Being on exchange is truly a lesson in itself. There will be times when you're put to a test - of strength, resilience and facing your fears. And it's no question if you can conquer it. You ARE doing it, no matter what, simply because circumstances landed you in various situations.

What everyone faces is different because everyone have different fears. But in the end it's all the same, overcoming things you've never thought you could.

During the weekend I was in Mexico City, the city of a country so unlike Singapore. It has everything Singapore does not, danger included. But somehow for an entire day I'm to be by myself and I spent it wonderfully, walking around the huge crowded city alone, without a proper telephone network, without help, and just hoping that I won't get lost because I have nobody to turn to for help. (Yeah I got quite lost but that's another story for another time.)

That wasn't scary, it was actually pretty fun being so small and far away from everything familiar. I had to wear shades to not draw unwanted attention to my asian features because well, a lone, young asian girl wandering around a huge, foreign place doesn't sound very safe to me.

But evening sets in and at midnight, I had to relocate to another meeting place where I will meet up with the rest and go back to Queretaro. I was honestly scared because the night streets of mexico city can be super dangerous, especially for a young girl. I got the hotel to call me a cab because I don't trust the taxi drivers there too - they can just whisk me off somewhere and kill me and get off scott-free actually. Apparently, I was scammed big time cause the hotel dude prolly had this liason with the taxi dude to charge high prices. But well, the price for safety is never too high.

Truly, I was afraid because I was lugging my macbook and iphone, both which really have high chances of being thieves' targets. I was warned by my mexican friends never to even whisk out my iphone in public along the streets of mexico city. And then there's everything else that can happen to a girl right. But I had no choice, I must meet up with the others and there was something wrong with the communication system so I cannot reach them on their phones as well.

When you're alone and know that it's possible that something bad could happen, you can only rely on one thing - keep your common senses with you. I may sound dramatic but I put together everything I've learnt in articles like acting like you're very familiar with the place and acting like you're going to meet someone even if you're not, and thanks to my 4-days-a-week spanish lessons, I managed to navigate around correctly, met up with my friends and am safely back in Queretaro.

Rest assured I'll never be in such a situation again, at least not while I'm in Mexico, but I'm just really glad to be safe and to conquer that. Really. Singapore is too safe and is totally not a proper representation of the world at all. Although Singapore is so safe, I'm glad that my mom taught us from young to always be wary and alert of your surroundings because disaster strikes when you least expect it. So at least always expect something bad, it may save your life.

So I'm thankful that this exchange taught me that no matter how badly you want to turn away from something that may seem impossible, you can bite on your lips, close your eyes and pull yourself forward. Even when safety, everything dear to you or familiar to you is so far away, you still have yourself to rely on and you can actually do things. The impossible is actually quite very possible.

But that was so terribly nerve-wrecking that I won't wanna do it ever again -.-'





new past