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BACK TO S
CHOOL Presents ISSUE 2
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Kevin Teo Vice-President of the 8th VinE Committee, Studying
Economics and Economics History at LSE
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Introducing
Shawn (centre) is now studying Civil Engineering at UCL. He
travels frequently no buddy? Still on! Here, hes at
Preikestolen, Norway, and met two friends along the way
construction workers on their day off from paving a new
hiking trek.
Trekking up Ben Nevis (UKs tallest mountain) in probably the
worst weather possible with strong winds, poor visibility (I
couldnt see past 10m) and rain lashing at me incessantly. What made
it worse was the initial decision to stray off the demarcated
trekking route and walk along a narrow ridgeline for that extra
challenge. My friend and I were trekking in literally no mans land
for several hours and even toyed with the idea of calling a rescue
team should we fail to reach the summit before late afternoon (that
is, if we even get a signal up there). Thankfully, a brief clear up
of the skies gave us just enough time to regain our bearings as we
took the opportunity to identify key features around, and a
fortunate meeting with a pair of climbers subsequently provided the
much-needed assurance that we were on the right track.
Tell us one moment that you will never tell your parents about
(e.g. most embarrassing, most dangerous).
Shawn Goh
What do you think you have learnt through such a YOLO moment?
The very lesson that we only live once, so careful planning for any
risky adventure should not be overlooked. Ironically, I have also
learnt that spontaneity leaves room for surprises and detailed
planning may actually kill the joy of travelling. So my conclusion?
Plan well for the first trip of any sort (eg. hiking / backpacking
/ going solo), so that with the experience, there can be more room
for spontaneity in future trips.
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How difficult, or how easy, has it been to make friends? (Please
indicate if you are referring to Singaporeans or non-Singaporeans)
Im the only Singaporean studying Civil Engineering in my year, so I
definitely had to make friends with non-Singaporeans. It helps that
my course is very project intensive so Im constantly working
closely with my fellow coursemates. In general, London is very
diverse culturally so people are open to meeting others from
different backgrounds and making friends with them.
Tell us some of the places that you have travelled to (if there
are too many to recount, please tell us your most memorable ones)
Prague (Czech Rep), Salzburg, Vienna (both Austria), Preikestolen
(Norway), Snowdonia and Cornwall (both UK) count among my
favourites.
Which was your favourite trip and why? Prague, Salburg and
Vienna because the company was unbeatable. It was a weeklong trip
with my hallmates back in Year 1, and more than just the beautiful
scenery and finer things which those places offered, the company
made the experience so much more memorable.
Any budgeting tips for travel? (What did you spend more or less
on? Any particular budget carrier or hostel you would recommend?)
Save on the accommodation, save on transport, grab a walking lunch,
and then spend on good dinner!
Tell us your most horrific travelling experience (e.g. missed
your plane, lost your wallet, or maybe you even got yourself lost)
and tell us how you solved it. Ive really got to thank God for
this. This happened as I was leaving for my solo trip to
Preikestolen in Norway. My train to Gatwick Airport was badly
delayed, hence I had to take an alternative route from another
station which I did not have tickets for. It was the evening rush
hour as well, so upon reaching the station, there was an insanely
long queue for tickets at the purchasing machine. Pressed for time,
I decided to gamble and jump over to the empty ticket collection
queue to collect the ones I had originally purchased, in the hope
of getting through the barriers with them. Guess what! I found
those very tickets I needed for my new journey already dispensed at
the machine. Someone must have left them behind by accident but
well, I had a flight to catch so I gladly took them!
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Introducing
Ranita Yoggeeswaran
Currently in her final year, Ranita is doing her LLB Law at the
University of Manchester. She graduated from VJC in 2011 and was
also a Redshirt in the 27th Students Council.
