currently having an internship with spring singapore, just started today for 8 weeks. looks like i'll be doing a lot of work in the days to come (so stress) so i'll make this short and get my well deserved sleep.
just arrived and im thrown around between ppl as my buddy isn't here today, so i ended up with a temporary buddy. then i sat in on the ops meeting and was pretty bored out, though some stuff sounded interesting. then there was a fire drill and we wasted another hour doing nothing but suntanning and breathing in carbon monoxide and all sorts of soot and stuff that comes with the choking smoke when they try to put out the "fire". erh then i sat around reading loads of brochures about the schemes and stuff bcos my computer hasn't come yet so i can't do anything else.
then i went out for lunch with the interns in my group (industry development group) and then made quite a few frens, though i forget their names >.> i feel super young and green and inexperienced bcos im first day there, plus i AM the youngest. like all of them are uni undergrads or something.
then i sat around reading more stuff, getting briefed on the internship by HR, then sat around and yay my com came and i have my own email and internet and stuff. but im sharing my room with two other interns currently, one of them is leaving end of this week though. i probably can get the whole table to myself xD
one thing i learnt is spring uses loads of acronyms and abbreviations, the usual for all govt agencies i suppose. i really had a hard time deciphering some, like what's AAE? and AE? and IPO? (made me think of international physics olympiad which is impossible erhem)
another thing i learnt is while there is plenty of "welfare", like an exercise room and a room for play and leisure, the coffeemaker is T.T infested with ants. like you press some drink and ants come out with it. i wonder how the ants actually get in there??? what's wrong with their coffee machine!? eurgh.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Sunday, May 23, 2010
back from the other side of the world
first trip to the US and it's a really great experience! lots of things to see, lots of differences between singapore and usa.
we took a direct flight from singapore to newark, new jersey which is very close to new york city. stayed there a night just to rest and get over the jet lag, then took a plane to chicago next day. went round sightseeing and eating and taking loads of pictures (since my dad made it his personal mission for us to take millions of photos with the new camera). the subway (something like our MRT, just that most of it is underground) is rather dingy and dirty and old, unlike singapore's. the trains are uber noisy with clanging as it moves along, and they stop like every half a km or something in the city. that's pretty much every few blocks or traffic lights. the good (or bad) thing is that the subway is paid per entry, USD$2.50, regardless of the length of trip, so we usually buy a single day pass allowing us to travel as many times as possible in a day by train.
singapore's train system is very much easier to understand compared to that in usa. they have a million lines and little/no directions on how to change from one line to another. then there are a million exits when u leave the station, and you just have no idea which exit is nearer to where u want to go. T.T
we didn't go to observation decks or sky decks because the weather when we reached wasn't good. super foggy/rainy and totally not worth the money. oh and we found out that chicago was the windy city the hard way. erh yeah the wind was bone-chilling. temperatures ranged from 7 to 17 deg celsius which would have felt no different, if not for the wind >.>
after that we went to my brother's school in illinois, took loads of photos with him in his graduation gown. the gown is an odd blue colour instead of the usual black. there's a company that makes and rents only the uiuc gowns, so it earns money only like twice a year? haha
i met all his frens at uiuc and we had dinner together, quite fun. i feel sad im not going to uiuc, but i expect to have loads of fun at ucb too! there were two graduation ceremonies to attend; the first is a campus-wide one which was boring to bits, and the second was the college of engineering one where they read everyone's names and ppl go up the stage to collect fake certificates. they'll get their real certificates in the mail later on.
the cool thing is, all the students hand over their names on a piece of paper that the emcee reads on the spot. that way, no one's name is missed out. great idea huh.
then we went back to chicago and flew to new york city, cramped all of us into a room just to save money. went round sight seeing there, took the nyc subway which was more complicated and in worse condition than chicago's. the most memorable incident was when my brother bought a kebab and bun by the roadside at times square. after a while, a homeless black man came up to my brother saying, "yo bro that looks good! can i have a piece?"
we were all stunned for a while, then my brother said yeah sure. i told my bro that he did a good deed that day. the piece of meat was probably that guy's dinner >.>
at Grand Central station, a very large subway station with food and shops and a market, we sat down for like what, 5 minutes next to a rubbish bin. within those 5 minutes, we encountered 3 people coming over to rummage through the rubbish bin, two blacks and one spanish/italian i think. they're homeless ppl who probably stay at the station. one of them found a drink and took it out of the bin and drank straight from it! we were all horrified! i think they were looking for some food/recyclable stuff to earn some money?
