The last week was at least in the lab a quite succesful one. I got very good results during the calibration of the sensor. And my motor control circuit is ready. The only problem is, that I was again told, that the circuit was to advanced and we'd better used the analogue controllers they always use. I'm not sure how these people can ever be innovative, when they only use analogue stuff. *sigh*

Thursday evening I was - after I did some christmas shopping in China Town - at a cinema in Orchard Road, for watching "Twilight - New Moon". I think that the movie is not as good as the first one and the wolves are animated not very nicely. But at least in TV it is still worth to watch.

Friday there was first a christmas "party" at the International Student Center at my university. I was the only Caucasian there and I guess - as there were only Chinese and Indian people - the onle Christian, too. But they were all very kind and told me, that I was really smart, as I one something in a Movie-Title-Drawing-And-Guessing-Game. (Strike!)

In the evening I went with the msg collegues to their Christmas dinner at Singapore East Coast to a very nice Seafood Restaurant. We had lots of seafood there, but the best were the "Black Pepper Crab" (A crab with a diameter of about 30cm in black pepper sauce) and the "Chili Lalas" (Sea shells in chili sauce).

Saturday I originally wanted to go sailing. But as there was a really heavy rain (I never saw a rain like that before) we went instead to Sentosa for going to "Underwater World" (a hige aquarium with sharks and all that stuff), which didn't work aswell, as thousends of other people had the same idea and were queueing for hours. Plan C then was to walk through the left Sentosa jungle. Well, it's ok, but with artificial cascades and rocks a bit Disney-like. And for touristy climax we went to the Merlion (half fish, half lion). In the evening I went again to Stereolab. Somehow I get really used to electronic music... weird.

And today I experienced what people here think how Spaghetti with Beef should be. It's tomato sauce on dead cooked spaghetti (cut!) with mushrooms and meet. But not minced... I was really a bit disappointed, as it looked like really good pasta on the picture. And Evelyne is laughing at me, as she made the same experience two weeks before and didn't warn me. :-)

Singapore - Xmasdinner

Just a short annotation:
I once drunk that Cab-Drink in Germany. (You know: Cab - Cola and Beer, flavored with Dragonfruit) and was asking myself why it tastes only like Cola and Beer. Since I'm here in Singapore, I know it. Dragonfruit has no taste at all. I'd say even less than tofu, and that's really hard to achieve! So just a nice little marketing strategy from the producers...

Again one week over. It's incredible. And as I will travell a lot in the next year during my stay here I recognized that there are only two three weekends in Singapore left. It's a shame! But I'm sure that I will return to Singapore one day. At least to go watching Formula 1 (which must be really great here in the city) or going to ZoukOut again (which leads me to the last week's events.

In university the circuite for my measurements finally works, after we burned some resistors... But I have to say that the resistors we used in the beginning were from the beginning of UDSSR if not older. And the mechanical engineering student in the project was really afraid of them. He immediatly put on a mask over his mouth. :-)

On thursday there was a presentation of a Swedish guy, who presented the concept of using synergies in Sweden in the medicine technical field. After that everyone got free lunch, they should do that at TUM, too, when there are seminars. It increases the number of participants dramatically.

And I received my hot wire. A 25µm 99.99%-Platinum wire!!! Now we are thinking about how to mount it to a bearing.

Thursday in the evening I went to a hair stylist. It was really adventurous but finally went quite well.

On friday evening I watched the worst movie in my entire life. It was a Hong-Kong production called "Storm Warriors 2". Basically there was no story and it was only a very long sequence of not very well done special effects in Chinese language with not really good translated English subtitles.

And on Saturday ZoukOut, the largest dance music festival in Asia with about 25.000 participants took place at Siloso Beach on Sentosa Island. (After I went climbing with Filza and Evelyne in the morning.) We met before at the condominium of a friend of Evelyne and went there at 1.00 am. Though the music is normally not my prefered music, it was a really great party. And I have to say, that I really liked Armin van Buuren (who started at 5.00 pm). Finally we stayed there until sunrise and I came home on sunday morning at 8.45. (Really crazy, that there are in fact people playing already tennis at that time on sunday :-) )

And tuesday in a week my flight to Germany will depart. wetter.com told me that I have to expect -13°C on my arrival. That makes a temperature difference of about 40°C. *brrr* But nevertheless, I'm really looking forward to my stay at home. Maybe I will see some of you there?

Singapore - ZoukOut and other stuff

The first month in Singapore is over and there is still a lot to experience here.

Last week I learnd for example that it is not advisable at all to start discussions about Singaporean politics with locals. People here are very proud of their country and they like it not having to think about anything. It's quite comfortable to be told how to wash your hands, not to jump in the MRT pit, not to trust anybody, ... But I think I have to deal with that without complaining :-)
And I learnd a lot of Buddha figures at the Chinese market. But in summary they all are good for luck and prosperity.

I university my project slowly gets in shape. A student who does his final year project here - everyone in Singapore has to do a final year project before doing his Bachelor's /Master's degree - is building a really impressing test setup. Dr. Slava, a Russian research fellow has built the circuit for me quite nicely. The only thing is that they take me more as an expert advisor than as a student who wants to learn someting. But when the motion control will be implemented, I hopefully will learn something.

The last weekend I was manly in Chinatown and did some X-mas shopping. In the Red Dot Traffic Building their was a really nice craftwork market. And also at the Chinese market you can find some nice giveaways.
The Red Dot Traffic Building itself is - as I mentioned before - also the Asian headquarter of msg systems. And it has a really impressing Design Museum in it, where practical artwork can be found. For example there is a exhibition of Tupperware products at the moment, that all won the "Red Dot Design Award" in the past.

After that we went to the Buddha Tooth temple. According to my tourist guide the temple was built in the last 10 years in order to show the real tooth of Buddha. Singaporeans spent lots of money and hunderts of kilos of gold to make it possible to built the temple. Shortly after opening they found of that the Buddha tooth was in fact from a cow.

Saturday evening I went together with Nadine to a free outside Jazz concert at Esplanade. It was more like free jazz... it needs getting used to :-)
After that we went to Loof, a rooftop bar next to Raffles Hotel. And I had one of the best cocktails in my life there. "Gummyberry". (Yeah, the name sounds disgusting, I know! But you defenitly should try it, when you ever come there!) It is a forest fruit cocktail with meringue on the top.

Today I will go with Nadine and one of her collegues to Blu Jaz Café. Hopefully it is more melodious than last time.

Singapore - 4th week