Boy/girlfriend status, fear of the unknown, not seeing your friends for a while, financial cost, university credits not being correctly transferred: there are lots of reasons not to go to an exchange!
What if the outcome is not what you expect ? Sorry to break it up to you, it will most likely be the case! No one can tell you how you exchange program will take place except yourself.
They can be positives or negatives. What matters is your response to them.
Quite a number of things happened during this exchange: constant valedictorians failed an exam, travel bugs got trapped in the Parisian Metropolis for 3 hours and astute planners missed their flights, a sworn non-drinker more than just tasted alcohol.
They say that there is a first time for everything, I say if you want to experience first times, hit it up to France!
I have studied abroad a number of times. And as compared to my other exchange companions, my experience was different. Whilst everyone was head over heels over Latina, this nightclub that everyone went twerking and lap dancing at, I stayed unfazed. It would never compare to Clarke Quay in Singapore. While everyone was catching weekly getaways to around Europe, I stayed unfazed. I have done the excessive non-stop little travels before in South East Asia, and it did tire me off. And in the end, when everyone was buying gifts for their family and dear ones when they'll return to their respective countries, it just felt like a deja vu to me. I had done that and I was over it.
Yet, there was something different about this exchange. I remember clearly how on the second night I got to Lille, I met up with Aindrea Sewell, from Jamaica, my senior from SP Jain School of Global Management, my home university. She was also here in Lille on exchange and was to leave for Dubai in the same week. She told me that by the end of my exchange experience I would not want to leave the place and I will meet people whom I will have a hard time parting with.
I didn't quite believe her then. I mean, I had done the meeting and bidding farewells so many times by then.
Fast forward 5 months, here I am today at Sharin and Aaditi's.
We woke up and had a super elaborate breakfast. No, not of the types of Biryani and Fried Noodles, more like Weetabix, boiled eggs, tea and Strawberry Milkshake.
I know now how Aindrea was right.
Where do I start about this exchange? Will from the beginning do? I think it will. How the seasons have unfurled and how they've changed.