My aunt had to teach me how to wrap a scarf around my neck again some weeks ago. Yup, I’m back in England. Hopped on the bus at Wilmslow Road, jumped off for uni at Oxford Road, then went past Oxford Street for a night out later on. Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road, Oxford Street. The name changes along the way, but it’s one main road down the centre of Manchester, that I used to zoom up and down every single day. This is where I spent my first two years of uni. Familiarity is a hell of a thing. Routine, comfortable and easy…but unstimulated. I didn’t notice it until I decided…

I had this longing to travel alone the entire time I was in Singapore. I didn’t know exactly why while I was there, but looking back at it now, I do. For the past few years, I’ve been trying to understand my weird thoughts, feelings, habits and overall myself. I found that being alone and feeling completely comfortable with it was important, because then I could be more aware of what was happening within and without me. I remember putting myself in some uncomfortable situations and just sitting back and soaking up the awkwardness. Little things that would reeeeally take up my headspace before, slowly started to vanish and I felt…

It hurt my heart to turn down some jerk chicken at a Jamaican cook-up the other day. Almost 5 months vegetarian! Had no idea this was actually going to happen over here. It all started Christmas 2015 when I watched a documentary called Cowspiracy. So many people think (and I thought) that the only reason to go vegetarian/vegan is for ethical or health reasons. But every time I ate chicken, pigs, cows, and the eggs, milk and cheese that come from them, I was supporting the biggest contributor to climate change and global warming. It’s all the water, land and energy that firstly go into growing food for them, and then raising…

It felt weird not being home for Christmas for the first time, but I had a little piece of Jamaica here with me. Mommy and Daddy Hall travelled 36 hours to visit! I’m kinda lost for words, so I thought I’d use a few of the 1500 pictures we took to help 🙂 (Thank you NUS for the November exams and allowing me to have a holiday, instead of having to study for January exams) First stop: Bangkok, Thailand

From 3 weeks in (my last post) to 3 months in…oopsie. Feeling like a local now. I got back to NUS after an amazing and eye opening recess week trip to Myanmar and thought, “Home sweet home.”

I forgot what living in a hot country was like. Though I did come prepared with my deodorant, specially recommended by a Jamaican woman in a supermarket back home. Gone are the simplicities of living in the UK: not having to shave my legs, wearing tops more than once and showering once a day. (I sound so unhygienic, but I promise I’m not.) But my goodness, life here has been sweet. Reality kinda hit when Week 1 officially started and I thought, “Oh yea, I came here to study.” Unlike a lot of exchangers, my grades matter 100%. I am taking two 6 credit modules (basically very time demanding research/hands on projects)…

I’m a real softy when it comes to goodbyes. You’d think that after leaving my parents at the age of 11 to go to high school in another parish and then leaving Jamaica at the age of 18 to go to university in the UK, I’d toughen up. But this morning, I teared up AGAIN as I said goodbye to my sweet Jamaica (It’s only because my family and I ended up doing a cute group hug 🙂 ). This blog post was supposed to be my “Pre-Departure Thoughts,” but to be honest I had none. I’ve been so distracted by my one month au pairing in Valencia, immediately followed…