My initial reactions and transition to the Lion City.
Before I ramble on about my daily life and thoughts, I probably should give a bit of background about this program and why the heck I am even writing this. As part of my bachelors of science degree requirements, I need to complete five semesters of cooperative learning experience, aka five separate internships. As a rising senior set to graduate in May of 2019, this summer is my fifth and final semester of co-op.
If I could summarize my first four co-op semesters in one word, I would use "uninspiring" (I mean that in the least offensive and negative way possible, more on my previous experiences later). Basically I was getting antsy with my life and needed to make a change. I wanted to do something that would challenge me, force me to struggle, and in the end help me learn about myself, my desires, and ambitions. So somehow, here I am almost 10,000 miles away from home, learning more than I could have anticipated.
P.S. most of these thoughts are coming as reflections written after the fact.
“Just say yes, and you will figure it out afterwards” ~Tina Fey
Honestly I should have tattooed this quote on hand as a reminder. I found this lil piece of wisdom shortly before I left the US and quickly deemed it my mantra of the summer. Little did I know how strong the meaning would grow.
The Trek
To most, a 24 hr airline journey would be inconvenient and intimidating, but honestly I was excited. When it comes to my day-to-day life, I rarely give myself any down time. I pride myself on being highly efficient and making the most out of each hour of the day. A long travel journey quite literally forced me to do nothing, and surprisingly I was all about it. I came prepared. I downloaded everything under the sun; Netflix shows and movies, audio books, kindle books on my iPad, podcasts, and Spotify music. As usual, I was very over prepared and probably only utilized about 10% of my newly downloaded content.
Looking back, the plane ride(s) was a blur. I think I only watched a movie or two, and read a chunk of one book. A lot of the time I spent reflecting, journaling, and visualizing what I wanted the next 14 weeks to look like. I got incredibly lucky on both flights, with having an open seat next to me on the first flight and a whole row to myself on the second. That was the first, and probably only, time I got a solid 5-6 hours of sleep on an airplane (the red wine and melatonin may have helped too).
⏩ fast forward through my 8 days in Bali, whole write up on that later ⏩
The Infrastructure
Singapore is a very small “island city state” which was quite deceiving at first. Geographically Singapore is about ½ the size of Los Angeles but is home to 5.6 million people compared to LA’s 3.9 million. As I wandered around the city my first few days, I kept trying to put the neighborhoods and areas into perspective of places I was familiar with, but still the city felt so big.
The Singapore Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) is the extremely convenient, and easy to use subway system that connects each corner of the country. I would only take you about an hour to get from one end of the island to the other. From what I had previously learned from friends and the internet, the MRT was a breeze to navigate and made it very difficult to get lost around the city. More or less, there is a MRT station within a 15 minute walk of any location you may find yourself.
Living Accommodations
For the first 5 weeks of my stay, I will be living at the National University of Singapore campus in a dorm before I move to an apartment, closer to the city center. The dormitory that I am living in is "supposed to be" the nicest NUS has to offer. Either the standards here are vastly different than my own, or I have been duped. I would not qualify cockroaches and moldy rooms as "high quality”, but hey I am moving soon soooo say a prayer for my lungs in the meantime.
First Week Whirlwind
Growing up, our Holmes family motto was "whoever has the most flexibility wins." My first week in Singapore put my flexibility through a serious test. Although the AIC (Academic Internship Council) assistance is imperative with obtaining work visa's, living arrangements, etc, the job placement process is a roller coaster in itself. I was placed in my first job, with Kruger Asia, approximately 5 days before I left the USA (some students did not have jobs upon arriving to Singapore). Having a confirmed job gave me peace of mind while traveling and I am very thankful for that, but unfortunately that was short lived.
I arrived in Singapore on a Saturday, and was scheduled to start work on Wednesday. At orientation that Monday, my AIC adviser showed concern for my 90 minute, one-way, work commute and informed me there was another company that was interested in having me. With little information about the new company and after a very angsty phone call with my Dad (at 4am est aka best dad award), I decided that if it was enough concern for my adviser I should probably listen to her. I am very grateful for this change, as I am very confident that en extremely long commute would have taken a toll and maybe even hindered my overall experience.
This whole fiasco pushed my work start date back a week and left plenty of time for me to explore and get a better grasp of the city. I would leave for the day with a destination in mind, but with no time table I allowed myself to get “lost” and make my way eventually. I found tons of cute coffee shops, biked up and down the East Coast beach, hiked through MacRitchie Reservoir's Tree Top walk and tried out a few yoga studios. I spent a lot of time self reflecting and getting used to the idea of what independence would look like for me over the course of the summer. Stay tuned to see how it works out.