12th September.
This day is a very unique day as it marks many things that are worth celebrating.

Firstly, I would like to wish my BFF a very amazing birthday because she is a wonderful friend who deserves a great celebration for a special person like her. To her: although I am not able to celebrate your 21st with you on the day itself, I hope you had a fantastic day!

Today also marks one month since leaving my home country for the exchange. This exchange is one which turned out a little different from expectations. Nevertheless, I must say I am enjoying myself though it is not the extreme fun kind of exchange which was planned.

After being in this new country for a week, it feels as though I have been living here forever. I feel like a local myself; I know where are the places to go, how to go, what is good, what is not.. Thanks to globalization and having a third culture kid background, I found myself assimilating into the new environment very rapidly. The feeling of a local makes me think about the future; I know I will miss this place even right before leaving.

Going for an exchange is a really great experience that everyone should try to go for, if opportunity comes knocking on the door. One gets to learn so much - about oneself, how to manage one's life, how to live with another 'new' person besides one's family, how to manage and work with people, improve on navigational skills as well as communication skills, learn another language, observe and learn more types of individual characters of this world, appreciating other society and cultures, do many life reflections...

This exchange has taught me to be more appreciative of my parents and what life has given me. I am glad for my experiences overseas that helped to better prepare me for this exchange in terms of daily survival and needs. As I observed my peers on how they prepare for this exchange in comparison with mine, I learned that my generation of people are extremely fortunate. This, they think they know - but not all of it.  And through this, I learned that how practical of a person I have become. I believe practicality helps you to always be prepared for any unexpected surprises. Not sure if everyone will agree with this, but that is how I see and it seems to be true so far..

When you live with another person other than your family, you get to really know this person in and out. Not exactly everything about him or her, but his or her habits that you would not get to see on a daily basis of normal friend interactions. Thus I learned, it is always good to stay true to yourself in order to be true to your friends.

Living with another being also reminded me of the morals that was taught to me as well as how pampered our generation is. I believe that having consideration and taking initiatives are two key things that people should have. My experiences are mostly without these two and admittedly, I am a little disappointed with how things turned out so far at times. I don't ask for much, but everyone have their rights to live as a human and not as a part-time domestic helper for another. Because of not wanting to create any awkwardness or ruin the friendship, I have to keep mum about my feelings even after several hints which I felt were quite bluntly put forth..

Going out together with friends is fun, because who likes being alone (besides the need for alone times)? Despite that, I hope that my suggestions or plans can be respected if no one wants to take the initiative to do so.. And I hope that my generation of people will learn to take initiative to learn how to move around in a foreign country instead of just tagging along the whole time and depending on others to watch out for them all the time. We are by right, all adults already anyway.

Well, enough of my rants and more of happier stuffs.

The weather was more scorching hot than my home country during the first two weeks here. We had to change clothes everyday as our clothes would be soaking wet by just walking 15 minutes of mountainous roads. Thankfully, the weather got cooler and it feels like autumn is finally approaching!

The first week of school felt like autumn came but the second week confirmed that we are still in the transition phase. Despite that, the weather is still lovely as it is breezy during the day and cooling in the mornings and nights. School is not as carefree and stressful-less as I had hoped for; nonetheless, I hope that the coming weeks would prove me right that it is still less stressful than my university.

I have to say that I love my exchange university's environment. It has this classy, antique and old England feel to it. Walking to classes in the mornings and back, by climbing up and down the mountain roads and through a miniature park, makes me feel very happy and healthy. To be honest, I can feel that my stamina is improving already! I guess the environment plays an important role for students to look forward to go to everyday as well.

My professors are all able to speak English - given that I have signed up for all English modules, and most are nice people. I cannot say that their lessons are better than my home country in terms of interest level, but they are still able to get me out of bed to attend them at every designated time.

I love my hostel room though it is expensive; it is the kind of dream space that one would love to have - enough for two, roomy and cosy enough for one. The desk is spacious and makes you feel like you own it and motivates studying, shower room has a unique open concept of no door but just the precise amount of space that one needs to clean up and feel good, bed is super single size which is neither too hard nor soft - comfortable for a good night's sleep every night and enough cupboards to store all of my items! The only drawback is the tiny wardrobe which surprisingly, I am still able to fit all of the clothes I have brought and bought here. It is really a perfect place which I look forward to going back every day too; I really don't ask for more.

School life is quite happening among the local students, they have tons of clubs and I believe that many clubs have their activities at night after classes (based on my observation of walking through school in the evenings where there are still lights and music going on). I wanted to join a club to get to know more people, but I noticed that the club members did not seemed very interested in recruiting after walking through a few exhibitions. And since I did not happen to see anything that looks interesting, thus was not motivated to participate any in the end.

I guess because the school is too beautiful and mountainous, the public loves to hike across the school from one gate to the other during the weekends. And trust me when I say that, it is really very amusing and refreshing to see this when we go out to have brunch during the weekends! I really love experiencing and observing cultures that seem so out of the blue - it hits you randomly and surprises you with experiences you have never imagined that you would ever come across.

As I recall these little excitements and adventures that I have while overlooking the not-so-good experiences, I feel so heart-warmed and grateful for what I have and for having this wonderful chance to be where I am to experience all that I am going through.

And I realised, I really love living among a different culture.
Life is good and I'm thankful :)