Woooooooooow is this blog late! This is why I do not work well with set schedules - They never go exactly how I plan them to go. I apologize dearly for this; my last week in my internship flew by sooooo fast and my unpreparedness into my transition back home hit me super hard. But alas, I am here and I am doing well! It seems a little unreal that this time last week, I was still in Singapore. Singapore will forever have a special place in my heart and I hope that the stars are aligned for my finances so that I will have another chance to visit her again! The top 3 things that I have missed about Singapore:
#1 – The heat and humidity Real #1 – Now y’all know that was a joke! But in all seriousness, I deeply miss all of the wonderful people that I had the honor of getting to meet and interact with. I truly feel as though I have learned something from everyone that I talked to and honestly feel as though I am both a better world citizen and a better Kiaira as well! Honestly, I don't even know how to express how incredibly grateful for all of the connections that I was able to make while abroad - from World Vision, the Asia P3 Hub Team, the Co-Creation Workshops, Herbalife, and the people who fed me delicious food from all around Singapore. I will never forget everyone and hope that I brought some joy and smiles to everyone's days! #2 – Being able to say that I was half way around the world. Even before I left the US, I knew that I was a traveler by heart and this experience justified by love and appreciation for it. I got a good glance of the world this summer and am hungry for more. I want to see it all. I have to see it all! I now know that this traveling thing is not just a phase that will pass but is a part of me now. #3 – The feeling of unpredictability and uncomfortable. Not saying that Cincinnati, OH is a predictable place. But there was something nice about always having to be on the edge for cultural differences and customs. Something exciting about never knowing what was going to happen next (in a controlled setting might I add). My exciting summer has made Cincinnati, once the city that I attributed such qualities to, a bit dull. I’m too comfortable here. I blame my mother for crafting such a challenge hungry child. Coming from a girl who used to be too shy to speak in public, I would say that me now craving this feeling of being uncomfortable is quite the character development. I still hold to my statement that coming to Singapore was one of the best decisions that I have ever made in my life. My eyes see wider now and my ears hear clearer. My touch reaches deeper and my voice carries further. I would like to give a great big thank you to everyone who funded my trip and have supported me along the way and an equally big thanks to everyone in Singapore who made this summer the best one yet. Specially, I would like to thank my supervisor Christy Davis for allowing my personality to shine into my work and for making me chili when I got a little too homesick. And fyi everyone back in Singapore, despite my best efforts, I cried like a baby as soon as I left the World Vision SAPO office for the last time! I hope that I will be able to see everyone again soon in Singapore and look forward to sharing stories of my adventures with everyone back home!
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Ever since I was a little girl, I have wanted to travel the world. I’ve wanted to swim the oceans that hugged the land’s shores and touch the clouds that surrounded the highest mountains. I’ve wanted to immerse myself in the cultures that I have read about in my history textbooks and be engulfed in all of the cuisines that flooded my Pinterest boards. Whenever I imagined my world traveling adventures, images of wonders and magic shined through my eyes. Of course I have known of the great tragedies and injustices that strived around the world but of course hearing of something and actually witnessing it are two different things. I was very young and very naïve.
I arrived in Singapore in the beginning of June. Before my first week as an intern at the World Vision International’s South Asia & Pacific Regional Office had even finished, I was overwhelmed. Overwhelmed at the unbelievable statistics that highlighted some of the lifestyles that were present here in Asia and at the videos and pictures that I saw that brought these statistics to life. It was overwhelming and somewhat defeating to see all of these injustices being the reality for so many people and for the world to have no clear answer as to how to combat this. Before I knew it, this internship had turned into a global citizen duty to me and I found myself aspiring to use my own voice and privileges to uplift the voices of others with such inequities. Having a chance to be in the midst of the works of the Asia P3 Incubation Hub has been nothing short of amazing. During my short time here in Singapore, the hub has transformed my feelings of desperation with the water crisis into feeling of hope for a positive future for us all. The world has the brains for these problems. We also have the heart and the support. And with the Asia P3 Hub, these is no doubt at all that we will be able to bring together all three of these components to collaborate and make our major moves to completely eradicating these injustices around all of Asia. The past 4 days have been wonderful! I had plans to go to Thailand but after looking at my budget - or at least what remains of it - I decided that it wouldn't be the most responsible thing for me to do to blow throw the last of it with 2 full weeks in Singapore plus airport food to consider. So I, the oh so responsible young adult, instead took this weekend to go bike riding with friends and to use my free time to start to plan things out - the next semester and the next two years and beyond.
