By Chloe Coradetti, Mechanical Engineering, The National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore

Here I am, realizing that it is real, it is happening… I am going to study abroad for an entire year at the National University of Singapore!!  YEEEEESSS!
My excitement is hardly containable, I keep telling everyone, with a big smile on my face “I’m going on an adventuuuuuure!”

With realizing that this dream is becoming true – No – IS true, there is a lot of logistic and organization stress rushing which I did not anticipate.
After all it’s hard to portray yourself in a year time and tell yourself that you have only 1 month to organize everything you might need during this year abroad.
I had a few moments of panic, especially when I realized that I had to start doing vaccinations as soon as I received my confirmation email from the National University of Singapore if I wanted to travel safely around Asia once there.
Sorting out all of the immigration papers, medication struggle – again, so many vaccines-, and finally the luggage brain teaser was a quite painful and anxious experience.  – I mean, I did not even have a luggage to start from … –

(*Post-Arrival thoughts: I knew it was going to be hot and yes –humid- in Singapore but maybe not to the point where I feel like I’m wearing a sweat coat on all the time … grim… Hopefully I’ll get use to it! Therefore I can safely affirm that I will never be able to wear a good third of the clothes I’ve brought with me…Oh well it’s a good excuse to go shopping*)

Once everything seems sorted, I was appreciating each last moments spent with my friends and family before leaving. Some moments were emotional and some of my family members questioned my decision of studying abroad (-Oh the irony: I’m a frenchy studying in Manchester-) but I have never been so sure of anything in my life. This is my chance to live an amazingly unique university experience; a context that is unlikely to happen again as I would graduate in 2 years (if everything goes well … Fingers crossed!). The last hug to my cat was so heart-breaking tho – oupsy, sorry mum and dad, I’ll miss you too, you know that, hopefully-.

By “everything seems sorted” I meant administratively speaking… come on … I am not that organized!
I thought about my “luggage plan” for a while but I officially began packing the night before my 9AM flight –Thanks to years and years of Tetris practice it only took me 1h ish-
Once my luggage was done, I was finally ready to embrace the 24h journey that was awaiting me the next morning!
Singapore, here I come 😀

To sum up: a lot of stress came from organizing such a trip because of the  “just in case” mentality but at the end it’s was important to go through this process to be more aware of the eventualities you might face there, and to feel ready to embrace safely this new adventure!

PS: I have a Youtube channel where you’ll be able to find some on the spot videos of Singapore and my uni life experience there.
There is also a few stuff about Manchester! Check it out!