UL vs NTU

It’s been more than a month since I came to this green and scarcely-populated city. I must say I’ve been enjoying myself, seeing new things, experiencing the very different culture, eating different kind of food with very different price :O and do very little studying I must admit. The life pace, and not to mention, study pace here is much more relaxing than in Singapore *duh*. Sad to say I could hardly make friends with the Irish. Most of the Irish I know would be just acquaintances and my closer friends are some other exchange students from the different parts of the world. Well, I guess the situation is not very much different than when I first came to Singapore. It requires much effort and a lot of time to blend-in with a foreign environment and I guess 4 months would just be enough to have a glimpse of it.

Anyway, doing some observation in the school, I notice several differences between the campus’ culture in Singapore (NTU) and in Ireland (at least in University of Limerick a.k.a UL), which I’m going to list down below, just for fun:

1. In UL, students are already in the class at least 5 minutes before the class begins, while in NTU, students, or I shall say many of them including me sometimes :p, will start coming into the class at least 5 minutes after the class begins.

2. In UL, tutorials do not begin until week 3 or some, week 4, while in NTU, tutorials start in week 2 (not to mention lab which starts on week 1).

3. In UL, students never, so far, prepare their tutorials, or rather, they are not expected by the teachers to prepare it anyway. What I mean is, it’s perfectly normal and blameless not to do your tutorial here. While in NTU, well they told us to prepare beforehand but only very few do it anyway.

4. In UL, teachers would sometimes have to take leave and cancel the lectures, and do not even arrange any make-up session for that. In NTU, you wish!!! They even made us come back for make-ups because of the public holidays.

5. In UL, lift (elevators) are only for the handicapped students. So if you are blessed to be normal, please don’t be lazy to use the stairs. And everybody in fact, uses the stairs. In NTU, well I guess the lift are meant for the handicapped as well, but who cares??

6. In UL, in one of my class, a student can actually say to the teacher, “Sorry, could you please explain that graph again? I was kinda switched off…”x_x. And the teacher, probably understanding enough that the subject is quite difficult would try to explain it again. In NTU, “How dare you sleep in my class!”…. haha….just kidding, NTU teachers are not fierce really…

Well sounds that I’ve been biased in my observations ya haha…Well I do have some good things about NTU….

7. In UL, lecture notes cost about 8-16 euros :s…and many of them are not good at all, with no page number, not in order, so u need to flip and flip and flip to find which page the lecturer is explaining, and u still can’t find it because u know what, they’re not inside that expensive notes :s. So, be thankful for that good and neatly organised, and cheap lecture notes in NTU.

8. In UL, there’s no lecturer as charming as Yxx Fxxx Fxx or Sxxxx Lxx hahaha…even though I have one young PhD tutor who looks a bit like Lex Luthor haha….

9. In UL, funny enough that sometimes, when you enter a classroom and the lights are not switched on, no one, I mean no one, not even the teacher sometimes, have the initiative to switch on the lights. I mean the classroom is not completely dark, but I really felt it was quite dark to write. Are they trying to save the bill or what??? In NTU, I never wrote in the dark :s….

10. In UL, in the classroom seats, gums are sticking everywhere…yuks….So, it’s not that bad bubble gum is banned in Singapore hehe….

Well, it’s a long list I’ve made…got to prepare my dinner now…wondering what to eat again….sigh…can somebody cook for me pleaseeeee…..