Money Come!!!

So damn happy today, my supervisor Mr. Plescher says yes to giving me my allowance. Plus DLR handling my train tickets, I am in the sweet land man!!! This is part of my ideal three months.

My ideal three months:
1) Get TWO commendation letters. One from FA and one from DLR.
2) Expenses paid for. One from FA and one from DLR.
3) Projects all complete and people are happy.
4) Eat a German 'meal', a North Chinese 'meal' and an optional 'meal'.
5) Travel

So far, it is reachable to get my Goal 1: Guy at DLR real nice guy, just FA one is depending on my project outcome.

Goal 2: FA agreed so thats 1 down, I will find out tomorrow how are things on the DLR side. So that looks pretty ok so far.

Goal 3: The one at DLR is easy measy 2.5 weeks project. That is as good as guaranteed. Only left is the one at FA (Viks where are you?)

Goal 4: My magic juice is ordered so its now awaiting arrival(due on Thurs or Fri) and I hope I get to hit my targets. Edison Chen anyone?

Goal 5: Travel. Ok so far I have done Burg Eltz and Koln. I get to do Koln part 2 and also Maastricht. Pretty decent I think. So that is quite satisfying.

Summary: Goal 3 is of utmost importance now. Other goals are pretty much satisfying already.

Guys and girls, please pray hard for me to get this Goal 3 off my chest. Thanks. ;)

Magic Juice and Gifts!

Ok, me and Sheryl will go to Koln on the next weekend or so to purchase you guys souvenir. Postcards, keychains, magnets... hehe. If anyone wants to buy anything more, please contact me immediately and we can arrange a money transfer so I can get you stuff like jerseys and things. Well if we have time, I will go with her for some authentic Szechuan cuisine (and not like that xiao chao I had before *blek*).

Mel wants me to buy her a jersey; I no money how to get for you la. Anyways, this girl I think looks/is cute like Mel.



For myself, I want to buy some magic juice for work. Its gonna cost me USD 130 to get it to Malaysia. Apparently it helps the applicant to get anything easier via social. If anyone wants some, contact me within first half of July and we can purchase it together to bear the shipping charge.

Basketball and German Granddaddy

After work, I went with the guys for basketball at Westpark. Just like Youth Park in Penang minus the frills, and people sunbathing and BBQing. Yes yes I tried basketball. Right now, very tired and not wanting to take a shower thus blogging. I think I got the ball in like 3 times in the whole 1.5 hrs we were there. Lolz nubcakes me huh?

Sven showed me some pictures of his grandfather and what he took when he was young. I know back at our time in Malaysia we had to call the local photographer to take shots but I guess Leica was around back then for them. Good quality photos too and very well maintained. His grandfather was a Tank Commander so lots of pictures of him at 'work'. I saw his grandfather's superior and he really looked like how Hollywood potrayed the N*** officers.

I asked how his grandfather got the rank; well back then if you can afford education (ie. rich) you can become an officer in the German Army. There were some family pics too, particularly one where the family had dinner together. Framed at the dining room was his picture. You know when you go to banks and you see Badawi. They had him instead. It was 'compulsory'. Its interesting to see how things were on the other side. You see them having BBQ shirtless in summer among friends, posing in front of their tank, looking real tired after a posting in the field etc.

Just an eye opener for me.

Chinese food

Chinese lunch team: Sven, Jakob, Johannes, Nichol, Smoking Guy, and me. We went to this shop near the Alter Posthof(old post office) and had our chinese lunch. I ordered Szechuan chicken with rice. Comes with a complementary soup. Other guys had crispy duck(which was great) and others had sweet and sour meat stuff. When it came I realized its like the xiao chao that I used to eat with my course mates. Haha, it taste not as spicy(naturally toned down) and you can say that I have had better.

Owner of the shop is South Chinese so looks like us, wife is like thai-vietnamese-cambodia kind of look. Daughter looks 'tastier' tho. Hehe. But dark skinned like Chuan Li. They had sambal which was very mild but very salty. My Szechuan suffered from that too, less spicy more salty. I think its to accomodate them German folks. The guys wanted to use chopsticks, I just used fork and spoon-- nubs. Lol and few fellas did use the chopsticks real well and in the right way especially Smoking Guy whose name I forgot.

