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Ihsan Khalifa at Marina Bay, Singapore

Marina Bay, Singapore

Supertree Grove in Gardens by the Bay

The Hive

Ihsan in front of the Universal Studios Rotating Globe

Singapore, or the “Lion City,” is where tropical island meets bustling metropolis, where a host of cultures converge and subsume each other. It represents the perfect contrast of landscape and people. For someone like Ihsan Khalifa, who only knew the expanses of landlocked Alberta and arid Sudan, Singapore was the perfect study-abroad destination.

The idea of visiting Singapore first came to Ihsan during the pandemic, when she started getting into international films, particularly those from Southeast Asia. Later, when she neared the final year of her degree in science, technology, and society, as part of the Certificate in International Learning (CIL), she focused on technological development in an area outside of Canada.

If any country is known for its explosive urbanization and technological advancement, it’s Singapore.

“I wanted to search a little bit more about how they're able to combine modernization without being Western and how they can hold their culture. So that was my topic and I got really interested in it and I wanted to see it for myself.”

Once she arrived at , she witnessed it in action — Singapore reaped the benefits of Western modernization without having to compromise culture. Buses roamed the vast campus, delivering students from one end to the other every ten minutes. Even the self-checkout in stores was more advanced. 

"When I went to different stores, I noticed that you could simply place all your items into a container and it would automatically detect everything inside and total it up. I was amazed because back home, we only had self-checkout, where you had to scan each item individually and then set it aside. It was cool to see how advanced things were in a different way."

Technology wasn’t the only thing that set Singapore apart for Ihsan. Its diversity is different from that of most countries.

The three main cultural groups are Chinese, Malay and Indian, each of which carry a host of ethnicities. Much like Edmonton’s own Chinatown, Singapore has similar communities, including Little India and Kampong Gelam, the Malay-Muslim quarter.

The cultural communities, although distinct, are interwoven. They’re more than just spaces that allow cultures to thrive in their comfort zones — they’re preservers of heritage, hubs for tourism and the stepping stone to intercultural prosperity.

Ihsan found exactly what she was looking for: A place where modernization and local traditions co-existed rather than clashed. 

She also went to the beach for the first time and spent her birthday with her pen pal at Universal Studios.

All of Ihsan’s experiences came down to that one moment; when she decided to apply to a summer program in Singapore.

Although she had her reservations about being able to afford it just as the pandemic was subsiding, she applied for and received funding through the program, which led to an all-expenses-paid exchange abroad. 

When asked how her time in Singapore has changed her, Ihsan said, “It made me feel like I was more capable of doing things.” She learned how to apply for a visa, navigated the daunting reality of living on her own in a different country and found her calling in international development through a social marketing class. 

Similar to Singapore’s cultural communities, Ihsan had previously been in a comfort zone of her own. Once she stepped out of it, she found her rhythm, not unlike that of the city’s characteristic multicultural harmony.