A few things had to be organized before the start of the trip. You should apply for a visa with the authorities well in advance, as the entire processing procedure can take quite a long time and Singapore generally has very strict regulations when it comes to entering the country.

We also looked for an apartment locally in advance so that we already had accommodation when we started our trip. Before the start of the semester abroad, I also took out insurance and took care of the vaccinations recommended for Southeast Asia. As I am studying with a permanent partner company, Miele & Cie. KG in Gütersloh, my stay abroad also had to be clarified here, of course.

However, you should not be discouraged by this organizational effort, because a semester abroad in Singapore is definitely worth it!

In Singapore, I lived in a shared apartment with two friends from the FHDW. The apartment with three rooms and a kitchen/living room was located in a condo in the Geylang district and was only a 10-minute walk from the university and 3 minutes from the nearest MRT station. The building also had a pool, a roof terrace and a barbecue area, which we were allowed to use as we wished. Overall, we were very happy with this accommodation and felt very comfortable there.

James Cook University in Singapore is rather small and is mainly attended by Asian students. I took a total of four courses there. Due to corona, the majority of my lectures and tutorials were still held online and only one lecture and one tutorial took place in person.

Unlike at the FHDW in Germany, there was not only a written exam at the end of the semester, but also some of the knowledge learned during the semester in the form of so-called assignments, e.g. homework, quizzes (query of the lecture content of the last weeks) or group presentations.

We either studied or worked on our assignments in the library or the Studyhub. The Studyhub was a room on campus with lots of seating and work opportunities for students.

I would classify the semester in Singapore as feasible in terms of learning level, but the workload is significantly higher compared to the FHDW in Germany. As a student at JCU, you also have the opportunity to join a club. There are many different clubs to choose from, such as a taekwondo club, a music club or a volleyball club.

I made a lot of new friends during my semester abroad in Singapore. We spent most of our time with the other exchange students from Germany, Norway and France. As a group, we did a lot of things, traveled and now share many wonderful memories together. Even though there were many German exchange students in our group, we tried to speak English most of the time so that our Norwegian exchange friends could also understand us. In Singapore, you can learn a lot about other cultures (especially Asian cultures) and gain many interesting insights.

In Singapore, people mainly eat Asian food, but there are also plenty of options for Western meals. As a vegetarian, it wasn’t so easy for me at first, as many dishes are prepared with meat. That’s why I ate Indian food very often, which was usually very tasty. We often ate lunch together at the university. The university had a kind of canteen with indoor and outdoor seating. Here you could choose between different country-specific dishes.

In the evenings, we often met up with the other exchange students and ate together in a so-called hawker center. A hawker center is a kind of square or building in which there are many small stalls that usually offer very inexpensive meals from various Asian cuisines. You can buy a whole meal there for the equivalent of a few euros.

My semester abroad in Singapore definitely had many unforgettable highlights!

Formula 1: One of these was the Formula 1 Grand Prix, which took place in the middle of Singapore at the end of September. Although I had never really had any contact with Formula 1 before, I bought a ticket for the race on the spot on the advice of my fellow students – and I didn’t regret it. To prepare for the weekend, we spent a few evenings watching the Netflix series “Formula 1: Drive to Survive” and then got into the theme. On the Sunday of the Formula 1 Grand Prix, we not only got to see all the drivers up close at the Driver’s Parade followed by an exciting race, but also various artists on the adjacent festival stage, such as The Kid Leroy and Green Day. The whole thing ended with an impressive fireworks display over Marina Bay.

Universal Studios: Another highlight for me was the trip to Sentosa Island to Universal Studios. We spent a whole day there with a few friends and had an incredible amount of fun together – with rollercoasters, ghost trains and 4D adventure attractions.

House parties: As partying in clubs in Singapore is very expensive, we celebrated many house parties as an alternative. As long as you stick to the rules in Singapore, you can definitely do this. A student friend of ours had rented a room in a house and all but one of his flatmates were very relaxed about noise. That’s why he often invited people to theme parties where they partied hard!

My highlights of the semester abroad also include the various trips we took. A semester abroad in Singapore is particularly well suited to traveling to other countries around the world. For example, we traveled to Kuala Lumpur by bus for a weekend with a group of 13 people and had a great time in the capital of Malaysia.

In August, we also went on a girls’ trip to Phuket, Thailand. There we not only saw elephants, enjoyed delicious food and beautiful beaches, but also went snorkeling on a day trip to the Phi Phi Islands.

Another trip was in a small group to Kuching on the island of Borneo. This was a very special and adventurous trip. During this trip, we went on a hike through the rainforest, visited the city of Kuching and saw orangutans in the wild.

After our exam phase, we then traveled to Bali with a larger group before everyone had to take the flight back to Germany. We first went to Seminyak, then to Nusa Penida and finally spent a few days in Uluwatu. My personal highlight of this trip was definitely the climb up Mount Batur. We started the ascent together at 2 a.m. over volcanic rock in order to reach the top of the mountain in time for sunrise. The whole thing turned out to be much more strenuous than we had anticipated, but it was definitely worth the view and the experience!

Life in Singapore is definitely not cheap. The rental costs in particular are quite high. The three of us paid around $5,200 Singapore dollars for our small apartment, which is the equivalent of around €3,650. But you can eat very cheaply in the Hawker Centers. Public transportation in Singapore, such as the MRT or buses, are not only very well connected and always punctual, but also very cheap.