NSF-EAPSI Orientation (Day 1)

For the last two days, I've been going through orientation for my program. And when they say "days", they mean it. The first day of orientation lasted nearly 13 hours. The second day, nearly 15. And this is before the work starts.

Day 1, we got up nice and early and was shuttled out at 7:30am to the Opening Ceremony across town. It was pretty nice. It was a "formal" event that consisted of a lot of big wigs and hot shots telling us all about Singapore and about NSF EAPSI (National Science Foundation East Asia Pacific Summer Institute), and of course, about how awesome we all were. My favorite part was when we all had to get up on stage and say our name and the school we represented. I said I was from UM, the guy right after me said he was from "THE Ohio State". Slight amused laughter from the Americans. What are the odds. I considered pretending to start a fight with him, but I figured too many people wouldn't get the joke. (UM and OSU has arguably the biggest college rivalry in the USA). I have to say, it is kind of nice coming from the school with the largest living alumni in the US. Although the Ohio State guy proceeded to tease, there was another fellow from UM (School of Public Health), plus a Singaporean Prof and graduate student who all went through U of M. So I'm pretty sure we could take him.

Afterwards, there was a reception (with more amazing food, and lots of photo ops.

Here's the mugshots of the EAPSI Offenders for 2010:

And, here is the subgroup that is being hosted by Nanyang Technological University (NTU)

And the group repping the National University of Singapore (NUS):

Incidentally, I just heard that apparently NUS has made an unbelievable jump in World University rankings in the last 10 years. So, if you haven't heard of the school, you probably will in the future. Both NUS and NTU are considered part of the top 100 schools in the world. (As are Berkeley and Michigan =) ).

As you can see, both groups are pretty male dominated, which on the one hand makes sense, because NSF EAPSI is a science & engineering program and men have traditionally lorded over these areas. But on the other hand, recent trends show that in general, more women than men travel abroad, especially for study abroad type programs. Also, more women than men are applying for graduate school. So shouldn't that cancel it out? I wonder what the demographics were of the people who applied? I know research shows that there is a bias towards men in the sciences, especially at the top tier...Oh look, how did I get up here? Let me step down from my soap box...

Back to orientation.

The rest of the day consisted of paperwork and more paperwork. Student IDs, work permits, rental agreements...you get the picture. It also included going to the Ministry of Manpower...a name that cracks me up. I know it's a British thing, and pretty common, but it's just too good. First thing that comes to mind is the Ministry of Magic from Harry Potter. Hilarious. Next thing that comes to mind is some Justice League type group (I mean can't you just imagine He-Man and the like meeting at the Minstry of Manpower?). Hilarious. And then there is the abbreviation. "Mom" (and yes, people call it that). Might as well call it "Big Brother". Which is more disturbing than hilarious. But then it also reminds me of the character "Mom" from Futurama. And we're back to hilarious.

After a long day of red tape and paper cuts, we got to chill out at the Asian Civilizations Museum, which was pretty cool. My favorite was the special exhibit "Treasury of the World: Jewelled Arts of India in the Age of the Mughals"





It mostly consisted of jeweled things that can kill you. They were very pretty. But I couldn't help but find it somewhat messed up. It's like, "please admire my wealth and the beauty of materialism while I stab you to death". I think that may be the definition of gaudy.

Finally, we ended the day at a Japanese French Restaurant



Where we had some escargot:


On fire no less.



I've had them before, and they are just as good as I remember. Mostly just taste like butter and garlic.

Then for dinner, of course, I tried to find the most exotic thing on the menu, which in this case was...



Fresh Cuttle Fish and pasta, with ink sauce. Ink as in ink from the cuttlefish (a crazy squid-like creature, if you haven't seen one, google it. they are weird as hell). Can't say it was the best meal I'd ever had. The cuttlefish itself was awesome. Like squid but thicker, more tender, and without the rubbery thing. Totally recommend it. The ink...basically just tasted salty. I'm not big on salt, so I was not a fan. Plus it's black, which made it visually hard to forget that you were eating ink...which is a little gross. I'll stick to snails.

Also, a few people had birthdays coming up, so we got a birthday cake.



Which was much better than the ink.

I slept on the bus all the way home. Stupid jetlag.