First , before we start...
Trip Start
Dec 28, 2009
1
Trip End
Jan 10, 2010
Yogyakarta, Yogyakarta , Indonesia
Monday, September 28, 2009
As you may know or have seen my other blogs, I packed my bags once before and left the UK for 16 months. Asia kept me completely engaged for 11 months, and I spent an additional four months in between in Australia and a month in Russia after Asia. I returned to the UK for fourth year of architectural studies where awaited a self-defined dissertation. This gave me a great opportunity to write about something dear to me within the architectural field. Being the broad subject it is, and having seen first hand the disgustingly polarized world we live in, I wrote about squatter settlements of less developed countries.
Nearing completion of the disseration, I chased the possibility of taking myself on exchange for part of the next year, as that year offered not a self-defined disseration but a self-defined thesis and a perfect opportunity to follow my dissertation to a practical and design level. Difficult and time consuming to set up, I was wide eyed and chuffed when sat on that plane for semester one of fifth year in Singapore. NUS (National University of Singapore) was one of only three possible universities outside of Europe, and the only with a course taught in English. Equally important though was the proximity and cheap connections to Indonesia, a less developed country with baffling hospitality which I had been lucky enough to spend two months of the previous year exploring. The hospitality would be essential if I was to be welcome and comfortable to carry out any studies in a poor urban neighbourhood. A little knowledge of the Indonesian language also helps kick things off!