The bill came up for me was €9.70-- yeah its cuisine here but xiao chao at KL. I guess its ok but I left feeling a little unsatisfied and with a slight stomach disturbance. We were about to leave then an old guy came for suppe(soup), keropok(crackers) and bier (beer).

Wonder should I have packed something ´tasty´ back? Sigh getting lonely here.

Met a student Mechy Engineer

I went shopping at Plus and Lidl. Four bags full. Reached my apartment block and was opening the door and this south east asian looking guy came and thanked me for the door. Well... OK you're welcome! So I asked him where is he from. Guess? Myanmar! Room 2010. Ok I have to have a chat with him on the story; it is really rare to see someone from a 'challenged' country in Germany. I mean... yeah.

On another note, I am adding features to my blog so I will start with youtube videos. This is a beauty from Thailand which I am very smitten by.



Two months back, we bunch of guys were at Ban's room and was viewing this video, and wow she took all our attention. Then Ban came in from his bath so we showed him what we were viewing and told him to rate. Ban commented "Hmm, not bad". Then we call him look closer. He said, "Hmm ok ma, looks nice." Then we lol'ed and told him that she was a he! The look of Ban's face was priceless.

Damn, Thais can play lotsa tricks on your eyes. Enjoy!

Chia needs work

Going out to look for jobs now.

Here is what I learnt:

1)You get what you ask for: If your goals are of a certain quality, your jobs made available to you are of that same certain quality.

2)Malaysia may not be the best place to work: Pays low compared internationally and they make you work real hard especially if you are at an outsourced branch.

3)Be daring to get what you want: Dream jobs with the ideal criterias are not out of reach. Let your potential employers do the judging of your skills, not you.

Here is what I love to have for my first job:

1)International Exposure: This is my key focus now, the way that Malaysia operates with a colonial mentality. Might as well benefit from it.

2)Good Pay: I guess everyone wants this. Like my Mr. Ng friend says, "It is good to be appreciated". :) At our age, its a great time for capital growth and you need money to make money. Side note, money is sensitive issue for most and a status symbol in itself. What better way to say to someone "I am better than you. L2P nub!".

3)Networking: Meeting the right people and establishing the right contacts should be the way to go. General rule of thumb: be nice, get nice.

Here is what I have to do now:

1) Send in those applications: Yup. Time to complete my CVs and stuff.

Wish me luck guys!

Aerospace student eating Space Cake?

Exams are near for the guys where I do my projects. To ease off the post-exam trauma, a couple of guys are going to the nearby Netherlands to buy some dope early next month and come back to bake a cake. Good cake, really. But a fella cautioned us because he got caught with dope before(its illegal in Germany) so maybe we will just go there and grab a bite.

There are nicknames for this stuff, space cake for example. "It is what astronauts eat" and so since we are all Aerospace students, :). I won´t be tasting anything like this for a long time so I will let you guys know how is it like on the 9th of June(Travel date).

If I can still type properly that is.. :P

Underwear Chef

Haih, papa cooks with only wearing underwear. Too lazy to wear shirt after a long day at the facility. Prepping my dinner AND my celebration salad. They offered me a choice of two projects at the Cologne-Porz DLR. One is to play with tiny beads of metal at micro gravity and another is to land a toy car on a floating rock of ice. You help me decide...

So the celebration salad is to celebrate. Somehow I felt a relief after being offered a placement there for my final month of internship-ping. Guess the previous project is getting a bit of a stale air already. So I will take another day to describe what is IN the DLR but now let me describe my celebration salad. Crisphead (Eisbergsalat), Blattsalat(no english translation), tomato slices, cucumber bits, with crispy fried chicken bits topped with slices of egg; dowsed with light salad dressing. (Technically,) Nyam nyam!

