Well, today we took a day out of exam revision to go to…Universal Studios!  Great day in all respects: good revision break, great weather, and the obvious highlight of jumping back to our childhood and being entertained by all the rides from our favourite shows and movies.

Universal Studios is situated on Singapore’s man made island – Sentosa.  Although it’s hardly very far from the mainland, only taking about 5 mins on a monorail to hop across.  There’s a Hard Rock Cafe and Hotel next to it also, but being the students we are, we decided to skip that part of Resorts World.. since the fee for getting into universal was already setting us back $70, never mind the rip off food and drink once you’re in there!  Regardless of the price, it was definitely worth forking out for… stirring up some good craic on the rides, getting soaked on the water rides, laughing lots at the shows, meeting the dressed up characters, eating Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, watching Shrek and Donkey perform songs, mixing up potions at the Fairy Godmother’s shop, visiting the castle in “far far away” from Shrek, being scared by Dinosaurs from Jurassic Park, meeting the crew from Madagascar, rocking around Hollywood, watching some Steven Spielberg, going back to Egyptian mummification featuring in The Mummy, and taking a stroll down 5th Avenue in New York…

What was most fun about the day was the way in which it brought us all together in our nostalgia from the past.  Despite the fact that the group of exchange students who went to visit Universal Studios were all from different backgrounds from all over the globe, we all shared this mutual bond over the childhood memories, common to each and every one of us.  It’s so great getting to know students from different cultures, because it’s made me realise that other people seem very different on the outside… in the inside, many of us actually share very similar qualities and characteristics.  Getting along with people who, at first, may seem so fundamentally different from you is actually surprising easy and enjoyable 🙂 going on exchange has really opened up my range of friendships and made me open to talking to and hanging out with a much wider range of people.  a great learning curve.