Food Adventures!

These past three days has been a wonderful break! No work and no studying. It was so good just hanging out and enjoying good food!!

Since I last wrote nothing much happened at work. Akram and I are still working on the MRR reports... But another intern came, Karolis, and I was in change of giving him a short orientation. He is nice and we will be working together on some projects. 

I am happy that I am meeting other interns! I have gone out to lunch with several other coworkers and it has been a good time getting to know them. 

Monday is a public holiday called Hari Raya Puasa which is a Malay Muslim holiday. It is the celebration of the ending of Ramadan. Because of the holiday there is an area called Geylang Serai and it is filled with food stalls. Therefore this Saturday, I went with Karolis (the new intern) and Miko (a hostel mate). We decided that night we would try many different types of food and be opened minded. During the evening of our food tasting we decided we should have our own show called Food Adventures. The food we tried was really good and it was fun just looking at the different foods and walking through the open night market. 

This is how they decorated the street. 

Uncle making for us. 

Fooood!
So many options!

Octopus on a stick! 

                                                                                  Having coconut milk from an actual coconut!

Then on Sunday, we did episode 2 of Food Adventures! We went to Little India to eat and sight see.  

Then we meet Danny and Akshay at Douby Ghaut. We watched Hercules and then we went to Marina Bay. We walked along the lake, walked along for the festival, and had dinner together. It was a good evening together. 

Hope We Meet Again

Minnal (on the left) is my roommate from India. Miko (middle) is my neighbor from Hong Kong

It has been a while since I last wrote because I've been pretty busy with balancing work and school while finding time to hang out with my hostel friends. I worked 43 hours last week while finishing 3 assignments and a paper. God is so good because He gave me the ability to stay up with only about 3-5 hours of sleep to finish the assignments and for the two nights I only got about 3 hours of sleep in order to finish my essay. 

Just 2 more weeks to go and I will be done with my class!

Work is going well. A new intern came last week, he and I will be working on projects together. He is from Tunisia, but he studies in Germany. Even though I am still relatively new, I was put in charge of training him! So I spent one day orientating him to the company and informed him on the current projects that was happening. It was somewhat amusing that in my second week at Bosch I would be training the new intern. Some information I was able to explain well while other things I had no idea what I wast talking about. Anyway, thankfully he is better at numbers than I am so auditing budget reports together has been very beneficial. Each country sends their quarterly budget plan and current spending amount. We are to analyze the report and make sure the numbers match and make sense. However, neither Zann (my department head) nor Shuyi (assistant to Zann) told us what to look for so we are going through the reports and trying to make sense of it all. Worse yet, each country has a different idea of how to present their budget so each report means a new way of approaching the assignment. And now tomorrow another intern is coming and I am in charge of training him as well. So I will get very good at training new interns! 

The only aspect that I hate about making international friends is the fact that usually there are goodbyes. I became fast friends with some hostel mates. However, their internship only lasted 6 weeks and they all had to leave today. Even though I only knew them for 2 weeks, we developed a good relationship. Since we lived close together, Minnal was my roommate and the boys lived next door to us, we saw each other a lot. In the evenings we would chat and we went shopping and food hunting together. Since yesterday would be the last day to hangout , we decided to go to the beach. It took forever to there since we took a lot of detours, but it was work going. The water felt so good and the place was just beautiful. We went to Sentosa for Palawan beach. Ruby and her friend were there as well so we meet up. We played frisbee and then we crossed a bridge to visit the southernmost part of the continental of Asia.

Then later that night we had a goodbye cake. It was a nice taking pictures and hanging out one more time.

They were a fun group of friends and I hope we can all see each other again. 

Friends and Good Times

This weekend has been tons of fun because I got to hangout with friends and see more of Singapore. 

After work on Thursday I met Ting, Abi, Ruby and their friends to go to the Night Safari. It is a nocturnal zoo and there were so many animals that I have never seen before! (I'll share photos later once I get them). Some of the animals I saw were Tarsiers, Wallabies, Deer Rats, Slow Loris, and Malayan Civets. 

I liked it because the lighting looked like natural moon light and animals were not caged, (of course the nore dangerous animals were behind class) but separated by natural barriers which made the place more open and more authentic. 

We got to see an amazing fire breathing show. They would change the amount of oil they would blow out and change the direction and how big the flame got. 

It is still amazing to meet that I am in Singapore with all my Singaporean friends I meet in the States! 

Then the next evening I met my roommate and some friends on either side of my room went to Orchid Road for shopping and dinner. The whole road was full of shops and malls. We went to Lucky Plaza since they are known for their cheaper prices. Then we went to a mall for their food court. I love the food courts here since their is so many food varieties from all over Asia. You can choose from Thai, Indian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korea, Malaysian, Indonesian and probably even more. I tried Carrot Cake (Chai tow kway), a traditional Singaporean food, made of  eggs and daikon (radish). I tried the white version the other version which is black is sweeter. It was good and it is now crossed off my list!

 Yesterday, my hostel friends went to Chinatown for shopping and sightseeing. There were so many shops and a lot of good deals :)

This is the inside of the temple and I had to cover up since they don't allow exposed shoulders inside.

This is Miko. She is from Hong Kong and she is doing an marketing internship until November. The Indian friends are all leaving next week so I am glad she is staying a long time so we can hangout together longer.

