PeiBach Corporation

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Happy Chinese New Year's!

So this year marks my first Chinese New Year's celebrated in Asia. The folks here adhere to many traditions that we in the US, even those who immigrated from Asia, don't adhere to as much. Basically, as it is in the US, it's an excuse to make tons of food at home with family and friends, as well as go out to nice restaurants to eat, over the course of 2 weeks. In terms of a celebration of gluttony, it's exactly like our Thanksgiving holiday (also get 2 days off from work/school), except the eating frenzy extended over a longer time period. But there are some details which I see here that aren't in the US. Just today I went to an NUS student's home (she is a native Singaporean), and there her parents greeted us with tons of New Year's traditional snacks and even hongbao for each of us who came (hongbao = red-colored packet of money that is given from adults to "children", or married to unmarried people). Back home I always got hongbao from my Asian side of the family, but I can't remember the last time a complete stranger whom I've never met before gave me one... it was really surprising for me. I was very glad that I was at least smart enough to bring some pineapple tarts for them, so I wouldn't look completely thoughtless. Although I still didn't bring my traditional two oranges/tangerines for them, which I noticed another native student presenting to our host when he arrived. Next time I'll know to do this, so hopefully I'll get another chance before the holiday ends. Anyway, the small gathering we had was very pleasant, and we even learned to play mahjong after stuffing ourselves with these Chinese pastry snacks, pork jerky, and watermelon seeds (the latter of which I personally avoid, but everyone else absolutely loves), as well as the classic Singaporean beer, "Tiger", which I never tried before. Mahjong is a tricky game, I need to learn the strategies before I can consider playing for money as many of the natives do.

Overall this weekend has been very relaxing for me. Some exchange students either went traveling if they didn't mind how expensive it was to do so during the holiday (you should read about the scale of mass-migrations in East Asia during the Chinese New Year's, it's ridiculous) or going out every so often to eat or go clubbing. I'm not a big fan of clubbing, although do like trance/dance/techno so maybe I'd try it once. From what I've heard it's obnoxiously loud music though... I might be only able to handle my favorite genres at lower volumes.

For myself I've seen a lot of movies/TV, either in the cinema or just downloading them in my dorm. Watched Inkheart (decent plot, crappy ending), Gran Torino (awesome, Clint Eastwood never gets too old), Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (new Miyazaki film... you know, the guy who did Totoro), as well as 4 weeks worth of Colbert Report (he seems less funny than I remember... I think it's his probable love of Obama that keeps Colbert from cracking as many jokes about him as he did for Bush). I thought I still had no assignments to do since my first day here (crazy, I know), but apparently I do have a short problem set that doesn't even count for a grade due tomorrow. Homework and problem sets are not a big concern here, it's mostly studying your ass off for midterms and finals, which, combined make up 70-100% of your grade. But I'll do the problem set anyway since we are going to discuss the answers tomorrow in tutorial. My classes are currently as follows:

1) Magnetic Methods for Information Storage
2) Power Electronics
3) Silicon Processing Technology
4) Solar Photovoltaic Energy Systems

I had a 5th class before, Digital Media Technologies, but I dropped it before we really got into the interesting part of the course, where we start a project about virtual/mixed reality. Our drop-deadline was very quick, just this past Monday, and I figured 5 classes would be too much so I had to choose pretty quickly, and that class I think I was least prepared for since it required some extensive knowledge of C++. But it did look interesting, just wish we didn't have to drop classes so quickly.

On top of that, I now have a tentative research position in the lab of one of my class's professors. I asked this professor on the first day of his class if there was room for me to register for his class, since I was denied the class on my original application for some strange reason. He was shocked that I couldn't register, and brought me over to the registrar's office himself after class and got the registrar lady to get all of my classes sorted out for me, which was really nice of him since that's pretty hard to deal with as a student in such a bureaucratic school. He then invited me over to his office to talk about my interest in research, where I found out he is apparently the deputy chair of the ELEC department at NUS, and a director for the prestigious Singapore-MIT Alliance program. He asked me about my research and seemed very impressed with my previous international experience, so he offered me a position in his own lab to work on some special silicon wafer fabrication, and naturally I accepted. I hope what I end up doing will have at least some relevancy to what I already do at Rice for Prof. Lou.

Well that's enough talking about work, time to actually do it. In terms of traveling I still have nothing planned, I'm so damn lazy about arranging this stuff unless other people are really bugging me to do something. Fortunately my dad and my sister are coming to visit during spring break when they will be forcing me to go with them to Thailand for a short stay... and then BACK to Hong Kong for a few days since dad has to visit his hometown before he leaves. Not that I don't mind, HK is cool.

Before I end, tip-of-the-day for S'pore: don't leave your tray from the foodcourt after you finished your meal in the MUSLIM-FOOD UTENSILS & TRAY ONLY area... I haven't done this but many other exchange students have, so be wise...

