Another week in Singapore and I am happy to accounce that I have formulated a plan to pass my midterms in 2 weeks. It involves learning all the content from the first 6 weeks of the semester in about 6 days. Wish me luck :)

I’m gonna be honest, I took it easy this week, which means this post might be a little boring compared to how the last month and a half has been going. I met a few cool new people this week, including a girl from New Zealand who gave me some great advice for a trip that may be on the horizon 👀.

The last couple weeks The entire time I’ve been in Singapore I’ve really been slacking on the basketball team, missing probably half the practices…um “trainings,” due to conflicts. I haven’t made a single Friday practice because I leave every weekend.

I told them that going in, and they didn’t have a problem with it, until this past week a few players on the team told me the coach wants to see more commitment out of me.

The coach only speaks Chinese so I need a translator every time I talk to him.

Anyway, I told them that I was sorry, but that traveling is a big priority for me and it was going to stay that way, although I would try to make every Monday and Wednesday practice from here on out. It was a little bit of a risky play on my part, but they actually said they understood and that it was okay.

I honestly thought they were going to kick me off the team for that.

Honestly, I would’ve kicked me off the team for that. Basketball just isn’t the priority for me here for me to commit to it more than I am.

What they did do instead, was ask politely that I come to this week’s Friday practice. With our first game the following Monday, this was the last practice until then, and there was a *very important* jersey handout happening after the practice. So I said sure, found a workaround to my travel plans and showed up.

This whole thing where they handed out the jerseys to the people who made the team (they cut about 5 people on Friday) didn’t feel like a big deal to me, but culturally in Asia, apparently it was. It’s supposed to make you realize that you are part of something bigger than yourself, and have found a second family.

Personally, the American in me would have rather just been handed my jersey 20 minutes before our first game and told to go hoop, but I figured it was better to show them that I understand and empathize with their traditions, and I care about the team. Which I do! Stay tuned for how our first game goes on Monday!

This weekend I was finishing up my Open Water Diving certification. Southeast Asia has some of the most beautiful scuba diving sites in the world, so I figured I better make the most of it while I’m here.

The last part of the course to get certified involves doing 5 open water dives, which I was headed to Tioman Island, Malaysia to do. I was completing the certification through a Singaporean company who had booked everyone’s travel to the island, but because I attended the basketball practice Friday night, it required me to get to Malaysia on my own.

I found a bus that left after Friday’s practice that brought me within a 4 minute walk of the hotel that our dive group was staying at Friday night. However, I arrived at 2:30am and no one was staffing the counter at the hotel. This wouldn’t have been an issue except that the hotel was padlocked shut.

Honestly it looked like it hadn’t been in business for 10 years.

To make matters worse, this pack of 6 rabid dogs were out patrolling the area for some snacks. Either they thought that I was a threat to their dumpster diving excursions, or that I was the snack.

I couldn’t tell, but when they started snarling and barking at me, outside of the hotel at 2:30am, all alone in Malaysia, I did the only logical thing I could think of. I went next door to the 24 hour 7/11 and slept on the floor there from 2:30am to 5:30am.

It was the most jank thing I’ve done in probably like 7 days.

Seriously, I’ve done some jank stuff almost every weekend in Asia, but this just wasn’t an instance in which I expected that something crazy would happen. Nonetheless, here we were, at the very least safe from the rabid dogs.

I bought a breakfast roll from the 7/11 worker and let him keep the change as a thank-you.

I know, so considerate of me. It cost all of like 25 US cents.

After I reunited with the group at 6:00am, the day got a little better. Tioman was beautiful both on land and at sea. I got the hang of open water diving pretty quickly and would wait at the bottom of the ocean each training dive while the dive instructor helped the other newbies figure things out.

Saturday was just practice for us to finish our certification, so we didn’t see anything interesting underwater other than a few fish. That night after being sleep deprived the whole day from my night at the 7/11, I pulled a miraculous 9 and a half hours of sleep that my body really needed.

Good thing I was able to store away some of it for some sleep runway :) my reserves had been running low.

Sunday we got to do some real dives and they were so sick. Among the exotic animals spotted were a stingray, some jellyfish, an eel, and some turtles. I also spotted some Finding Nemo fish like Nemo and Dory.

I know they have names, but it’s way more fun to think of them being in the middle of some scene from the movie so just humor me.

I didn’t have an underwater camera, but a guy in the group sent me the photos and videos he took, so just pretend these are mine :)

Yeah it was pretty sick. I got my scuba certification out of it, and got to dive in one of the most beautiful places in Malaysia to boot. The exciting part is that the dives I have planned for the rest of the semester just get more beautiful from here.

My mom thinks that the one lesson I should have learned this week is “call ahead anytime you check in late at a hotel to make sure there’s someone at the front desk.” That is the most mom advice ever though and you know I had to come up with something cooler than that.

If there’s one thing I learned this week it’s that sometimes life chooses to, metaphorically speaking, raw dog you.

Sometimes life just says, “tonight you have to sleep at a 7/11.”

Maybe it’s your job that throws you an unfair amount of work and says “figure it out.”

Maybe you’ve got a hell week and each professor couldn’t care less that the other exams are happening.

It could be any reason, but sometimes we all get destroyed without asking for any of it. We’ve all got two choices: either feel bad for ourselves and our situation, or realize that unfortunately no one cares and you’re just going to have to man up and take this one in the chest.

I think it’s okay to allow yourself the space to feel bad for yourself. But that should be a limited time offer. In the 7/11 I gave myself 15 minutes to feel like life sucked, and then I decided that regardless of my lack of sleep, I would be the most energetic person on the boat tomorrow.

In the end, the weekend could have been defined either by how my Friday night sucked, or the rest of my weekend was sick.

We all have that choice.

Choose the latter :)

Answers I’ve received to my question: “If you have one piece of advice to share with the world, what would it be?”

Fuck it. Take risks. Do the things you want to. Like why not? - Li Mei from New Zealand

Just because you started something doesn’t mean you have to finish it - Li Mei from New Zealand

(Not sure what it is with people who don’t understand the whole ONE piece of advice thing)