good morning,
Exams started yesterday with a 1 hour video production paper. the easiest is out of the way, still 5 to go. The hardest is economics next wednesday. My last one is on the 9th November, after which I have 8 weeks holiday. I'm planning to come back to the UK for two weeks at christmas and new year. Which gives me 6 weeks of travelling before that. No plans as yet, but China, South-Korea and Russia could all be visited on the way home.
Back to work....

It looks like my plans to travel to Indonesia may be put on hold, as I'm just reading the news of a car bomb killing 150 people in Bali in Indonesia.

The papers here have been warning of South-East asia becomming the new battle ground for Al-Qaeda. Indonesia has a population of over 250m Muslims, the largest in the world.

I have a paper due in on Tuesday for my International Relations Class "Why Bin Laden Hates America" is the title. When I started writing it I thought that I was being clever by adressing the underlying issue of what caused the hate in the first place. But the more I read on it, the more I realise that that is all people have been talking about in the press, but I just havn't been reading it, thinking that I knew it all and didn't need to read other people's analysis.

The more I read the more I realise how stupid I was, and the more complicated this really is. What started off as a paper attacking America's foreign policy, which does deserve some criticism, (Britain is no better, I know!), has just turned into a rambling of past actions and opinions... a shame really, but I have learned from it... next time I'll stick to a simple topic... (China/Taiwan, India/Kashmir... as if....)

It will be interesting to see how it unfolds in the next few weeks Indonesia, if the Muslim world here is caught up in it all, or if the issues can be seperated. Bali is a mainly Hindu island, so I suspect this is aimed at stiring up tension between Hindu's and Muslims, as much as it is at any Western countries.

Many of my friends here in Singapore were at the Sari club 4 weeks ago on holiday in Bali on the inter-semester break. Others have flights booked to go there in November.

John

Hello, the lack of diary has been due to me taking it easy lately. Since the inter-semester break I have been relaxing a bit more and not doing so much work, which is probably the wrong way round to work, as exams are in 3 weeks. but I'm still on top of everything. Almost finished the hobbit, first fiction book I've read in ages and been out quite a bit too. feeling very relaxed. All video projects are prettymuch finished which frees up loads of time, I didn't realise how much it was taking, until I stopped.

got a free paper to write for International Relations. Thinking of titling it "Why Bin Laden hates America". drafting it at the moment. Deciding what to study next year and hoping to take a couple of biology courses as that is my latest interest. They only do one International relations undergrad course and I'm taking it at the moment, but they have said that I can sit in on the masters lessons next year if I want. still thinking about it, as I don't want to take on too much again. there are more business subjects that I can take, such as financial management, statistics, accounting, but not sure if I could handle those...


Tomorrow its my birthday, 23 years old. it's also 2 other exchange students birthdays, Robin who'll be 24, from Germany and Chelsea from California, who'll be 22. Robin is here on industrial attachment, and his company have rented him a condominium to stay in, (fancy name for apartment block) it has a great swimming pool outside with BBQ pits so we're having a big party there tomorrow.


Paul Oakenfold played in town last night, and Talvin Sing tonight at Zouk, so there is plenty going on. I'm still avoiding big nights out to try and save my money, as going out in Singapore is more expensive than London. but went to liquid room last week, but that was free.


I'm sure much more has happened since i last wrote, but I have started to ramble, so I'll stop now. bye.