Oh and again, Happy Year of the Ox! I still remember what one other exchange student told us what he thought the end of the Year of the Rat meant... "So, you guys are not going to eat anymore rats this year?" :P

Saturday, January 24, 2009

More first glance observations

I think I left off my last post talking about the school. The school itself is in a nice residential area that is not as close to the heart of the city as I had hoped. To get into town, I have to take the internal bus (basically the campus shuttle) to a city bus stop, where I take that bus to the MRT station, where I can at last get downtown. They are actually in the process of building a new MRT line which will have a station right next to my dorm... so I guess I came just a bit too early for extra convenience. To get to class, I just take the internal bus to the Engineering Faculty, which is practically on the other side of campus. But the buses tend to go pretty fast. There's this one bus-driver who I call "Mr. Ballsy", because he hangs some kind of spherically shaped ornament-charms on his rearview mirror, and he drives like a maniac bat out of hell.

Computer games are definitely big here. Subhash took Q an I to a LAN cafe, which are apparently all over the city. I remember a few days ago there was a big DoTA tournament going on AT THE LIBRARY on campus. It was insane, all official student teams and everything. But to be fair, Singaporeans do exercise in real sports, and the guys especially tend to be buffer than the average dorky Asian kid, probably in part due to their required military service.

Shopping, not my favorite thing to do admittedly, is also popular in Singapore. Orchard Road is a famous high-end place to go, but there are definitely lots of cheaper locales such as Chinatown and Little India. At these places you can haggle for anything, which I fully approve of :) I could even haggle at a money changer, when converting US$ to SIN$. They're also not big on fees, taxes, tips, etc... what you ask for is what you get. I haven't bought anything to bring home yet other than clothes for myself, but I probably will do a spree later, when I have absolutely nothing else to do...

Politics. This topic is not-so-talked-about in S'pore. It is definitely less democratic than the US, you can read all about their Prime Minister and his daddy on Wiki or something. Punishment for crime is also more draconian. There is of course the famous death penalty for drug dealers, even foreigners. I also just read in the newspaper about a rapist who was sentenced to jail time as well as caning. For those of you who don't know what caning is: hollow bamboo stick + your ass = caning. It's quite painful. I also found it funny that, with all the fuss in California about gays being denied the right to marry, here they sentence convicted homosexuals to life in prison. Oh and one very interesting tidbit I learned yesterday from some natives. The current Prime Minister, being from a very powerful and influential family, had a wife before the one he has now. Of course, the entire family was expecting that wife to bear a healthy son to continue the family's legacy; it's just a universal thing for Asians. She did bear a son, except he was born an autistic albino (who is apparently a student at NUS currently, still haven't seen him though). A few weeks after his birth, she died, with the family reporting it as "heart failure". There's a dirty rumor about what really happened... I won't write here because censorship is a big deal here too and I'd rather not be caned on my first few weeks in the country, but ask me if interested.

Sightseeing travel is not as convenient as it was in Europe. Singapore is pretty isolated out on an island at the tip of a huge peninsula. In Europe it was very easy to go down to the big "Hauptbahnhoff" and take the train anywhere, sometimes with the crazy Genevois physicist Shaiyan Keshvari at my side. Here you practically have no choice but to fly, unless you enjoy 8 hour bus rides, and even then you can only get to places in Malaysia in that case. But I hope to at least see 3 other Southeast Asian places before I leave, already saw Malaysia, now considering Bali - Indonesia, Hanoi - Vietnam, and Ankor Wat - Cambodia. Sightseeing in Singapore itself is interesting, but I think I could do everything in a month. Already did the famous zoos (which were really quite good) and such, as well as Sentosa Island, which is not really good for anything other than artificial beach. Singapore itself is not the prettiest of cities, even though it is very clean. I still think Hong Kong has the best oceanfront views of any major city in Asia; Sam Wang can tell you all about his nostalgic yearnings for beautiful HK.

Oh and I almost forgot, there are other exchange students here with me. About 500 of us, quite a big number. But then again we are dwarfed in size next to the >30,000 students total at NUS. Most of the exchange students come from Scandinavia and Canada; I was surprised that USA was not #1. But students from the former definitely didn't mind leaving behind the frigid winter they currently have in their homelands. Poor Jaimeet Gulati... hope he isn't yet just a popsicle with a turban on top :P
I don't hang out with many of the exchange students, I find myself mingling with the natives more, but I did run into the ETH Zurich group yesterday, and we had a good long chat about what coming to Asia for the first time was like for a Zuricher... they definitely had some funny stories.

Well it's midnight now, so I'm signing off. Kind of wish I decided to travel this weekend, a lot of stores and other establishments are closed here due to Chinese New Year's. But travel was so damn expensive... oh well, there will be plenty of future chances.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Initial Observations on Singapore

So I've had a lot of opinions and ideas about what Singapore is without having the chance to write them all down before forgetting them. I did this for Switzerland, and was really surprised by how my views of that lovable little country in the Alps changed over the time I was there. Now it's Singapore's turn... remember that this is a n00b's perspective, so if you want some real insights talk to Subhash Tilak Doshi, Yuekai Sun, or Jennifer Luo since they're actual Singaporeans in one way or another.

