February 2024

During the month of February, I had a couple of very exciting experiences. Being my first time in Singapore, I explored the country and visited numerous aesthetic sites including the Botanical Gardens, the Marina Bay Sands, as well as the Gardens by the Bay. It was also my first time celebrating Chinese New Year, with its great prevalence in this part of Southeast Asia. 2024 being the Dragon Year also made the festivities much more special with a great drone show, fireworks, and plenty of tantalizing local street delicacies.

One of my childhood friends currently studies in Malaysia, and I decided to visit him for four days this month. The journey began with a subway ride to Lavender MRT station in Singapore, from where I took the northbound bus to Kuala Lumpur. The scheduled 5-hour journey ended up taking 8 hours, due to the numerous queues at the Malaysia immigration border. Nevertheless, after clearing the immigration site, I continued my journey and spent four days in the country’s capital, witnessing fantastic sites such as the Batu Caves, and the Petronas Twin Towers. On my journey back, the bus got a puncture which left everyone very worried. It did not help that the drivers started speaking in Malay to give the instructions for the next steps, leaving me even more confused. Nevertheless, this puncture happened at the Malaysia immigration border, hence I was able to take a bus across to the Singapore side, before which I took the MRT train back to my dorm, after a scary, yet very thrilling experience.

March 2024

In the month of March, I took a trip to New Delhi, the capital of India. I was able to reserve all my accommodation and airport taxi via booking.com, however, the itinerary did not go as planned. When I landed in Delhi, a taxi was supposed to be waiting for me to shuttle me to the hotel. On arrival, a young man picked me up but did not have a car to drive me, claiming that his friend would arrive promptly and take me to the hotel. This did not happen. Fortunately, my designated driver ended up reserving a separate cab for me to take me to the hotel. The second issue was that the hotel’s location did not coincide with that of booking.com, which left us wandering the streets of Delhi, in search of the Galaxy hotel. Nevertheless, after an hour of searching, we finally found the location, and I settled in. The subsequent days were filled with sightseeing, and enjoying the culture and food of the area, during which to be honest, I had the best chicken biryani I ever had in my life.

After my exciting and culture-immersing trip to India, I was back in Singapore to tackle my academic endeavors, as I prepared to go for my next trip around Southeast Asia.

April 2024

My April in Singapore was without a doubt the most academically challenging. I decided to take mostly project-based classes abroad, and with the last day of classes being April 19th, the majority of the projects were soon to be due. Despite the overwhelming academics, I managed to complete all my relevant coursework, while trying my best to maintain my physical and mental health. I took up swimming more regularly, and occasionally took runs at night to keep fit and take in the lovely views of the lion city. After the last day of classes, we had a reading week, a period dedicated to studying for final exams. Four of my classes were project-based classes, thus reading week was dedicated to just one class, which ultimately made the period very exciting. My birthday also fell during reading week, and I was able to celebrate this moment with my Notre Dame friend Hadley. All in all, despite some of the challenges I faced during the month, April was indubitably a time to never forget.

May 2024

I finished my last final of the semester on the 30th of April, and my flight out of SIngapore was scheduled for the 12th of May. I had scheduled plans with my other friend from Slovenia to visit Bangkok, Thailand from the 1st of May until the 5th. It had been a planned agenda for quite some time, and when the day eventually arrived, we were overjoyed. Our flight, scheduled for 5 pm was delayed until 6 pm, nevertheless, since we were not in a rush to catch any connecting flights, this was not an issue. We eventually landed at Don Mueang International Airport in Bangkok and headed straight to our hotel. Our agenda for the 4 days there included strolls on the famous Khao San Road, Mahanakhon Skywalk, Tichuca Rooftop, Floating Markets, as well as temples. This was a very culturally enriching experience, as I was able to interact with a plethora of people from all over the world.

When I came back to Singapore, I had one more planned trip, that was bound to be even more exciting: Bali, Indonesia. On 30th April, I met up with my friend from Boston University, who mentioned to me that she would be visiting Bali from the 4th until the 10th of May. I initially had no plans to do anything after my trip to Bangkok, however, after conviction, I impulsively booked my trip to Bali from the 6th until the 10th. My time there was filled with days at the beach surfing and ATV rides at Ubud, whereas the nights were occupied by hostel activities such as get-to-know-eachother games. I met some of the best individuals ever on this very enriching trip.

After two of the best trips of my life, I came back to SIngapore on the 10th, packed up my bags, and began my farewells to the friends I made during my time abroad. There were tears involved, but these made me cherish the wonderful moments even more. Singapore, I will be back at some point!