My participation in the organization MINDs allowed me to make friends with many local students and alumni of NUS. One of my good friends, Praga, is also a chemical engineering and as such will be inheriting all of my books. Four generations ago Praga’s family moved from India to Malaysia, so Praga speaks Tamil, Malay and English. He is very active with the Indian Student Society and therefore works or attends most of the Indian classical dance, vocal and instrumental performances sponsored by the organization.

At one such event he had the “shock of his life” as he put it when he looked across the auditorium and saw me sitting with a few of my Indian friends. He was delighted to hear of my opinions on the concert and towards the end of the discussion invited me to a Fire Walking Festival taking place that weekend. The festival is held at the Hindu temple in Chinatown. In most places the walking would begin at dusk, however, because of the traffic in Singapore the festival is held at 2 a.m..

My two friends and I arrived at the temple at 1 a.m. and immersed ourselves in the chaos of 5000 people and one temple. Though we had no idea what to do, we eventually made our way into the temple. The night air was hot and damp with the threat of rain. You couldn’t help but touch shoulders with the people surrounding you; all sound was lost in the relentless beating of traditional Indian drums. We stood – waiting for the walking, you could feel the energy of the crowd’s anticipation. Faintly you would hear a clap…. Then more clapping…  Suddenly everyone would be dancing!

Finally! At 3 a.m. the walking started. One after another the men walked across the hot coals. The few that chose to slowly walk were always greeted by an uproar of applause. 

 

 

I thought I would upload some photos of my classmates and professors.

Rosilyn and our professor Chiu Min-Sen

 

CN 3132 Project Group and Professors

 

 

 

 

As classes became increasingly difficult and the home work started to pile on top of the projects, NUS had a long holiday weekend. An intelligent person would have stayed in the library or used the extra time to catch up on sleep. But Chrissy and I are not intelligent. We decided to spend our weekend getting sunburned in Bali…. and it was worth every second.

A lot of people, especially my friend Jen, would have you believe that Bali is heaven on Earth. A valid argument could be made supporting that thought but personally I prefer Tioman as my escape from the world. Bali is my escape from reality. In Tioman you can forget who you are; In Bali you can change who you are.

 

Our guest house in Ubud. Can you believe it, only ten dollars a night.

 

 

We only had a few days to  see and do Bali so the before mentioned Jen, who is also a self proclaimed Bali expert, was kind enough to offer me a list of The Best of Bali.

We landed in Kuta the popular area for beach tourists. After a day in the sun and a massage and manicure on the beach we headed inland to the small town of Ubud. Ubud has retained much of the Balinese culture where as Kuta has become very western, so to speak. Here we watched a traditional Balinese dance and visited the monkeys that occupy the local Hindu temple. On our final day we hired a car that drove us further inland to see the small towns hidden in the valleys of mountains. The people here grow rice and were working quickly as the skies threatened rain. We ended the day watching the sun set over at a temple built on the sea.  

 

 

Wisdom

 

 

 

Jen’s Best of Bali 

1. SUKA BEACH INN, KEDINS INN II, MELASTI BUNGALOWS
2. ULUWATU
3. DREAMLAND
4. DOUBLE SIX BUNGEE JUMPING
5. UBUD
6. SANGEH MONKEY SANCTUARY (SPELLING MIGHT BE WRONG)
7. TJS MEXICAN RESTAURANT
8. 1 NIGHT OF DEBAUCHERY IN BOUNTY
9. WATCH OUT FOR THE LADY BOYS
10. HAVE A BINTANG
11. PRACTICE SURFING AT KUTA BEACH
12. GET ANNOYED BY THE VAST NUMBER OF AUSTRALIANS
13. BUY ME SOMETHING (jk) UNLESS YOU REALLY WANT TO
14. BARGAIN EVERYTHING. HALF PRICE.. PRETEND TO WALK AWAY
15. DONT GET RIPPED OFF.
16. BARGAIN EVERYTHING DOWN, EVEN IF THEY SAY FIXED PRICES
17. DONT SMOKE POT
18. HAVE FUN 

During most of the semester, at A&M, the library remains a relatively quiet and uninhabited region of town. Of course there are the occasional moments of chaos, like freshman bio or chem exams, and suddenly you can’t find a seat below the fourth floor. And then there is finals time, when if you don’t wake up early enough you risk not getting a seat at all. 

