Life in PGPR moves on

SINGAPORE: Since most of the student body in Prince George’s Park Residences (PGPR) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) is done with exams, you can see the life in PGPR phasing out. Even life on campus seems to be coming to a halt. Lesser and lesser people are now seen at the various study rooms all around campus.

For someone who finished their exams on the 5th of May or sooner, they must be back home already, enjoying their vacations. After all, they did have a smaller semester than those who end their exams later, which means they had to cram more information in less time, so they deserve the early rest they get.

For others who end as late as this Saturday on the 10th of May, people may feel bad for you, but they probably don’t realize you had so much extra time to study – but of course at the expense of being under exam stress for a longer duration.

Quite a few people can be seen wearing formal clothes in PGP. It must be internship and job interviews that they dress up for, or perhaps they have already started working.

An interesting thing that people should know if they don’t have accommodation for next academic year and are counting on the vacation stay for three months: You are only given two months of vacation stay. Early July onwards you will be evicted so that you have one month out on the streets to find yourself a house, a condo, an apartment, a sidewalk – whatever it takes.

And eviction isn’t pretty. They actually get campus security over if you refuse to move out and get the cleaning staff to pack all your stuff randomly into neat little boxes. Then they put those boxes at the foyer so that you are ready to taxi away. Actually, that is a very good option if you are too lazy to pack. They pack your stuff for you free of charge if you refuse to move out.

NUS as a university has its policies and it can’t just kick out USP students who are Singaporeans with cars and homes nearby, just to accommodate a financially needy foreign student. That is life. Suck it up.