Too Much Time Spent Studying!

Dear readers,

Sorry there has been a serious lag in my posting time. We have been absolutely swamped with work this past week. By the end, we will have done all of the following in the course of about six days:

- Written 12 pages of essays for a take-home exam

- Written 4 pages for a history paper

- Written 12 pages for a "final research paper"

- Spent hours compiling a PowerPoint presentation which we presented in class

- Taken a history final (essay test)

Far too many essays! And it sucks that it's all coming here at the end, when we want to be finishing up all of our adventures and explorations around the city, and utilizing what little time we have left! I was still able to do at least one fun thing each day this weekend, but all this work has really zapped us.

I don't know if it's because the work is skewing my perceptions, but I'm really excited about returning to the U.S., even though I'm also obviously very sad about leaving Singapore. More than the country itself, of course, I'm going to really miss all of the interactions and the fun adventures that all of us SEAS kids had. I'm going to miss the very distinct, unique, and amazing set of experiences we've had this summer, as they are obviously ones that can and never will be replicated in the future. They represent a specific and singly occurring point in all of our lives and in the history of Singapore itself. Never again will these personalities, locations, activities, academic ponderings, personal conversations, intimate interactions, and shared experiences intersect in the same way.

Of course, one could say this exact same thing about EVERY momentous stage in one's life. It simply stands out here because this is such a unique and unprecedented experience. The more I reflect here at the end, the more I find myself "dumbstruck at the sweetness of being," to quote Joanna Newsom, my favorite musical artist. It's sometimes hard to remember that you're actually in Singapore, and I still don't really know what that sensation is supposed to feel like. But the more I think about returning home, and as excited as I am, I realize how comfortable I've gotten here. I think we've all dug ourselves some sort of niche in this country, and even if that niche doesn't extend beyond our dorm rooms in PGP, it's something that has fully engrossed our lives over the past two months. Something like that won't ever leave you, and so I have a feeling that, irony working its hardest, I may not really understand what it meant for me to "be in Singapore" with this specific group of people until I am nestled back in my niche in North Carolina.

Such is one of the silly and slightly unfortunate idiosyncracies of travel, I suppose.