A Filipino, a German, a Belgian, a Brit, and two French girls walk into a bar…

It sounds like the beginning to a drawn-out and not-so-funny bar joke, but it’s a weekly reality for me in Singapore as I happen to live with these people. One of the things that makes that’s made this semester abroad so special for me is that I actually have had the opportunity to spend time with and get to know people from all over the world.

Yes, last semester, I did get to interact with Chinese people every day. Yes, I did get to meet a bunch of Europeans and Australians and New Zealanders while playing rugby in Beijing. But, there’s something different about actually sharing a living space with foreigners every day: sleeping in the same house, eating dinner on the same table, and telling jokes and exchanging stories on the same couch. It feels like a deeper connection because the conversations extend beyond “so how is your country different when it comes to ___?” You actually get to experience the differences yourself rather than hearing the redacted version from someone telling you about their country and culture, and start seeing habits or common themes in how they perceive things, particularly the mundane.

An example. Stereotypes are obviously quite harmful, but many of them exist for a reason and are probably based on some truth in the real world. I’ve heard of the stereotype of German uber-efficiency before, but didn’t quite realize how widespread it was until I found myself in our flat for the first time with my Belgian roommate Loic, one of my French flat mates Lucille, and our German flat mate, Anna. While Loic, Lucille, and I were stunned at how wonderful the space was, Anna walked around and started listing the things that were less than ideal about flat.

Most people in Singapore live in public housing commissioned by the HDB, the Housing & Development Board

The refrigerator wasn’t cold enough. There was a slight smell in the kitchen. The shelf is a bit dirty. There aren’t enough sockets in the living room. Is the air conditioner inverter? If you were to just listen in to the conversation happening in the room, it would seem like we were scammed into an awful living situation for the next four months. To be honest, I started doubting myself – are my standards that low that I didn’t notice all these faults?

The front of our apartment complex, the most common form of housing chosen by exchange students at SMU

When we went out for lunch afterwards, Anna split off to run errands, and the three of us that remained looked at each other and started laughing. “I’m not crazy, right? The flat is sick,” I said. Loic and Lucille agreed. “Germans,” they said in unison.

We need someone like that in the flat, though, and I appreciate what Anna brings because I think of myself as a fairly wasteful person. While it’s a bit annoying to have someone remind me to close the the door and shut the lights every time I finish using the bathroom, I do admit that some of my habits, like leaving the AC on when I leave the room for an extended period of time or using two laundry loads when one would suffice are habits that I can change. And every time Anna leaves for a trip to Malaysia or Indonesia, the flat quickly ends up becoming something of a mess. The chairs in our dining/study table don’t get pushed in, the dishes start to pile up, and doors and windows are left open all over.

One look at the difference between my room and Anna’s tells me that I have a lot to learn from her, however annoying it can be.

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The flat itself is gorgeous. We six exchange students share a three-bedroom flat on the 24th floor with a fantastic view for the price of S$1000 a month, or roughly $700. While the price may seem excessive for a shared bedroom, the flat’s location and the complex’s amenities more than make up for it.

The complex’s lap pool – usually filled with children taking swimming lessons in the morning, but empty at night!

There’s an outdoor lap pool as well as few smaller pools for children or for those who prefer to lounge about in shallow waters, as well as both an indoor and outdoor Jacuzzi. At one end of the lap pool are a few barbeque stations that can be reserved for parties and events, something we definitely want to take advantage of before the semester is over. There’s a gym, too. It’s a bit small, so I’ve decided to purchase a membership at a local gym, too, but it does allow me to get a morning or evening run whenever I decide to be particularly ambitious.

The complex’s lap pool – usually filled with children taking swimming lessons in the morning, but empty at night!

The flat’s common area. The six of us spend most evenings together here, eating, watching Netflix, or doing what work we couldn’t finish at the library.

We’re located just outside the city center. Kerrisdale Residences (our complex) is right smack in the middle of Little India, so there are already a variety of unfamiliar food choices to explore. Kampong Glam, the Malaysian/Middle Eastern ethnic quarter is a twenty minutes walk or five-minute bus ride away, while Chinatown is a ten minute MRT ride. A fairly large mall, CitySquare Park, is a three minutes walk away, complete with an MRT and bus station. SMU and Clarke Quay, the nightlife center for college students, are both fifteen minutes away by public transportation.

The flat assembles for its first night out!

The one downside to having all these opportunities to try new foods or visit sights in Singapore is that I’m already way over budget for the month I’ve been here. Hopefully, I can catch my parents in a good mood sometime soon.