My final planned trip: completed.  Now it is just the countdown until the end of my days in Singapore (4 weeks exactly from Friday, actually).

Tioman Island was absolutely gorgeous.  I think the beaches of the Philippines were nicer in terms of sand, water, etc…. but the privacy and exclusivity of Tioman made it spectacular.  I have, however, decided to accept my paleness and inability to get a tan while on the equator.  I simply ignite into a ball of flames here no matter what I do, so now I think I will just avoid the sun at all costs until I’m at a “normal” latitude.

It was amazing having my friend Ed here to visit.  It was a bit of everything I miss from home bundled into one package.  Him talking about moving to Manhattan also is pumping me up for graduation.  The countdown for that will certainly begin soon…

For now, I’m resigning back to my homliness of watching Game of Thrones and movies until South Africa.  I’m still taking suggestions on what my first meal back should be… I’m thinking of somewhere on Newbury or Boyleston, but I haven’t completely shut out Border Cafe either… which, btw, my first meal back will be in the afternoon of July 31st (Tuesday) so anyone not on co-op but in Boston will be certainly welcome to join my parents and I before we head out!

The current (and very subject to change) game plan for my two weeks back:

Tuesday, July 31st: Boston for afternoon then down to CT

Wednesday and Thursday, August 1st-2nd: Connecticut to see Bumblebee

Friday, August 3rd: CT and back up to NH

Saturday through Tuesday: Gilford, NH

Wednesday and Thursday, August 8th-9th: early morning drive to Sandwich, MA to see Vrountasauruses

Friday through Sunday, August 10th-12th: P-town with Chuck and Justin

Monday and Tuesday, August 13th-14th: NH

Wednesday, August 15th: RA move-in and training begins back in Boston..

Last weekend, I had the opportunity to travel to Malaysia - my first trip out of Singapore (and the end of the longest time I’ve spent in one place in over a year).

Travel between Malaysia and SG is extremely cheap, but I won’t boast too much about Malaysia itself.  I had an amazing time, but I can’t really say there was anything that floored me.  I visited two locations: Penang and Kuala Lumpur.

Penang is an island and former base territory for the British colonization of Malaysia.  With that there’s a lot of “old world” artifacts from the British such as Fort Cornwallis and some churches and cemeteries.  You can definitely get a Victorian feel in old George Town where I stayed… after sleeping in the airport, I woke up early to get to where I was staying in G-town and then walked around the area for about 6 or 7 hours.  The one thing I was most amazed with were mosques… I saw many Buddhist and Chinese temples (which I’ve now seen dozens of in my life), but I’ve never visited a mosque… and I have to say they’re beautiful.

The second day, I woke up before 6am to head to the Botanic Gardens (pretty lackluster compared to SG) and then from there hike up Penang Hill.  Worst part of this was the fact that Malaysia simply seems to refuse to utilize signs… so hiking a trail that is rarely used was not the easiest thing.  I started out by taking some random steps that I had to cross a ditch to get to and hiking with some monkeys.  The second leg was so narrow and clearly not used that I had to legitimately climb up a clay wall and use a branch to keep from walking into spider webs.  The third leg was the best though.  I found some strays… a mother with pups that were less than three days old (eyes not opened) as well as two male friends.  The male dogs then hiked with me for the next hour and a half or so and were great company.  It wasn’t until we got to the funicular train that we parted ways and I hiked the last bit up the village hillside (some people have some expensive bungalows up there… but I had to hike up the viaduct for a good portion of it and then through some construction).  The views were amazing, but the weather was somewhat crappy and made it hard to capture on film.

After the hill, I went home and showered and finished my time at Batu Ferringhi… a pretty lame beach that seemed a bit dirty, but watching the sunset over the Andaman Sea was quite wonderful.  And the beach had a fairly nice night market along the main street that I also visited.

As for KL, there isn’t much to say.  I met up with a friend from Malaysia and we did the touristy things… we went up the KL Tower and saw the Petronas towers at night.  I really enjoyed making the trek out to see the National Monument which was recently built to commemorate the Malaysian army.  I also greatly enjoyed going to the Batu Caves and Hindu religious site as well as an ecological zone (the rarest spider in the world lives in its caverns).

