My last day at work today… and it honestly feels kind of weird. The routine I’ve gotten so used to for the past 12 weeks is coming to an end. Waking up at 8am to come to work, sitting in the office and using the computer, doing stuff in the lab (when there’s stuff to do), meeting the same group of people everyday…

Hui Ann’s also leaving today, and just yesterday, she mentioned that she was feeling happy about it. I think I’ll feel happy tomorrow or something, when the fact that I no longer have to go back to Biopolis sinks in. Some of the other interns will be here till next Thursday or Friday, but as for me, I’d rather have a week’s break before I head back to school. There are other things that I want to do and people I want to meet. I want to head back to school feeling that I’ve had a fulfilling holiday, especially since this is the last summer holiday I’ll have as an undergrad.

Will I want to come back here to work one day? I’ll have to think about it. One of the reasons why I applied for attachment here is that I do have some interest in Genetics, and I want to see what it’s like being in this field. After being here for 12 weeks, I wonder if my future should be in this area if I work in a research lab in the future. I realised that doing population studies is not quite for me. Having to decide what sort of model to use and what sort of statistical tests to derive your results drives me crazy. I’m really not a statistics person! If it’s just general wet lab though I’m fine with it.

Having done 2 attachments as an undergrad, I would say that it’s worth seeking such opportunities during the holidays, or even during the school term, should time permit. It doesn’t matter how long the attachment is, or how much (or how little) you get to do. Doing an attachment lets you have an idea whether you’re really interested in a particular field, and it also lets you experience the working culture of the organisation you are in. I think that it helps you to make a better decision as to whether you want to work in a particular organisation or field in the future. If you enjoyed your attachment thoroughly then that’s great, but if you didn’t, it’s better to find out that you’re not suited or not interested in a particular job during your attachment rather than after coming out to work right? And of course, for those who have to do FYP, you can also go back to the same organisation (or lab) if you enjoyed your stay there. (That’s a bonus!)

Being here opened my eyes to a number of things, and hopefully this experience will help me make a better decision about the sort of job I want to take up in the future. I’ll miss the people! I’ll get to see most of the other interns in school, but some people I do wonder if I’ll ever get to meet again. I guess that depends on whether our paths are meant to cross again?

Monday night, and So You Think You Can Dance will be on soon. Having missed the first few episodes, I was determined not to miss the show again this time. A few minutes ago, I went to my room to get a fresh towel, and was ready to take a shower. By the time I’m done, I’ll be just in time for the show, I thought to myself.

When I was inside the room, she asked me, “Are you going to bathe?” When I told her I was, she immediately asked my brother to go and shower first because I will spend a long time in the shower. Like what the?! If he’s home the whole day and he still hasn’t showered, he won’t die if he waits for me to shower first. It’s a matter of principle you know. Since I was already going to the bathroom, of course I should just shower first right? At the very least, she should have asked if it was ok with me to let him go first, and not just tell him to go first without any regard for me.

By her logic, it means that if you’re queuing up at the cashier to pay for something and the person in front of you has a lot of items to pay for, you’re automatically allowed to cut in front of that person because it will take a long time for the cashier to check out all the items. I think we can all imagine the possible scenarios that may occur if someone really does that.

So annoying. Arrgh. What’s wrong with letting people who want to shower first go first?

Last night, just as I was about to go to sleep, I received a message from Ze Ling, asking me whether I could do a sharing this Sunday. Having to prepare for the sharing and actually stand in front of everyone to do it makes me kind of stressed. I guess I’m just not used to it? Leading singspiration, making announcements and teaching sunday school is fine, because I’ve done these so many times before.

Thinking of the topic to speak on is the toughest part for me, because there’s 101 things that I can talk about, but I need to find something that’s suitable for the youths and also appropriate for the occasion. Knowing myself, I ended up lying in bed, thinking of the possible topics to speak on instead of sleeping immediately.

When I finally fell asleep, I started dreaming…

It was like some sort of adventure. (Don’t laugh!) My family owned some sort of important documents (maybe some treasure map?), which were stolen by someone else. One day, I chanced across this pair of old men’s boots, and for no reason whatsoever, I brought it home. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that the sole of the boots had a slit, and peeking through the slit I saw those important documents. At this time, there was a middle-aged man who was spying on us, and I suppose that he was the owner of those boots and was trying to get them back. Perhaps he was the one who stole the documents. I kept trying to tell my mum that I found the documents, but somehow she was always busy and there were guests who kept coming to our place. So I hid the boots in my drawer (!!!), hoping that no one would find them, and waited for a chance to tell her about the documents.

And then I woke up and realised that it was raining outside.

Falling back asleep soon after, my dream continued, despite being somewhat disjointed from the events that happened earlier. I can’t remember much about this part, except that I still had those documents, and I went about my daily routine as per normal, while hoping that that guy wouldn’t find out the whereabouts of the documents. I remember taking taking a bus somewhere, while checking to ensure that the guy didn’t follow me by getting on the same bus. The bus brought me to somewhere I didn’t recognise, and I think that somewhere along the way, I realised that I was going in the wrong direction. I believe I woke up a second time after that, and I hadn’t gotten off the bus by then.

Back to sleep again (I think it was 6am), it was back to the dream again. I was no longer on the bus, but rather in some building. I didn’t recognise the place. Someone had found me (a younger guy I think), and was pointing his gun at me, ready to shoot. I didn’t die simply because I woke up then. It was time to get up to go to work anyway. By the end of the whole dream, I still had not opened those documents to see what they were about.

So yeah, that was my weird dream. I realised that when I wake up in the middle of the night, halfway though some dream, my dream usually continues after I fall back asleep. Fine with me if it’s a normal dream, but really bad if it’s a nightmare. When I wake up from nightmares, I never want to fall asleep anytime soon, just in case the nightmare continues and I end up with a really bad and restless sleep. I wonder if this happens for anyone else?

Met up with Ruo Xi, Qin Ning and Lynn today! I haven’t met Qin Ning in about half a year, Lynn about one, and Ruo Xi two. When it met them, that familiar feeling came back again. You know how sometimes when you haven’t contacted someone in a really long time, you don’t know what to talk about when you meet them? And if it’s the same for the other person too, then the both of you just sit there trying to think of what to say. Quite an uncomfortable situation to be with. But I’m glad that this isn’t the case for us!

Meeting them today, talking about the people we know and the things that happened in the past made me feel so nostalgic. Orientation, BMORE, the celebrations and events we took part in, funfair, graduation… those were the days.

I was taking the bus home just now, and being the peak hour, the bus got really packed as it picked up more passengers along the way. The fact that it was a single deck bus didn’t help at all. When the bus reached my stop, I had to squeeze my way through to get to the door. Some guy standing in front of the door was blocking me from getting down, and I had to say “excuse me” before he noticed me and moved aside. Just as I tapped my EZlink card on the reader and was about to get off, the bus uncle closed the door! I rang the bell again, trying to catch his attention, but he didn’t open the door. So I rang the bell a second time. And he drove off!

In the end I had to get off at the next bus stop, which is a considerable distance away from mine. Say about the distance of 2 bus stops in NTU. Sigh. I really wasn’t happy at all. Usually when bus drivers close the door before someone gets off, ringing the bell again will let them know that there are people who haven’t alighted, and they will open the door again. I don’t know why this uncle didn’t, even when I rang the bell twice! Even if you think that it might be someone who’s getting off at the next stop and just happened to press the bell early, surely it’s always better to open the door just in case it’s actually someone who has yet to alight. Especially when the bus is so crowded that it takes time to squeeze past all the people standing to get to the door!

I'm so not happy about it.