The Second Week In Singapore

Here I come again, to tell you stories about my life in Singapore. You may read it, or skip it, it's totally up to you.

It was Saturday, March 22nd, 2008, the day I was visiting Merlion Park to see the Merlion statue with three friends of mine. It is a statue with the head of a lion and the body of a fish that become national symbol of Singapore. The trip to the Merlion Park was very easy. I just got on the MRT to Raffles Place station and walked from there. Before reaching the Merlion Park, I walked by the Singapore River. Near of it is Fullerton Hotel, a very big hotel with very nice building. It is one of the most expensive hotel in Singapore. The first picture below was taken by the Singapore River. In the right side of the background is the Fullerton Hotel and at the center is the pineapple-shaped building called Esplanade. Esplanade is the Broadway theater and musical place.



After walking for about 5 minutes from there, I arrived at the Merlion Park. There were some tourists there who were taking some pictures of the Merlion statue. The status is quite big and well-taken care of. The second picture below was taken when I was there. In the right side of the background is the Esplanade building that can also be seen in the previous picture. The scenery would be more fantastic if it were night then. After sitting for a while at the Starbucks nearby, we went to a mall named Marina Square and after that to another mall nearby named Suntec City. It was a very tiring day.



That was Saturday two weeks ago. After that weekend, I was back to my routine activities again: working. It was still the same, if not worse. At the second day of last week, my team leader took a leave for one day. I was so scared, because I and the other team members didn't know the job well-enough to survive alone. Luckily, we were able to cope with that situation. I attended a conference call again with my big boss. And I am proud to say that I handled that conference call very well. The other days of the week went by, with busyness and exhaustion. When weekend arrived again to my doorstep, I was filled with energy. My spirit was lift up again.

Yesterday, Saturday, March 29th, 2008, I went to Bugis Street. It's near Bugis Junction, the mall that I visited before (see my earlier entry). There are many shops there with excellent price. I may visit this place again later to buy some souvenirs for my friends back home. They have crawled again and again to ask for gifts from me. I hope I will be able to buy them some things before I go back to Indonesia. Near this place is a Buddha statue. It's a Happiness Buddha statue, I think. People touch its cheek, chest, back, and stomach hoping to get happiness. I was doing the same thing with other people. I inserted some coins to its stomach that will be used for charity before rubbing its body.

From Bugis Street, I continued my journey to Sim Lim. I walked there from Bugis Street. Sim Lim is a building of electronic shops. It's just like Harco in Jakarta. It's popular with its cheap electronic stuffs. I was looking for a mouse for my notebook. But the price of the mouse that I wanted was more expensive than the price in Indonesia. Maybe, I'll just buy the mouse in Indonesia later. Not being able to get anything in Sim Lim, I was heading back to apartment for a rest before going out again in the evening.

It was already 9.30 pm when I and the others were going to Clarke Quay. We got off in Raffles Place MRT station and took a walk by the Singapore River to Boat Quay and to the Clarke Quay. Boat Quay is a street by the river that has many seafood restaurant. The pictures of the seafood was very intriguing. The chili crab looked very delicious. But it was very expensive for people like me to eat there. After Boat Quay is Clarke Quay. It's also near the river. You can see some pictures I took there below.



The picture above was a ride that was swung up and down. It looked so scary to ride that horrible thing. I heard people inside of it were screaming when the ride was falling and moving up again so fast.



The picture above was the boat that took people around the Singapore River. Below the blue roof are many bars and clubs along the street. It was very crowded with people who went out for some party, dance, and music at the Saturday night.

I and the others ate at Hooters. I seldom heard and saw about Hooters from the movies and TV series. I finally went to one here in Singapore. It's popular for its chicken sandwiches, chicken wings, and waitresses that wear sexy outfits (they wear short pants and clothes showing cleavages). The breast was awesome. Of the chicken sandwich I mean, not the waitress's. I took a picture with one of the waitresses there, as you can see below. The other picture below shows me in front of Hooters.





After being full of eating there, we took a walk along the street at Clarke Quay. As I said before, it's full of bars and clubs. There is Fashion Bar (you can find one in Jakarta), C Clinic (where people sit on the wheelchairs), ans so many others. People who want some pleasure of nightlife may just choose one or some of the places here. You will never run out of options here. There is one club with four sexy dancers dancing in front of it too. People from outside the club can watch them dancing, as they danced behind glass wall. I want to show you the picture of them dancing, but I am afraid I can't, since the government now blocking some porn sites to be accessed from Indonesia. I don't want my blog is blocked for showing some sexy pictures.

