A month has passed since I arrived in America. It is my first time being overseas for more than 3 weeks. Adapting to a new environment isn’t as challenging as I thought. Overall, my experience can be described as a ride on a roller-coaster. I am going to arrange and organize my experience into sub-categories to avoid being messy.
Campus
The university is well equipped with high-quality facilities and so far there is almost nothing I can complain about except that there is no sheltered walkways. It only rained less than 5 times this month. The residence halls are equipped with table tennis equipment, vending machine and microwave ovens, a piano and a study lounge with sofas. There are also microwave ovens in the academic buildings, not a common sight in Singapore. Many students travel by foot and there is quite a number of cyclists and skateboarders too. A bus company called CityBus offers free travel for Purdue students and there are buses which goes to places around Lafayette. Most of the taps and showers have two knobs(Blue & Red) and you have to adjust it to suit your preferred temperature setting. Generally, the campus is very clean and organised.
Weather
The weather here can be quite complicated for someone coming from a country with only 2 seasons. The sun is still up after 8pm during my first few weeks here. It is normal to feel cold and warm at the same time due to the sunlight and also the cold temperature of the surroundings. the temperature is warm outdoors but it is cold once you are under a shade. I am thankful that the transition of the climate did not affect my health.
Learning style
The content is very much similar to the courses back home. However, the learning style is very different over here. Grades are based on many small components such as homework, quizzes, lab reports and exams. Some courses have strict guidelines. For example, an absence without a valid reason for 1 lesson could lead to a failure in the whole course. Even though my grades here would not be counted in my GPA, I still have to pass all the subjects. It took me 2 weeks to get used to the workload and I find that it is very time-consuming. Nobody said that it is going to be easy.
Food
All students staying on campus have to purchase a meal plan in the dining courts. I could not consume any meat except for seafood as the dining courts do not offer ‘halal meat.’ Basically I am on a vegan with seafood diet. However, the meals are buffet-style. There is a wide variety of food such as fries, potatoes, cheese pizzas, rice, seafood and desserts. No wonder Americans are larger in size compared to Asians. Another observation I made is that the desserts over here have really high sugar content but I still consume them anyway. It is rumored that most freshmen gain at least 15 pounds during their first semester here.I have yet to check my weight.
Singapore Curry Noodles! Sounds interesting but not the case for its taste.
Culture
I felt so much positive energy during my first week on campus due to the friendly and cheerful nature from the people I met in shops and classes. On an average day, I would definitely encounter anexperience which sounds like this:
Cashier:”Hey, How is it going?”
Me: “Im good, How about you”
Cashier: ” Very good”
Me: “Thank you”
Cashier: “Have a nice day! :)”
Me: “You too :)”
Another common sight is that most people will hold the door for the person behind them even if they are 5 steps away.Its the american culture to be polite. There were times that I engaged in small talk with random people. They are very skillful at that.
I feel that I lack these skills and at times people might get the wrong idea of a nice person which usually happens back home.
I was approached by 2 Indian students who turned out to be from my country.They recognized me due to my Singaporean accent. They were full-time students here and I was really surprised that day. Such a small world!
Finally, another habit over here is tipping. In most restaurants, you are encouraged to tip. Some of them earn below the minimum wage and tips are usually 15-20% of the bill. I usually give a dollar for tips and I feel that lesser tips should be given if I am in a large group.
Shopping
I went to Walmart to get some groceries and I was surprised with the low prices of certain items. Generally, clothes, packaged foods, milk are much cheaper as most of the products are made locally.
During the 2nd weekend, I went to the outlets mall in Michigan city(2 hours drive) with my fellow Singaporean friends. There were plenty of famous brands such as GAP, Hollister, Adidas, Levis and many more on sale with prices that can never be seen back home.
Time really flies so quickly. Amidst the tons of homework and reports, there is always something to look forward to at the end of the weekday. Looking forward to explore Indiana and Chicago during the upcoming month.
Leap with Luqe 