Who to celebrate it with? Sheryl who lives downstairs. I got to know her when I first came here to Haarener Gracht. Very nice girl who helped me out alot when I first got here. We went shopping for utensils, she loaned me a pan for the first few days and arranged tickets. She knows German, I don't. :( We do Saturday dinners though; that's the only time when I can have my thai rice and Malaysian dishes. Takes too much work to cook rice alone considering the limit of the utensils and the fact that you have to cook the dishes too. So what is a Cheras girl doing here? (sorry forgot to mention she is KLite). She is doing a course that our friend Viknesk would be doing soon. Viks you are going to take that offer right?

Underwear chef will be busy the fricken next two days in the rush to complete my project so I can leave this town for some fresh air. Rawr!

Blogging from the DLR

I arrived here early after an ok ride down the Bahn. Small Bahn... imagine our PLUS highways with no speed limit and green shrubs growing on the road divider. Not too bad that means that our PLUS highways are pretty much of a good standard.

Got myself an intro at the Materials Testing Facility and they do micro gravity tests here. Later this afternoon, going to the Ground Control Facility (imagine mini-Houston)to see if there are also projects there. The guys here at the MTF is already bribing me to stay with them with their super cool coffee making machine PLUS dishwasher... lol wtf. Its really amazing when you come from a country where the highest advancement in astronautical technology is sending a good looking space tourist to the ISS. Three weeks here will do wonders for my resume I guess.

Anyways, more details later this evening. :)

Long Day

Aaah,... Long day at the lab today. Achievement? Can't even remember. Tomorrow have to wake up early to meet Mr. Plescher at the Bushof at 8 am. Then its the roller coaster ride that I am so keen about. That also means that I am unable to hook up with Viknesk tomorrow. Getting short of time to complete the project, yet so much to do.

Checklist:
1) Get my direction cosine matrix.
2) Find a way to make sense of the solution
3) Add filters + Do experiments to get functions
4) Pack it up into a nice GUI

All this to be done by next week Thursday. God would do well to bless me right now.

On other matters, me and a couple of guys are going for Chinese food next Tuesday. Well if you consider the analogy of

Penang Char Koey Teow being fried in Kuala Lumpur

You will get what I mean. Its 7 euros for a buffet so i guess its not bad. Curious to try it out myself.

Mr. Ng Wei Kiat sent me an email encouraging me to be a banker. Sigh its kinda true that big bucks lies in finance. Lots of my friends are going into finance-- them 'Science' stream ppl. I guess they never loved 'Science' but rather '$cience'.

We will chat up when he calls me this weekend (on his bank phone ofc). Them rich buggers. QQ rant: WTF geef injinurs moar money!!!111!1 Looking forward to catch up on news; its good to listen.

Ok dinner is about ready... Till next time. :P

Three entries a day

Hah, my third entry for the day. Wow, I really can get used to blogging. Its 11pm already and I feel guilty not going at my work. Really have to spend some true quality time tomorrow and finish up all my work. On Wednesday I would be busy at the DLR; taking a nice ride down the AutoBahn. They say its a ride you must experience. Considering the driver that is taking me is pretty fast on normal roads-- hehe.

I am keeping my fingers crossed-- hopefully there will be a project that I can take part there. Never mind the transport costs but it would be swell on my resume. Imagine working at the place where engine research is done. Fire away!

Reflecting on today, I'd like to thank Viknesk, Praveen and Chern Hoay. All of them helped me out in big ways today. Early in the morning Viknesk helped me out with programming, Praveen offered to pass my resume, and Chern Hoay hooked me up with some contacts in Singapore. Have to treat them someday... once I got my first job that is.

Chern Hoay is in Germany!

I cannot believe it. That fella who lives in the same neighbourhood as I is in the same country as I am in right now. Shucks, talk about coincidences. He is also doing the same course as me, Aerospace Engineering. Lolz lolz. And like most of my friends, he seems interested in doing banking. According to him, his friend got a job with Deutche Bank at started with a pay of S$8k plus. But that guy is top of his class so 'normal' humans like me would not be starting that much.

So Chern Hoay is studying up his CFA and is delving into finance subjects. We shall wish him luck and lots of money.

Should I bank too? My dream is only to become a plant manager at Prai. Humble me huh? ;)

My first post!

Hi there, welcome to Chia's 家(home). I was just chatting with Mr. GSL about people's blogs and here I am. Bye!