According to the university’s planner, we should all be in our final week of internship. I’ve been busy (hence the blog inactivity, guys). But I’m enjoying every passing moment. While most of us will bid our colleagues goodbye at the end of this week, Jin and I will be extending our employment for another week. Heh. Goes to show how much we love working here. No kidding. Well, for me at least. It doesn’t even feel like I’m working - right from the very first day. I still remember we went to KFC for lunch that day. Oh, in formal attire, too. Our lunch hour lasted long enough for me to go home and change into casual wear and then return to KFC again. Well, at least it felt that way.

The next day onwards we ditched our formal clothings for (smart) casual ones. Save for the managers, everyone else dresses that way every day. We’ve since had loads of fun. In a short span of less than 3 months, we’ve played futsal and basketball together, visited a colleague’s house and bummed all the way til about 4am, went for a dinner-cum-karaoke session at The Curve, celebrated a number of birthdays, had Christmas-exchange in the office, and best of all - fingers crossed - if all goes well, we’ll be trekking in the National Park in a few months’ time (oh the excitement!!).

There are a couple of challenges I faced while I was here. No it’s got nothing to do with technical knowledge and all that - we’ve had sufficient training in university, at home and even in the office. What I suck at is, however, something more fundamental. Language. Having grown up in an English-speaking environment at home (and even at school), it was a challenge to begin speaking in Mandarin - everyday, at that! Fortunately I could handle some simple phrases and manage to converse intelligibly. Most of the time, that is. For this, I must thank Jay Chou, David Tao, Stefanie Sun, Eason, and busloads of other Chinese singers. Why? Go figure.

Who said that entertainment was merely entertainment? For me, it’s been no less than educational! (*Ahem*, entertainment often go hand-in-hand with education these days, ok). So, even though I speak primarily English, I know some Chinese too. *Proud proud*. Actually, what I’m most grateful about this whole thing is the fact that my colleagues do not find it awkward to communicate with me. I’ve definitely benefited from this. It makes me speak the language more confidently. Never a period in my life had I been speaking Mandarin everyday! And because everyday is spent working on the things I love doing, it really doesn’t feel like I’m actually at work.

If I may also add, *coughs coughs*, the allowance I’m getting also doesn’t make me feel like I’m ‘working’ too… It’s more of a learning and an enjoyable experience everyday, no doubt about that. And that itself is invaluable (yes, Dave, choke on that, will ya).

Btw, speaking of value and money… I just paid my monthly gym membership fee today. *Heartache*. Now what’s that Ah Long’s number again…… J/k ;).

P/s: My colleagues read my blog. Hell, even my boss reads my blog. So while we’re at it: Hello guys :) Time to get back to work!