“Leaving on a Jetplane”

Current location: Singapore

Local time: 1.45 pm

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Ready to leave for Singapore

Hello one, hello all!

Welcome to my first blog post! I’ve been talking and bragging about my blog for a while now, so I figured now would be the time to actually start it!

I’ve been in Singapore for 48 hours and I’m already packing to leave towards my next destination. All I’ve done over here is working. And eating. But mostly working. I arrived on Wednesday evening around 5 pm. After getting through customs (which was a pain in the ass BTW…long queues, no end in sight), I found a dude who was holding a name card with my name on it. I still have no clue who he was, but he was very lovely. Explained how Singapore works, what to do and more importantly: what not to do. Very friendly indeed.

He dropped me off at my hotel, I checked in and was very happy with the air conditioning. Don’t get me wrong, the temperature is lovely. But so hot! The normal temperature is around 30 degrees Celsius. Which is fine. However, it feels like 40 degrees. Not very fine. It actually feels like someone put a hot blanket around you and now you’re finding it very difficult to breathe. But enough complaining. I’m in Singapore! Yay!

Even though I slept on the plane, I found myself to be really tired. I got some dinner in the hotel restaurant (first meal that consisted of rice), and went to bed around 9. I woke up a few times during the night but I was still very well rested when I got up around 6.45 in the morning. My boss in the area was supposed to pick me up at 8 am, so I didn’t want to be late. I packed my bags, got some breakfast (second meal that consisted of rice), and waited for my ride to arrive. We got to work and I got an introduction and started my training. We stopped for lunch and I finally got to enjoy some sandwiches. Since the building is under renovation, some of the Dutch folk decided they would buy some sandwiches and some cheese and ham (doh, Dutch!) every week and as long as everybody pitched in, you could eat it too. Technically that means that I ate for free, since I didn’t have any cash on me. I have some euros, but those are not very useful abroad J.

I also met a colleague (Menno) who was staying at the same hotel that I was going to be staying in, so we met up to ensure I could hitch a ride with his taxi in the evening. We left at 5.30 pm and got to the hotel at 6. And what a hotel it is. I’m very sad I’m going to be checking out tomorrow, because it is very close to being the perfect hotel room. I’ve got my own kitchen, a massive bed, a washing machine and a couch! Closer to an apartment than a hotel room! Menno and I met up around 6.30 pm for a drink outside (still hot, not unbearable though) and we talked for a while. He gave me some advice, talked about his experiences with the company (17 years and still going strong!), and we had some good laughs. Since he was meeting up with some other colleagues for a work dinner, I decided to try my luck at having dinner at this hotel restaurant. Turns out I was lucky, since it was an American style restaurant and I had a massive burrito and some nachos. Yum!

The rest of the night was very uneventful. Watched some TV shows on my laptop and went to bed around 10.30 pm.

The next morning I was supposed to be meeting up with Menno at 7.30 am, so we could leave for the office. Again, my alarm went off at 6.45 am. I got some breakfast (American pancakes) and was ready at 7.25 am. However, turns out Menno was late and we wouldn’t be leaving until 8 am. Fine by me, since I was watching YouTube on a lounge chair outside J.

We got to work and now I’ve been told I’m going to be leaving tomorrow (Saturday) for Jakarta! This means that my training is done! Yay me:). This also means that I’m going to be leaving my awesome hotel room. And I don’t even get to sleep in! Plane leaves at 10 apparently, even though my ticket hasn’t been booked yet. I’m really adapting to the Boskalis way of life: information is going to be there at the last minute. No way you’re getting it earlier 🙂

Alright. That turned out to be a bit longer than I intended. Don’t worry, not all posts will be this detailed and long. Or they might. I really don’t know!

Thanks for reading and you’re always welcome to comment 🙂

Thécla

PS. Look at this awesome view:

Not bad, eh?