NTU Campus

The university that I am studying at, Nanyang Technological University, is one of the largest college campuses I have ever been on. This is quite surprising considering the severely limited land within Singapore itself. The city has a focus on constantly rebuilding and being efficient. However, the university manages to take up a large portion of the western side. A walk between my dorms and the campus can take a full half an hour. 

The entire campus is built on hills. Most of the natural land slopes to at least a slight degree and makes walking anywhere a bit of an exercise. 

The amount of insects and lizards here is very high. Cockroaches, ants, other small insects, and spiders can be found everywhere- from the bathrooms to the inside of the buildings. On a walk from the entrance of my dorm to my room, I encounter about 30 lizards on an average trip. They’re crawling up the walls or darting across the tiled grounds. Once, I even found one that managed to inter my room!

In terms of campus buildings itself, it was interesting to see the Singaporean style of architecture and design of the buildings after spending month’s in Purdue’s primarily red brick structures. Most walls are cream and flat, the roofs are a burnt red-orange, and the buildings follow a fairly basic building structure. However, some buildings like the Hive (a study space) and the Chinese Heritage center have distinctive styles of architecture. The dorms are open, a surprise compared to Purdue’s closed housing. Any person can theoretically walk up to any door. The rooms are fairly standard and similar to those in American colleges. The classrooms themselves are well lit and conducive to a learning environment, with a lot of whiteboard space great for a group discussion. The differences between the Singaporean and American buildings were definitely interesting to see.

 

The Hive

The Dorms

The thing that surprised me the most was the amount of greenery on campus itself. On the edges of campus and in some areas in the middle, jungle is the only thing you can see. Tropical trees are densely populated around the buildings, providing a leafy canopy that can sometimes act as a protection agains the rain and sun. Students often see wild boars and monkeys near these areas.

I recently had an incident with a local monkey. When I saw it, I froze with fear. Unfortunately, staring at the monkey is apparently a sign of aggression. The monkey proceeded to lunge at me a few times and I sprinted up the stairs and away. The trash can located on the next floor was fortunately more captivating than following me. Over the course of the next few minutes on the internet, I became an expert in what to do in case of a monkey interaction: 

1. Do not stare, which I did. Monkeys take this as a sign of aggression. Just look away and avoid the monkey if you can.

2. Do not smile. Monkeys take this also to be a sign of aggression. They indicate their agitation through baring their teeth or even yawning.

3. Give them your food. Most monkeys are really just going after your food.

4. Show your bare palms. This can be helpful to indicate to the monkey that you are not hiding any food from them.

5. Do not make sudden movements. Obviously, any sudden movements can make any animal uncomfortable so it is best to move slowly.

6. Do not run. Sometimes monkeys can see this as a sign of weakness and take themselves to be your superior. Sometimes, this may lead to them chasing you.

I definitely never expected an interaction like this. But with a campus located in a tropical area and with a high tree population, the probability of some sort of interaction is probably high. Nonetheless, living here with nature has been an interesting experience, and I am surely leaving Singapore with a newfound fear of monkeys.