Skip to content

Goodbye (for now) Singapore!

By shivaniinsingapore

I officially left Singapore for winter break on December 3rd and have been in Gujarat, India since then. I don't think a single blog post could accurately describe how amazing this experience has been thus far. Looking back on my first semester study abroad experience, I can honestly say I would not have learned as much as I did by staying in the states. By 'learned', I am not referring to things textbooks can teach you, but rather about life experiences and cultural experiences.

While studying in Singapore, I had the opportunity to meet people from all over the world. I had friends from Australia, Sweden, China, Canada, France and of course, locals from Singapore and the US. The hardest part of finishing up my semester was saying bye to all these wonderful people I had met. I'm unfortunately the only one from my groups of friends that is returning next semester, but am looking forward to all the new people I will get to meet next semester. Additionally, I am planning a trip to Australia to meet up with my friends from Melbourne that I met this semester.

So what exactly does next semester have in store for me? I will be returning to NUS in mid-January, but will be taking 3-4 modules. I am going to be a second-semester senior, so I finished up a majority of my graduate requirements already and will be taking some elective courses. I plan on traveling a lot more than I did this past semester. Some countries I want to make it to are Thailand, Taiwan, and the Philippines. I also am going to apply to more hospital volunteer jobs and see what happens. I will be starting medical school next August, so I think being abroad for a year will definitely help me attain some cultural experiences that will help with my future profession. I spent a lot of time this past semester just trying to get to know the space of Singapore and how it functions. Next semester, I would, ideally, like to get to know more of the locals. A lot of exchange students have expressed how difficult it is to do this at NUS, since a lot of the local students are heavily involved with academics and co-curricular activities and do not have a lot of spare time to spend outside of these settings. In order to try and work my way around this, I hope to join some of these co-curricular activities and meet people that way.

Right now, I am enjoying my time in India...but am counting down the days until I get back to Singapore. I would tell anyone that is questioning where to study abroad that Singapore should be a place to look in to, without a doubt. It's culture is extremely unique, and it is a country where you can learn about all different types of ethnic backgrounds.

This post is my last blog post (so sad!), but I hope you enjoyed reading about my experiences in The Lion City!