Singapore’s Chinatown

This past weekend, I explored Chinatown with two friends who are also student teaching at SAS.  Singapore has three main “cultural” areas: Little India, Arab Street, and Chinatown, and all of them are wonderful areas to try different foods, shop, and explore.  We began our exploration at a little coffee shop that sold Kaya toast, …

A Slice of Nature Within the City

Amidst the hustle and bustle of the city, Singapore maintains several large natural areas perfect for enjoying nature.  MacRitchie Reservoir is one of those places, dense with tropical trees and alive with the sounds of monkeys and birds.  My Saturday morning was spent breathing in the humid rainforest air and trying to capture the beauty of …

Singapore American School

Student teaching at SAS has been quite the experience! The curriculum is academically challenging, and often I have been surprised at how much my third graders know and can do. The entire school is huge, with a student body larger than that of Hope. As third grade teachers, my cooperating teacher and I work alongside …

Island Exploration

  This past weekend, another student teacher and I explored Pulau Ubin, a Singaporean island just off the coast of the mainland.  The island was advertised as rustic and relaxed, which we found it to be. It was enjoyable to take a break from the hustle and bustle of the city for the day.  We …

First Week

Well, I am finally in Singapore and have begun student teaching! The first five weeks of the semester I spent on Hope’s campus, taking the “6-hour-block,” which is a block of three education classes which all special education majors are required to take during fall student teaching. Although I loved being able to spend time …

Bucket List–My Final Post

Hello, everyone! I am writing this post from my couch, safe and sound, back in my home state of Michigan. Looking back on my time in Japan, I’ve had a lot of things on my to-do list that I haven’t been able to do due to distance, construction, or time/money restraints, and I did get …

15 Things Japan Has That America Should, Too

Sickness masks. Keep the germs contained! Escalator etiquette. One half stands to the side, the other half is a passing lane. I’ve never felt more satisfied. I’ve already mentioned this in a previous post, but: THE TOILETS. So cool. Packaging. Like, nice packaging. Japan would scoff at America’s put-it-in-a-bag-with-some-tissue-paper-on-top mentality. Yuzu. They’re a type of …

Hakone Field Trip

A few months ago, my fellow dormmates/classmates/exchange students and I went on a field trip with our Japanese language professors to Hakone, a famous location for foreigners and Japanese people alike. Hakone is famous for its hot springs, lake, shrine, and special black hard boiled eggs (naturally boiled in the hot springs, giving it its …

Apartment Tour Part 2!

Here is the second part of the apartment tour! Meiji Gakuin University provides an apartment building for all the exchange students, located in a nearby residential area. The reason for this is because Japanese universities do not provide housing, since many students find it more easy to commute by train from their homes.  So this …

Habits

Hello there! Welcome back to the blog! This post will be a little more brief, as I wanted to quickly share a few daily life changes that I’ve experienced, or that tend to happen while you’re living in Japan. The first difference made in my routine from day 1 was my sleep schedule. I woke …