Setting sail

We’re entering the last hour of the last flight we’re taking on our way to Singapore. The 30-something hours initially seemed … interesting and “not a big deal”, but at some point it all got extremely exhausting and annoying. It has made me reconsider the relative length of my trip to Romania, which is a nice couple of flights, one fairly short(2 hours), and the other just a good sleep (8h). The day-and-something on the Asian-bound flights has been a little too much.

When I signed up for the Harvard College in Asia Project (HCAP), I knew nothing about any of the cities and the countries that the program visits. I wrote my country preferences 5 minutes before the application deadline by doing a preliminary research on… Wikipedia. Until pretty much now, I have looked at Singapore as an “OK” destination, thinking at the same tine that I might have enjoyed better something more exotic, or traditional. But now I know a little more about the place, and I don’t think I’ll be anything less than very exciting.

It seems like it’s going to be a wonderful time in what is undoubtedly a very multicultural environment. Although Singapore is geographically just an extension of Malaysia, more than half of the people are Chinese (the Chinatown is well-known and quite authentic. Also, there’s a lot to see in Singapore in terms of identity (3 major ethnic groups) and religion (they have not just Christian and Buddhist, but also Islamic). Not to mention that the city is really spectacular.

I decided to join HCAP because I wanted to learn more about Asia, a place that seemed so remote and different but also tempting and intriguing. Traveling in Europe had been a lot of fun, but I realized that there is so much more to discover in other, more distant places. I paid the airfare boldly, assuming but lacking certainity that it would be ‘a step’ towards this vague and broad goal of "understanding Asia". Yet now I know it’ll go a much longer way than I expected – Singapore is a wonderful and rich place, and I am starting to be very anxious about arriving.

As for the extra week that I'm going to spend in Thailand instead of returning to school on time, that's going to be quite an adventure. I'll be on my own, and I haven't quite been alone on such an undertaking. I’ve heard they’ve recently blown up some buses there, but I’m not particularly worried about that. Instead, what I’m thinking of right now is how I’m going to finish the two bloody papers that will be due that week, where exactly I will travel in that country, and if I will succeed to not lose my documents, money and posessions, or miss my flights.
“We are preparing to land – please switch of all electronic equipment and secure your seats in an upright position.“

Here we go!