What are some of your craziest moments abroad? Is there anything
you wont tell your parents about? Having a surgery to remove both
my big toe nails 3.5hours before my flight to Manchester and having
to deal with all the treatments, doctor appointments and not to
forget the pain far far far away from home where my family and good
healthcare is. What I'll never tell my parents about - if I
wouldn't tell them, why would I write it here?!? Haha but I went
cliff diving in Croatia and I didn't dare tell them until after the
drive because I knew they'd probably panic and not let me do it How
is it like making friends in this whole new environment? Its easy
to make and easy to click with Singaporeans because of all the
common overlaps (friends, culture, food). As for non-Singaporean
friends, it definitely is harder to make friends with them but it
is worth the effort. Interacting with them is amazing and I've
learnt so many things abt their countries and cultures. I feel that
I learn a lot more from them because of the different
perspectives
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Where are the places that you have travelled to, and any tips?
Travelled to Rome Venice, Sicily, Baden Baden, Munich, Copenhagen,
Brussels, Prague, Helsinki, saariselka (Lapland), Croatia, Dublin,
Edinburgh. Some tips: Plan in advance, the earlier you plan, the
cheaper your trip will be AirBnB is the way to go! Affordable
accommodation for groups of any size and the hosts are usually
always nice If it's an all girls trip, be extra careful about
safety and always don't go asking for trouble (e.g. Don't flaunt
your iPhones and Prada wallets in public) Prague is gorgeous!
Definitely recommend going there and Croatia as well, especially
the city of Dubrovnik! It's an old city that's been preserved with
amazing beaches!
Tell us your most horrific travelling experience (e.g. missed
your plane, lost your wallet, or maybe you even got yourself lost)
and tell us how you solved it. Dubrovnik is currently my most
favourite city in the world and ironically it is in Croatia where I
had the most horrific encounter whilst traveling. A group of 8 of
us travelled together to Croatia and we had dinner together on the
first night. After that we split up because 6 of them wanted to go
to the supermarket and my friend and I wanted to see the harbour at
night (we thought it would be lively as there were many restaurants
and cafe lining the harbour). However, to our disappointment,
everything was closed and it was dark so we decided to walk back to
our accommodation, which was a 3-5min walk away. But 3 guys started
to follow us and started to wolf whistle, catcall and the works, so
naturally we panicked! Didn't turn around and started walking
quickly and continued to talk between ourselves. Saw a tiny
convenience store open and walked towards it. But thankfully as we
turned the corner, we saw another 2 of our friends and the guys
just turned around and walked away!
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Introducing Glen Ang Glen is now in his final year at UCL,
reading Economics. Having graduated from VJC in 2009, hes someone
whom you might want to approach for some spontaneity! Tell us one
moment that you will never tell your parents about. I suppose there
was this one time when I was on an Economics trip to Brighton, my
friends and I were crazily enough, on a sugar high due to some
candy we bought along the streets. A series of bad decisions
followed which culminated in us skinny-dipping into the sea. It was
2 degrees Celsius that night!! Skinny-dippings nothing, but 2
degrees waters, that killed me.
How difficult, or how easy, has it been to make friends? Please
indicate if you are referring to Singaporeand or non-Singaporeans.
Well lets start with the easy ones, Singaporeans. I suppose coming
from the same background makes it so much easier. It is great to
have a close knitted Singapore family overseas as they understand
you best and are sharing similar experiences with you. With regards
to the other internationals and the locals, I suppose it was not
exactly easy kicking start the whole friendship building
process.
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Tell us about some of the places that you have travelled to.
Well some of the places Ive been to so far (not including my
travels in Europe prior to university) are Amsterdam, Edinburgh,
Belfast, Iceland, Croatia, Portugal, Morocco (yep, we decided to go
to Africa), Malta and Turkey. All these trips are unique in their
own way, it was a really great experience just travelling around
Europe in the companionship of close friends. Which was your
favourite trip and why? I suppose the most memorable trip for me
would be Iceland. The country was just so incredibly quaint.
