End of the semester?!

Hey blog!

It’s been a second, but I’ll be posting a little more frequently for the next two weeks to make sure I catch up!! Some unexpected life stuff happened a couple weeks ago so I was just focusing on school and trying to prepare for everything that was coming up. But so much has happened!! Yesterday I officially had my LAST DAY OF SCHOOL IN SINGAPORE. What?!? This semester seriously flew by and the past two weeks have been a whirlwind. I posted after going to the Philippines, but after that trip I also had a weekend trip to Tioman island (Malaysia).

I went with a group of 13 and it was a perfect “pre finals” weekend. Tioman doesn’t have much on it, but I think that’s why we loved it so much. The water was beautiful and we spent most of the time just hanging at the beach (because we had the cutest little hostel rooms on the beach!!). I shared a room with three of my really good friends and even though there were bugs and lizards everywhere, limited supplies of really anything, and it was a JOURNEY to get there for a trip that lasted only 48 hours, we all agreed it was more than worth it. To get there, I had to take a bus to my friends house in Singapore, then get in a van that we rented (somehow crammed 12 people in a normal sized mini van), went through the Malaysian border, then drove another 2 hours to the first jetty, dropped some of my friends off, and then stayed in the car for another 45 minutes to get to our jetty. We waited a couple hours for the ferry to come, and then when the ferry came we had a 2 hour journey to the island.

A pic I took on the ferry coming in

After getting to the island we got picked up by a pick-up-truck and climbed in the trunk, and got driven across the whole island (because we were staying on the opposite side). It was a long day but once we actually got there it was stress free. The first day, we walked to try to find some places to eat, hung at the beach, stargazed, talked (a lot), swam, AND got to cut some coconuts and eat them from the trees in front of our villa. Loved that.

Coconut

The next day we got up, had the cutest tropical breakfast on the beach, and then attempted a really middle of nowhere hike. We were literally climbing up huge rocks by the water to get where we needed to be, and then climbed through straight jungle with no service and no idea if we were going in remotely the right direction. We saw basically no one at all the whole time. But we ended up making it to the right spot, and it led us straight to a waterfall where we swam in the water and hung out. After we came back, some of us had some work to do because exams were this past week, so we took some time to do that, and then I read on the beach and got ready for family dinner. :) We all ate at a huge table together at another restaurant, and had dinner and banana waffles for dessert (apparently it’s a thing there). That night we all sat in a circle on the beach and talked about how we have ONE semester of IBEA left and how fast Singapore went by- and we all agreed it’s been one of the best. The next day (last Sunday) we had an 11 hour journey home, so we didn’t get back to our apartment until almost midnight, with school the next day. 

Before the hike got hard...

After the barefoot rock climbing started

The waterfall we found!

This past school week was a lot. With consulting wrapping up, we all put in hours and hours a day to make sure our PowerPoint had all the details needed, and we had to prepare for our final client/jury presentation on Friday. On top of that I of course had other classes, but I spent most of my time studying for my data science exam and working on my project for that class (those were the only two grades so it was 50/50). This has definitely been my least favorite class. The one thing that I’ve learned about US universities vs other universities is that the US is constantly updating the grade books, there’s a lot of grades, and students are in the loop of where they stand in a class. Here (and Germany) I probably won’t know any grades, even for classes I finished months ago) until late June or July. It can be a little stressful but I’ve learned to deal with it. Anyways, yesterday was the FINAL consulting presentation and it went really smooth and well. Our group presented last, so we were basically there from 5-6:45 PM. This included presentation time, questions, feedback, and some in between prep time for the different parts. Our client was really happy with everything we delivered for the company and it was really rewarding after everything that we did. I loved LOVED my consulting group this semester and we all agreed (and our professor) that the group dynamic was pretty top tier and we all just got along so well, so they made the hours of work fun. I was lucky, it isn’t always like that, but was thankful that no group stress was added on top of an already huge project this whole semester. Here’s a pic of us post presentation: 

<3

**ALSO this past week I FINALLY got my Brazilian visa!! It was a complicated process getting it in Singapore as an American, but after a couple trips to the Brazilian embassy it's now stamped in my passport!!!

So, now that you're caught up, I’m currently writing this at my apartment pool. I'm super sad because this is my second to last night EVER at my apartment and I’ve loved it here. It’s so weird living so many places because after you leave, it’s not like you can really go back and see your same room or place you lived in, so the whole thing is really bittersweet.  Tonight I’ll be with a lot of my friends, and since a lot of us start traveling tomorrow, we’ll be saying bye until Brazil! But, that also means we see each other in 6 weeks so that’s also insane. Tomorrow I leave for Cambodia, and the main purpose of the trip is to see Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom (two super famous temples that have a lot of history). I was really encouraged by my Grandpa to go here so he should be proud because I rallied up three other people to join me too. :) After Cambodia, we fly to Vietnam and will be there for four days. My flight home is next weekend (Sunday night) so when I come back from Vietnam I’ll have about 24 hours to completely pack up and get everything out. 

Once I’m home, I’ll have to restock on some things that I’m out of, and focus on what I need next semester. My school year starts end of July, so I’ll take a break blogging for a couple weeks this summer, but then I’ll be right back!! 

A pic of Boat Quay on a Friday night! (Went here after our presentations)

To end the blog I wanted to give a few more tips when studying abroad: 

• Don’t overdo it with decorations, it takes up a lot of space and weight and you can just print pictures and buy some cheap stuff wherever you go! 

• Bring a good probiotic with you (and some good vitamins!)- especially when traveling to a lot of new countries. I never had an issue and was barely sick the whole semester and I think it helped a lot. 

• Bring your pillowcase and maybe an extra (some people like to bring it when staying in hostels or other places so it’s a good thing to think about) 

• Packing cubes!! I talked about this before for actually packing, but I’ve still used them as organizers for clothes in my room! It’s like another drawer, and helps when your low on storage 

• Make sure when you go you have a backpack that has room for weekend trips. It can be your school backpack, but just make sure it can fit more than your laptop. (You can’t always get a checked bag) 

• BUY THE TINY TRAVEL BOTTLES FOR PRODUCTS! You’ll need them. 

Okay, I’ll be back soon with a Cambodia and Vietnam update, then a leaving update. ): 

I appreciate YOU for reading!!!! 

Much love,

Brigitte <3