It's been a long time since I updated this blog. We took a break from school for a week, I had my birthday and then life got crazy. That's why.
So here's a picture of me eating Chili Crab on my birthday at the restaurant 'Big Eater' (see the sign behind me) which is a 5 minute walk from my room in the HDB (a blockof flats constructed by the Housing Development Board here in Singapore). Chili Crab is pretty famous for being a particular Singapore specialty, and let me tell you in was awesome! I don't know what they put in that sauce, but it is really flavorful. and spicy - if you don't like spicy try another specialty.
As for the craziness, it has to do a bit with my program. In this PhD program they usually give you 2 years in which to confirm. That is, you have to give a presentation on your research to show that you are capable of completing the program. After the presentation you begin your official research and get a slight boost in pay.
Well, I mentioned that usually you have 2 years to confirm. I've been here for nearly 6 months and my advisor asked me to confirm this May. It's cool that they think I can do it, and I don't see any real difficulties, but it just means a lot more work. So I haven't had much time or energy to blog. BUT, as my friend Yolanda mentioned, people read these things - so that gives me more encouragement to write. =) I'll do my best.
I've been here for a week (as of Saturday, 1am) and am slowly getting more used to some of Singapore's unique characteristics. Life moves at a pretty rapid pace here, but interestingly efficiency does not necessarily mean ease of access and getting things done rapidly. Some things are very efficient - transportation for one (most of the time) and eating for another. Other things take more time, which might simply be due to the volume of people and the necessity the government feels of keeping track of all those people (including me).
I matriculated on Monday, Aug 30th, which basically means I showed up in person with all my paperwork, paid my registration fees and am now officially a student of Nanyang Technological University. This is all very important, because the only way I can get my 4-year student visa is if I have matriculated. The other thing I need in order to get the visa (student's pass, officially) is a medical exam done by the university. It's all rather time-consuming, and my classes started this past Tuesday.
Another part of the puzzle is finding housing, since I am currently traveling an hour or more (rush hour traffic) on public transport to get to NTU. I was told that as a first-year research student coming from overseas, I would have priority in on-campus housing in the graduate hall, but apparently they are full, so I have been looking for housing off-campus. The slight wrinkle (I have learned) is that in order to rent a room or a flat, the landlord has to submit your information to the local housing authority. Guess what is required for them to approve your stay? Yup - the student's pass with your FIN (Foreigner Identification Number).
I met another American student (from Georgia) this past week, who is in his second year of PhD, but in Sociology, studying social network media, specifically MMOs (Massive Multiplayer Online systems, ie. online computer games). His cubicle is diagonal from mine (see the picture) and he was able to commiserate with me on dealing with the bureaucracy - some of the issue, however, seems to be that I was accepted 4 weeks ago and arrived shortly thereafter. If I had been accepted last May I would probably have housing on campus, etc, etc.. and most of these things would have been taken care of in the two months or so allotted to getting them done - which is actually pretty efficient for a bureaucratic system.
Interestingly, while they gave me appointments for all these things (medical checkup, student pass finalization, etc..) it seems to be just as effective to show up early any day and queue up. The only thing this doesn't really work for is the student pass, but by going directly to the immigration headquarters and explaining my situation (and by God's grace and the prayers of his people), I was able to get my appointment date moved up from September 22nd to the 8th. This bodes somewhat better for my apartment-hunting endeavors.
As a final note, you can check out this video I made of public transport to NTU: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uH0Wt52lwkA
So our big project for this course is a language survey proposal - the paper and presentation. We basically take a language about which very little is known, do a lot of research, and write a proposal to carry out a survey that will help answer basic questions about the language situation. The idea is that we are in touch with an actual person on the ground in the country who can direct our studies.
The language I'm researching is... actually I can't tell you. What I CAN tell you, though, is that I have had some cool breakthroughs during the course of the project. Which means that I have learned information directly from an observer of the language who has done recent research in the area but has not published it yet. It's pretty sweet to be on the inside. Maybe I can do this whole academic thing.
It's also cool to think that if I hadn't been here to do the research and send the emails, it is likely that some people who are in a position to make decisions about assisting language development efforts would have inadequate information on which to make decisions. Which I guess doesn't say much, but the little it does say speaks volumes. Here's to the bookshelf warriors.
In other news, I recently uploaded some video of a conference I helped lead worship at with Ishq, an Ethnodoxology group that plays music from an array of different cultures. Here we sing some snippets of an Arab Christian worship song from South Africa, and a jubilant rendition of 'How Deep the Father's Love'.
So here's a picture of me eating Chili Crab on my birthday at the restaurant 'Big Eater' (see the sign behind me) which is a 5 minute walk from my room in the HDB (a blockof flats constructed by the Housing Development Board here in Singapore). Chili Crab is pretty famous for being a particular Singapore specialty, and let me tell you in was awesome! I don't know what they put in that sauce, but it is really flavorful. and spicy - if you don't like spicy try another specialty.
