Guys, I can't believe it, another week has already passed by. Time seems to rush here, although some people complain about the people in Singapore to move incredibly slow all the time. For me, that certainly is not true.
The office renovation is complete now, except some fine tuning everything is set up and running. I have my own desk now! My first desk in a company. I like it a lot, even though it is nothing special in particular - it is just the fact that I made a step in the right direction, and it feels good!
Work was a bitch this week, because I did not procede as fast as I wanted to, and not as fast as expected myself to be. I am very serious about this internship: For me it is an opportunity to proof that I am good, that my abilities in "real life" do not solely depend on my grades in university. I am struggeling with the details of a simple task which is not really simple at all, and I hate it to spend an entire day just researching, trying, achieving nothing, researching again, trying again, and have not proceeded the slightest bit. OK, even my Boss said this task is a pain in the ass (he put it in more decent words, of course), but I told him it would be no problem for me - because I actually thought BACK THEN that it really would be no problem at all! Boy was I wrong.
So I just change strategy. On monday, I will ask the people in the office to help me, whoever is there and looks not completely under stress. OK, that might be not the ultimate criteria: Olaf for example - he had a deal to close in an hour, and still not all details were accepted by the customer, and he took his time to have lunch with us and talk a bit with me. No, he's not stupid, and I am sure he made the deal - he just knows his business, the business that I would like to understand much better in the moment.
Please don't see this posting as a complaint, although I am struggeling with a single task. I just have to write down how important this is to me and that I REALLY want to succeed here.

So I spent another saturday afternoon in the office today, without the desired breakthrough, but I tried, and I try to give my best. Tomorrow, I will take a time out anyway, to refresh and get ready for a good next week.

On the way home I strolled through an bookstore that Anke had recommended to me to be cheaper than the one I used to go to. She was right! I got the 25th anniversary-book from Microsoft, which normally costs 45 USD for 15SGD, just a fraction of the original price. And it is so big, you could seriously workout just by holding it. Reading this book took me to thinking about something else - my future, and the company I would like to work for, or do my next internship with. I'd like to work with another "cool" company... and this is my list at the moment: Bain & Company / Apple.
OK, right, a short list. There are many companies more that I am interested in the moment, but these are right now the coolest I can think of (except for Lufthansa Technik, of course!).
Why? Bain & Company, the Consultants, impress me with their "true north" philosophy. They are growing strongest among their competitors, and I liked the way they presented themselves on campus last autumn a lot. The way of how consultants think and act is fascinating to me, I like the idea of "this is an incredibly complex task, we have no time, so let's get it on!" Consultants have to adopt fast, think fast, and they are able to get involved in important decisions. That is what I want to do. In fact, I got a Bain-Cap at that presentation and wear it often, which leads to a lot of "interesting" comments of fellows and friends. But I don't care. It never is a decision for life, but right now I just like that company a lot and I would give a lot to be given the opportunity to get an internship there. Will not be easy, next to impossible, as I am not among the top performers in university. In exchange, I have a wonderful relationship with Tine and I am involved in a lot of extracurricular activities.
And why Apple? I am curious about their products. They produce by far the coolest computers on earth, for years now, and I would like to get to know how the company behind these products works.

So... now I have bored you with all that plans and work and future and stuff...
you will get to see some pictures from last week tomorrow. Then it will get more interesting again, I promise.

Life is great!

I am so f***ed up. Gosh. I had exactly approximately 90 minutes of sleep this night, don't ask my why, but I could not sleep until 5:30am and had to get up at 7:00am. Yes, I am feeling exactly the way I look today. It's horrible, and I will do nothing but sleep when I come home. The office is nearly ready now to go back to work, but most of the day I spent with moving boxes. Boxes with files, with Customer-goodies, with coke-cans, with paper bags... boxes and boxes and boxes. I spent another good time at the AMADEUS terminal, which is like the one travel agencies use to see if there there are seats available. I have to check where which aircraft from which carrier are overnight, so I had to look for the last flight of every connection. That means typing about 250 times something like TN1ABKKSIN/ADJ (yeah, it has a meaning...), and printing out about 250 pages with information not really more comfortable to read. And now I have to interpret that. aaaaaaahhhh!
Time to go home, grap some hours of sleep and come back to "human".

For all of you who don`t know this famous translation of a manual yet: Read it, read it again, and dive into the colourful world of possible meanings!
-----------------

Warning!

Alles Lookenspeepers here listen.

Das computenmachine is nicht für gefingerpoken
und mittengrabben. Ist easy schnappen der
springenwerk, blowenfusen und poppencorken mit
spitzensparken. Is nicht fuer gewerken by
das dummkopfen. Das rubbernecken sightseeren is
dangerousen so keepen hands in das pokets
- relaxen und watch das blinkenlights.

You like that, don´t you? I sure did!

Yesterday I´ve finally been to Sentosa Island! Just take a look and enjoy... the weather was great and the water was warm... my first time on the beach here!

Oh, OK, one more: This is Hakan, studying somewhere in Germany, I forgot where exactly. This lucky SOB got an internship at PWC by just selling a suit to the PCW-HR manager. Your see some more of the club on this picture also.

Picture from the club, called Carnegies. The girls are standing on the bar, the guy whose rear you see is the one who yells at every woman to get up there and get a free shot. Quite an ugly location with a lot of americans and whores (at least they looked and behaved like that), and the drinks awfully expensive, but I did not need a lot after the warming up at Riley's place. The music was good, nevertheless, and my crowd was a lot of fun. But now I'm tired and just wanna go to sleep! Good night!

I just came home from my first party in SIN! On this picture you can see from left to right: Riley, in whose flat we met (quite impressive, right in Club Street, in the middle of the (the name says all) clubbing part of S'pore. He is from Melbourne, Australia. Weiwei, born in Beijing, living in Stockholm, Sweden. Saskia, German, studying in Maastricht, Netherlands. Anke, German, a fellow of mine at the WHU. She actually invited me to the party and it was a good decision to go there. Afterwards a lot of other people showed up, mainly interns and exchange students. At least five interns were from Siemens, they must be really big here! We hat a few drinks, (OK, a lot) and then moved to a nearby club (I told you) at about 1:30 am.

This is Elena, the flatmate of mine who just left on wednesday. I found out that she is a Bulgarian. When she called her family that sounded really funny... I did not understand a word. How could I! She was really nice, although I did not really see her often, as she was on party a lot and in New Zealand in her last week.