University of National Champs

Finally:

An unwatchable game turned into a beautiful night for the Tar Heels, who turned a free-throw contest into a championship they’ve been waiting an entire year to celebrate.

It has been four full years since I left the Tar Heel state – and every one of those years I have followed the UNC men’s basketball team from sunny Singapore, after being enthralled watching them play in the Dean Dome during my student exchange days there. I remember watching games on crappy streaming websites – especially those against archrival Duke – while staying in Tembusu College. Each time, wondering how they will fare in the ACC regular season, and how far up they will go in the NCAA tournament.

Last year, I remember I was in some Econs lecture in my second-last semester (probably EC3101) when UNC was playing Villanova in the national championship game. I didn’t have access to the livestream, but I was following the gamecast on ESPN… and can’t believe UNC had lost on a buzzer-beater. It was extremely nerve-wrecking and ultimately disappointing.

(I clearly didn’t pay much attention during that lecture)

This year, the Tar Heels made it back to the Final Four – and ultimately the championship game – again. One year on, I’m in the workforce, but still *had* to catch the gamecast. Needless to say, I didn’t really have a productive morning (the game was ongoing this morning Singapore time).

But the Heels won this time. And it was great!

The game apparently sucked, but I wasn’t able to catch it anyway. Just that I know that many years after physically leaving UNC, I still follow the basketball (and to a lesser extent football) team, giving them some moral support all the way from a tiny red dot.

Truly the power of sports.

 

SEA Games: Exercise in Nation-building

The SEA Games are over!

It has been nice to have this kind of multi-sport international (okay lah, regional) sporting meet in Singapore. In many ways it feels nicer to have the SEA Games in Singapore than the Youth Olympic Games five years ago. Of course, the YOG is the one with the prestige – its the one with the most recognisable five-rings in the world. But the SEA Games are special because unlike the YOG, there are so many Singaporean athletes – and medals won – at this Games compared to the YOG, where we see ang mohs and Chinese/Japanese clean sweeping every event.

There also seems to be an increased sense of people caring about the SEA Games compared to the YOG. I can’t say for sure because I was doing my NS during the YOG days but looking at the numbers of Singaporeans and supporters from around the region flood the venues during the weekend evenings and the weekends really add to the atmosphere of the Games. No need to bring in students to boost support – there’s enough support already. When I watched the track events at the National Stadium last Thursday evening, I was pleasantly surprised by the number of supporters there (free admission helps of course). I watched the tennis finals on Sunday with Chelsea and her parents – it was nearly full house. And the fans were passionate – making every event a joy to watch, both online and in real life. (I can still remember the roar from the crowd after the netball finals where Singapore won Malaysia – it was scarily good even though I was watching from my computer)

And one big factor is of course Singapore’s record-breaking medal haul, with a total of 259 medals – 84 of them gold medals. I remember chuckling when I saw the Straits Times’ prediction of 80 golds, but clearly the ST Sports team knew what they were predicting. My siblings and I were particularly interested in checking how the medal count increased over the days. Medals from the expected places – like the pool – to the unexpected, like the track, squash court and in gymnastics. I remember this line said by someone when I was in NS: People like to support a winning team. And this time we were winning quite a bit.

Well, the standard of the SEA Games is much lower, which helps in the medal haul. We see athletes like Joseph Schooling who are way above the regional standard win convincingly and break countless records. But we also see surprise wins like those by Shanti Pereira who broke Singapore’s gold medal drought on the track.

But ultimately does that matter? I think the timing of the Games were very deliberate. While Singapore gave up the opportunity in 2013 due to the delayed Sports Hub, I think the government scored a coup by having this event in 2015. There’s no better opportunity to commemorate SG50 than having a winning Team Singapore represent the country on home ground, with many passionate supporters (also provided courtesy of the Sports School) waving the national flag. It builds up national pride.

I got reminded once again of the sporting culture in the United States universities, and how I was proud to be a Tar Heel when I was in UNC. UNC’s track record in basketball played a big part, as you see almost everyone else support your team. Sport does help to build a sense of identity and pride, and I see something similar forming in Singapore after these SEA Games.

