A Whole New World

i can't do these serious posts. i've tried but they all sound so fake. so here it is in plain amy-ish.

i spent the weekend doing my "research": attending birthday celebrations at PanPac and New Majestic. for all its dodgy surroundings, new majestic sure is pretty cool! but then that's me, i've always preferred the quirky (but not cheap!) over the posh.

i took all my hostel-loving spiel back the next day when i checked into my room. despite the old, plain, nondescript exterior, the inside was surprisingly still new, luxurious, and AWESOME. if only i'd actually had more time to enjoy it.

(not really. i still like hostels.)

on paper, the schedule for the day looked manageable. mingling, intro, interview, test, group exercise, test, debrief... but i forgot to factor in the fact that in between we'd have to talk to each other as well and who would have thought talking could be so tiring, but it is when it means that your brain is on High Concentration mode the whole day for 9 hrs straight...

everything was pretty manageable altho i did think some of the tests were a bit retarded and i hate group assessments. have i mentioned that before? well, i HATE group assessments. i hate how they're so forced and unrealistic and how noone acts the way they do in group assessments in real life anyway. actually, the group assessment on the second day was fine... it was quite realistic and our group handled it pretty well i think. but sheesh the one on the first day was totally ridiculous and i'm sure whoever came up with it had some elaborate rationale for it and is probably patting himself on the back for being so clever but PAH we hated it and it was a mess. but whatever. [i have to say though, that i think i handled this better post-smu compared to my pre-smu experience]

naive me. there i was on sunday thinking "oh i'll be able to enjoy my lovely room at night!" and i happily packed in several books, my laptop, and a nice dvd (thanks merf:) to enjoy.... but no way, they weren't giving us a free stay so easily! dum dum dum.... at the end of the day we were told "oh yeah and you have to prepare a presentation by tomorrow morning". no information given to use as material, just 6 flip chart sheets and 2 markers. but i was really really zonked from the day and i just couldn't keep my eyes open past 10! (i woke up again later la but still... i think i got the most sleep of everyone.) and well, my presentation was essentially one sheet of paper and a lot of childish drawings and was rather shallow but it was honestly erm the best i could do at that point.

the real fun only started on tuesday after everything was over :) then we [took a nap and then] gathered everyone up and headed off to newton circus and ordered a feast! because, of course, visitors cannot possibly have a Uniquely Singapore experience without a feast! (the rest were from all over the region) it came up to about $200 for 8 of us but was rather satisfying! then we took them to "jalan-jalan" along clarke quay, ending with a nice chill-out session at Timbre @ the arts house which they totally loved!

halfway through one of the written tests i suddenly started asking myself if i knew what i was getting into. all the others had more relevant working experience or studies and i felt rather like a fish out of water. they told us right from the start that they had no quota to meet and could just as easily take all of us or none of us hence we weren't competitors, which helped. and apart from the specific industrial knowledge, i don't think i did any worse than the rest in most things, but ability aside, it's more of do i really understand what i'm getting into and will i like it? but ultimately, i guess i won't know until i try. at then end of the day, after all the glitz and the glam, it IS a hard-pushing industry. we got a sharp reminder of that when our jap friend couldn't join us for dinner because someone had called in sick and she had to go back to work immediately... as well as continue with her original day shift the next day!

well oh well, i'm ready for something new, either way :)