Whats cool about NUS

Whats cool about NUS

When I upload photos from my university, my friends question "Is it a resort, nice!". Well apart from the history and reputation which many of its Indian counterparts have. The university is well funded. You have a stadium within the campus for track events. Football fields. Multiple Tennis, basketball and volleyball courts. Indoor stadium for badminton, Squash. Swimming pools.

Everyday I walk through the huge football field from dover bus stop to university hall bus stop within the campus. To my right I see athletes bustling around, stretching their thighs. The track is a synthetic hybrid track for better grip. To my left there are two nets for cricket practice and also 2 football fields. Generally people practice frisbee or baseball throws. There are several handball courts. This is where football enthusiasts practice their game, owing to the team count. Not to forget the swimming pool: clean, neat and a potential venue for regional swimming games. I guess you could also play water polo. The indoor stadiums are always noisy and buzzing.

OK, so I cross over to university hall bus stop from here I have to take an internal bus to go to my department. The university is so freaky huge and this shuttle service is free of cost for NUS students, of course. As I cross over, we have a university health service. It is an obligation of the university to provide health care to the students and apart from having NUH (National University hospital) within campus, they have this primary care facility. We have a Singapore post office next to the student's service center. The block also holds office for student's union NUSSU (NUS - Student's Union) which decides about events and privileges for the students. The same block hosts a few food stalls. I love the banana cakes and freshly brewed coffee at this stall.

The university has plush greenery and terrain. You have beautiful flowers decorating your passages, which you get to see only in movies which are artificially arranged for song sequences.

The library is fantastic. You can search for the books online, reserve them online, extend your reading period online. The location of books are cataloged well. Though almost all the academic books are reserved well in advance by stiff competitive students. If you want to return the books, well just drop them in the library book collection center. The campus WIFI facility is awesome, the fact that they have it linked up to individual sessions for each students talks about good communication framework and accountability.

As far as the classrooms go, they are called lecture theaters at least the ones for post graduation. Each lecture theater is equipped with LCD project, mike and speakers arrangement, WiFi repeater, PC, white board for writing, etc. The carpeted floor makes you feel as if you are in a business meeting at a hotel. The lecturers speak very good English - just that you'd definitely find the regional flavor heavily - sometimes in their accent or in their vocabulary.

Here in SG, it seems the girls spend twice as much what our girls do back home. They spend a lot on make-up, costumes and you know what. So, what do we get. We could just sit up and take notice. micro-shorts are something girls are comfortable with here and many float around with hot stockings. I am into long legs and I just love it. Public display of affection is something you witness everyday. You have to ignore and stay in your frame, something like what Russel Crowe does towards the end in -Beautiful mind.

The fact-a-doodle is that you won't feel out of your country. You could go up to Indian food stalls in any chain of restaurants within the campus and speak in Tamil to get your food. Not that you don't have many options, but I tend to stick with what I know which is sambar saadham and parottas. Queuing-up is in Singaporean culture but not a very soft society as in London. You get genuine warm smiles which make your day, everyday.