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

Another week has gone and time really flies.

In university I had to fight with some stupid bugs in the program I use for building electrical circuites. That was really annoying.

Wednesday I was out with my flatmate Evelyne and some of her friends. In many clubs there is a so called ladies night. You pay about 10€ and can drink as much as you can. Crazy somehow, as drinking is allowed indeed, but not being drunk. Unfortunately my Singaporean mobilephone was stolen in this evening, too. (Low crime != No crime!)

Thursday I had to be at university at 8:30, because there was a seminar, where my Prof wanted us students to got. Nobody told me that it was in another part of the university and not where we normally are. So I was there at 8:30 for nothing. (And as I lost my cell the evening before I couln't call anybody...)

Friday was a public holiday because of the so called "Hari Raya Haji". It's a moslem holiday where they celebrate that when Abraham wanted to kill his son, because Alah told him to do so, the son turned into a sheep and he killed only the sheep and not his son.
For lunch I was at the very famos Bavarian restaurant in Singapore "Brotzeit" with Nadine, a girl from Munich I met here. It's weird to be welcomed from Asian people with "Servus". But Paulaner sometimes tastes really good!

In the evening I went for eating the best dumplings in the whole city in a restaurant called "Din Tai Fung". A dumpling is a dough similar to noodle dough filled with different things like meat, vegetables... They are available in every food court ore hawkers center in Singapore in many different ways (fried, in the soop, steamed..). The dumplings I ate on friday where filled with soop. So when you bite on them, the soop runs. Really, really amazing!

After that I saw someting quite rare for Singapore: A street fight. Some drunken guys fighted with each other until one of them fell to the ground. The poor guy was bleeding nearly everywhere and a girl that stood next to him just shouted that everyone should go away. She didn't want anyone to call an ambulance. (Of course anybody called them anyhow, but that's what the fear from going to jail makes with civil courage...)

Yesterday I went to the Botanics Garden. A really nice park areal, where you can find small parts of primeval forests. In the evening I was at a trance club called "Stereolab". Not really my music, but for those who like it, it should be a great club. (I was on the guest list there *wooo*).

Today I finally managed it to go for sailing. The first time in my life sailing on a Cat. (It was no Hobie Cat, but quite similar, called "Dart".) After some minutes of being afraid, it was really amazing how the boat increases its velocity by just little wind. And of course I was also swimming in the sea again. I really like it :-)

Singapore - 3rd Week

The passed weekend was more ore less relaxed. After going climbing at Saturday morning with my flatmates, I decided to go to Sentosa Island. It's an small island south of Singapore and it has all you need for your free time. There are lots of beach bars, clubs, artificial beaches and lots of sports acitivity offers. The beaches are really nice there and I put my feet in the water. The only thing is, that everywhere you go for seeing the sea in Singapore you see thousends of ships, queing for the harbor entrance, in the background. It's unimagable.

In the evening I went to a really nice roof top bar in china town, called "Screening Room" for having a cocktail. Then I went to Clark Quay to a club called "China One". They have a live band there every day that plays really nice rock music (e.g. Muse!).

Today I was at Singapore East Cost, where there are some artifical beaches, too. And I swam in the Indian Ocean. It was SO exciting! (Ok, besides all the ships in the background...)

And I found out that Muse will be in Singapore at the beginning of February. I'll buy the ticket tomorrow. I'm soo looking forward to it!

Singapore - Impressions from the Weekend

Sorry for being so lazy with writing new entries in this blog. And thanks to all who are waiting daily for me to write someting new.

The elapsed week was not really thrilling, as it has turned a little bit to normality now. But of course some things to write had happend.

I was forced by my colleagues from university to eat something really disgusting. They told me that it wouldn't be thrilling and it was just pork, but it was pork's organs like stomach and intestinals. But it was not like you know it from sausages but more chewy and... And in that nice mix there were also some really, really fat pieces of pork skin. I think I will stay on chicken rice, noodles and that stuff in future. :-)

I booked also a ticket for Greenday for 14th January 2010. My flatmate Evelyne will go there with some friends, and so I can join them.

Next friday (27th November) there will be public holiday because of any Indian festival. I was thinking about going to Bintan Island or Puketh for that weekend. Bintan Island is an Indonesian island south of Singapore with white beaches, palm trees and all that stuff. Form Singapore one can go by ferry there in about 45min of journey.

On monday evening a colleague from msg arrived here in Singapore. We were out a little bit during this week. (Wednesday at Clarks Quays...) And he bought the same Camera as I have. I really love this Camera. Today we will meet another colleague who stays in Manila (Philippines) during the week. And tomorrow I will go for climbing with my roommates in the morning. So will be a great weekend.

And: the most important news from this week!!!! My father booked a flight for me to Germany over the Christmas holidays. So I will arrive in Germany on 23th December and return to Singapore on 3rd January. I'm really looking forward to see my family and maybe some of my friends then. (And to see some snow on my birthday!)

So, have a great weekend, too. Cheers!