For lunch we went to a hawker center and tried Singapore's well known Chicken Rice the famous food stall. It was good and there was a thick slightly sweet soy sauce mixture you put on it. 

Here are some pictures of us

Trying on the glasses that the other three bought. hehehe

Discovering More of Singapore

Day 3 at the office. I am still going through orientation and I learned yesterday that I will be an intern that will be shared between two different departments (Communications, Sales and Marketing) so will be doing projects that I am not really familiar with. Not only that, but the previous intern left yesterday and my boss is leaving next week for her wedding so I will be on my own for two weeks! 

I think I will enjoy working here because my bosses and other coworkers are nice and the work culture here is pretty relaxed. The dress code is more casual and eating at your desk is totally allowed. Also, there is some flexibility with work hours. I can come as early as 7:45 and I can work 7 to 8 hours. As long as I reach 40 hours at the end of the week I am good. Also, if I work overtime I automatically get time off and since I came in Friday last week I already get a day off this month! 

Since food in Singapore is quite cheap, every day everyone goes out for lunch. So today I went with my two bosses and we had fish soup, which is a very Singaporean dish. They are kind and they are already giving me things! One will give me some clothes and the other one is going to give me bath products. haha

Yesterday, after work I went to fill out more paper work for my visa. As I was heading down the elevator I saw it!

The hotel that has that beautiful swimming pool in the picture to the left. Unfortunately, only hotel guests can swim in it and a night can cost around $400... So I probably won't be swimming there while I am here.

But since I saw it I decided to walk towards it, I was able to see the bay area and it was cool to see the part of Singapore that I imagined what the country would look like.

This is the city at night. Singapore is really nice at night since the sun is gone and it usually isn't too humid. Also since I was near water there was a wonderful breeze.

Then in the evening, some of my roommates and I were hungry so we decided to go out and eat (hardly do people cook here in Singapore. There is an over abundance of places to eat and meals here can cost from S$ 2-5). We went to eat at a out door food court which are called Hawker centers. 

I ate a dish called Laksa which is a type of Singaporean soup. It consisted of noodles, tofu, seafood, beansprouts, and rice cakes. It was good and I am happy I got to try another Singaporean dish on my list (yes I have a list! :) I will eat everything on it!)

On Sunday, I went to Ting and Abi's church. It is a bit far for me, it will be worth it to worship with other Christians and to be with friends. I met some of their friends, they all are friendly and I look forward for the friendships we will create. After the service some of us went to a nearby mall to have lunch. At lunch, one boy challenged me to find some hidden words on a S$10 bill and he said if I could find it in 10min then I could keep it. Soon everyone at the table was looking for it and everyone found it before me!... Needless to say I didn't find it in time and I was the last person to find the words. I was only able to find it because he gave me a S$50 bill and words were bigger on it. After that we got milk tea and walked around. They were all so cute since they were telling me different things about Singapore and recommending things I should try while I am here. It was a good day and I hope that there will be many more Sundays like that day. 

Hello There Singapore!

Yesterday I arrived in this city country known as Singapore. It is still unbelievable to me that I am here. It has been a lot of work, waiting, and praying that I would get this internship. I have to admit that I thought my chances of going had already passed since it took more than a month to figure out visa information and housing, which was impeded by the lack of communication.

However, it seems like God had bigger plans in mind. It hasn't even been week since I got my visa acceptance and now I am in Singapore with everything I was worried about already taken care of. God is good and learning to wait on and trust in God has been a valuable lesson. 

Since I arrived in Singapore at midnight, I went straight to Ting's house since she is close to the airport. Then in the morning I took a taxi to my new apartment. It was different riding in it since they drive on the right side here so it was weird sitting in front without the stirring wheel on my side. It seems like taking taxis is popular here, but Ting says that the Blue and Yellow cabs are the best ones.

My roommates are nice; one is from India and two are from China. The Indian girl is here for an internship, but she leaves soon. She has been so helpful telling me about directions. The Chinese girls are studying here and one of the girls bought a durian because I haven't tried one yet. She cut it in the room, it didn't smell too bad, I guess I was expecting a horrible smell from what I heard about the fruit. The taste was a bit weird, it wasn't disgusting, but I wouldn't eat it again...

I did some exploring around the hostel. Mostly it is apartments near my place, but there are several schools. Public transportation is good since there are a lot of bus routes nearby and there is a train station a little further away. Most importantly though I found a mall and tons of places to eat at! I can't wait to try all the food that Singapore has to offer! 

Today was my first day of orientation at Robert Bosch! It took me almost two hours to find the company, but now that I know where it is I will be a lot quicker. I have to take two different train lines (the trains is called MRT) and then some walking (I got turned around a couple of times). Using the trains reminds me a lot of Japan, although they don't squeeze together as much, but there were a lot of people on them.

Ivy (I am her successor) was very nice and she showed me how to use their company software and how to perform certain tasks/functions. It was a lot to take in... Since I arrived late and Ivy is leaving they are cramming 4 days of material into 2 for me. We even had an international teleconference with computer sharing. Our trainers were located in Germany while employees from China, Korea, India joined us. We were getting tried on how to add new content or update content on the company website. It isn't going to be my main area of work. There will be another intern's job, but Shuyi (my boss) wants me to also learn so I can do it if he takes time off. There seems like a  lot of work, but I am excited for the projects I will get to work on.