Good News!

Yesterday was a day of good news and more good news! Haha. First up was an offer from IRO to exchange at TU Delft, the Netherlands, in year 2 semester 2.

Yeps, I really never expected that coz my CAP for my first semester wasn't that good. And actually it wasn't my first choice, coz I thought that putting a more average university (KTH) as my first choice would at least secure me a place. So put TU Delft as second choice. Guess I was wrong, but in an even more awesome way! Yea, I'm really thankful for the place. So excited to go to the Netherlands and I get to study things I like, like Nuclear Engineering and Petroleum Engineering.

Then came another email.. I was offered a place at Summer School at Grenoble INP - Minatec, France, to study Nanotechnology!

Studying Nanotechnology at the European Nanotechnology Centre! Omg it's like a dream come true man! Before this, I was still super worried coz the course is so competitive and the number of places seem so limited! But I must really thank Prof Quek for the letter of recommendation! It really helps! So all of a sudden, everything seem to fall into place. All the endless nights of typing CV, filling in application forms and emailing finally paid off. Actually I also applied to University of Tokyo to study Nanotechnology under the IARU Summer Programme. If I get it my entire summer will be GONE. Haha. But actually I don't put much hope into that, coz it's even more competitive and it's not worth the cost and credits. But anyway, omg so exciting!

I am really thankful to my parents for being ever so supportive in everything I do. After my A levels, when I wanted to study overseas, they were so supportive of me. I got the offers I wanted but didn't get the scholarship I wanted. But even without a scholarship, they were willing to fork out the huge sum of money to fund my overseas education. And as such, I felt that it's just not right to use their money, and also that NUS is a good enough university for me. Yeps, so this is why I stayed back at NUS. But I'm not regretting my decision one bit. I think that it's a good choice - actually I got the better deal staying. Because of this, I think my parents are now even more supportive of me going overseas for anything. When I told them that I wanted to try something different, like going OCIP last semester break, they just ask me to go for it. And when I told them that I wanted to do summer programmes/student exchange, they just asked me to apply and if I get it, go for it. Really grateful to my parents.

But as excited as I may be, there's still the part of me that's actually quite scared. But then again, who wouldn't be? Leaving home and going to a foreign land for pretty extended periods, and not knowing their language. All the familiarity gone. There will definitely be the culture shock, but I guess it's part and parcel of growing up. So I'm just gonna take everything in my stride and just believe that everything will turn out fine. Hope that I can become a better person through all these experiences.

Suddenly, the next year or so seem so exciting! =D