First Day of "Work"

Got through my first day at DSTA. Will avoid using the name in future, just in case I want to complain about work. LOL.

First thing in the morning, I was mistaken to be a guy. Not physically but because of my name. Initially I thought LT sounded perfectly female, but after some thought maybe it can be unisex, but to be totally male sounding is unacceptable. A bit over-reacting but probably it was the build-up to it. I was waiting in the lobby for the corporate staff to receive me, but many came and left but none for me. So I started worrying and the anxiety builded up. Well small matter actually.

Then I got shown around the place and brought to my department. The second thing then happened. My department is in the back wing of the building, but my desk is not. I'm across the hallway, past the toilets from the rest of my section, in the territory of another department. Like a sore thumb sticking out. My workstation is also empty. No chair (that was quickly solved so can't complain about that anymore). No cupboard so I had to long-bang my laptop in a colleague's cupboard. Just a phone extension and some stationeries. Don't really feel like personalising it 'cause I don't even wanna stay in that station for too long. Please let me have a workstation with my section, I'll even make do with one beside the manager. I'm desperate, especially when I found out that seat is near the Assistant Directors' offices. Well at least I've got a laptop to play with.

Lunch was a relief, thanks to Zinc. Went out for lunch, the fish soup was pretty good, as recommended. Got into their clique and they are a interesting bunch, with appointments and organisation structure. Wonder what appointment I'll be getting. *raises eyebrow*

In the afternoon, I was doing work but not official work. I was helping to prepare for a performance on Wed for the section. Drawing and cutting out 5 stars and a crescent for props.

So yup, that was how I spent my first day at work. Pretty productive eh?

Finally contributing to society

Gonna be starting work next monday. Wish me luck! Not exactly the job I wished, but then again I didn't want to sit around and wait for the chance to fall from the sky. So AT LEAST I'm no longer the only dependant in the family :P

Hopefully my dwindling account holds out for the next few weeks before my first pay...

Returning to Life

Finally back in Singapore (with good stable internet connection), so probably ought to update my dear friends. It'll be difficult uploading all the photos here so please refer to my facebook account for them:

http://www.facebook.com/photos.php?id=785625157

I'm still uploading them as I type this entry so please be patient. Hehehe.

Some feelings from the trip. I did enjoy myself there and I really appreciate the very friendly culture in general. Something I wished happened in Singapore. Smiles and hellos, plenty to spare. But working there makes me realise how "Singaporean" we are. We simply cannot tolerate inefficiency. As described by my darling, it's a really huge feat to try to do a task that can be finished in 1 or 2 hours in more than 5 hours. Luckily it's not everyone that does that (but enough to irritate :P), and there are quite a number of Singaporeans and Thais who work similarly to us.

Apart from work, we made really great friends, especially with the Thais. Some of whom I'm sure are life-long relationships. Next time when we visit Phuket and Bangkok, we're gonna have personal guides. Haha! So if you ask what is my biggest take-home from working at Grand Canyon, I'll have to say it's the friends from Thailand. :)

As for the travelling part, I can only say it was great. I have never done more shopping in my life than the time I was there, all thanks to the cheap prices. But one thing I was stunned by was that prices stated are always excluding taxes so we end up paying more than we expected. Tipping was also another thing we had to get used to. Something I earn my extra pay from too working at a dining room. But since it isn't a fixed fee like in Singapore, we can pay according how well we were served which was more reasonable for us. When service was good tips can be up to 20%, but sometimes you don't even feel like leaving the small change behind. However generally service was good for most of the places we ate at, which is also one reason we enjoyed the trip.

Anyone that ask me if they should go for Work & Travel, I'll definitely say a yes. But it requires planning if you want a fruitful trip, so that days off are well-spent. Initially we ignored the fact that we had only 2 months and we had to make very rush arrangements for travelling in between which caused huge friction. If you are looking at earning back the programme fees and air tickets, you'll probably need at least 3 months and still it will depend on your job and pay. All in all it was a great trip which I didn't regret going for, but I certainly missed home so I delighted that I'M HOME!!