PALs 2019-2020 Q&A with Jackie Shi, CAS '21

Jackie Shi, a senior studying political science in the College of Arts and Sciences, studied abroad at the National University of Singapore in 2020. During the 2020-2021 academic year, Jackie is serving as a Penn Abroad Leader, which is Penn Abroad’s student advisory board focused on special projects and supporting fellow students interested in global experiences. We sat down with Jackie to learn more about her choice of NUS, how she formed friendships there, and what she wishes she knew before going abroad. 

Tell me why you chose Singapore specifically. 
I wanted an Asian country because I think that Europe is overrated. When I was looking at my options, I had to take into account the language requirement. It came down to Hong Kong and Singapore, but with the student protests happening in Hong Kong at the time, you know the political climate being so charged, I decided on Singapore because my parents said it’s such a safe country. So why not go there? 

So did you take courses within your political science major while in Singapore in order to specialize or did you want to take a new class while abroad? 
I took government and politics in Singapore, Singapore’s foreign policy, and the rest of the classes were random, but I wanted to take political science classes in a different country in order to gain that Asian country-specific perspective. I feel like generally the U.S. in academia is skewed towards Western thought so I thought it would be interesting to take a new perspective.  

Through which programs or societies did you make the most friends in Singapore? 
Because COVID hit Asia relatively early, NUS didn’t have on-campus events from early on in my time there. I met my friends because we had two weeks of class before we went remote, but during that time I was able to meet other exchangers, and then found out that all of them lived in this one hall and I befriended all of them. So in short, I made friends through my classes.  

Did you join any societies or go to any university events while you were there? 
I went to hall/dorm events, but 2-3 weeks into my stay they canceled all on-campus events because of COVID.  

Did you live in campus accommodation during your time there or did you find your own place? 
Yes, I lived on-campus. I would definitely recommend that too because it puts you in the position to make friends.  

Are you still in contact with people you made friends with while in Singapore? 
Yes, we’re video chatting Sunday morning.   

Did you have the opportunity to travel while you were there? What are some places that you want to travel to in the future? 
I went to Malaysia, Indonesia, Korea, and Thailand. I would definitely love to backpack through Asia. I didn’t get a chance to go to Vietnam, or some places in China and Taiwan.

Were there any challenges in traveling? 
The only hard part was the language barriers. Another interesting thing was that they have their version of Uber, but when I was in Indonesia they told us not to use it because it doesn’t pay a fair wage to local taxi drivers. So it’s best to use local as much as possible. But with local taxi drivers, it's hard to communicate sometimes. 

What is a food item that you’d never had before going to Singapore and now you crave? 
Probably Southeast Asian coffee. I feel like in Asia, their coffee is made with condensed milk and it's a lot sweeter and it melts in your mouth… sorry I’m getting too descriptive but it’s just so good.  

Where was your favorite place to go in Singapore? 
The Hawker’s Centres are a bunch of stalls of food connected together, and you can just go stall to stall eating. Somewhere more touristy that I went to was the hotel with the three towers and the boat on top. It’s called the Marina Bay Sands which is amazing. I went to their rooftop bar, which was so beautiful to see the sky of Singapore at night. And it’s cool to think it’s where Crazy Rich Asians was shot.   

What is something looking back that you would’ve wanted to tell yourself before going abroad?
I think I would tell myself that this is going to be amazing. When I first got to Singapore, I was really homesick for the first week or two. There were a lot of things I wasn’t used to and I kind of had a rough time my first few weeks there. However, I ended up meeting some pretty great people and came back with so many stories to tell. I think feeling homesick especially when you’re in a completely new environment is very normal. 

Is there any advice that you want to give to people that are going abroad? 
My biggest advice would be to be present. Especially after my situation where I was pulled out of the country after a few weeks, learning to be present. Everyone thinks "I’m going to be here for 6 months so I can put stuff off. I can visit the touristy places later." No, just do it. Be present because you never know what tomorrow will bring.