At NUS the library is crowded like finals on a daily basis. Here studying is not just about learning, it is a social event unto itself. Groups of friends claim a table each morning and it acts as a base camp for the rest of the day. They come and go as classes start and end. Most of the time is spent studying but some is reserved for eating or watching a youtube video or laughing or just staring across the room. 

As finals neared it only became worse. Final exams count 60% and everyone feels the pressure. There is a full week of reading days followed by exams spread over two weeks. For three weeks my friend and I were in the library 10 maybe 12 hours a day trying desperately not to fail. I am not complaining though, the strategy worked for us both and some of my fondest memories are from during my time on the third floor of the central library.

 

(My fifth grade class on our last day)

After six months of on an off traveling, it is a little strange to finally be home – to be still.  The last several weeks passed by unusually quickly as I fit in a little traveling and said goodbye to all the friends I made along the way.  I have found that I am a person who requires change and transition in my life.  Without new and exciting experiences I often grow bored and restless.  However, I have also discovered that as much as I continually strive after new adventures to entertain myself, I find it painfully hard to walk away from the people and places I love.

If you would have asked me about my social life during the course of this semester, I would have told you that I had friends and was having a great time but that I felt somewhat distant and disconnected from those around me.  In truth, I was missing my friends and family back home (and I still long to catch up with those I have not seen).  However, I could never have predicted just how close I would grow to my friends in Mexico in the short period of about four and a half months.  And unfortunately, I did not realize this until I had to say goodbye. 

To me, this says a lot about human interaction and the relationships we form between us.  First, we seldom recognize the value of our relationships and what they mean to us until it is too late.  Whether it is looking someone in the eyes and saying goodbye, not knowing when you will see them again or whether it is death that separates (at least our physical bodies) indefinitely, we are often too obtuse to soak up what we have when we have it.  We fail to live in the moments we are given.

Secondly, we fail to recognize the power of human interaction, especially in terms of relationships or dealings that seem insignificant.  The more I live and the more experiences I gain, the more I realize how much we need each other.  A simple smile or a hello often has a strange way of lightening dark moods.  In the case of Mexico, I hardly believed a semester was sufficient time to develop any meaningful relationships with those around me.  However, in retrospect I can honestly say I felt a deep connection to many of those whom I left behind. 

After leaving one of our friends at the airport the day before I left, one of my friends told me that she preferred to meet people even if it meant saying goodbye after a short time rather than never having known them at all.  She was quite upset to see everyone leave, and I think her statement holds a lot of truth.  Too often we do not take advantage of those that pass in and out of our lives quickly.  We seem to devalue those relationships as transient or short-lived, when in reality, we do not need much time to mean something to someone or to have them make a difference in our lives.

It will different, but wonderful to be back home.  Catching up with old friends after time apart is always something that brings a smile to my face.  Facing down my last semester of college and the ever impending graduation, however…this is a little more frightening.  I have only been home two days and already I have been inundated with talks of jobs, job searching, marriages, ring shopping, and the exciting question of “what are you doing after graduation?” It makes me want to hit the pause button, slap everyone around a bit, and tell them to stop this nonsense grown-up talk.  We are only kids after all.  Unfortunately, I think time is dragging me into the “real world” no matter how hard I kick and scream.

I would tell you all about my last trip to Puerto Escondido, but in all honesty there is not much to recount.  And I mean that in the best way possible.  I think several pictures will do enough justice, unless of course you want to read paragraph after paragraph of me running my toes through white sands and staring off into the crashing waves with a head so clear and carefree it was thoughtless.  The first picture is my favorite bay that we spent the most time at.  The second picture is the sunset at my favorite bay.  For the week I went 5 for 5 catching sunsets, not bad at all.

 

 

See you all soon.  Feel free to call on my American line!