My fitness group decided that they would all go bike riding for three hours over the weekend so I decided to join them. Now, I haven't been on a bicycle since I was in my single digits so it's been at least 10 years. And had I remembered how physically exhausting bike riding was, I wouldn't have done it! But I did. And 20 minutes into the 3 hour bike ride, I thought I was going to die. I thought for sure that this was how I would go when I witnessed the giant mountain that they expected me to make my way over. I had come to terms with my past after climbing the gentle giant to have found another giant. Let me tell you, I don't know how I did it. I was crying by time we reached the end point. My iPhone said I burned 1,500 calories but I would multiple that by two because never have there ever been a day as hot and humid as that day. And the seat pad. I still, two days afterwards, cannot even walk without the painful reminder of that god awful seat that I had to sit on for three hours! Needless to say, I'm sore! It's getting really bitter sweet right now, with me having less than 2 weeks left in Singapore. I'm so glad that I've had to privilege to actually be able to LIVE in Singapore as opposed to just working here - I've been told that I talk like a true Singaporean now and my spicy food tolerance has increased too! Well, my writing time is a bit limited so I will get back to you all next Sunday! *and, as a heads up, after this next Sunday 8/7, I will write my final blog post in Singapore 8/12 before I head on my plane home This weekend, for lack of a better word, sucked. And as my mother taught me never to speak on a subject when I am 1) sad, 2) mad, or 3) hungry, I will use this day to reflect on my experiences to ensure that my next blog post, which are always written from my heart, is able to be proofread by my head.
And as I am determined not to let a bad day equate to a bad overall experience here in Singapore, I will start this brand new bright day with only the highest expectations of it ending very well. I’ll be back in 12 hours or so! Despite my attempts at casting this past weekend as my true weekend of rest, I am feeling just as exhausted at its end than I did at its beginning! My Saturday morning consisted of me running a few errands (buying fruit, restocking on toiletries) and going to my fitness group’s boot camp. When I tell you they ran me dry, they ran. Me. Dry. Whatever life I had left in my upper legs from the last boot camp I had Thursday night was completely wiped out. And on top of that, the elevator in my hotel is broken, so I have to walk up and down 5 flights of stairs anytime I want to go anywhere. However, I am super excited with the results that I am having and am really getting used to this change in lifestyle. On Sunday, I (against the will of every muscle in my body) took another 5-mile jog and enjoyed the most deserved 3-hour nap ever.
Other than this, I have no more updates! My weekend just consisted of me seeing more parts of the southern coast of Singapore that I have missed in my previous weeks and finishing the last season of Game of Thrones (which, by the way, was ah-mazing!) I am beginning the final leg of my internship at full force and will get back with everyone next Sunday!
So this week, the Asia P3 Hub was launched! I’m so excited because I can finally reveal all of the amazing work I’ve been doing this summer! So here are a few quite bullet points about the Hub:
I am so thankful that I have been given this opportunity to be in the midst of such positive global change and that I will be able to do my share as a global citizen to ensure that the journey to provide ALL human beings on this planet with their basic rights continues justly. A quick update on the past week: I decided that I would join a health club after stepping on a scale and realizing that I’ve lost 30 pounds in the past 10 weeks! I’m not even exaggerating! I would say that 80% of this weight loss came from the fact that has been just so hot and humid in Singapore and Costa Rica and 20% because I don’t have my weekly bdubs anymore. These results left me feeling so motivated! With my health club, hopefully I will pick up new lifestyle changes that will help me both lose more weight and actually keep all of this weight off when I get back home. I will for sure update my blog ON SCHEDULE this upcoming Sunday! J With two major events coming up at my internship, I have been crunched on time to post of my weekend journey. Despite the major holiday, I decided to go to Malaysia anyway. The beginning of the trip began a little shaky; a four and a half hour bus ride turned into over eight and I thought I was going to be stranded at the border. Going more into detail, the trouble began while I was getting my passport checked at the Malaysia border. I was told when buying my ticket that the bus driver was not obligated to wait more than 20 minutes for us to get through the line so you could only imagine the horror that overtook me when I entered a room with nearly 1,000 people ahead of me trying to get through too! After over an hour of standing in the line and while trying not to get annoyed at all of the people who thought that they were special enough to shove their way through people, I finally made it through. It was hot, I was hungry, and I was sure that the bus had left me stranded in the middle of nowhere in a country where I haven’t even had the chance to exchange my currency yet. But to my relief, as I pouted my way out of the building, there they were! In total, we ended up waiting two hours (a couple got left behind, but there was a very angry woman who was en route to the airport who spent the entire time reminding everyone of that) and I finally made it to Kuala Lumpur a little after 7, a whole three and a half hours off schedule. It took me a little time to locate my hotel (which was NOT in the middle of the city as I thought that it would be) and before you knew it, it was nightfall and I still hadn’t exchanged my currency yet. Which left me with two options: 1) being to starve, as I had no money to buy food and 2) being to walk endlessly at night in the middle of a big city I was not familiar with. If you know me, you already know that I went to walking. About 10 minutes into my walk, I found a convenient store filled with a group of women and a police officer. I asked if they exchanged money and when they denied my request, I was about ready to just give up and return to my hotel hungry. But the kindest woman exchanged her personal money with me, showing up the heroine of my tale. I started my short journey around the city at daybreak and make my way back to Singapore midday (although, it wasn’t anywhere near as dramatic as my journey there). My concluding thoughts of Malaysia are that it is a beautiful country with kind, beautiful people and that I hope that I will be able to fully experience its beautiful with a longer trip sometime in the future!
