Photo Updates on Koreans Visit - 1st Day

As promised, I'm gonna post some of the photos that I took when Myung Sun and her Korean AMSC friends came over to Singapore 2 weeks ago.

It was really an exciting time for Mervyn and me. We were really looking forward to seeing Myung Sun again. It's been 2 years since we last saw her in Canada. I must say that we were quite stumped over how to bring 14 people around. Luckily, they decided to break up into small groups in the end, so we just took a small group around. Anyway, after a hour's wait and straining our necks looking out for Myung Sun, we finally saw her at around 4pm. The funny thing was we watched her come out of the gate, but she did not notice us until we were right at her face. :) Of course, the first photo was of the 3 of us in the airport:

We took the train down to Bugis to go to their hostel in Little India:

After a long walk from the train station, we finally arrived at their hostel, The InnCrowd:

I must say that I was quite surprised at the prices of the backpackers' inn in Singapore. For just SGD20 a night, you can get a bed in an air-conditioned room, with free Internet and free breakfast! Considering how expensive it is to live in Singapore, it's quite cheap.

They didn't have meals on the plane ride from Thailand to Singapore since they took AirAsia, so they were really hungry by the time they settled down for dinner. I think it was about 8pm before we reached Outram Park temporary market. We separated into two tables, with two ladies joining me and Mervyn. Well... Of course, since they sat with us, we had to treat them to a good spread of local food, which included malay kangkong, Bedok chui kuey the famous claypot rice of that market, sugarcane juice and glass jelly which they did not have in Korea. I hope they enjoyed the meal:

The Koreans were really into the tropical fruits, having came from a temperate country. And furthermore, fruits are really expensive there. When Myung Sun told us that even an apple costs around USD3 to USD4 in Korea, Mervyn and I were really shocked and not surprised at how the Koreans were so fascinated with the fruits here. How lucky are we Singaporeans to be able to get nice fruits at such cheap prices!

We brought them down to the Chinatown area, and then walked all the way down to Clarke Quay. Two of the Koreans were daring enough to try the G-Max Swing:

Honestly, I got scared just looking at them taking the ride. I think the older I get, the more cowardly I get. And perhaps, it's not just me, but a lot of people as well.

Of course, since they're all medical students, how could I not show them The Clinic? For those of you who don't know what's The Clinic, it's a hospital-theme pub, where they have wheelchairs and hospital beds for seats. They even serve drinks in IV bags, but those drinks cost SGD50 per bag, so I never tried them.

Leaving them at Clarke Quay to enjoy themselves, Mervyn and I caught the last train back home.

Of course, those are not all the pictures I took. For all the pictures I took on the first day, follow this link: http://picasaweb.google.com/clldavid/2008_01_14AMSCKoreanStudentsVisitDay1

Life is getting harder...

Life is really getting harder... Inflation rate is getting higher, prices are getting higher, interest rates are getting lower.

Going back to GTS

I just received an email from the Management Associate Programme (MAP) manager of DBS. I've been given a placement in Global Transaction Services (GTS) as per my request. Actually, I requested for either GTS, or somewhere in Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB), with no preference of one over the other. But well, I think GTS is a good place to work in. I've been there before and I know that the people there are nice, and there's a lot of things to learn. Plus there's quite a bit of development area in the department, since the department has embarked on something new in the past year. Also, the department deals with the products, and supports the front end of not only the Singapore office, but also works with the offices of other countries.

For those of you who are lost in the terms, Global Transaction Services basically deal with transactional banking products. It's not a very front end job like the Relationship Managers (RMs), but it's also not that back-end as we go out with the RMs to meet the clients as well. There will be lots of things to learn, it won't be easy, but I do think the challenge is quite interesting. I hope I'll do well there.

27 Dresses

Those of you who have known us for long enough should know that we always like to watch romance comedies. We went to watch 27 Dresses last Friday, yet another romance comedy. It was really quite a funny show, at the same time, it's quite a touching show. Call me a softy, call me a cry-baby, but then I'm just someone who tears at such romance shows, and watching this show was no exception.

Although it's fiction, and it's a comedy, there's one truth that's portrayed in the show that I feel strongly about. Jane and Kevin truly understood each other, and that's how they found out that they loved each other. Both of them could see through each other's hearts. Although they argued with each other, fought with each other, they really understood each other's feelings. Sometimes, it's not just about being able to spend happy times together always.

Even the Catholic community believes in this. That's why we have the Catholic Engaged Encounter weekend and the Marriage Preparation Courses.

Boring GEM2900 lectures

GEM2900 lectures are so... Boring that I'm starting to feel like it's a complete waste of time coming to school just for this lecture every Mon N Thu. Not much contents either. But then again, perhaps that's what makes this mod easy: little content.

I'm sure a lot of pple feel bored too, as less and less turn up for lecture each time. If only there's webcast for this lecture...

By the way, I'm typing this on my HTC Touch during a GEM2900 lecture. Shows how boring it is.

Looking back... What ifs...

OK. I'm starting to ramble more as I'm get more tired from doing my work. Ramblings are like little break times that I take.

I just had this sudden thought of how my life would have been if I had really gone to Stanford. Those of you who might have known me for long enough might know that one thing that I've never really been able to let go is the thought of what if I've chosen to go to Stanford instead of staying here in Singapore and going to NUS. It's not that I regret the decision or what, but as I tell pple sometimes, it's obvious how pple in the corporate world still seem to prefer pple who have studied overseas compared to those who studied locally. And I would have been able to complete my studies in a shorter time. And it's not like I wasn't able to go to Stanford.

