the severity of your misdemeanor: and 16 points and you’re out. Some of the rules and their demerit points are:

3 points for littering,keeping pets or poor cleanliness of room.
6 points for the shameful male and female behind a closed door, sleeping over at another resident’s room, or visitors beyond 11.
9 points for possession or consumption of alcohol (drinking age in Singapore is 18 just saying) or use of opposite genders facilities
16 points for the ominous sounding killer litter*,  among other things.

*Killer litter is things which when thrown out of a high-rise building could kill, e.g. broken televisions. So this one is probably fair enough as a rule I guess…

2) NUS really stands for National University of STEPS! (Or National University of Sweating?)

Need I say more?

Okay, well I will, seeing as only people who have been here will actually get what I’m referring to… All around campus there is an unwieldy number of steps… everywhere… I’d say on an average day around campus, perhaps with 2 lectures and a trip to the canteen for lunch, I’d walk up and down between 20-30 flights of stairs. (This doesn’t include the 19 floors to get back to my room or the first 6 floors in Engineering, both of which I use the lift for) If the 30 degree heat and the 90+% humidity weren’t enough to start you sweating on your walk to lectures, then the stairs can definitely sort you out!

If only all the stairs led to the bell of happiness!

3) The bell curve

Wow Isaac, so original moaning about the bell curve at NUS… not like you mentioned that before. Standard moan about using the bell curve system…nobody should ever fail if they’ve gotten 70% of questions right, just because your peers got 90% right on average… could sit and complain about this for a while but thats boring, so Bell curve=bad, on to reason 4!

4) The toilets

So the toilets around campus are pretty annoying, not all, but most. This mostly boils down to pathetic hand driers, and toilets which flush themselves.

“Toilets that flush themselves” I hear you asking… “Just why is that a bad thing?”

Well, dear reader, on paper its not a bad thing, it’s great, no need to touch the bacteria ridden flush button, and no chance of being caught out by the Singaporean law which makes it illegal to use a public toilet without flushing. Well.. in a perfect world it’s a great solution, in fact, other places in Singapore their system works perfectly. However I’ve used toilets on campus which on one occasion have flushed no less than 9 times before it is actually time to flush. In short…. annoying toilets flush too often grrr.

5) The campus infinity pool is ONLY open till 7pm on weekends

Like seriously? There’s nothing worse than the feeling of wanting to spend your Sunday night going for a leisurely swim and remembering the pool is actually closed. Okay this ones obviously not a serious one! Fancy that though, couldn’t even think of a fifth thing that I dislike about here!

Lets be honest, none of these should be a deal breaker for anyone considering coming to NUS! I’d definitely still go if I had the decision again, its been a truly amazing year! Also coming soon is gonna be a list of all the good things about coming to NUS… stay tuned!

Also want to say a Happy Easter to everyone, it doesn’t quite feel the same as normal out here (#WhereAreAllTheCremeEggs)! Shoutout to Ciara for getting me an easter egg though, you rock!

Until next time,

Isaac