seems like the homeless and unemployed are commonplace in usa, especially in new york city. they lurk around the subway stations as they are warmer and provide a roof over their heads. you can also see many of them selling illegal stuff by the road. i even saw a guy standing at a highway exit holding up a big board saying "i am homeless and hungry. i am willing to work till i drop". at least we don't find all these homeless people on the streets in singapore...
we went to see wall street and we saw the statue of liberty - from afar. to get to statue of liberty, which is located on liberty island, you have to either wake super early to take the ferry so there is no queue, or you have to queue hours around the battery park just to get on the ferry. so we simply digital zoomed in on the statue and walked around the park gaping at the ultra long queue that snaked around the entire park or something.
i also experienced my first (two) broadway musicals, jersey boys and the lion king! broadway musicals are superb and wonderful, and i'm totally addicted to them! the people in them sing so wonderfully well, and the props and display and effects showed great effort and thought put in. they even incorporate humour and funny jokes in their script, which is unexpected! and the audience totally gets high and wild, cheering and clapping and laughing during the musical. the atmosphere is totally amazing. at the end, everyone gives a standing ovation and cheers. i want to watch so many other shows, like phantom of the opera, wicked and west side story! such a pity broadway doesn't show on dvd T.T i'd be willing to go buy them lor. i guess because broadway is so exclusive, some shows can go on playing for over 20 years.
one thing i learnt from this trip is that we should appreciate singapore's cleanliness and efficient transport system, and lack of homeless people due to govt's policies and safety nets for them. and i oso learnt to AVOID AT ALL COSTS americanized chinese food which tastes horribly salty and eeky 90% of the time! beware of those dubious chinese takeout restaurants by the roadside. they've got NOTHING in common with our usual chinese food other than rice!
yep. i enjoyed the trip pretty much, and first time taking such a long plane ride! i think it's the longest direct flight anywhere (19+ hours!), so all seats in the SIA plane were business class. very nice and big and the seat can be made into a bed for you to lie down and sleep! but i stayed up like half the time to watch all the movies i missed ie. sherlock holmes, hua mulan, avatar and percy jackson!
i like avatar and hua mulan, sherlock holmes was slightly bleh and boring, percy was atrocious and a total waste of my sleep time! i'd rather have watched imaginarium >.> percy jackson is obviously a show for pre-teens or something with a typical storyline and mediocre acting. what's with athena's daughter, who was supposed to be super pro at fighting, randomly swinging the sword and everyone gets hit and lose?! she's too stiff and lousy at faking it.
hua mulan made me cry ): it's SO SAD! why can't wentai and mulan JUST be together already! don't they have other princes who can marry the pricess, or maybe wentai can have mulan as the 2nd wife or something, which is quite sad for both of them AND the rouran princess but oh well, better than being separated for the rest of their lives!
eh yeah. i shall end this post before it gets too long. time to sleep! i believe my jet lag is almost over. technically i have "stayed up" for 3 nights in a row, new york time, and been taking "naps" when i sleep at night singapore time. i still get tired in the afternoons here, but it's kindof normal because i always feel sleepy after eating lunch xD hope jet lag is over tomorrow!
and korkor is coming back for a whole year tomorrow night yay! i'm happy.
we took a direct flight from singapore to newark, new jersey which is very close to new york city. stayed there a night just to rest and get over the jet lag, then took a plane to chicago next day. went round sightseeing and eating and taking loads of pictures (since my dad made it his personal mission for us to take millions of photos with the new camera). the subway (something like our MRT, just that most of it is underground) is rather dingy and dirty and old, unlike singapore's. the trains are uber noisy with clanging as it moves along, and they stop like every half a km or something in the city. that's pretty much every few blocks or traffic lights. the good (or bad) thing is that the subway is paid per entry, USD$2.50, regardless of the length of trip, so we usually buy a single day pass allowing us to travel as many times as possible in a day by train.
