Tag Archives: Campus Living

A day out with visiting Waseda peers during Singapore’s National Day

By Sharon NG, Singaporean, Nanyang-Waseda Double MBA Current Participant

My Nanyang-Waseda peers and I had a most intensive week when our counterparts from Waseda Business School Japan (mostly Japanese nationals) visited Singapore for their Summer Intensive Program. The short program speaks for itself – it was, indeed, intensive but also fun.  It was fascinating for me, too, as I was able to somehow play ‘guide’ to the group, including my Nanyang-Waseda classmates, which is  an international bunch of individuals coming from Japan, Korea, India, Philippines and Thailand. But how do you spend the national day with a large group of visitors?

9th of August is the day that Singapore became an independent republic, Singapore’s National Day.  That day, being a holiday, I dragged my lazy feet to school. Traffic was very smooth, less cars on the street, so that really made me feel slightly better. We had a ‘longer than usual’ half-day of lectures, and after which the group tucked into local food stall for lunch, with a serving of Singapore’s famous chicken rice – a dish of Chinese origin comprised of special chicken-flavored rice topped with roast chicken*,  slushed down with cooling lime juice (chicken rice is considered to be one of Singapore’ best dishes and Singapore is known for it, worldwide). With that, the group took off for a half-day sightseeing trip of Singapore.

Continue reading A day out with visiting Waseda peers during Singapore’s National Day

Taking time off in Bintan beach, Indonesia – Nanyang MBA annual class trip

by Andrew Humphreys, American, Student Ex-Co VP Social (2010-2011)

During the term break, some 60 of us, Nanyang MBA participants, and our friends made a weekend trip to Bintan Lagoon Resort in Indonesia, one of the resorts located on Indonesia’s largest, and most enchanting Riau islands in the South China sea – less than an hour ferry ride from bustling Singapore, for our annual class trip – to unwind, enjoy the company of classmates and friends. The trip also serves as a farewell celebration for fellow classmates as several attend exchange programs across the globe during their 4th term. During these 3 days, we engaged in various sports activities like volleyball, soccer, banana boating, jet skiing, all terrain vehicle (ATV) riding, swimming, and tree climbing which everyone enjoyed very much.

“The class trip was enjoyable. It was a great opportunity for me to interact with my classmates,” Christine Hum remarks. Christine is one of our exchange students from Cornell Johnson School.

Christine (first from left) with her Nanyang MBA peers, taking a break from driving the ATV.

What a good way, then, to end three days of having fun? Of course – to party and have a blast, which is exactly what we did. We had a private beach party with games, prizes and we danced the night away at the local nightclub.

Cheers! – (MBA classmates from left to right) David, Amalia, Irfan, and Gabriel with his wife Maria (2nd from right).

It was a great 3 days full of memories that surely will last a lifetime. I hope this type of event will become a legacy that incoming cohorts will also do, and passed on from one class to the next class. A well-deserved break, indeed.

Cheers! Santé! – Wine Appreciation Club

By Laurent Cambon, Current MBA Student, and Mathieu François, Graduating Class of 2011.

In a very diverse MBA class, it is inevitable we get exposed to the richness of culture and gustatory delights of the countries represented. So, two of us from France started the Wine Appreciation Club to share a common, yet very important part of our culture – Wines. I have always been passionate about food and wines. To me, they are integral components of that which we consider French culture. Nearly all the 22 regions of France produce their own wines, each of which were developed to match the region’s cuisine. “If I have to choose wine according to conventional wisdom, I would opt for a very famous wine like Romanée-Conti from Bourgogne. But I prefer to answer based on my personal feelings. I have family roots in the South of France. So, each time I appreciate a Châteauneuf-du-pape, many memories and sensations from this region come to my mind, especially when I was a child. To be more specific, Château Mont-redon is certainly one of the best from this Côtes-du-rhône category,” adds by my co-initiator, Mathieu. This diversity of wines contributes invariably to the richness of French culture.

In Singapore, wines are just aplenty and you can get them easily- in groceries, or wine depots, to shopping malls, to even convenience stores available 24 hours. And the variety is just really great- coming from all the wine producing countries, including the best wine producer – France, of course.