Hopefully it persists. As a relatively young nation there are few things that can help form our collective identity. One is through tough times and crises – SARS comes to mind. Another is through the bad times and collective loss – the recent Sabah earthquake and Lee Kuan Yew’s passing. But there’s also collective triumph and celebration that can help us forge our common identity.

As the SEA Games end tonight, hopefully our sense of pride for our Team SG athletes will not extinguish.

LDOC

It’s LDOC again. The last time this happened was just four months ago… I look at the post with a sense of nostalgia and awe, as well as a sense of familiarity… yep, another semester has passed and it’s the last day of class again. This time round, the only people I see on my social network doing the LDOC thing is Jake and Caroline… it’s almost like a NUS Tar Heel secret.

Either way, where did the semester go? 14 weeks ago I remember going for my first leadership class, at 11am on a Monday morning. I haven’t even fully moved in to Tembusu College yet… in fact, mentally I was still in the United States on holiday with Chelsea and my sister. That was the start of the semester, and also the start of 13 weeks of crazy 11 am to 6 pm classes on Monday.

It’s also probably due to the fact that there are so many hours spent in the classroom that made this semester feel somehow shorter than my semester in UNC. Funny, isn’t it? Well, if you spend an average of like 3 hours (max 4 hours) a day in school, it gives you plenty of time in the day for a lot more. And when we’re talking about Chapel Hill, there’s really not that much to do.

It’s been an interesting semester. It’s a transition semester, of sorts. Transition back to Singaporean university life, yes, but it’s also a transition for me to study accounting modules again, and to start earnest work on my second degree. It’s a comfortable semester, with only one class where I feel like a total and complete stranger (EC2104, but even so I have Tembusu friends taking that module). EC2101 was with Jake, and it’s a great module that is just not that easy to score. Accounting modules are fun because my first friends in NUS Business are in the same class as me – Danny, Eugene, Paul, Xixi. It was great just spending time after class eating lunch at Arts (I practically didn’t touch the Business canteen this semester), and doing projects together. Leadership was also made comfortable with Justin around.

The conclusion of the semester also means some things come to an end. This is probably the last semester where I will be taking a module under the UTown College Programme. Biomedicine and Singapore Society was an interesting module… but it’s less biomedicine and more on “living well”. Thought-provoking, and interactive. Best parts of a Tembusu module. Next semester, with many Year 2s leaving Tembusu this semester, the college could really just be a place to stay on campus for me.

It’s a semester with great professors. I think one of the great things about NUS is really the dedication and professionalism of the professors. I’m sure other universities have it great too, but I think my profs are just awesome without any need to compare. Profs TWC, Ed Keung, Dan McAllister, Catelijne… just great. (Sadly I have not much feels for my Economics profs – still a FASS noob)

Reading week is coming up. The semester is not over yet!

#GDTBATH

GDTBATH = Great Day to be a Tar Heel.

Even after leaving the University of North Carolina for close to three months, I still hold this particular shade of blue known as Carolina blue close to my heart. It really spells volumes of how much I’ve grown to like the university in a small town called Chapel Hill (with loads of variables that helped – fact that my modules were easy, results didn’t matter, and I was basically a tourist).

One big reason for this love for UNC can be easily attributed to the college sporting culture in the United States. It helps loads that UNC has a pretty awesome American football team, and it is monumental that UNC is home to one of the biggest college basketball programs in the US. It was where Michael Jordan played before he joined the NBA… for instance.

Another cool reason is the rivalry between UNC and Duke University. This is mostly entrenched in the men’s basketball game, but it has slowly creeped to other aspects like football, a game that I attended at the Kenan Memorial Stadium just before ending my student exchange. We lost that game, but the rivalry stuck with me.

That’s why today’s (Chapel Hill Thursday night) game in the Dean Dome at UNC against Duke is something that I wanted to catch. It would have been the biggest thing if I went to UNC this semester instead of the last. I remember chatting with my roommate when college basketball season started, about the possibility of a UNC win over Duke. I was unsure because the team was (then) pretty lousy but my roommate (born and bred Tar Heel) told me not to dismiss them.

