International Exchange Programs at MBA: Raffles Institute, Singapore: Johnathan Barringer

Just getting to Singapore was a major journey itself. We traveled for just over 27 hours to make it there, and on the way there, we essentially skipped an entire day. We had left on Saturday morning, and we arrived in the Changi Airport on Monday morning. To say that the plane rides were long is an understatement. We met Ms. Ho at the airport, and she took us to Raffles in a cab. Once we got to the school, she showed us to our room. We all fell asleep immediately because we were all completely drained from our travels. The next day we had a day of orientation to our new surrounding, and we were astonished to see that Raffles' campus is massive. It is three to four times larger than MBA's campus. We then got to go and meet our buddies who we would shadow to classes. After our meeting, we went Back to our room and fell asleep. This nap that we thought that we were taking ended up lasting from three o'clock in the afternoon to two o'clock in the morning! The thirteen hour time difference had hit us hard.

Changi Airport

The next day we started classes. It was very interesting to see how similar many of the classes were to ours at MBA. The students practice the habit of standing up when any adult enters the room including the teachers. The teachers were very similar to ours as well. I enjoyed my math class that I took. The teacher would joke around with the student as he taught which kept everyone interested and engaged. For lunch we would go to their food court. The students do not have a meal plan. They are able to choose from many different food stalls each day at lunch. The foods range from their "western" food which included spaghetti and hot dogs to more traditional asian cuisines such as chicken rice and sweet and sour chicken. After lunch we would go to our last few classes. After school, the students go to their CCA or co-curricular activity which is a government required after school activity. We tried out several different CCA's including rugby and pistol shooting. After our CCA's we would return to our dorm.

The second week of our trip focused more on the fascinating culture of Singapore. The country itself is a mashup of many different ethnicities and religion. Therefore there are many fascinating cultural destinations. Additionally, the country is also highly urbanized. We visited a single road that had around thirty shopping malls on it. These malls w
ere not like a normal mall in nashville either. Most of them were upwards of six and seven stories tall. We could not believe that there could be that many stores in one place. We also were able to ride the Singapore Flyer which is the world's tallest Ferris WHeel. This ride gave us the opportunity to see the country from a sort of birds eye view. Additionally we visited the three ethnic centers: Chinatown, Kampong Glam, and Little India. Each center had its own appeal, and my favorite was Chinatown. Chinatown was where we did most of our shopping as well as see some of the local Chinese culture.

A Typical Mall

Finally I would Like to thank the Warner family as well as Mr. Gioia for allowing me to participate in this exchange program. I would like to thank everyone at the Raffles Institute for making us feel welcome especially Alex, Sam, and Ryan. The trip was truly a life-changing event, and I know I will never forget it. I cannot begin to explain how incredible it was to be able to interact with kids that live on the other side of the world. I strongly encourage anyone interested to apply for this exchange.