All-in-all, for its price Malaysia was a great trip.  I suppose some of my “disappointments” had more to do with comparing some of things I saw to other places I’ve already traveled.  For a first-timer, a lot of things in Malaysia may seem extremely cool and awesome.  Mostly, I enjoyed just getting out of Singapore!!  Traveling alone for the most part also enabled me to see and do a lot more (when you’re alone, it’s hard not to get bored and find something somewhere to go see).

Honestly not too much has been going on.  It’s that “lull” cycle of co-op.

Though I am finally getting out of Singapore this coming weekend.  Working on a Japanese team means although I don’t get Tuesday off this week (Singapore’s Labour Day), I do get Monday, Thursday, and Friday off for Japanese holidays.  I will visit Penang and Kuala Lumpur because they are so easy and cheap to get to.  Malaysia seems to have a lot more culture and history than Singapore, so it’ll be nice to get out.  This is, in fact, the longest I have been in one place in a year.

Flights are all confirmed to leave as well… flying straight from Singapore the night of my technical last day, staying overnight in Qatar, and then down to Cape Town!  And I will also be flying home to the states for the first time in 11 months (almost exactly) on August 1st!

We’ve had a lot of people visiting us here… I personally have had friends visit twice and should have two more visits before this is all over which is nice.  Love my BSIB-ers to death, but it’s also great to see other American friends while abroad!

I’m enrolled and unofficially confirmed with all of my minors and what not to graduate with just four classes this fall (yay, no overloads!).  Though I think only BSIB will be on the actual paper, this means I am graduating: Bachelor of Science in International Business with a concentration in Finance and minors in East Asian Studies, Chinese, and Sustainable Business Practices.  Mouthful.

I’ve been continuing to research a lot of things like full-time positions and grad school.  I think I will try to do the GRE in the fall because if I do go into work, I know I will have no motivation to study… really I should be reviewing my Chinese right now on co-op, but heck if I can get myself to actually do it.

That’s mostly the end of the boring life updates… it’s sad to want co-op to end so badly because I also know that once I fly out of SG I probably won’t be able to come back to Asia for quite some time.  There’s still so much I haven’t seen; so many places I haven’t been… but it makes me all the more determined to get me back here.  This trip has definitely proven to me I have wanderlust and there’s probably no activity I enjoy more than traveling.

I will continue to be posting on this tumblr until the end of my abroad experience come August, but I have opened a new domain (christianjoseph.blogspot.com) for the things I generally share on Facebook and Twitter.

News updates on the gay civil rights movement, sustainability and renewable energy, information on study abroad and traveling, etc etc.

So I know (for all intents and purposes) that this blog is for my mother.  I love my mother a lot.  And my father for that matter of fact.

And to be honest, I’m not sure what this blog post is about.  I just know that I watched “You Should Meet My Son” (2010) just now, and although it has absolutely NOTHING to do with my life (my parents have always been supportive and, quite honestly, the most helpful people in guiding me in my life decisions… even if they don’t quite realize it), I feel a sort of.. admiration for the folk the bequeathed me to… well, the world.

My mother knows quite well what I have been through, probably honestly my whole life… but quite seriously, she knows at least the adult years of my life.  Who I was, who I loved, WHAT I was… these are questions she knew answers to… even if I did not.

I’m not sure why at this moment I feel a “falling in love” with my undeniably amazing parents.  My mother is a social work administrator.  She helps people get better.  She has been studying, quite ludicrously to be honest, to be a counselor.  Why is this crazy?  Because she has been counseling  people since before I was born… she is quite honestly one of the most amazing people I know.  My father?  He is a retired teacher.  The most revered profession in the culture I study.  I wanted to be a teacher for some time because of him, even if I never told him that… I’ve never been more inspired by an individual than my father… My father was a track star.  Maybe not in the eyes of the Olympics, but I keep photographs of him running even if I weren’t to be born nearly 20+ years after they were taken… I look at them whenever I need inspiration to try my hardest.