They won the game against Dook, in the end. 74-66. After trailing by up to 11 points.

It’s awesome. I managed to catch the first half and then some of the game online (yay for live streams). Turns out the rest of my NUS UNC friends were catching the game live too – Ben, Hillary, Eunice, Davin, Jesselyn. It’s a pity we weren’t watching the game together – it’s a school day after all, and the game was at 10am – but the fact that we still care about this rivalry (touted as one of, if not, the biggest in college sports) speaks volumes of how we are still Tar Heels deep inside.

How many of us feel the same for NUS?

Food for thought.

Catch some cool footage here on goheels.com

First Week

The first full week back in Singapore, and the first week in NUS for the year, has been quite eventful.

Beyond the thrills of enjoying a four-day workweek, there are other things that made the first week, or rather, the first weekend, exciting.

Yesterday, Chelsea and I resumed our weekly outings to various parts of Singapore. To resume this, we wandered off to VivoCity and Plaza Singapura, both in a bid to get myself a refurbished iPhone 5. (Long story short, my iPhone’s camera lens gained some unsightly dust and I want to get a new camera because photos now look weird. My attempts to do so, both in the US and in Singapore, ended up with nothing) Some things still don’t change in Singapore – the many cars, the difficulty in finding carpark lots, and the number of people. (Some things about Apple products don’t change too. For example, their exorbitant cost) We ended up having some nice food at the Kim Gary HK Restaurant in Vivo, and some awesome strawberry cheesecake at Marble Slab in Plaza Singapura.

Today, the classic family Sunday outing is enhanced by a guest from Vancouver… Hui Chee’s friend, Vivien, is in Singapore for her own student exchange experience. (The world is really smaller than you think.) And to introduce her to the Singapore “way of life” (kind of), we first had breakfast at Tiong Bahru Hawker Centre, itself a very nice place for great food (like the awesome porridge and chwee kweh). Following that, we went to East Coast Park for a somewhat short-yet-long cycling session, cycling one-way to Changi Village where we had one of my favourite non-caffeinated drinks – sugarcane juice! The ride today was nice too, cloudy weather with a little bit of sunshine. Somewhat surreal to be next to the airport one week after arriving in Singapore too.

(Also proves how small Singapore is.)

Finishing our little trip to East Coast is a not-so-common lunch at Jumbo Seafood where we had great stuff like chilli crab and steamed prawns. Happy food is then complemented with a little cafe-hopping with Han Liang and Eugene, my Tembusu seniors. We went to this place in Kampong Glam (memories of primary school field trips come flooding back) called Maison Ikkoku, which had cool coffee (aeropress coffee first time!) and just a nice place to catch up with these awesome seniors. Through Han Liang, for instance, I learnt of the existence of this Specialists’ Song and Specialists’ Roar (modelled after the OCS song and the BMTC roar respectively). How times have changed!

Second week of school beckons… and the last week before tutorials resume again!

Delicious XO Fish Beehoon soup at Dover with the UNC NUS peeps

Great strawberry shortcake with Chelsea at Marble Slab in PS

Changi Coast Park, after two hours of cycling from East Coast Park

Who knew Singapore’s waves could be so strong? Entire sidewalk was damp!

Saw this awesome street art at the side of the building near Kg Glam

Eugene’s flat white at Maison Ikkoku

2013

2013. I cannot believe it has come to an end.

I’m typing this quick post, at 12am on the last day in 2013 in my hotel room in New York. 24 hours before I enter the new year (yeah, 13 hours behind Singapore!) Just wanna do a quick post on how the year has went by. 

Just when I thought 2012 was great, 2013 could probably blow it off its socks. It has been a year of new things. Just like 2012 – where going to university was a new experience for me. 2013 is a year marked mostly by my unforgettable semester on exchange at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Being a Tar Heel for four months was simply one of the best four-month periods I’ve ever had. It’s studying without the stress and pressure of needing to do well. It’s discovering new cultures and meeting new people and really finding out what keeps life ticking in a small university town in the United States. It’s about meeting new Singaporean friends and forming strong friendships through many exciting road trips. It’s about visiting new places and relearning things – things you think you may have known a long time ago.

