Making the Decision to go on Exchange
When I was applying to attend Ryerson University, I didn’t feel like I was putting an application in for their Hospitality and Tourism Management program, I was signing myself up for years of compulsive travelling, which I could justify doing by writing it off in my head as “studying”. Still in this frame of mind 3 years in, I decided to take part in the school’s exchange program. To make things easier on students like myself, Ryerson has a ton of partner schools all over the world that you can attend for a normal semester’s tuition. They also help you get all of your formal paperwork in order and connect you with students who have gone on exchange in the past. You can check out more information about all of this here.
Even with all of this, I still had to decide for myself where I wanted to go. I ended up picking Singapore because I wanted something completely different from Toronto, but nowhere I’d end up encountering a huge language barrier. Singapore was also a hub city, with tons of additional travel destinations a hop, skip and a jump away. Finally, to top it all off, Nanyang Technological University, the school I attended, offered stupidly cheap living accommodations (about 200CAD/month). In short, Singapore was calling my name at an un-ignorable volume and before I knew it, I was on a plane sipping Singapore Slings bound for the little city-state.
A city-state which I then proceeded to Godzilla-destroy
From there, my life as an exchange student had triple helpings of “exchange” and only a half serving of “student”. I spent most of my time travelling around the rest of the city and Southeast Asia. The little time I spent on campus, I pretty much used for blogging about all the travelling I did. Check out the full list of my adventures:
Welcome to Singapore
You can’t even say you’ve been to Singapore until you’ve seen (and squealed about) Marina Bay
My first couple weeks in the country, I was determined to do as much tourist-y stuff as I could. (The fact that it was my first time in the entire continent made it feel like I could justify the overdose of generic tourist activities.)
Flying Into the Country, NTU Campus, and Life in General
EEEEE!! Pretty Flowers!! (Singapore Botanical Gardens)
I did the Orchids, Now on to Orchard Road
Swedish House Mafia: Live in Singapore
Arab Street, Bugis Street, Chicken Feet
Professional Party Animal on Sentosa Island
EEEEE!! Pretty Buildings!! (Chinese Gardens)
Merlions, White Tigers and Panda Bears, Oh My! (Singapore Zoo)
Tioman Island, Malaysia
What it lacked in sun, it more than made up for in surf!
My first trip within my exchange trip took me to the beaches of Malaysia, during a storm. The weather was rocky, but it rocked my world!
When Rain Falls, Head to Tioman Waterfalls
Settling Into Singapore
Can use slanguage now-lah!
Finally getting used to life in Asia, all of the things that first felt like insane new experiences slowly become the new normal (with “normal” meaning “crazy series of events”).
Tales of a Longboarding Hipster
How to Ride The Singapore MRT Like a Champ
An Analysis in Singapore Stair Climbing
Thailand Trippin
I used to think the surface of the ocean was pretty, but it’s got nothing on what lies underneath
Semester break from Nanyang Technological University = a trip to Bangkok and switching my uni courses for an Advanced Adventurer diving on with SSI in Koh Tao.
How Market Shopping in Bangkok Made My Life
How Market Shopping in Bangkok Ruined My Life
So Much More Than a Weekend in Sumatra
Less than a week after Thailand, I was back in a plane bound this time for Indonesia. Ready to get off the beaten path, I visited waterfalls, traditional villages and climbed volcanoes before sunrise. Plus, trading humidity for mountains felt amazing!
EEEEE!! Pretty Markets!! (Berastagi)
A Trip Back in Time to Dokan and the Karolands
Owning the Sipiso Piso Mountains and Getting Owned by the Waterfalls
Sunrise Volcano Trekking Mount Sibayak
Out and About Sumatra and Berastagi
Singapore Museums and Tigers
Clearly serious business
Goofing around at a Lego art exhibit, national museum an a brewery.
The Arts and Science Museum, Art of the Brick Quest
Because Every Park and Museum in Singapore has “National” Status
Because If Something in Singapore Doesn’t Have National Status, it has Tiger Status
Time for a Tiger (Brewery Tour)
Vietnam and Cambodia
Ancient temples and trees together!? MADNESS!!
I knew the Angkor Temples were someplace I couldn’t miss while in Southeast Asia, and while they were the main motivation for the trip, it ended up being so much more than just that!
Cu Chi Tunnels with a Crazy Devil
Becoming a Cu Chi Tunnel Hamster
Out and About Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City
Tales of a Mekong Delta Hipster
Ben Than Market: Cartoon Characters and Helicopter Crashes
Bayon Shootouts and the Anti-Sunrise (Angkor Temples Part 1)
EEEEE!! Pretty Temples (Angkor Temples Part 2)
Raiding the “Tomb Raider” Tombs of Ta Prohm (Angkor Temples Part 3)
A Walk Through the Cambodian Genocide: Killing Fields and S-21 Museum
The Different Sides of Singapore
Land that’s used for farming, not shopping malls in Singapore!? MADNESS!!
The city-state may be small, but it still has a ton of different layers. Even after living there for a few months, I didn’t feel like I could say I’d really seen Singapore until I’d seen everything it had to offer.
Singaporean Countryside (Yes, it Does Exist)
Getting Back to Nature on Pulau Ubin
70 Stories of Food in Swissôtel’s Equinox
Quick Trip to Japan
Venturing around places that look like they’re straight out of a Miyazaki film?? Count me in!
It may only have lasted a couple hours, but I did everything I could to make stretch those hours as much as I could in Narita.
A Crash-Course in Narita Culture
Putting It All Together
Just some of the things I learned about life (and Tuk-Tuks)
A Comparative Study of Tuk-Tuks Across South East Asia
Twice as much in half the space 
Great images, looks like a fantastic country
Thank you! Singapore is absolutely an amazing country, if you ever have the chance to go, I would definitely recommend it!
Oh my god you’re gorgeous. I found your post looking for a godzilla meme to send my sister. You’ve got my email if you wanna talk…