I love my family a lot.  Probably a lot more than they think.  Probably a lot more than I think.  But it’s days like this… days when you’ve been so far removed from not only your home but your culture that you truly appreciate the values you were grown upon.  The people that, no matter what… no matter how bad things were, would be on your side.

I love my parents.  I love my brothers (probably more than anything… it may be quite Irish of me… but that matters more than most anything in my life).  I love my sister-in-law… and right now most importantly, I love my Goddaughter.  The light of my our lives.

I’d like to point out that this is the first time I am taking Friday classes since Fall of freshman year.  On the bright side, I also realized that by combining my two capstone courses into one strategy class I am only taking one business core #winning.  Unless I end up in co-op, this means I’m graduating in December! Bachelor of Science in International Business and Finance with minors in Sustainable Business Practices, Chinese language, and East Asian Studies.  Finally.

Picture: Botanic Gardens - Singapore

Life’s good in Singapore.  Other than not earning money and this being the world’s most ridiculously expensive country.  Tomorrow is a Japanese holiday, and I’ve moved to a new team at BAML and now work in the Yen Equity Settlements team… so that means with the TSE closed tomorrow, I get a day off!  I plan to… sleep… and iron… and pool.  My life is pretty happenin’ right now.

I guess this boredom has given me license to think a lot about future plans.  I am most likely graduating in December, but there are some potential co-op opportunities stateside that I could graduate on…. once I register for classes next week I’ll start sending out resumes and cover letters for January and by October we’ll see.  

Mostly I’m looking at renewable energy companies… either funds or consulting firms.  And alternatively, I’ve been researching grad programs for energy/sustainable systems… so far I’m really liking UMichigan and UCBerkeley’s MS programs… but that’s all up in the air and pretty far down the road I’m thinking right now.  Mostly I am looking at companies in California, but there are some options in New York, DC, and Chicago.  If I can, I would rather not stay in Boston.  I’ve gotten too comfortable there and need change.

South Africa is all but booked.  I’ve confirmed my flight with NU’s agent, and I’m flying out of Singapore the night of my last day of co-op: June 29th.  It’s rushed, but I will be excited to have a full two weeks at home before I have to be back for fall training (oh, and yes… I got my re-hire letter for RA… but we don’t find out until June where we are located, so it’s bittersweet letting go of my 16th floor room in WVH).

A list of the food I plan to eat straight away when I get back in Boston:

Original Boloco burrito, classic mexican, no meat with buffalo sauce

Il Mondo cheese pizza

Plain bagel with cream cheese

Morningstar garden vegetable burger

Red mango original with strawberries

Deviled eggs

Stetson East white chocolate cranberry AND chocolate chip cookies

Homemade mashed potatoes

Coffee from ERC

UHOP eggplant parm sub

and a few oatmeal cookie shots from Conors

I still watch this video almost every other day.  I miss this city so much!  I really think it became a second home for me.  I really do hope I have the opportunity to go back and work in the world’s greatest city.

Finally settling into a routine of sorts here.  Bank account is sorted, apartment is sorted,  sleep schedule is sort of on track… things are going haha.

I had a UST friend visit this past weekend and a high school/Northeastern friend is visiting this coming weekend as she heads to start her co-op in Indonesia.  I like have such a large apartment to entertain like this!

CNY in Singapore was a little lack luster, but to be fair I didn’t really try to see much. I saw fireworks here and there, and work put on a Lion’s Dance.  I also participated in the Yu Sheng and promptly got food alllllll over myself.  My New Year’s resolution is to be more adventurous… mostly I’m applying that to meeting new people and going out on a limb for people I wouldn’t normally consider hanging out with or going on dates with.

No real travel plans this time around; saving money and looking towards the future for Malaysia and Indonesia since they’re so convenient (literally a bus or boat ride away), but other than that nothing much…

I miss Boston lots, and I miss home a ton.  But at the same time, I value this experience above any other I’ve ever had.  I can’t even imagine my life without having been abroad now.  I absolutely love living and working abroad… I know I will never move abroad permanently, and that’s mostly for sociopolitical reasons, but I definitely would love to do a 2-5 year stint out of the US.  Life’s still quite TBD though.  I’ll write it as it goes…