Exchange life is good. I sleep quite a lot. And I have more freedom. I'm happy here, but I never really stop being homesick, because I think of home frequently.
Not sure if it's wise to be writing things like this, but anyway, I think having all this space makes me realize things about myself. Like how I have social anxiety sometimes. I wouldn't say it's at the level of a social anxiety disorder; it's just sometimes. For example:

1. How I want to get the HKU law hoodie and I started thinking about how people would judge me.
I told my HK (law) friend my thoughts, and she looked at me like I was crazy. "But you're studying law! People are just stupid if they think you're being elitist!"
I think this elitism is a very Singaporean thing? In the educational rat race, everyone behaves weirdly. Including myself. In other countries, I think the students worry about different things.

2. How the prof made us do an introduction in class today, round the circle, and I started feeling panicky.
Because I suspected the prof was Singaporean (he is) and... I got panicky cos I'm Singaporean too. Ikr, no logic there... Just afraid that he'd start asking me law stuff about Singapore, I guess. And because the class was really small (~10 people) and I felt exposed.
But the class is interesting. 

3. How I felt nervous in every class I attended in the first week of school
But that's quite normal, I guess

4. How I feel nervous when the prof asks the class a question
The horrors of class participation and how I've never got the hang of it. But it's getting better, the way to manage it is to look away. Or just answer it when it's a dead-easy question and move on.
But I really hate profs who cold-call. There's a prof here who cold-calls, but I think he only targets the smart ones who definitely know the answer, so I think that's nice and fair. What's the point in calling somebody who doesn't know and wasting time, waiting for an answer that will be sub-standard/wrong anyway? Wastes time. You've got to give class participation marks, but you cannot forget that the class is there to LEARN, not guess. And doing readings doesn't always translate into being able to talk about it.

But living in a student hall makes me less self-conscious. Because I notice that everyone is the same, everyone has basic needs and everyone takes care of her basic needs in her own way. I don't judge my floormates/roommate for doing things their way (except when they shout or bang the door at night), and they don't too. They are very friendly. And I reciprocate the friendliness.

By writing all this, I'm not trying to glorify weaknesses, i.e. trying to be cool by having all this weaknesses. It's not cool... I'm trying to solve it. And I know I can.

My floormates damn drama leh... I think they are gossiping in their rooms, and they talk/laugh super loudly. But it's only a few of them.

Also today my prof said "you've got to do your readings to excel in this class. and there's no point taking a class you won't excel in. this is the real world!". And he gave this all-knowing smile. And I thought "here we go".

Anyway, I remember this really inspiring quote from Boyhood the movie. At the end of the movie, the boy (a young adult by the end of the movie) talks to his (girl)friend. She says, "You know how everyone says carpe diem? Seize the day? I feel like it's actually the other way round. Time is actually seizing us, and we have no escape out of it."
Cool words!