Looking back, if I had gone to Stanford, I might have gotten a Masters degree rather than an Honours degree in 4 years. Or I could have finished my degree in 3 years and would be working now. The earnings of 1 year lost. I might have enjoyed higher prestige, coming out from Stanford instead of NUS. Many working people I've met still feel that NUS graduates can't think as well as overseas students. Due to the focus on technical knowledge but not enough on critical thinking? I don't know.

However, if I had gone to Stanford, a lot of things would be so different. I wouldn't have enjoyed all the things that I had done with Gladys, since we would see so much less of each other. I would have not made a lot of the friendships that I now value so much. I wouldn't have gone to UBC on the exchange programme and met the friends that now I still keep in contact with.

Life's full of decisions and paths. And when you decide to take on one path, you lose out on the experience that you might have gotten if you had chosen another path, but you would have also gained experience that you wouldn't have gotten otherwise. There are just so many "what-ifs" that we can't experience.

Busy week

What a busy week it had been. First was bringing the group of Koreans around on Monday to Wednesday, and then sending them off on Thursday. And throughout those few days, I also had to answer to my Honours Year Project (HYP), so I was getting about 3 to 4 hours of sleep those few days. But it was really great taking them around, and seeing Myung Sun again after 2 years.

Friday was no rest day either, with lessons and helping out with registration at the Catholic Engaged Encounter (a.k.a. EE Weekend) in the evening. Of course, it was a good thing helping out at EE Weekend, and seeing some of the presenters again.

Now, it's the weekend and I'm still getting little rest. There's of course my HYP to work on, and tomorrow, my cousin is coming back from Taiwan. Before fetching her, I have to bring my aunt and other cousins (who are coming out from Malaysia to fetch her) around. Sounds like a busy life, doesn't it?

To my Korean friends who are reading this: It was really great meeting all of you. If any of you ever come down to Singapore again, do let me know and I'll show you all around if I'm free. Feel free to let me know if your friends are coming down and they need someone to show them around as well. I'll take some time to upload the pictures, as I'm rather busy. So please bear with me.

Song Fa Bak Ku Teh

Today we went to a famous Bak Ku Teh stall opposite The Central called Song Fa Bak Ku Teh to meet some friends (Deyuan a.k.a. Terry, Skee, Ruby, Desmond, and Xiaofen) for dinner. I've always wanted to try it since it opened since there were quite a few newspaper articles and awards about it. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a disappointment. Not to say that it was bad, but it wasn't especially nice either. We felt that it was just normal. And it's not cheap.

If anyone of you ever go there, please don't be cheated by the waitress if she says that the small portion is enough for two people. Honestly, the small portion is quite small, and not enough for two people.

But oh well... The whole point was to meet up with friends over a meal.

HTC Touch Service Sucks

Although I like the phones that HTC has been producing, I can't say the same for their service. Sigh. Last Wednesday, I sent my HTC Touch in for repairs. Although there were only 8 people ahead of me for servicing, I waited for about an hour before my turn came. And that's because there were only 3 service counters! They said that it would take about 3 to 5 working days to repair, so by right, it should be ready by today latest. Unfortunately, I have been calling them since Monday and the phone is not ready yet. In fact, today, the person said that she'll call the Service Centre people to get back to me about the phone, but nope, they didn't call me. They better call me back tomorrow to tell me that the phone is ready for collection.

Offered scholarship to study Ph.D.

I just received a letter today from School of Computing, NUS, offering me a scholarship to study Ph.D. Well... It's not like they'll buy over my bond from DBS, or pay me better than DBS. And after my experience with HYP, I really don't think I'm into research.

Time is NOT on my side...

SHIT! Exactly 6 weeks before I fly! I've got pretty much everything settled, except for the MOST impt thing... my visa!

I just learnt a while ago that I need a medical report from my dear specialist to support my visa application, and this medical report is gonna take 3-4 weeks and $160.50 to churn out! The visa alone takes ard 2 weeks to be approved, which means that there's a chance that I might not get my visa in time to fly on 18th Feb! There's nothing I can do now tho, just gotta pray hard, cross my fingers and hope for the best...

All the preparations are really stressing and tiring me out... Sometimes makes me wish that I never applied for the scholarship in the first place... Sigh...

1st Conducting @ Wedding Mass

Thanks be to God. The wedding mass that I was so worried about turned out still OK in the end. It was my first time conducting at a wedding mass as well. At first, I wasn't supposed to conduct, but in the end it was decided that it would be better to have a conductor.

Why was I so worried? First, we couldn't get enough people to sing (which was why I wasn't supposed to conduct, because we needed more people to sing). In the end, with the addition of some others from other choirs, we had about 10, so it was still OK.

Second, the keyboardist (Jayce) was only "recruited" at the last minute. Our original keyboardist pulled out, and we had to frantically search for a keyboardist last night. Jo and Marcus managed got some friend's sister, who is not even from our parish, to play. Luckily, she's quite a good keyboardist.

Thirdly, we had no practice until this morning! There was supposed to be a practice at 8pm last night, but only Peggy, Dwi and I turned up. Since the keyboardist was only "recruited" last night, obviously we didn't have a keyboardist yesterday either. Practice was supposed to start at 7:30am today, but at that time, only Peggy, Dwi, Jacye and I were there. We only started proper at 8am. So it was really frantic.

I wouldn't say that we did well, but at least we didn't screw up or what. And I didn't screw up the conducting. If we screwed up, it would be very sad. After all, it's the couple's once-in-a-lifetime ceremony.

Thank God for seeing us through.