Conversations you will never have in Singapore...

Geography lesson
Course mate1: Hej, where are you from?
Me: Oh, I'm from Singapore.
Course mate1: And that is a part of China?
Me: ... ... (Malaysia would be a better guess)

Course mate2: Singapore is an Asian country?
Me: Yup.
Course mate2: So which part of Singapore are you from?
Me: ... ... (erm, Tampines?)

History lesson
Course mate3: You're here on exchange?
Me: Yup.
Course mate3: And you're from?
Me: Singapore. Do you know where it is?
Course mate3: Oh yah! Definitely. My brother will be going there to do his PhD. I didn't expect you to be from Singapore. You look Chinese.
Me: ... ... (I am a Singaporean Chinese)

Anyway, course mate3 is from Nigeria and he says that they always read about Singapore in school. Like how good our business management blah is and how we can be so prosperous despite many "disabilities" and how they should learn from us. But he never knew that Singapore was a country of migrants in which Chinese made up a good 70% of the population. And he never expected Singapore to be really so small in land size. Haha..

Well, I've learnt some things about Nigeria from him too. He was asking me what I am doing after I graduate - Start working or do Masters. So I said I'll most probably start working. Then he asked, "Where?" So I replied, "I'm not sure. Depends on which companies I choose and which company chooses me." And his reaction was, "YOU MEAN YOU GET TO CHOOSE?!?!?!"

Apparently, in Nigeria, they don't get a choice of what they do so he was rather shocked that we were actually given a choice even as to which school we want to come to for exchange. He said that in Nigeria, everything is allocated by the government and they just picked whoever based on whatever to do anything. So, when he goes back to Nigeria, he will be waiting for a posting to do his PhD (He's doing his Masters in Chalmers now).

I guess I was just as surprised as he was when I heard that they don't have a choice. So, Singapore is not that bad after all, eh? Haha... ...