On February 8, 2018, we had a seminar at STINTs office in the center of Stockholm with all the new STINT Teaching Sabbatical Fellows of 2018 and most of last year’s fellows. This was a great opportunity to discuss and listen to some of the former fellows’ experience of being part of the program, both those that were fresh back home from the 2017 fellowship and those that could reflect with several years of experience of being back home since the sabbatical. There were also possibilities to get to know this years fellow fellows and ask questions about the program and get a grasp of the duties (and the possibilities) during the program. I got valuable information about NTU, the teaching and, foremost, some of all the things that demand planning before leaving! After discussing the housing situation in Singapore with the ones being at NTU during fall 2017, faculty housing at NTU campus remained the number one option for us.
Another nice surprise was that this year’s mid-seminar will not be held in Singapore (as it has been for the last couple of years) but at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Consequently, I will have to go to Hong Kong for a couple of days in end of October…
in total, we are four new fellows that will spend time in Singapore this fall, I will have one college from the Mid-Sweden University at NTU and there will be two more Swedes at National University of Singapore (NUS). This will be so much fun!
Revised ToDo list:
- Planning trip. Book a trip to Singapore to arrive on (or before) March 12, one week will do it!
- Teaching. Create and prepare lectures.
- Visa. All the paper forms should to be completed and signed before leaving for Singapore. My partner will probably be grated a Visa, but it might be that we have to apply for a Dependent Visa for the baby either straight after the baby is born or when we arrive in Singapore.
- Housing. According to NTU, the housing situation should be possible to solve. However, they do not guarantee housing on campus before we arrive in August. The former STINT fellows stressed the urge to continuously remind them about the housing. Other options will be to go through an agent that will get an apartment for us.
- The baby. I got some great tips on what to bring, and a car seat to use in taxis are a must to move around easily.