To whom it may concern,
It is December 31st, 2016, and tomorrow I will be leaving for my semester abroad in Singapore. It will be the longest trip that I have ever taken, and I could not be more excited about it! I will be flying with the increased time change, and I will arrive at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore on January 3rd!
The internet is mercilessly hailing 2016 as the “worst year ever,” and in some regards, I agree. The first half of my sophomore year was dramatically harder than all of freshman year put together, there seems to be civil and political unrest in every country in the world, and Antonio’s Pizza at the University of Illinois has gone out of business (only to be replaced by Cracked, which is a food truck-turned restaurant I am quite fond of, but I am sad nonetheless). With that being said, a lot of people have been asking me if I have chosen to go abroad this early because both my life, and the world are getting crazier day by day. My answer: no.
There are several reasons that I’ll be in Southeast Asia this spring. First and foremost, it works well within my academic schedule. I am interested in some academic programs on campus that, if enrolled, do not allow students the time to study abroad or hold winter internships in their junior and senior years. Second, a lot of the positions that I would be able to run for as a junior across the organizations that I am involved in are year long positions, in which case I could not run if I planned to leave for one of the semesters. While I don’t know if I’ll be accepted to these programs, or run for these positions, it is still good to go abroad now and keep these options open for myself. As for my classes, going abroad now rather than later does not have much impact, and I will still be graduating on time (shoutout Mom and Dad, I know you’re waiting to read that).
The next most common question I get asked is why I have chosen to go to Singapore. My reasoning is less concrete, but it has seemed to satisfy everyone so far so I am not changing it. Scrolling through Facebook and social media every day, I see that people are in Europe all the time. Whether they are students or not, it seems to me that it is more common for people (at least the people that I know, I should clarify) to travel Europe when they have the time and money. This makes sense to me, as Europe has smaller countries, and a lot of cultures can be seen by country hopping in a short amount of time. I’ve already been to Europe a handful of times, obviously not extensively to the point where I can say I “know” it by any means, but it wouldn’t be unreasonable to say that I’ll likely go again. The fact of the matter is, it is far less common for someone with my background to hop on a plane and explore the different cultures of Asia. After talking to students who participated before me, I determined that the Singapore program through the College of Business at UIUC would be the right fit for me. Singapore is also an English speaking nation, however, apparently for the first week or so I’m going to be writing down slang words that I need to pick up on. This is going to ease the culture shock.
As far as my classes go, there is not much to them. I will be taking two classes online through the University of Illinois, and two classes in person at NTU. I don’t know which classes that I will be taking in person, but you will all know as I do. The same goes for other things such as my dorm room, the campus, etc.
I am not, and have never claimed to be much of a writer. Consequently, I am not much of a blogger. I am more of a math kind of guy! (L-O-L) With that being said, I will still try and write vividly about my experiences. A big misconception about Singapore is that it’s a dense jungle where everyone lives in bamboo huts. SPOILER ALERT: it’s not. I will have wi-fi available to me, and I will try to post on here at the very least once or twice a week. If I don’t, please don’t get mad. If I do, hooray! Once I take enough pictures I’ll start putting them on here as well.
This trip will be the longest I have ever gone without seeing my family and some of my friends. In the mandatory study abroad seminars on campus we were all warned that it will be very emotionally exhausting at times, but I will not let that get to me. I will obviously miss each and every one of you, but like I said, I will not be living in an internet-less bamboo hut! I will be keeping in contact.
One final note worth mentioning is that I will not be traveling alone. There is a pretty general unwritten rule that if you have trouble finding me on campus in Champaign, just look for one of my best friends: Lauren. If you find Lauren, you will typically find me. The rule still applies for this semester. She’ll be in Singapore as well. Same flight and everything.
If you’ve read this far, I applaud you. I certainly would not have. Words are hard!
Until next time,
Peter
