Singapore - Extended Version

(in the meantime, Singapore became somehow synonymous to coffee. I never drank so much of this delicious beverage. And I herewith DEMAND that Starbucks eventually settles down in Germany!)

6 MONTHS LATER...

It's been a few days since my last post. Work has climaxed last week in a project workshop that had to be prepared and conducted. Not much time left for anything else. However, I do have to say that I find myself pretty much at home here in Singapore (has it really been half a year already...?). Returning from any kind of excursion and passing the border and customs now usually amounts into this well-known cosy feeling of 'coming back'. No cab driver will try to rip you off (it's all meter here), the temperatures seem to be a bit more moderate, and the nice skyline says hello again on the way to EastCoast.

Usually, 'home' is where you understand and are able to interpret everything. However, according to this definition, Singapore can never be home. For me, this English word is really not specific enough to distinguish between the German 'Heimat' (more or less 'home country', the place where your roots are and where you have no difficulty in understanding and interpreting all the little facets of daily life) and 'zu Hause' (which for me signifies the place where you are resident). Singapore might be a tad sterile (some say it's just too clean to be Asian), but all the friends that I made here, the convenient way of living, the lovely climate and the gorgeous food will not make it easy for me to leave nonetheless..

TO COMBINE THE 'BITTER' AND THE SWEET

(Singapore impression...more on this further down)

Which brings me to the point. The originial plan really was to stay with Infineon until March 15th 'only' (which obviously passed) and then head back to Germany for my thesis. Well, plans are there to be changed :-) I am so lucky now that I finally got my stay here extended to at least September 15th, basically to write my university thesis here about a SAP-related topic in Computer Intergrated Business! YIIPPIIIEHHH...It's like one of the heaviest burdens was taken from my shoulders just a few days ago, when my visa extension was erventually approved (additionally, I know for sure that my heart has the right size thanks to x-ray and that I am totally HIV-clean. well, at least something :-)).

SINGAPORE MIX

The idea is now to be in Germany to see my family and a lot of you guys for 1.5 months in May and June and then to come back to Sipo until my thesis is finished in December...What next? Well, my look goes further north in the same timezone..

I want to have a quick look at Singapore itself once more in this post. The picture above is a non-faked impression of Singapore (my fav), taken by me in Chinatown. The big monument in the middle and the cows one the roof belong to a fascinating Hindu temple, which is situated just there. I will probably go there next weekend with an Indian colleague..so stay tuned for an inside report here ;-) The highly diverse range of new and traditional buildings like you can see on the picture can be found on many spots in Singapore...This is the mixed picture the city presents very often. This is even more visible on the streets..A highly sophisticated road toll system extists here and flashy Mercedes S-Class cars drive right next to trucks with open loading space and 30 Indian construction workers on it..

I guess I already mentioned that this city is quite multilingual. Big announcements, signs and labels are usually displayed in English, Mandarin Chinese, Malay and Hindi (btw, the exclamation mark seems to be absolutely universal..where does that come from??). This can sometimes be seen as public dictionaries for people who are willing to learn :-)

Enough for now. I will post some more later this week. You can look forward to a report on bloody hot Sepang FORMULA 1 Grand Prix.. Time to go to bed..frickin' tired..

Cheers,

Maik