It has been 3 months since I have moved to Singapore and it truly feels like home here. I can credit this homey feeling to the people I have met: both local SMU students and exchange students. I met most of them through orientation for exchange students, through friends of friends, and of course, through class. I think SMU does a good job acclimating exchange students to the university by hosting various events for exchange students and sending out invitations to school wide activities.
Aside from the social aspect, I have adjusted to life here and I could really see myself moving here one day. I have always dreamt of becoming an expat for a company and Singapore would be an attractive destination. The only thing that would deter me from living here permanently would be how expensive it is to establish a life here. Those “most expensive cities to live in” lists are right because Singapore is number one for a reason.
Because I am only here for a short period of time, I do not feel the impact of these high expenses, such as permanent housing, a car, and all the expenses of living full time in a country. To put things into perspective, I live on a 100SGD budget every week and it is quite doable. Lunch costs around 5-15 SGD, while dinner could range from 5 to 25 SGD depending on whether it is a hawker center or a sit down restaurant. I see the drastic price differences the most when I am shopping for clothing and groceries. I love to eat cheese so I think it is crazy that a bag of shredded cheese could cost up to 12 SGD. Also, I recently went on a trip to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and I finally understand why people travel from Singapore to go shopping in other Southeast Asian countries. I was perusing through a clothing store (this brand has locations all over the world) while I was in KL and found a dress that costs around 120 MYR (the equivalent of about 40SGD). The same dress was priced at 60-70 SGD! As you can see, it is mind blowing how drastically different the prices are between countries.
