Happy new year 🎉🎉🎉
I know it’s a bit late but I just came back home after 5! whole! months!
i won’t make this a travel post where i talk about the food and places i went but more of some reflections i have after the entire experience away from home.
My partner school was UM-SJTU JI it was honestly such a good time – i went with people i know; to be in the same timezone as it was job application season; costs (it was nice to be able to splurge since things were way cheaper than sg); safety.
Peace & independence
interestingly, it wasn’t the difference in culture and environment that changed me the most, but it was the feeling of living indepedently. It was my first time being away from home for such a long time. There were chaotic times like braving the typhoons, walking just in shorts to get my laundry during winter, one-handedly cycling to navigate with gps, and many days of having the pure freedom to do/eat whenever and whatever i like just by myself. that feeling was quite liberating and peaceful. It also showed that things can get really messy but if it doesn’t kill you, you get stronger :)
Imagine waking up to this everyday in autumn weather… yes it was great
How school was like
I think the chinese education system is “notorious” for being very intensive, especially in the grind. This was something i feel wasn’t as much as it is hyped up to be. i took the data science course and sure enough, it was way more math and stats than cs2109s in nus (for the same intro level), but at the same time the distribution of scores tend to be rather lenient compared to nus. And another networks mod was interesting in a sense that you had to come up with a research topic and report on it, which i think isn’t really common for any networking mods in nus (since i did quite a few). i get the rationale, as most of the networking stuff in nus is quite practical-driven, and less theoretical.
🎒✈️
Time flies by before you know it. It felt like yesterday i was still planning so it feels surreal. It was fun being in a new environment (which is a great way to not feel burntout) and do things which i never imagined would be possible. There were some really stressful times having to keep faith, dealing with the pressure and hecticness of everything, some inconvenience in liasing with profs and others back in sg, but things fell into place, thank God.