The Wine Appreciation Club was set up with the aim of extending our passion for wines to other MBA students. Some of the initiatives of the Club include helping students identify the type of wines they already appreciate, introducing them to new wines, and inviting them to wine tasting processes that would enable them to appreciate wines better.

Sessions were not complete without food – we paired whites, reds and ‘bubbly’ or champagnes with food. Surely, members of the club, both the new and seasoned ones, took pleasure in every session in the appreciation of wine.

Even though Wine Tasting is not a course in the MBA curriculum, we believe that it would serve as a complementary component in the life of an MBA student, who will soon be actively engaged in business dinners or in social gatherings. We hope to see this club continue in the new academic year.

Our first event – Wine Appreciation-White Wines, attracted 14 wine lovers, curious souls and converts.

Wine Appreciation - White Wines

Wine Appreciation: White Wines

The Club’s second event  – Wine Appreciation-Red Wines; Me (Laurent, first from left, in green) and Mathieu (2ndfrom right, last row) together with our peers
Wine Appreciation: Red Wines

Wine Appreciation: Red Wines

And as a last hurrah to end T3 (and for some of us in the NANYANG-WASEDA Program who graduated recently in July), we had a special guest in our Champagnes session, which made the session more delightful – our ‘unofficial’ mascot.

Wine Appreciation: Champagnes

Not sparing the strikes at The NANYANG MBA

Author: Andrew Humphreys, VP for Social and Sports, Student ExCo 2011

What started as a friendly warm up among thirty MBA students turned into a healthy competition of strikes and spares between teams of three!

The NANYANG MBA Bowling Activity

Bowling between the MBA students! It was exciting to watch, many of us just couldn’t sit down. 

The NANYANG MBA Bowling Event

Though we didn’t know when our competitive spirits kicked in, we were all in the same frequency through out the competition.

The teams displayed their skills, and gusto. Sure, some were better than others but from where I was standing, we all had an equal share of fun! Esmond and Tai took down bragging rights as the top male and female bowlers of the day. This gave their teams crucial advantages in the competition and they played a really good game.

I think, even if you weren’t playing, it would still be pretty interesting to watch. For example, Rob, “Mr Consistency” actually scored 132 in all the three games he played. I am not entirely sure of how he managed but the coincidence in itself earned him the name.

The NANYANG MBA Bowling Event 2011

Nino claimed the title of “Mr High-Score” because he scored 161 in his second game and was undefeated for the rest of the day.

The NANYANG MBA Bowling Activity 2011

To the thirty of us who went, it’s been great fun and I do look forward to doing this sometime soon again. This time, maybe I’ll claim one of those titles and keep it for myself!

A rainbow connection – Celebrating Holi and Songkran the colorful and fun way!

Author: Sujata Sawai and Tai Yossiree, Class of 2011

On a bright Saturday afternoon, some thirty of us gathered together at Graduate Hall grounds to celebrate the advent of spring and celebrate two of Asia’s widely celebrated festivities – Songkran from Thailand and Holi, from India, last 16th of April.   In fact Holi has been celebrated at Nanyang by the MBA students for the last 3 years, while this is the first Songkran event celebration at Nanyang. And celebrating this together is a first too, we believe!

Songkran day is the celebration of Thai New Year, which falls in the middle of April of each year, and it is celebrated all over Thailand. With a long history people gather on the streets with water containers, water guns and white powder and splash or throw them on friends or passerby. However, on a serious note, the main purpose of Songkran day is to pay a visit to family or elders, and also to go to temple for Buddhist activities as Thais look forward to a better year.

Coming from Thailand (yes, that’s me – Tai), I feel that my classmates should not only experience Songkran the way how it is celebrated, but also to create a sense of unity as a family – doing activities outside of academic life like having fun together. Like what Songkran festival is all about – together, we will ‘wash away’ the sadness, tiredness and stress from our studies, and be ready for the new year to come!

Holi, on the other hand, is the spring religious festival celebrated by Hindus and dates back many centuries ago. It is primarily observed in India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka and countries with large Indic diaspora populations, such as Suriname, Malaysia, and Guyana, among others. Holi is celebrated at the end of the winter season on the last full moon day of the lunar month Phalguna (February/March), which, for this year, fell on 20th of March. Like Songkran, Holi is celebrated by throwing colored powder (dye powder) and colored water at each other. Traditionally, playful throwing of colored powder and water has medicinal significance, especially during the onset of spring which normally brings viral fever and cold due to change of weather (reference: Wikipedia.com). 

