Stopped Studying for Stratego

My cousin David loaned me the board game Stratego on Saturday after I visited his house. I saw the game sitting on his coffee table and I was reminded of high school when I would play the game most lunches (I was really cool). I wont go into the full details of my rigorous board game ranking system, but Stratego is my number one 'two-player' board game. I had to borrow it.


In addition to that my good friend Greg showed me that you can play Settlers of Catan online (my favourite '3-6 player' game). That has sucked away a lot of hours from my studying effort as well.

Overall I have not had a short supply of distractions from exams. When my friends are too annoyed to play Stratego any more, I look up strategies online and when I am sick of looking up strategies, I play Settlers or when I'm too tired of even that I blog about it. Okay, now I can study, I have an exam tomorrow morning.

Hitting the Books

I'm back in Singapore and have to get back into 'school mode'.  I have three exams to write before I am free again!

Grounded

Today was the day I leave for Thailand. However due to an assignment for my Soil Mechanics class, which is due today, I needed to stay and finish it. Hopefully if I get my work done I can leave tonight or tomorrow.

On the brighter side, I just got back from Tioman Island. The Island itself looks like its from the movie Jurassic Park; lots of jungle with steep hills with exotic wildlife like bearded monkeys (made that name up), monitor lizards and velociraptors. The atmosphere at the beach we stayed at was laid back, with backpackers and locals hanging out on the beach until late at night. Tioman is also known for scuba diving, I was able to do four dives and saw a blacktip reef shark, two cuttle fish and a sea turtle.

The Beginning of the End

The exchange students at the National University of Singapore are struggling to get all their final assignments in so they can have a week, or more, of travelling before exams.  Soon after exams they will be going home to their respective countries, or (most likely) embarking on trips around South East Asia.  It is the beginning of the end of the exchange student experience.

Coming to Singapore has been an amazing experience, and I am thankful I had the opportunity to do so.  Alas, I will soon be leaving and travelling around the south-east of Asia (woe is me), which both scares and excites me.  I will return to Singapore briefly before heading back to the Great White North.  Leaving Singapore will be bitter-sweet, since I know it mean the beginning of my travels, which I have been dreaming of for some time.  But, this city (which has both amazed and frustrated me equally) has become my home, and moving is always difficult.

Just like graduating high school there is the excitement of what lays ahead but also the sadness of leaving your friends behind.  There is the chance you will bump into each other again, but it may not be for a long time.

Nearly four months have gone by in a flash, but I still have lots of experiences ahead of me before I hop on a flight to Canada.