summer holidays

i'd like to think i barely had any real holidays these past three months. i started working almost immediately after my exams, all the way till i had to leave for thailand.

Thailand

being on this FS2556 trip is the best thing that has ever happened to me. i can't even make allowances for it to be "one of the best".
i've experienced countless new things, seen majestic sights and done things i'll never do again, learnt on the field the way one can never do in singapore. i love everything about i want to condense it into a tiny marble and live within it.
initially of course, i was annoyed. the first week saw me whining about it to home, how i didn't want to live in this weird place with bugs and brush my teeth from bucketed water pumped from a well. i was still limping about, forced to walk extensively with my stupid wound and see doctors to change dressings every day. i had to shower on one leg in cold water from the bucket, and use the toilet without throwing tissue into the bowl.
i was never really clean.
 then gradually i grew to get used to it, appreciating all the warm showers and hotels we'd get sporadically. 6 hour bus rides was considered short to me. i came to make friends and i had people to sit with! the food was insane, everyone loved it. the language was beautiful. fieldwork was, well, something that we've never done before and it was different trying to craft an entire project in a week about something entirely new. we spend entire days working on our projects, from the moment we wake to late nights and even lunch, we had to concentrate on the project.
we had interesting questions, like do up a poster, or do an annotated sketch on the historical ruins of this park. it was lovely.

then we split to the mountains, and the numbers halved. loved it.
the first day was hard- we arrived from a 10 hour train ride to the freezing (to us, then) cold waters of the mountain. i couldn't bear to shower. the rooms looked just like a box with beds, the insect net wasn't working well and the first night gave us geckos already.
it grew easier when we had things to do. exploration, digging holes, learning and learning and more learning.
that was my absolute favourite part. the 6 days of rotation. we would split into 6 groups and each day, each group will follow  different project and learn the various uses of equipment and methods of study.
geology
fluvial sediments
fluoride/water quality
root biomass
aquatic ecology
land use mapping
these days were to expose us to the different topics which were then given to us as options to do a project on. but these 6 days didn't require us to do an assignment on it. it was pure learning. and learn we did. i loved it. i can't contain how much i enjoyed it and would relieve it over.
then came the projects. intertwined with all the dinners and parties and crazy stuff these physicoids, including the helpers did, the thailand experience left a deep deep impression on it.

i was mildly (mildly??) depressed to return to singapore, as was grace, and we kinda didn't understand why people would want to leave it. like how i didn't understand how she wanted to continue her cold showers. after three weeks, i could tolerate it, but not something i'd enjoy immensely.
but two days after return, i'm done with my depression. i miss it, sure, but it already feels like a long time ago. a memory. an experience.