Finding clothes to discard was easy. We had to since we wanted to have fun throwing colored water and colored powder at our classmates- we knew that our clothes will be soiled and will be thrown away after the celebrations. We had a fantastic time splashing one another with colored water!

Celebrating Holi & Songkran - The NANYANG MBA

Three stooges all soiled up – me (Tai) in the middle with Snigdha (left) and Reynold (right)

Celebrating Holi & Songkran - The NANYANG MBA_2

We ran across the huge vacant field beside our graduate residence hall, and no one escaped the flurry of powder and water.

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Esmond’s makeshift shower but making a mess out of Alejandra (left) and Flora (right), while lonesome Scott pretends to be a Red Indian.

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Zos is trying to be serious out here, while Claudia playfully poses to the camera (Thank you both for the awesome photos!)

Everyone was ecstatic with joy as we messed our clothes – some went stumbling down on the ground laughing, diving into a mixture of mud and colored water, while others  chased madly those who have not been messed up with buckets of it (yes, buckets!) and ensured that they are messed up as well. Here at Nanyang, we ‘hit a lot ’ with this joint celebration – we gathered as  family, we cooled ourselves from the hot and humid weather of Singapore during this time and  cooled down  from the stress from studies, as well! Just like how I experienced it in India (Sujata), the day was filled with the spirit of joy, naughtiness, passion and enthusiasm. Even one of our classmates, Claudia, wished that there were celebrations like this in her home country – Germany! As Claudia puts it, “I really enjoyed celebrating Holi & Songkran with my fellow students. It was the first time for me to get to know these celebrations and helped me in understanding and experiencing Thai and Hindu culture. While we were throwing colours and water at each other, everybody was cheering, laughing.  In the end, I was completely covered in all kinds of colours… it was just a lot of fun! I wish we had a Holi and Songkran celebration in Germany, too! The cross-cultural festivals at NBS, like Mid-Autumn festival, Diwali and Holi & Songkran celebration, make my MBA in Singapore a memorable and unique experience for me. I’m looking forward to more of these!”

Celebrating Holi & Songkran - The NANYANG MBA - 8Celebrating Holi & Songkran - The NANYANG MBA

Our classmates are having a fantastic time (topmost photo); We still look good despite being so ‘colorful’ – (from left to right) Mandar, Me (Sujata), Sameer and Vidushi.

And to end this day of fun, we had good food to nourish our near-aching bodies [from all those running and stumbling, and getting hit by throwing water]. We feasted on an awesome assortment of Thai and Indian food like Veg Pakoda, pineapple fried rice, Thai fish cake, and Thai banana in coconut milk (Prof Siri, you are fantastic in preparing this for us!). Nothing beats a hungry stomach, so we emptied everything on the table!

A shout out of thanks to our Student ExCo and the rest of our classmates for making this double celebration more fun and exciting! Who says that MBA students are no fun at all?

Celebrating Holi & Songkran - The NANYANG MBA - 9

Canteen B

Author : Sisca L, Indonesian

Canteen B coincidentally is the canteen housed in the Nanyang Business School, so we call it Canteen ‘B’usiness.

Like any food courts, we have a good variety of food selection at Canteen B; Indian, Malay, Chinese, Western, Vegetarian, Fruits and juices, local desserts, pastries and my favourite, Mr. Bean (a soya bean-based drink stall).

The prices here are largely cheaper than what you will have to fork out at external food courts or cafes. A cup of Mr. Bean soya bean drink costs $1 here (as compared to the $1.60 charged outside).

When the canteen gets too crowded during lunch hour, I will take away food and eat it in my favourite enclave, the MBA lounge (a cozy lounge complete with flat screen TV and a bar, only for MBA students!). Here’s a tip if you’re not local, when you ask for take away, the word to say is “Ta Pao” (It means “pack” in Chinese).

Right now, my favourite dish is “Mexican Chicken Chop” from the Western food stall which also makes burgers and simple pastas. It is a chicken fillet fried to a crispy gold and topped with brown gravy and molten cheese. I love eating it with a side dish of butter rice and coleslaw. Mmm!