Failed Expectations of a Semester Abroad
SA: Singapore Management University, Singapore
Evelyn, one of the Semester Abroad Correspondents, shares her experience abroad during the Spring 2025 semester. Follow along with the group of correspondents on our blog and look out for their images on the @pennabroad Instagram feed.
Of all the millions of ways I imagined my semester abroad going, I never quite imagined…this.
I’ve been dreaming about going abroad since before I applied to Penn. In fact, I remember coming to this very website for the first time as a high school senior, falling hopelessly in love with Penn for all the ways it encourages its students to leave. The blogs on this website are what inspired me to toss in a long-shot application and, later, move hundreds of miles away from home to a school I had only seen in pictures. Of course, I quickly found other things to love about Penn, but I never forgot where it started.
As certain as I always have been about going abroad, my plans for it over the years changed almost as often as my favorite song would. I was going to London, then I had fallen in love with Milan, or I would try Amsterdam, or Beijing, or Tokyo, or…
And then, I landed on Singapore.
There were many reasons why Singapore was the perfect place on paper to spend my semester abroad. If you were one of the many people who asked me why I chose Singapore before I left the States, you probably heard these reasons verbatim. It is English speaking, significantly ethnically Chinese, the financial hub of Southeast Asia, and equatorial–and I am a monolingual Chinese-American studying finance who hates the cold. Deep down, though, I was itching for something new, and the SMU exchange program with Wharton didn’t seem very popular with my peers. A semester away from “my life,” on the other side of the world, dedicated to discovering myself–that was the true premise.
I imagined this journey to self-discovery would necessitate misery. Stripped of my creature comforts and emotional support humans, I mentally prepared for this semester to be one of social and psychological asceticism. Away from the “Penn bubble,” I would no longer be able to dodge the heavy task of growing up and figuring out who I want to be after graduation. With a 14-hour time zone difference, I could not rely on my trusted friends or family to help me make my every decision. I would be alone with my thoughts in a new country and no way home until the end of the semester.
Ever a pessimist, I braced myself for the worst by turning to the most trustworthy resource I could think of–Reddit “study abroad horror story” threads. I was apocalyptically prepared for my 3 (long? short?) months in Singapore–ready to have no friends, live in a shoebox, and be utterly humbled by the Asian education system. I even weaned myself off of chewing gum, since I heard it was outlawed here. (this was a huge sacrifice for someone who goes through a Costco-sized pack of gum every 6 months)
Looking back, I have no idea why I was so willing to give up my comfortable life in Philadelphia for the self-imposed exile of my imagination’s worst-case reconstruction of Singapore, all for so-called “self growth” that certainly also can take place at one’s home university. Luckily, my imagination was misinformed. Chewing gum isn’t even illegal here.
Singapore has welcomed me with open arms. It is over 80°F and sunny almost every day. There are too many neighboring country “getaways” and too few weekends to experience all of them. I have met people who feel like home. I have spontaneously booked trips to some of the most beautiful places this world has to offer–the kind where it becomes pointless to take pictures, since the camera could never capture just how breathtakingly green the trees, how towering the mountains, how clear blue the ocean, how white the sand, how gentle the sun, how it really is. I am taking some of the most introspective classes I have ever taken, ones that question the meaning of happiness, global inequality, and my role in the universe. I write this blog in my favorite park, surrounded by wild roaming chickens and eating dragon fruit, a new favorite.
I am learning a lot about myself, even without the self-imposed misery I thought was required to do so. I am practicing spontaneity–to those of you who know my former Type A persona, it may come as a shock to you that I don’t need to google restaurant menus ahead of time to rehearse what I will order anymore. I am focused on appreciating each moment, whatever the moment may be–reading a book in a cafe, dancing on a rooftop, napping in an airport, FaceTiming friends from home. I am experiencing the study abroad I didn’t dare fantasize about, that I read about in the blogs on this website years ago.
The People
As I was preparing for my study abroad, I was warned that the people of Singapore may not be as friendly as I would hope–especially for my Texan sensibilities. The warnings I received, especially about the “cutthroat” Singaporean academic culture, made me feel like I was a defenseless sardine about to be dropped into a bloodthirsty shark tank. As Dory of “Finding Dory” fame says, “Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming.” I am so glad I did.
My first weekend in Singapore, I was traveling to Johor Bahru, a Malaysian border town an hour away by bus. A middle-aged woman saw me pathetically riding the escalator back and forth, looking for the bus stop. She asked, “JB?” and when I nodded, she gestured for me to follow her. For the next hour, she and I made small-talk on the crowded bus. I was too shy to ask for a picture. She walked me to my destination, a mall in the opposite direction to where she was going, wished me luck with my semester, and disappeared. When I think about Singaporean kindness, I think of her–maybe not as initially chatty to strangers as Americans, but almost always willing to extend a helping hand.
Local classmates have spent hours with me in cafes, sent extensive food recommendation lists, brought back Chinese New Year souvenirs, and given me guided tours around their favorite corners of the city. They have invited me to join their class group projects, gone out of their way to walk me to my classes, and shown genuine interest in getting to know me. Because of them, I have never once felt out of place at SMU.
The Food
Coming into my exchange program, I was told that food in Singapore is affordable–but I didn’t appreciate just how inexpensive (or how delicious) it was until I got here. The average meal costs less than $5USD, and food is inspired by cuisines from all over the world–Indonesian satay, Malaysian nasi lemak, Indian biryani, Chinese malatang, Japanese omurice, “Western” fusion stalls (that I honestly haven’t been brave enough to try, since their menus include things like spaghetti and fish head in marinara sauce), and many, many more. I am already worried about going back to the States and craving flavors that I have only had in Singapore.
The Travel
Singapore on its own is fascinating, but it is also a convenient launchpad across East and Southeast Asia. I have an entire semester of travels penciled in–but I won’t spoil those for you now. You can find updates throughout the semester on Instagram @pennabroad
So far, I have visited Langkawi, Kuala Lumpur, and Bali. I’ve found that a study abroad experience really is an irreplicable experience, even from traveling with ample funds later in life. SMU has a cohort of ~450 exchange students each semester, and it is just 1 of 3 universities in Singapore that have significant study abroad programs. Almost every exchange student wants to travel, so making friends and planning spontaneous trips is the norm.
It is exhilarating to book last-minute flights, find a hostel on-the-fly, and spend a long weekend exploring a new city, or island-hopping on a speedboat, or hiking through a rainforest, lifetime memories made with new friends. I have learned to be more sure of myself–my instincts, my interests, and my adaptability. I have discovered that people are often kind for no reason, like the wonderful Malaysian street vendor who gifted my friends an Ais kacang dessert because it was the Lunar New Year, and even though she didn’t celebrate, she assumed we did. I have learned to find joy in temporality.
A weekend trip, a semester abroad; when there is a deadline, whatever time left remaining is best spent enjoyed. Often, I find myself prematurely nostalgic for the semester I spent in Singapore, and I have to force myself to remember that I am still here. I will make the most of my new friendships, no matter how long they last. I will see the world through grateful eyes, because even though this opportunity will not return, I was lucky enough to catch it this time around.
So, no. This semester has not been what I was expecting. It has been so much better.
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