Argh the dreaded part of exchange is getting so close now… exams.  I’ve done 2 now, and 2 to go.  Then free for summer!  Exams here are pretty much the exact same as back in Edinburgh, they’re even held in the sports hall as well.  Can’t wait to be finished next week, and then start all the post-exam parties and going out.  Singapore has an amazing club scene so I’m excited to be able to go out again guilt-free.  Spent all day so far in the library and I’m soo ready to get out and into the sun!  It’s a strange combination on my exchange between going on all my exotic travels, and then coming straight back into work mood in the library.  It’s as if we nip off to venture some of South East Asia for a week or so, and then retreat back to Singapore to go back to ‘real life’ and work mood.  I’ve actually found it the best set up, because long haul travel for months on end would (for me anyway) get a bit tedious… I don’t think I would like not having a base for that long, or living out of a backpack for that long!  But having our base in the central location of Singapore, means we can take little trips at a time, but still come back to our friendly routine and familiarity of Singapore.

After exams, I think I’ll stay about for a little while to enjoy what I can of Singapore, and then I’ll finally head back home.  I am getting slightly nervous to adjusting back to life and culture of the UK…. the transition period will be strange, but I have so much to look forward to back at home – my home, my family, my school friends, my uni friends, my flatmates…. Nonetheless, I’m starting to really grip onto my last wee while in Singapore because I’m too scared for this year to be over.  Where did it all go?  It has really flown by…

I should really get back to revising Intellectual Property and preparing my presentations for class.  Most classes contain a presentation task which is worth 25% of the grade.. I actually quite like this set up because it takes the heat of the final examination.

All the travelling and partying and shopping and eating out and everything else involved in my new life out here in Asia seem a million miles away now, now that I’m sitting huddled over law textbooks and case reports.  If I can just get through the next few days then I can go back to having fun again.  It’s just hard when in such an exotic context, the last thing you want to do is to be sitting inside studying.

Each afternoon I can take a short break from revising to go to the university pool, which is just across the road from the library, and with 50m of pool to swim, and 9 lanes, its another of the fantastic facilities at National University of Singapore which is just screaming for the students to come and make use of.  Going for a short 20-30 minute swim really helps to give a refreshing break from the hardcore revision, and allows me to get out into Singapore blazing heat of 30 plus degrees celcius, before being pulled back into the freezing cold air conditioned library!  That’s another thing I just can get over, whyyy do they have to make all the public buildings quite as freezing as they are?  All the university buildings, shopping malls and offices are literally freezing – the city would save so much electricity/power (and money!) if they just cranked it up a couple degrees.  It’s just unnecessarily cold!  You have to put a jumper ON to come INTO building, and the general consensus is “oh keep the heat OUT”.  Whereas back in Scotland, we would be screaming to keep in the heat IN, and piling on as many clothes as possible to go OUT.  When you step out of the library you feel a sudden burst of heat, but I love that feeling!  But I really do seem to be the only one who complains about the coldness of the library! Ahhhhhh exams… please be over soon.