singapore's train system is very much easier to understand compared to that in usa. they have a million lines and little/no directions on how to change from one line to another. then there are a million exits when u leave the station, and you just have no idea which exit is nearer to where u want to go. T.T
we didn't go to observation decks or sky decks because the weather when we reached wasn't good. super foggy/rainy and totally not worth the money. oh and we found out that chicago was the windy city the hard way. erh yeah the wind was bone-chilling. temperatures ranged from 7 to 17 deg celsius which would have felt no different, if not for the wind >.>
after that we went to my brother's school in illinois, took loads of photos with him in his graduation gown. the gown is an odd blue colour instead of the usual black. there's a company that makes and rents only the uiuc gowns, so it earns money only like twice a year? haha
i met all his frens at uiuc and we had dinner together, quite fun. i feel sad im not going to uiuc, but i expect to have loads of fun at ucb too! there were two graduation ceremonies to attend; the first is a campus-wide one which was boring to bits, and the second was the college of engineering one where they read everyone's names and ppl go up the stage to collect fake certificates. they'll get their real certificates in the mail later on.
the cool thing is, all the students hand over their names on a piece of paper that the emcee reads on the spot. that way, no one's name is missed out. great idea huh.
then we went back to chicago and flew to new york city, cramped all of us into a room just to save money. went round sight seeing there, took the nyc subway which was more complicated and in worse condition than chicago's. the most memorable incident was when my brother bought a kebab and bun by the roadside at times square. after a while, a homeless black man came up to my brother saying, "yo bro that looks good! can i have a piece?"
we were all stunned for a while, then my brother said yeah sure. i told my bro that he did a good deed that day. the piece of meat was probably that guy's dinner >.>
at Grand Central station, a very large subway station with food and shops and a market, we sat down for like what, 5 minutes next to a rubbish bin. within those 5 minutes, we encountered 3 people coming over to rummage through the rubbish bin, two blacks and one spanish/italian i think. they're homeless ppl who probably stay at the station. one of them found a drink and took it out of the bin and drank straight from it! we were all horrified! i think they were looking for some food/recyclable stuff to earn some money?
seems like the homeless and unemployed are commonplace in usa, especially in new york city. they lurk around the subway stations as they are warmer and provide a roof over their heads. you can also see many of them selling illegal stuff by the road. i even saw a guy standing at a highway exit holding up a big board saying "i am homeless and hungry. i am willing to work till i drop". at least we don't find all these homeless people on the streets in singapore...
we went to see wall street and we saw the statue of liberty - from afar. to get to statue of liberty, which is located on liberty island, you have to either wake super early to take the ferry so there is no queue, or you have to queue hours around the battery park just to get on the ferry. so we simply digital zoomed in on the statue and walked around the park gaping at the ultra long queue that snaked around the entire park or something.
i also experienced my first (two) broadway musicals, jersey boys and the lion king! broadway musicals are superb and wonderful, and i'm totally addicted to them! the people in them sing so wonderfully well, and the props and display and effects showed great effort and thought put in. they even incorporate humour and funny jokes in their script, which is unexpected! and the audience totally gets high and wild, cheering and clapping and laughing during the musical. the atmosphere is totally amazing. at the end, everyone gives a standing ovation and cheers. i want to watch so many other shows, like phantom of the opera, wicked and west side story! such a pity broadway doesn't show on dvd T.T i'd be willing to go buy them lor. i guess because broadway is so exclusive, some shows can go on playing for over 20 years.
one thing i learnt from this trip is that we should appreciate singapore's cleanliness and efficient transport system, and lack of homeless people due to govt's policies and safety nets for them. and i oso learnt to AVOID AT ALL COSTS americanized chinese food which tastes horribly salty and eeky 90% of the time! beware of those dubious chinese takeout restaurants by the roadside. they've got NOTHING in common with our usual chinese food other than rice!
yep. i enjoyed the trip pretty much, and first time taking such a long plane ride! i think it's the longest direct flight anywhere (19+ hours!), so all seats in the SIA plane were business class. very nice and big and the seat can be made into a bed for you to lie down and sleep! but i stayed up like half the time to watch all the movies i missed ie. sherlock holmes, hua mulan, avatar and percy jackson!