It’s also a year of being blessed with the opportunity to travel. With not just my friends around the East Coast of the US – Richmond Virginia, Great Smokies, Atlanta, Miami, Orlando and Myrtle Beach, but also with Chelsea in Vancouver and the west coast of the US – Los Angeles, Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, San Francisco, and also with my sister (and Chelsea) in New York and Toronto (with Philadelphia and Washington, DC to come in 2014). I’m so thankful for this opportunity to see the Western world.

Of course, the first half of 2013 has been superbly memorable too. From a very stressful second semester to working in Singapore Discovery Centre during the break, it was quite well spent. Most memorable times include spending many hours for Tembusu College’s (somewhat well regarded) Open Day, spending fewer hours for its Orientation, trying some new stuff as part of my commitments in the Tembusu College Students’ Committee, and some hours for my Bizad Club commitments.

So many things. Universal Studios in Singapore, Florida and Hollywood. Hikes in Singapore, and hikes in Carolina. Even hikes in San Fran near the Golden Gate Bridge. Runs, all 930km of them – some alone, some with friends, some in 30 degrees weather, and some in 8 degrees. Shooting rifles one year after ORD in the States. Catching the Script, Maroon 5 and Kelly Clarkson live in performance. Getting inspired by a group of awesome Tembusians for the Gobi march, and making new friends along the way. And having the opportunity to become closer with my dear friends, and family.

And of course, a year with my beloved girlfriend. Chelsea, I know you’re reading this! You know this, but thanks for an awesome year. It has been great spending it with you. 🙂

Above all, I’m more thankful than ever before for this year. It has been a year of me exceeding my own expectations, from academics (both in NUS and UNC) to life outside school. And for that, my heart is full of gratitude.

To an awesome 2014 to come! Happy new year everybody.

Vancouver

Now, the vacation begins.

It all starts from the flight to Chicago, where I sat in the smallest plane I’ve ever had a ride on (a Embraer ERJ 145 – my head was touching the ceiling when I was walking down the aisle!), witnessed a beautiful sunset many feet above the ground, before seeing my first-ever aerial view of a snow-covered city. I literally gasped as I saw the city of Chicago come into sight, all snow-covered. It’s beautiful. Too bad it wasn’t snowing.

Regardless, my connecting flight to Vancouver got delayed due to the snow delaying other flights. One good thing about the delay was that I managed to catch the UNC-Kentucky basketball game on ESPN, as the United plane I was on had DirecTV on as a free preview before takeoff. I was able to catch a good chunk of the second half, and that helped to make the delay feel much shorter. (Best part? UNC won!)

After finally reaching Vancouver after approximately seven hours of flight time, I was surprised by Chelsea who was at the airport to get me. I was so surprised because I was almost out of the airport towards the train station when she popped by. I was so happy and the sushi she bought for dinner was just a blessing.

Eventually made it to my current location, a little house somewhere in Vancouver, via public transport. My first Airbnb is turning out to be pretty awesome; the room is great (and exactly as described) with a nice private bathroom.

Perspective is what I feel today, after a nice Sunday out with Chelsea. After finding her at University of British Columbia, we got to explore various places like the UBC campus, Granville Island, and downtown Vancouver (including English Bay and Canada Place). And we had some awesome ramen for dinner (yay for someone ‘local’ to bring me around!).

Perspective, in this case, comes from staying in a small town for four months. In Chapel Hill (and the general Raleigh-Durham area), public transport is not something one takes really for granted.  While it is awesome that public transport is free in Chapel Hill, they don’t run everyday and the frequency is definitely not fantastic. No subway or rapid transit system to speak of. And now, everything is right here in Vancouver.

It sounds ridiculous before I lived a good twenty+ years in Singapore, and enjoyed much of its public transport convenience. But sometimes perspective plays an important role, to keep you grounded and reminded.

