How can you end up disliking one of the most efficient, clean, and developed countries in the world? That’s the question I am asking myself after re-visiting Singapore as a tourist, four years after I lived in the small island nation for my exchange semester.
In August 2022, I moved out of my home country for the first time in my life to spend my exchange semester in Yale-NUS Singapore, which brags (or bragged, now it has been permanently closed) about being the first liberal arts college in the country. Before moving to Singapore, I had only moved out once, from Vigo to Barcelona, when I started University. Although by 2022 I had already been traveling quite a lot, I still didn’t know what it was to actually move out and start a new life abroad. The problem here is that I thought I knew, but nothing prepared me for what my semester abroad had prepared for me.
It’s important to state that I was moving from Barcelona to Singapore, and most of the comparisons that I used to make back when I was living in the island were simply based on my good living in Barcelona and the lifestyle I had there. I was attempting to have the same life I had in Barcelona…but in Singapore. And that’s simply not possible. Yet I was too naive and I refused to acknowledge that.
My first complaint was the heat. I still think that’s a fair concern. I came from a mild Mediterranean climate to an extreme equatorial climate with high temperatures and insane humidity. The rain and the storms didn’t bother me that much, but I was tired of being unable to go out without sweating. I would spend my days entrenched in a common study room on Campus taking advantage of their AC. Was it really that bad? I don’t think so, but the shock was definitely big for me.
Perhaps my biggest complaint was my housing situation. As part of the whole “Yale-NUS experience”, students must sleep and live on campus. This meant that the exchange students were assigned a random dorm with people they did not get to choose. I ended up living with four Indian students in their last year that were good friends with each other. I remember they would play cricket in the corridor of the apartment and blast music at 2am on Wednesdays. It was annoying, there’s no way around it. But besides that, they were still nice to me, and although they gave me sleepless nights, they often invited me to their plans despite me usually declining their invitation.
Food was also a huge problem for me. Back then I was a hardcore vegetarian. I had chosen Singapore as my exchange destination in part because some people refer to it as a “heaven for vegetarians”. In Barcelona, I was able to cook plenty of vegetarian dishes every day and I felt I could perfectly live a “vegetarian life” without worrying. However, in Singapore we were not able to fully choose what we ate, as food was also included in the whole “college pack”. I would spend my days complaining about the quality of the food and the fact that there were not so many options. Sometimes I would even go to the supermarket to buy some extra food. However, now that I look back, I realize that the food was actually great — I was just used to the good Spanish quality that I had in Barcelona and I missed cooking and choosing what I would eat each day. Truth is, in Singapore I could have as much fruit as I wanted, I always had a vegetarian option and sometimes they even cooked “vegetarian meat”, which was quite good.
Another concern of mine were the prices of Singapore. Yes, this is quite a big problem: Singapore ranks amongst one of the most expensive cities on Earth. Groceries, eating out, drinks, leisure and much more are way more expensive than back in Europe. Still, a big part of my expenses were covered by the College: accommodation, food, books and most forms of leisure (gym, sports, different clubs…the offer was vast). Since in Barcelona I was used to going out for drinks with my friends and having dinner outside from time to time, it was quite a shock for me not being able to do the same in Singapore.
Talking about drinks, I was not happy with the nightlife in Singapore. Not only was alcohol incredibly expensive, but also clubs were pricey. I remember we used to go to a club at the top of Marina Sands Bay which was free for girls, but men had to pay around $35. Also, the music was quite bad and the vibes were off. It is hard to compare the nightlife of Barcelona to any other city in the world — when I was studying there I lived eight minutes away from the biggest club in the city. Once again, I was comparing things that were simply not comparable.
Living in such a closed environment —the Campus— made me feel claustrophobic at times. Everything happened on the university grounds: sleeping, eating, studying, socializing…everything. I would see the same people at all times and my social battery would run out before lunchtime.
Still, now that I look back at this concept, it was kind of cool. I would die to live another semester there, now that my approach has changed. Just think about it: you wake up and you go to the dining hall to have breakfast with your friends. Then you go to class with a small group to learn about some pretty interesting subjects. After lunch, you spend some hours at a “state of the art” climatized library and then you go hang out with your friends at U-Town: a mini-city/mall with grocery shops, cheap restaurants for students, cafes and bubble tea places. After that, you go bouldering (for free and still on the same campus) and you finish your day swimming at the infinity pool of the University. It all just sounds like a dream, but I was too busy focusing on the bad and not seeing the bright side of living in the city.
Since I left Singapore, I have changed countries seven times. When I look back at my experience living there in 2022, I can’t help but to feel ashamed of what I felt —and what I complained about— when I was there. Living in places where money was even tighter than in Singapore helped me learn that it is simply not easy to live abroad, and that you either adapt yourself or drown in desperation.
After living in eight different countries, I now believe I have a more accurate idea of what’s out there, and I have learned to measure my expectations. Singapore was definitely one of the coolest places I have lived in, but I simply wasn’t able to realize that when I was studying there.
This year I travelled to Southeast Asia for work and decided to book a one-day layover in Singapore to do a nostalgia trip around the city-state. So far it is one of the best days I’ve had in 2026.
I started my morning walking around downtown, paying a visit to the Merlion and Boat Quay. The huge skyscrapers and the Marina Sands Bay that I once thought they were too extravagant now seemed to fit perfectly in the city. Some hours later I went to visit the Buddhist and Hindu temples that back in 2022 had surprised me, but that I thought were nothing special. Now I do think they’re special: in my opinion, they represent the true essence of Singapore as a multicultural nation — and they’re kinda cool, to be fair.
I hopped on the MRT and went straight to the Yale-NUS Campus where I had lived during my semester in Singapore. Now, the whole Campus is part of NUS proper, and the partnership with Yale has ended. Still, the place stood just as I remembered: the buildings overlapped with each other forming beautiful courtyards and common spaces for students. Back in the days I was tired of spending hours in the same areas, now I wish I had never left. I walked towards U-Town and sat at the canteen to eat some spicy chicken with rice (I can’t recall the plate’s original name, please forgive me). I was on my own, eating and remembering the great memories I made there with my friends: the picnics at the lawn, the late-evenings swimming sessions at the pool…what on Earth was I complaining about in 2022?
Before getting too emotional, I took the MRT again to visit Clementi Mall, the place where I used to spend my mornings since there was a gym that I could access with the gym membership I had in Barcelona. Four years ago I thought this place was run-down, the people were rude and it stinked because of the durian shops. Now I thought it was a nice, authentic place to spend an evening running some errands. A bus ride took me to the MacRitchie Reservoir where I spent a couple of hours walking through the jungle and taking pictures of the monkeys. It is hard to think of a place where you can be in an ultra-developed downtown and one hour later be chased by monkeys in a rainforest. Singapore has everything, I was just too young to know its worth. I finished my day having a drink with a friend in Lau Pa Sat before heading to the airport.
Am I romanticizing the past? Probably. At the end of the day, our selective memory flushes out our bad memories and keeps the good ones. But still, I think I would have enjoyed living in Singapore more now than four years ago.
I believe growing up means finding peace in (and with) yourself. And for that, I had to make peace with Singapore. After my long layover last January, I believe I am on good terms with the city. Dear Singapore, I’m sorry I was mean to you, I hope our paths will cross again soon.