We then went at Mama's Carribean Bar after midnight. We drank some alcohol and sat there for a while, while talking and enjoying the Jamaican and Latin live music. It was a nice place. I ordered a $13.2 glass of Illusion. It got some taste of lemon, and the alcohol was not too strong. After sitting there for one hour, we went back home. It was 2.30 at the morning when we arrived at the apartment.





Yes, it was a nice evening. To go to some places new that I have never been before. To see the dynamic and vivid nightlife in Singapore. To feel how good it is to live in Singapore, if only I have more money. But it's not the time to scowl. I can do that again later. Now is the time for me to get back to my routines, after recharging myself with the pleasure of the nightlife in Singapore. Tomorrow till Friday are working days again. Argh, I hate Monday! Don't you?

The First Week In Singapore

Like I said in my last post, I am now working inDesignStream. After 2-week training in Indonesia, I finally got sent to Singapore. 2-hour flight with Valuair was quite fun. The airplane wass almost empty. There were not too many passengers in the airplane that day. It was Saturday, March 15th, 2008, the day when I stepped my feet in Singapore for the first time in my life. My first impression when I looked at the inside of the airport was WOW! Changi International Airport, Singapore is fabulous. It's very modern and clean. When I arrived, the security check was very tight. There were about three checks before I finally breathed the outdoor Singapore air.

I went straight from the airport to DesignStream's apartment in Bedok by taxi. Taxis in Singapore is really different from taxis in Jakarta. Though look old, they have facilities for credit card payment and bill printing. My taxi driver was very friendly. It's very easy to find address in Singapore, since the city layout is well-planned and divided into blocks.

The apartment in Bedok is nice. It's not like Mediterania Garden or Taman Anggrek apartment. Not too luxurious, but still spacious though. I was greeted by other DesignStream employees: Devy, April, and Eirig. They all are very nice to me. I now share a bedroom with Eirig, the leader of the project that I am assigned to in Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) Singapore.

The next day, Sunday, I went to Bedok Interchange (see the third picture below) to buy a prepaid cell phone card. I went there by bus. I had to pay it with coin first. I had to bring my passport to register for cell phone card. I also bought a EZ-Link card. It's a card that is RFID-embedded (I think) used by passengers to pay the MRT (Mass Rapid Transport) and buses. Now, I don't have to pay the bus using coin. When people use bus and MRT, they tap the EZ-link card to its detector twice: first when getting on the bus or entering MRT station and second when getting off the bus or leaving the MRT Station (see the first picture below).




I used the MRT (see the second picture below) for the first time on Monday when going to the office. An MRT is a train for intercity transport. It is air conditioned and used by almost all people in Singapore. It's the most convenient way to travel in Singapore as it's safe, clean, and fast. For most of the time, I have to stand up inside the MRT because it's always crowded with people, but not so crowded that I cannot breathe. It's not like the trains or buses in Indonesia, you know, where very often they are too crowded to breathe.




To go to the office, I go to Bedok Interchange by bus and continue by an MRT to City Hall. I can also go to Dhoby Ghaut from City Hall. The office is located between those two MRT stations (see the third picture below: the one with X mark is the office). It uses a building, called Plaza by The Park. Working at SCB Singapore office is fine for me. For a week there, I fixed some reports for some branch offices of SCB in some countries.




On this first day, my boss invited me and senior employees to eat dinner in an Indian restaurant. It's near office, so we just walked there. We ate, as I recall, Masaladosai (see the fourth picture below). I don't know whether the spelling is correct or not, not that I care too. It looks like Crepe on the outside, only much bigger, filled with spicy potatoes and eaten with curry gravy. It has quite distinctive taste and the taste of the curry is very strong. As we ate, we also chatted and laughed to the funny stories we talked about.




After eating there, my boss went home, and the rest of us went to cinema in Bugis Junction to watch a 9 o'clock movie. We got there by walking too. The ticket was $7 each. The seats arrangement in that cinema are not too good. They are so low that people may be disturbed by other people's head. But, it's big. We watched Step Up 2. It was quite a good movie for its dance. Other than that, it was somewhat boring.

On Tuesday, my work in SCB was pretty much the same as that of the day before. The only difference was attending conference call from some users. It was held on a room with one phone and other 3 people and about 4 people on the other side of the phone. They all spoke in English, but with different accents: Indian, Singaporean, Chinese, and Indonesian. It was horrific. I could not understand any single word they said. Eirig said that this thing would happen a lot in the future. So I had to get used to it pretty fast.