That’s how a sunset looks like at 37,000 ft. What a perfect sight to end my Carolina experience

Oh, how cold it must be out there!

My bed in Vancouver! As comfortable as it looks!

From one Business School to the next…

Chels and I at the clock tower at UBC – featured in the UBC lip dub!

A island with a combination of everything

At around two to three in the afternoon the sun came out and everything looked awesome. Here, a super cute dog along the edge of the water

A historical symbol of Canadian heritage and hospitality… the inspiration behind the Vancouver 2010 olympics logo

View of English Bay… beautiful

A little Canadian exhibit at Canada Place… but it was too cold to see all the exhibits!

Vancouver is a pretty place, and I’m glad the sun is out today in what is typically a gloomy place to be in. Looking forward to explore more of the city and the area before Chelsea ends her exams.

 

The End

That’s it.

The end of the student exchange programme that I have been looking forward to even before I entered NUS. I have been looking forward to this once I knew I am going to a local university. And in a way, I’m pretty blessed to get this off my checklist by my third semester in NUS.

On the not-so-good side, it’s only my 3rd semester. As a double degree student, I would have ten semesters in NUS. What most people will do in their penultimate year, I did in my 2nd year, at the 30% mark. That means 70% of pure Singaporean experience to look forward to.

I am a mixed bag of emotions now. Typing this at Raleigh-Durham International Airport, where just five months ago, Caroline and I arrived from London on a seemingly never ending flight by American Airlines. Just like then, it’s raining now. I’m back to where it all started.

These five months… I’ve learnt a lot. Most of what I learn is outside the classroom. Granted, I did take four modules here, and I paid due diligence (especially as an exchange student) for these modules. I enjoyed the lessons in the classroom (almost all of them).But what I enjoy even more, is really seeing and absorbing what it means to live life in Chapel Hill, in North Carolina and in America.

From having a local roommate, to meeting people from all over the United States, I’ve learnt so much. From the exciting football and basketball games in Kenan Stadium and Dean Smith Center, I finally see the hype behind college athletics (and now have a favourite college team). From going on hikes with many Singaporeans, to going on hikes with just Americans, I see the beauty behind North Carolina. From running in 8 degree weather, I see how the human body adapts to the environment, not just physically, but mentally too. From the many road trips, I see how friendships can be formed just by having a common experience (and also how important it is to have a car in the States).

Oh, the many friends I’ve made here. Some with whom I may never see again… the thought makes my heart ache.

And on, and on, and on.

I’ll probably do a better post about this when I return home when it all sinks in that it’s over. Right now, I’m waiting for a flight to Chicago to connect to another flight to Vancouver to (finally) find Chelsea! Then we should be having quite a time travelling around Canada and the rest of America that I’ve not been to.

A better post, too, because I’m pretty tired now. With my friend having a family emergency, and basically poor exam scheduling (which leads to limited time to pack),  I had a five hour sleep last night, interrupted half way (4:30am) to fetch him to the airport for his flight back to Singapore.

The normal excitement I get from going on a vacation is strangely absent. Maybe because I don’t feel an urge to leave.

Bye, UNC-Chapel Hill. Who knows… we may meet again?

Last Run

Time to have a post dedicated to running – it’s been a while!

I have still been running quite regularly in UNC, despite the increasingly cold temperatures around Chapel Hill. I have found and stuck to an approximately 7.1km route that goes up and down and basically goes around the entire UNC campus, plus a short detour to a nice housing estate with a castle. According to Garmin, I gain 77 metres in elevation every time I run this route… which is quite a bit (almost half of Bukit Timah!).

I think my legs have suffered a little as a result as I tend to go a bit too fast downslopes. Either that, or the cold weather. Regardless, I have this dull ache on my right calf that has been around since November. And when I ran today, it was still there. (As predicted, I didn’t have much rest for my legs besides the Atlanta Thanksgiving trip!)

As a result of this, and considering my one-run-every-two-days policy plus the desolate predicted temperatures for Thursday (highest of 5 degrees C, lowest of -5 degrees C) and the fact that I don’t wear that much in cold weather (basically a singlet underneath a long sleeve drift tee, and my Air Force shorts – the same ones I wear in 30 degree Celsius weather), I did what will probably be my last run in Chapel Hill today.