The Republic of Singapore is definitely a freewheeling capitalist citystate which serves as the "beacon on the hill" for the rest of Southeast Asia. Compared to Hong Kong, which I'm more familiar with, it is definitely more diverse ethnically-wise, and perhaps a little more "outdoorsy" in terms of where people eat, gather, etc... a Hongkonger I know said of S'pore: "It's tropical", when I actually thought HK was tropical already. It is of course very warm/humid, all year round. But my dorm room does not have AC (I actually hate AC so this is a big bonus, have a turbo-speed ceiling fan instead).

The diversity is amazing, mostly Chinese but a large number of Indians, Malays, etc. Most of the natives I meet at NUS do not identify themselves to me as their ethnicity, but just "Singaporean", which surprised me since they usually like to associate with friends who can speak their native language other than English.

Oh, and that's another thing... even though English is the official language of NUS, I'm very glad I know some Mandarin, not because it's easier to talk to other students but because of the foodcourts. I've discovered that if you go to a Chinese foodstall and order in English, you'll most likely get a little bit less food on your plate than if you order in Mandarin. So I'm practicing my food vocab so eventually I can get anything at a good deal. It doesn't always work because some of the vendors just know by looking at me that I'm not full-Asian. Actually a lot of people know I'm not pure... is it really that obvious?

But the food, no matter where you go, is rarely disappointing, and very cheap. There is one stall which I call "Chef Stacy's stall", which you should of course avoid, but the rest are good. They arrange these foodcourts in interesting layouts. There is always just one stall for everything, e.g. one Indian stall, one northern Chinese style stall, one Hokkien Chinese stall, one Vietnamese stall, etc, etc... and one beverage stall, which usually sells US$ 1 bubble tea (or pearl milk tea, if that's what you know). It's good bubble tea, too, with actual chunks of fruit in it if you get fruit flavoring. I think after this trip I will no longer have the heart to buy any of the Rice Asian student clubs' bubble teas at US$ 3 each...

NUS students (not the rest of the exchange crowd) make everyone at Rice look like a party-animal. They work and study pretty hard, especially the non-Singaporean students from China or India, who are recruited to NUS on some very substantial scholarships, and are some of the best of the best from their home countries. There is a college system here that is very similar to Rice's, but I'm in the only on-campus quarters that are not officially part of the college system (kind of like how we treat Martel, or will treat Duncan & McMurtry). But apparently the other college-system dorms are considered the "party" dorms, because the students in those dorms have very established social groups and lots of traditions and activities that students from my dorm consider to be "fun, but detrimental to study habits". My dorm therefore doesn't have a strong uniting culture, but it has it's own foodcourt (you can get a meal here anytime from 7AM to 2:30 AM), grocery store, sports facilities, etc. and the buildings are all relatively new, so those are advantages. The entire dorm is separated into "blocks", or just different buildings, on each storey of which there are "clusters". Each cluster is a group of about 10 guys or girls (no co-ed, in fact, if you have a person of the opposite sex in your room you're obliged to leave the door open), and each cluster has an RA-appointed cluster leader, who is sort of like a floor-rep from Sid, except their job is not to represent, but to issue orders from higher authority. For example, they go around checking if people left their shoes or clothes out of the rooms and just this week we had a cluster-cleaning session where we all went to the kitchen with rags and sponges to clean. So it's a very communal system, except instead of community by beer and parties it's community by chores.

Wow this is a lot of writing... starting to get antsy and hungry. Time to get out, I'll start a new article when I'm bach...

Monday, January 19, 2009

Vitamin C in all its glorious forms

Q came home today with about 30 kg of random fruit. He had so much he had to call me when my classes were over and told me to come meet him at the bus stop with a suitcase to carry them all. Here are the results of the tasting event:

A tropical cornucopia

With faces drawn on them, each representing their respective cultures and greatest personal traits.

The dragon eye with its flesh partially removed.

Subhash showing us how to slaughter and skin a dragon(fruit)

The brightest, most neon purple I've ever seen. And yet this is the most tasteless fruit of the entire batch.

The resulting carnage... overall I'd say the mango, mangosteen (see earlier post), and dragon eyes (taste like lychee) were the best. Pomegranates are good but they have annoying seeds in every bit. Dragonfruits are a waste, but they definitely look cool. The guavas here are nothing like the ones in the Americas, these were hard as apples and less intense in flavour. We were too full to try the papaya by the end, but we're all familiar with it.

Another foodcourt adventure... this time I had a really good BBQ fish.

Penang, Malaysia

Q is once again prepared for international travel. All he needed for the entire 10-day trip to Southeast Asia was a backpack, sleeping back, and a few pages of Sudoku puzzles. No checked bags, and no shorts (he had to borrow my shorts... Q could not believe that a city located on the Earth's equator could have a warm climate)