When Silence Is No Longer Golden

So a friend who I knew from my internship in Sydney a couple of years ago came over to Singapore for the whole week last week. She said she did that because the tickets were very expensive if she was to fly back to Sydney right after the long weekend (it was the long weekend Easter holiday, and Sydney had the Friday and Monday off). For some reason, we ended up practically dating for the whole week. So it all started a few weeks leading up to her vacation to these parts. For some reason she messaged me almost every day in the different platforms where we are connected (there were just two basically, but for some reason we jumped back and forth between the two platforms depending on the time of the day). We were initially just talking about work stuff mostly, and some personal, but still work-related stuff like how I kept going back to the office on weekends ( :'( ) and how her rating during the last performance review was below her expectation (it was actually fine... But she...

Hi readers! As you might have read in my previous post , I was offered an internship position in Google Sydney this summer (or winter, down here). And today is my first day at work! I'm sure all of you who read this blog must be waiting for this post! So here it is! Before I start on my story about Google, let me start with my first impressions of Australia and its people. To give you some background, I have never been to a "Western" country my whole life, so it was really quite an experience when I first arrived there. I already had some expectations of how Australians would be (the usual "Western" stereotypes: very cheerful, friendly, talks a lot, etc..). And they really are; I was picked up by the AIESEC people in the Kingsford Smith airport. They were just like those stereotypes I just mentioned lol. Not that it is a bad thing, but I was really tired from the flight, so I was not ready to speak a less-Singlish English and to reciprocate their eagerness to...

Hi readers! Another long hiatus! And this time round I must say that I am REAL busy this semester, so much so that I was left with very little time on my own, which I spent doing something else other than updating this blog, because the little time I had was too short to do it. In case you are wondering why I have so little time this semester, refer to paragraph 2 of this post . So anyway, the purpose of me writing this blog (damn.. I have been writing one too many emails lately, and it affects my written language) is to let you all (or maybe just my future self) know that..... I was offered an internship at Google Sydney!!! Yep, you read that right. Me. Google. This summer.

In merely a couple of days or so, another year is going to end soon. This would be the second time I am spending my new year overseas; the first one being the first year I was in Singapore - 2008. Damn I still remember how it was... We were playing some group game in the hostel and the game ended with a countdown to 2009. That was friggin 7 years ago. Damn, how time flies! And now I am most probably going to spend it playing another group game or singing at a KTV with a bunch of people from that Buddhist society. In case you guys are wondering why I don't go to some other place to watch fireworks, because I heard there is no fireworks during new year in China. (Say whaat?) I just realized (before writing this post) that this blog, despite already spending 2 new years, only contains one "obligatory new year post". I am not sure what happened to me during that year (or rather, this year!), but from reading the last post before the new year , apparently I was occupied w...

Hi readers! Another very long hiatus, uh? Sorry about that, I am trying to make myself more active in the various activities I participated in. I would have thought I have not blogged for the whole semester if I did not actually check my last post (well, at least it was not THAT bad!). That article must have hit home so hard that I was compelled to post it right then. Anyway, just to keep you all readers (if any) updated, I got an internal offer from NUS for an exchange to Tsinghua University, China , is currently interning (though it feels more like 'working') at Optimai for the summer. Do I miss anything? Those are the important ones anyway. So why do I decide to update this blog now? Well... I have wanted to update my blog since forever, but I just haven't got the time to do so yet. I guess my effort to make myself more active is quite successful, then? Haha. Actually, it was partly because I am currently hosting (more like squatting) a friend in my room for the summe...

Holy mother of cow!! I am so sorry for abandoning this blog (again) for like the entire summer! I did not know that maintaining a blog is not as easy as it seems. Anyway, just to ensure that we are on the same page, I re-read the last couple of posts I posted in the blog (which made me realize that I have not posted anything for the whole duration of the summer!). So, just to give a closure to the questions on the previous posts, I ended up working in Indonesia, but not in Surya University, but Universitas Siswa Bangsa Internasional (USBI here onwards) instead. It is actually the same professor, but he told me that the vacancies in Surya has already been filled in so he will accommodate us there, where he is the dean of one of the faculties there! The pay was really low, though... So I was there more for the experience than the money. Unfortunately, there was a turn of event that made the professor the acting RECTOR! Obviously, being an acting rector, dean, and supervisor for us at t...