I didn’t realise it immediately, but it was after the first 2km when I knew I would not run on the streets that have grown so familiar to me in the short span of a few months – Manning Drive, Columbia Street, Franklin Street, Park Place, Country Club Road, Gimghoul Road, Glandon Drive, Ridge Road. Both my legs were just stiff from the cold – I couldn’t reach my usual stride, and there was no way I could breathe in through my nose as I always do in Singapore.

It was also thanks to these two factors that I found it hard to just absorb the sights and sounds of the run. The same buildings, the same trees (now with zero leaves) and the roads and sidewalks (now full of leaves). I tried to take in how freezing cold my hands will be, and how the wind always seem stronger when I’m moving. I tried to bask in the happiness of a run where I won’t perspire like crazy.

In the end, the run did not have the romantic, “I love running so much” feel to it. I was happy that it ended, that I can stop putting my right calf through this torturous process every two days.

The wind was very strong when my run ended. Yet, I did what I usually do (something I don’t do in Singapore) – cool down. Stretch my legs and all, outside my dorm building. That was when I saw.

I saw the beautiful skies, and saw how quiet everything was around me. Immediately, my heart rate slowed down and I just took it in. The winds were strong and the body heat I generated from the run started to dissipate. It didn’t matter. The skies were painted a beautiful purplish hue, and it was only now when I was able to just live in that moment and take it all in. The view, the wind, the feeling of satisfaction as my run schedule for 2013 concludes (with 936km covered since 1st Jan this year – more than the distance from Singapore to Thailand) and the sensation of ending my study abroad experience in the United States. And how I managed to (kind of) stick to running on streets, and not on a treadmill even as the weather got punishingly cold – 45 times, a total of 310km.

Three more days. Even my roommate Kevin has ended his exams and had headed home.

Purplish hues after two days of cloudy, rainy weather

Last Weekend

And there it goes – my last weekend in UNC. Just like the first weekend in UNC, it has been gloomy and rainy. Just that it’s a lot colder now (it’s more or less a constant 1 degree Celsius today). It also happens that all the uncertainty and blurness associated with the first weekend has long been a distant memory. To replace that, throw in final examination preparation. Yep… even students on exchange study too (at least Singaporean students).

After a very nice warm Friday with my first paper – Macroeconomics, the temperature plunged rapidly (urgh) over the two days (from 25 degrees to 7 degrees to 1 degree Celsius). For the last weekend, I didn’t do much. I did manage to catch a theatre performance on Friday evening though – and it’s by the Playmakers Repertory Company (the same company that my group focused on for our Marketing project). Good show – went with Navin, Rebecca and Caroline. Followed that up with some beer to celebrate Navin’s birthday at Top of the Hill.

On Saturday, went to Walmart for the last time with Caroline, followed by the last UNC basketball game in the Dean Smith Center. In comparison to the wildly disappointing game against Belmont, the Tar Heels won comfortably against UNC-Greensboro (81 to 50!). Great atmosphere, great seats. Went to the game with Caroline, Jake, and Ben (with Rebecca there for a short while).

Spent most of my day today studying. In various places. The Starbucks near my dorm. And Davis Library – the biggest library in UNC. Friends who know me probably know that I prefer to study in my room. Turns out it’s not so easy with a roommate around (and a TV that’s perpetually on). The feeling of studying is somewhat good for me – reminds me of how it’s like in NUS and how good life here is.

PS: There was also a memorable moment – Friday 12am. There were streakers (yes, people who run around naked) – both male and female – running from the library to various places around campus. Truly something you cannot find in Singapore.

Friday Dec 6 – 25 degree weather. Bring out the short sleeve shirts!

The most “happening” area in Chapel Hill – Franklin Street

Some weird flash happened to go off during the tipoff in the UNC-UNCG game

More seats than our indoor stadium …

Carolina Victory! Last moments in the Dean Dome

Davis Library – the white curvy lights are actually skylights!