I don’t have much time to write, but I will update my blog next Sunday! This week begins my 4th week in Singapore. Fourth! Out of ten! Time is flying here on this side of the world and I’m kind of wishing that I could start my 10 weeks all over again. Now that I work indoors during the peak hours, I barely even notice the heat anymore! If that isn’t a sign, then I don’t know what would be.
On another note, my internship is still going very well! I think that it says something about me maturing into a “real” adult when I start complaining about how I don’t have enough work time in the week. Working for World Vision began the beginning of, as I told my supervisor, my quarter life crisis. Never have I even been so unsure of what my future holds for me. I’m the type of girl that plans her life away. I have a Pinterest board dedicated to my future home, my future wedding, and my future kids! I’ve narrowed down where I picture myself settling down at to five distinct locations and had my whole career written out from scratch, an emphasis on had. Since coming to Singapore, I have truly considered a career working for a non-profit organization such as world vision. Traveling the world, dedicating my life to the fields. I’ve done so much research on future career pathways this could lead me to, from the United Nations to the World Health Organization. I’m sure I’ll figure it out eventually but until then, I am just going to enjoy all of the experience I am joining while I’m here! This lovely weekend consisted of me going painting with all of the students in my program, visiting the famous Haw Par Villa (though I will not be posting many pictures from here. The place is graphic! But it’s a great introduction to Chinese mythology and I thoroughly enjoyed my trip here), doing my usual exploring, and visiting the Singapore Art Museum. I’m excited to begin my tour of Southeast Asia starting this weekend in Indonesia (not Malaysia yet because Ramadan is still happening – how is a girl supposed to eat when half of the country is fasting?!)! I’ll be sure to follow it with a bunch of pictures! *On a completely different note, this weekend, I discovered the miracle that is Game of Thrones all thanks to one of my co-workers (thanks Dexter!) and it is seriously the best show I’ve watched in a long while. I definitely recommend it! Having been in Singapore for two full weeks now, I would still say that the culture shock is still here. Today, I walked past a food stand that was selling chicken head and got a strong smell of durian (also know as the smelliest fruit on the planet!). I am grateful that I have this opportunity to immerse myself completely into this unique culture and to learn so much about the uniqueness amongst the Asian culture. My lunch times at work are filled with me hearing about the customs and cultures of my co-workers, who are not only from all around Asia but also from all around the world! I find myself listening and watching more nowadays and couldn’t think of a better way for me to spend my summer than being here amongst it all.
Because my work visa did not come in soon enough, my trip to Malaysia had to be pushed back. Not that I was too disappointed, as I still had Singapore to explore! This weekend, I toured the famous Botanic Gardens and ventured about the east side of Singapore. One of the most magical things about Singapore is the way the tropical environment just blends in with the urban city. On my way to the subway station the other day, I saw the most beautiful bird that I’ve ever laid my eyes on. It was black and white with specks of yellow, green, and red on its beak. All that is left of Singapore for me to explore is the northern areas beyond the rain forest reserve! On another note, my internship is going wonderfully! It is so nice to wake up early in the morning looking forward to going to work. My co-workers are some of the sweetest people that you’ll meet and always keep me laughing. Sometimes, I’m having so much fun that I forget that I’m working. I’ve even talked to some of my co-workers about working abroad in a non-profit company (sorry Mom, I know that you don’t want to hear this!). I don’t want to say too much aabout my project before our launch day July 11th, but I will say that it involves water scarcity in Asia. I have done hours of research on the topic of water scarcity in general and would say that the top 3 surprising facts that I’ve come across are as following:
Because my program has a special even planned for next weekend, my trip to Malaysia will be in two weeks. I will have another blog posted for next Sunday! |
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August 2016
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