Singapore: Day 21

On Friday, PSI levels jumped to 400+. We still had class in the morning, but our afternoon field trip to the waterway and Punggol was canceled because of the terrible haze. In class, we learned about Singapore's political system; it was definitely educational and I agreed with Singapore's movement toward greater democracy. It is interesting how the United States and Singapore are so different in terms of political systems. As an American, I can conditioned to believe in freedom, be it freedom of speech, freedom of religion, or the freedom to bear arms, so when I came to Singapore I was surprised and a bit disturbed by the tight regulation by the Singaporean government. During the lecture, the professor brought up an interesting question: is democracy effective? The United States can never seem to make a decision due to disagreements between the parties, while Singapore is effective and efficient in all aspects. However, there is a lack of freedom and participation in Singapore and what seems to be an atmosphere of dispassionate acceptance among the citizens. There are definitely trade-offs to the systems, and it's difficult to decide which one is "better."

Group photo to commemorate our battle against pollution!

After class, a group of us made a trip to Bugis to watch Monsters University. Our showing was at 4:35 PM, so we grabbed lunch and wandered the mall. The food inside the mall is quite expensive (usually $10+ for a small meal), but we finally decided on a less expensive restaurant, the Laksania. I ordered the Sarawak Laksa, and it might be the best laksa I had so far!

Sarawak laksa

We quickly finished our meal and headed to the arcade to kill time. On the top floor of Bugis is an elaborate game area with an arcade, stores with reserve-able game rooms, a section dedicated to League of Legends, and more. Gamers can definitely spend their lives here.

After wandering the arcade for a bit, Emily and I left the others to explore the mall. We visited a few stores, and met up with Laney, Nicole, and Angelo again for the movie. Interestingly, the theater mostly showed American movies, and despite being in Singapore, we were still connected to the United States. It is impossible to escape the influence of the U.S.! The movie rooms were smaller, but definitely much nicer: the seats were softer and of higher quality, the sound system was better, and the room was generally cleaner and newer. Instead of being dubbed, the movie was shown with Chinese subtitles, which was definitely something I was unused to seeing on the big screen. The movie itself was interesting and nostalgic, because the Monsters University campus was based on UC Berkeley's campus and thus we were reminded of home. The movie also made me a bit uncomfortable, as it addressed controversial themes such as student code of conduct violations, expulsion, fraternity life and parties, and the not-so-admirable aspects of university life in general. I was a bit upset by the ending, because the movie conveyed that it was okay to make such an enormous mistake. In reality, when an individual is expelled from university, he or she suffers a permanent mark on the transcript and is turned away from job opportunities and re-acceptance into any university. However, the main characters Mike and Sul were still able to accomplish their dreams of being scarers, which I thought to be completely unrealistic, inaccurate, and unjust. Life is not that easy! Other than that, the movie was enjoyable and a good change from the darker and more philosophical movies I generally watch. After the movie, we headed back to PGPR and re-congregated for dinner half an hour later. Because of the pollution, we stayed away from hawker centres and instead chose a nearby indoor restaurant, Fermosa Delights. The restaurant specialized in Taiwanese food, and I ordered the chicken bamboo rice. My dish reminded me of a similar rice dish I had whenever I went for dimsum with my family and friends, so this may have been the Taiwanese variation of it.

After dinner, we headed back to PGPR and showered. We met up again in the lounge to discuss our travel plans and purchase our plane tickets. A couple of us are visiting Phuket, Thailand for a weekend getaway; I am definitely excited about this trip, because I have never been to Thailand before! The cost was a stone to the heart, but I want to see more of the world while I still have this opportunity. I am still looking into other countries to visit during my stay in Asia... there are too many places I want to visit!