After leaving the office, I walked around the city with an old friend of mine, Jaya, while Eirig and my boss was still in the office. That friend of mine accompanied me to go Orchard Road, one of the main shopping attractions in Singapore. We walked there, it was more than 5 blocks. That didn't seem too far, because I enjoyed walking in the city at night. It's enjoyable and entertaining. We went to Takashimaya mall. It is a very big mall. There is a fountain in front of it. I took some pictures there, but the result was not very good. They were too dark because they were taken during nighttime. We went to Kinokuniya bookstore inside of that mall, and ate in its food court after.

Getting home from there was quite interesting. My friend suggested that we take the MRT in the Orchard Road MRT station. As full of excitement of walking around in the city I was, I suggested that we just walked back to City Hall MRT station (see the third picture above). I thought it would only took a little time and energy to get there. I was wrong. We walked more than 12 blocks, I think. It was a very long walk back then. I was sweating like hell and my feet ached, but my friend looked just fine. He's used to do it while he was studying in Australia. On the other hand, I was not. By the time I arrived at the City Hall MRT station, my body was covered with sweat. My shirt was wet and my right sock was torn on the big toe. That was disastrous.

Traveling in Singapore, like I said before, is very easy. The routes are convenient and the transportation is excellent. Like you've read before, on my second day of work, I was able to go out by myself. Well, not alone alone, but with my friend that I said before. But you know what I meant lah. Oh damn, my English is damaged! This is the downside of living in Singapore. My years of practising English was shattered with Singlish. I hope I can manage living in Singapore and not be influenced with Singlish.

Food here is quite expensive. It's about $3-5 if you eat in the food court. It can be more expensive if you eat in a restaurant. Yesterday, I went to Bedok Interchange again to do some serious shopping. I was running out of casual clothes used in apartment. So I bought some clothes from Giordano. Clothes from Giordano, Baleno, and Hangten here is very cheap. I bought 4 shirts. 2 of them were only $10 each (it's about Rp 67,000, whereas the price of these same shirts in Indonesia is about Rp 150,000++) and the other 2 shirts were only $5 each (it's about Rp 33,500, whereas the price of these same shirts in Indonesia is about Rp 100,000).

Overall, living in Singapore is a fantastic experience. Here I found there is no such thing as strangers. Just friends I haven't met. I am in a whole new place surrounded by lots of new faces from many cultures. Fueled by an infectious beat of this city, inhibitions are shed. I am not alone. I am in Singapore, where enchanted encounters become friendships, transcending languages into lasting bonds that will always be, truly beyond words.

Memoirs of A Birthday Boy/Man

You can stay young as long as you can learn, acquire new habits and suffer contradictions.
- Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830-1916)

It is a very happy day for me. Today I turn 21, an age in which someone is not too young, yet not too old. This particular age is special for me, since it is one of the culmination moment of my journey in this world. When I think about everything I have done before, I feel like I have achieved quite many things. I thank everyone who have supported and helped me to become who I am now. And now I would like to use this moment to appraise my success.

Before turning 21, there are two things that I have done well, if not greatly. I finished my undergraduate study and got my Bachelor degree in my 20. Studying for 7 semesters in college while working part-time is not easy. After long and hard working of writing my approximately 950-page thesis and defending it, I got an A and pass that thesis defense. My GPA of 3.96 out of 4.00 is the proof of my endeavor and excellence while in college. I am now waiting for my Graduation Day on August to be inaugurated as a Bachelor that graduates with the highest honor (summa cum laude).

I have applied for a job to some companies. Some rejected me, some were rejected by me. I finally chose a job as Oracle and Hyperion Consultant in PT DesignStream Indonesia. It's a Singapore-based company. After applying there in the job fair held by BINUS Career, I was scheduled for an interview. I went to its office yesterday and I was interviewed for 2.5 hours! Lucky me, I was immediately offered the job. I will start working on Monday. It is a wonderful gift for my 21st birthday.

Although the basic salary is not very high, the enumeration package is quite interesting. I believe that the prospect of this job will be very good for my career path. There will be 3-month probation time before becoming a permanent employee. And there will be a raise too after that probation time. After all, this job requires a lot of traveling. And that is the interesting thing for me as I really like traveling. But I will have to learn fast and work really hard in order to succeed in this job.

Those are the two important things that I have achieved before turning 21. I think, not many people can do that. There is a satisfying feeling inside me for having achieved those things. In the other hand, there is also a terrifying emotion for facing the future. And there are still so many things that I want to and have to achieve in the future.

We, human, cannot handle the unknown. It's scary. That's why we like to be in control. Can I succeed in this cruel world? I hope and I believe so. The ladder is for us to climb. All I have to do is to take it step by step, piece by piece, and one after another. And for all of my friends out there who still working on their thesis or looking for a job, I pray and wish you the best. I look forward to be with you all on the top of the ladder.


Cordially yours,

Stewart Togu Hangewa, S.Kom