i like avatar and hua mulan, sherlock holmes was slightly bleh and boring, percy was atrocious and a total waste of my sleep time! i'd rather have watched imaginarium >.> percy jackson is obviously a show for pre-teens or something with a typical storyline and mediocre acting. what's with athena's daughter, who was supposed to be super pro at fighting, randomly swinging the sword and everyone gets hit and lose?! she's too stiff and lousy at faking it.
hua mulan made me cry ): it's SO SAD! why can't wentai and mulan JUST be together already! don't they have other princes who can marry the pricess, or maybe wentai can have mulan as the 2nd wife or something, which is quite sad for both of them AND the rouran princess but oh well, better than being separated for the rest of their lives!
eh yeah. i shall end this post before it gets too long. time to sleep! i believe my jet lag is almost over. technically i have "stayed up" for 3 nights in a row, new york time, and been taking "naps" when i sleep at night singapore time. i still get tired in the afternoons here, but it's kindof normal because i always feel sleepy after eating lunch xD hope jet lag is over tomorrow!
and korkor is coming back for a whole year tomorrow night yay! i'm happy.
Thursday, May 06, 2010
happy
happy because i passed my practical driving test in first attempt! yay i can go usa drive liao ^^
will be on holiday in usa next monday till 22nd may or so, don't miss me k? (:
will be on holiday in usa next monday till 22nd may or so, don't miss me k? (:
Sunday, May 02, 2010
new camera!
yay today is payday for tuition so im happy. but my ezlink card expired :( so now i "lost" quite a bit of money in the ezlink card, unless i go refund the money and lose the card. i probably will refund it next year or later, not now? it's still useful erhem.
i found my kindergarten and primary 1 class photos from SIS, i'd like to find all my classmates again but i can't rmb which person is which in the photos, except for some of the closer friends i had >.> perhaps i should launch a facebook search for them?
i bought a new camera so i can use it when i go to usa next week and when i go for university yay! it's not canon or sony though, which was what i set out to buy at first. my dad was attracted by all the promotions and there was this nikon camera which was sold at like much cheaper than usual bcos a new generation just came out, so we ended up buying it. it's nikon coolpix s620.
it's kindof thicker than i hoped for, but it's quite pro and cheap for the model so i don't mind. the image quality is quite nice and there are many random modes that are very fun to play with xD
guess which colour i bought xD
haha i bet you guessed precious pink/rich pearl. nope i ended up buying the sky blue one tada!
i was having a hard time choosing between rich pearl and sky blue, both looked so nice! in the end my dad decided bcos he said it's more special, and i agree, i mean everyone seems to have pinkish cameras, it'd be nice if i had something different.
i was having fun playing around with all the scene modes and the smile mode, which auto-releases the shutter only when you smile xD
blossom told me about this super pro girl who parallel-parked her bike coolly. i found the video and it's really quite cool
then it seems like she's been practicing all along just for the perfect shot (and probably failed a lot of times haha!)
no wonder the pro shot was nicely captured on video. then i found out that the brother knows how to do it too!
i found my kindergarten and primary 1 class photos from SIS, i'd like to find all my classmates again but i can't rmb which person is which in the photos, except for some of the closer friends i had >.> perhaps i should launch a facebook search for them?
i bought a new camera so i can use it when i go to usa next week and when i go for university yay! it's not canon or sony though, which was what i set out to buy at first. my dad was attracted by all the promotions and there was this nikon camera which was sold at like much cheaper than usual bcos a new generation just came out, so we ended up buying it. it's nikon coolpix s620.
it's kindof thicker than i hoped for, but it's quite pro and cheap for the model so i don't mind. the image quality is quite nice and there are many random modes that are very fun to play with xD
guess which colour i bought xDhaha i bet you guessed precious pink/rich pearl. nope i ended up buying the sky blue one tada!
i was having a hard time choosing between rich pearl and sky blue, both looked so nice! in the end my dad decided bcos he said it's more special, and i agree, i mean everyone seems to have pinkish cameras, it'd be nice if i had something different.
i was having fun playing around with all the scene modes and the smile mode, which auto-releases the shutter only when you smile xD
blossom told me about this super pro girl who parallel-parked her bike coolly. i found the video and it's really quite cool
then it seems like she's been practicing all along just for the perfect shot (and probably failed a lot of times haha!)
no wonder the pro shot was nicely captured on video. then i found out that the brother knows how to do it too!
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