Juxtapose it with the intensity of city life and youll understand
why. Not only was the scenery impeccable, but it was also the trip
with a couple of firsts, such as seeing the northern lights and
riding a snow mobile on a glacier. No trip is complete without the
company of great friends, and that was no different when I was in
Iceland. Any budgeting tips for travel? What did you spend more or
less on? Any particular budget carrier or hostel would you
recommend? Well in terms of accommodation, if you are travelling in
a group of around 3-5 people, get airBnB! You get amazing private
apartments in really good locations at a fairly good price! It is
so much cheaper than hotels and it way more comfortable than living
in hostels with strangers (unless you are there for solo trips and
are ok with it). With regards to flights, theres Ryanair, Easyjet
and so many more. To get the best deals, just use
www.skyscanner.net. Travels in Europe are fairly cheap, except for
exotic places like the Nordic countries. Eventually, how much you
spend per trip is down to the food you eat, the stuff you buy and
the lifestyle you lead while travelling. Tell us your most horrific
travel experience and tell us how you solved it. I think my travels
have been fairly smooth. If there was one incident that came close
to being anything near horrific, it would be nearly missing my
flight from Istanbul back to London. We were unfortunately caught
in a massive jam through central Istanbul with our flight taking
off in less than 2 hours. It was terrible as we couldnt really do
anything about it. However, we did call the airline to explain our
situation and tried to make arrangements for us to be processed as
quickly as possible once we arrive at the airport. In anticipation
of potentially missing our flight, I had to call my friend in
London while I was in the cab to check on the next available
flights from Istanbul to London. It was a mad rush once we arrived
at the airport, with just 30mins before our flight was due to fly.
We managed to convince airline service staff to process our
check-in first and we managed to get to the gate just in time,
thankfully.
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Introducing Gavin ChanDra
Tell us one moment that you will never tell your parents about.
Ive had crazy moments with my housemates who just cant seem to stop
drinking and made unbelievable loud noises while I was studying for
my finals, but I would have to say the most YOLO thing I did
without telling my parents first would be to book flights in the
year spontaneously! Ive booked flights to Barcelona, the UK and the
Netherlands without my parents knowledge (though eventually I would
tell them) and this gives me the thrill of spontaneity that
Singaporeans rarely feel. Many a times Singaporeans have the
mentality of travelling in groups and are afraid to travel on their
own, but I decided to break from this general stereotype.
Thankfully I have some Singaporean friends who do trips on their
own and theyve told me how wonderful the experience is to travel by
oneself to a completely foreign land and meeting new people in the
many hostels in foreign land. The most YOLO moment for me was
booking tickets to the Glastonbury Music Festival 9 months before
the actual festival! I had to book it then because tickets were
sold out within an hour and a half, but I have no regrets buying
them first because the festival lineup was amazing! I think the
best part of all these YOLO moments would be trying something that
not many other Singaporeans would naturally do and getting the best
out of these experiences to share to the many friends back home
saying hey! This wasnt as bad as many people think it would be! The
feeling of making full use of your time abroad instead of just
studying and getting the degree would be the best feeling for me,
and I hope others can embark on their own travels or YOLO
moments!
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Connect with us on Facebook by searching for the following
groups: Victorians in Europe
https://www.facebook.com/groups/Victorians.in.Europe/
VinE Freshers 2015
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1387590154825145/
Vine Freshers 2016
https://www.facebook.com/groups/654825631226549/
The 8th VinE Committee would like to thank everyone who has
contributed to this newsletter. Feel free to email us at:
[email protected] Upcoming Events: VinE Day Trip 25th
October 2014 Whitstable and Canterbury
How is it like making friends abroad? For me, the thrill of
making friends that are non-Singaporeans is wonderful to have
because we start to realise what a small world we live in Singapore
and how our perspectives can change for the better after meeting
inspirational people along the way. Im lucky to have many
International students in my college from the States, Canada and
Ireland that I can make friends with and hang out with, because the
experience is completely different from hanging out with my
Singaporean friends. Also in Ireland, I was forced to make friends
with the International students due to the small Singaporean
community and the experiences Ive had with them have been
worthwhile. Although I hang out mainly with the Singaporeans, I do
not have to hang out with them all the time (if I really like this
band that are performing in Dublin and none of the Singaporeans
want to go with me, Ill ask my American friends and theyll be up
for it!). Also, joining societies would allow you to expand your
social circle and make many other people other than your
coursemates, so I highly recommend that.
