Singaporean Halftime

This Wednesday marked the end of the first half of my 11 weeks in Singapore. The really interesting part? At that time, I was in Ho Chi Minh City, in Vietnam. Later I will tell you how that happened.

Looking back, it is a bit crazy how everything has developed. A year ago, I had just accepted the fact that I would be moving to the US for two years. But did I imagine that I would be spending the next summer in Asia? No, for sure not!

Almost ten weeks ago, we had our last lecture of the spring semester, and as soon as I realized this, my first thought was: “It’s a good thing that I still have another year left.” There’s one thing I can tell you: So far, I’m not prepared for graduation next year. However, four weeks later, I was off to Singapore for my summer internship. It will be very strange in September to fly back to Boston knowing that I’m no longer one of the “new ones” and that people now expect advice from me.

Let’s get back to my internship. It wasn’t as easy as I initially expected to get one. A quarter of a year was too short for some companies. So I was even happier when I managed to find an internship in Private Equity, an area I was particularly intrigued by. On top of that: it would be in Singapore.

The most unfamiliar thing, however, was returning to an office routine. Now, I spend every day from around 9:30 / 10:00 am to 7:30 / 8:00 pm at Raffles Place in Singapore, enjoying a wonderful panorama while working at the same time. I’ve now moved my training to the mornings because I’m just too tired in the evenings. Especially during the first few days, I just fell exhausted into bed at the end of the day. Even though I “only” sit at a desk for the whole day.

But let me tell you one thing: Singapore is a very fascinating city. Everyone tells me that it’s Asia for beginners, but somehow, I’m exactly that. This is why I am very grateful that my colleagues introduce me to a new cuisine every day. So far, we haven’t been to one restaurant twice. Nevertheless, I have to admit that my absolute highlight was an Austrian restaurant. There is exactly one German/Austrian restaurant in Boston, and it’s not particularly good. So you can hardly imagine how happy I was when I was able to eat a good schnitzel.

So far, my biggest shock has been when I met an Asian Geko who just appeared in my apartment. I hadn’t expected that! Even though they are supposed to help against insects and mosquitoes, they are a bit scary to me and not like the spiders I am used to. Plus, those animals are fast, so catching them is somewhat of a challenge.

After the first five weeks in “Asia Light”, my colleagues offered me the chance to visit the office in Ho Chi Minh City to get an impression of “Real” Asia. And what I can say is that it is definitely different from Singapore. I am still fascinated that the traffic works – somehow. To me, there doesn’t seem to be any natural order or any rules. Crossing the roads can be tricky sometimes. My tip: Try to find a local who also wants to cross the road and then just tag along. That works really well! Anyway, writing about all my experiences in Ho Chi Minh would go beyond the scope of this post. I’ll write about that in the next one.

Unfortunately, my week in Vietnam is over, and I’m already back in Singapore. Let’s see what I will experience during the second half.