Exploring Singapore

By Craig Buchanan, Foster Undergraduate who participated in an exchange with the National University of Singapore.

August 9th 2016

This past week I had 5 friends from UW that were visiting Southeast Asia over the summer that I had the opportunity to connect with in Singapore. We got to go hiking, check out the aquarium, as well as go out to the clubs together one night. It was a blast having my friends visit and was cool exploring Singapore together. There were no classes last week, just our registration. It gave me plenty of time to explore and meet new friends. One day I joined the National University of Singapore basketball team for a practice. Their team captain named Thomas, was an exchange student at the Foster business school last winter, so, when he saw me wearing my UW shirt we immediately struck up a conversation. I asked if I could play with them and Thomas was super friendly and let me practice with them. The coach didn’t speak any English but the guys would translate for me and how to do the drills. It was a solid 2 1/2 hour practice in 90 degree weather and humidity. I don’t know if I’ve ever sweat more in my life. The level of competition was about high school level, and it was a ton of fun.

While I am having fun here, nearly everyday I get homesick and feel out of place. It was worse when I started and has steadily gotten better, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say I miss my friends and the familiarity of home. It’s finally set in that I will be here for 4 months. It’s a strange feeling, I want to keep in touch with my friends back home, but I really don’t want that to dictate how my time over here is.