#cvfellows14

Our 2014 Cultural Vistas Fellows returned home this week from eight weeks interning abroad in Berlin, Buenos Aires, and Singapore.

Day 59 

Fulfilled

Ah, my last day in Singapore.  

I say this day is fulfilled because I can say I experienced everything that I had hoped to! The last few things off my "Singapore bucket list" were: see Steven Wiltshire sketch an aerial view of Singapore, go to a Catholic mass, and see some monkeys!  All of these happened today, and it was a great last day in the Lion City.  

Steven Wiltshire is famous for his drawings of iconic cities across the world, including Hong Kong, London, and New York.  He was originally diagnosed as autistic, but he amazed the world with his ability to draw accurate aerial perspective drawings of the cities with only a short helicopter ride for reference.  The rest is all from memory.  He has been sketching Singapore for 4 days now, from 10-5 each day.  Today, I got to see him in action for about an hour before his lunch break.  A gallery was also set up to display some of his other works.  I was astounded by the amount of detail and accurate scale of the drawings.  I can only hope to be half as skilled as him...if that!

After lunch at Takashimaya, I joined the boys on a quest to find some monkeys out at Macritchie Reservoir.  They had seen the elusive critters only a few days previously, so I followed their lead out on the boardwalk of the reservoir.  I thought hope was all but lost as we stumbled upon squirrels, lizards, and spiders, but still no monkeys.  We took a different trail on the way back and as luck would have it, we finally saw them!  There were 3 or 4 little monkeys with long tails playing in the leaves, jumping from branch to branch, and shimmying up and down the trees.  It was incredible seeing these animals so close in the wild!  Lots of locals don't like the monkeys because they are notorious for stealing food and other goodies from the reservoir visitors.  I was just happy to get to see them in person!

And what blog post would be complete without a statement about food?  For my final meal in Singapore (wow that sounds melodramatic...) I ate one of my favorite dishes: sliced fish soup with rice.  It's simple, healthy, and delicious - just the way I like it.  The CV fellows and I killed some time in Chinatown while souvenir shopping.  We then parted ways to pack up for our big flight tomorrow! 

Today, the fellows (except Courtney) went on a tour of the EUREF campus, a campus dedicated to developing ecologically and economically sustainable ideas. Basically, it's a campus of research, innovation, and business. We listened to presentations from InnoZ and other businesses and heard about what Berlin's future might look like in terms of transportation. Currently, they are working with several companies in the mobile sector (using smart phones to receive information on the go), the sustainability sector (energy-efficient vehicles), and the current infrastructure (deutsche Bahn and the current rail system) to find a way to make transportation more efficient.

There were these cool simulation tables where the presenters were able to visually present their ideas by placing things on the simulation table. The first presenter talked about the energy grid on the campus. The campus has a "smart grid" that integrates infomation about the amount of energy produced (by solar and wind, etc.) and the amount of energy demanded and tries to distribute this energy properly. It was a pretty good simulation (pictures to come). 

The second simulation table discussed methods of transportation. With an increase in population size, using shared electric cars might be a solution to potential future traffic problems. Currently, driving by cars is one of the slowest ways to travel, almost comparable to walking. Biking is the quickest method of transportation, and public transit is second quickest. By using shared cars, public transit would be less congested, and at the same time, there'd be less cars on the street. 

Afterwards, we heard more presenters from various start-up companies. The topics today were overall pretty interesting and innovative, but aside from the simulation tables, I'd have to say that the presentation of all the information was pretty dry. It's cool to have creative ideas, but without exciting ways to communicate them to people outside their research circle, it can be tough to get people on board with the ideas, and that's something to keep in mind.

The fellows got the day off work today so that we could attend two Cultural Vistas events. In the afternoon, we had a career-building workshop and discussed resumés, core competencies and selling yourself (yuck). It was extremely helpful, especially because I really suck at being an adult and don't really know anything about professional life and careers.

Our next event was a "Berlin Gathering" of Cultural Vistas alumnis and current participants. We got to go to the top floor of the Allianz Forum, drink wine, eat fancy sandwiches, and (sorta) meet people. On the balcony, there was a view of the Brandenburger Tor that we got to enjoy as the sun started to set. :)

Day 56

Satisfying

What an excellent day!  I awoke to the sound of rolling thunder, which I have mentioned previously is actually a positive thing - meaning the temperature and humidity drop down to bearable levels.  It felt wonderful all day.  For lunch, the other two interns at my office joined me on food street in Chinatown (complete with selfie-taking).  I got to try two very traditional dishes from the Hokkien culture, only available this week during the Food Festival: rickshaw noodles and rice cake bowl (wa kueh), both of which were delightful.  

Work seemed to go by especially fast today, so that was also a good sign!  At the end of the day, I met up with the other fellows at the National Museum of Singapore to check out the free exhibits on display.  One was about the history of food culture in Singapore, and the other, a historical photography exhibit.  The food culture one was actually really fascinating! I saw old tools and methods used to make the traditional dishes that I have been able to try over the past two months.  It is so fascinating to me to see how not only the recipes are handed down through generations, but also the art of mastering each dish.  This is why I get so excited about food from Singapore.  It is really the strongest aspect of culture that you will find here, and people are incredibly passionate about it.  

Day 38  Fluky

The day started off just dandy, and though we ran into some problems along the way, we made it back to Singapore safe and sound!

Let me elaborate… For starters, I had to navigate the treacherously narrow (not to mention stinky) streets of Melaka with a rolling suitcase. The whole city is definitely not to ADA code requirements, which in English means handicapped persons would struggle getting place to place. There are little ledges and stairs that to most people are not that problematic, but the height changes are significant enough to make it quite difficult to drag around luggage, much less wheel around in a wheelchair or something of the sort.

For lunch, we found a place that sold the revered chicken rice balls, only available in Melaka. The locally-owned shop clearly pegged us as tourists, and kind of jipped us in terms of prices. We paid way more than expected, which put us all in a sour mood. Straight after, we struggled to find a place to relax and enjoy some ice cream, so we ended up revisiting the chendol stand from yesterday. Which was perfectly fine by me, because it is phenomenal.

Navigating our way to the bus pickup location also proved problematic, but we eventually made it there with time to spare and some snacks in our hands for the trip.

Day 37 Eclectic

We had such a great day here in Melaka! It was spent with lots of meandering, popping in and out of little shops and cafés, and weaving through hordes of people.

There was a significant difference between day and night life here. During the hottest hours of the day while we were exploring the area, we saw handfuls of tourists, but a lot of the shops were closed. It was quiet and peaceful, for the most part. We are lunch at a little café and grabbed the local dessert, chendol, from a street vendor. As we walked around the streets, we happened upon some excellent stuff! I found the fifth Game of Thrones book from a secondhand book shop, also where one of the other fellows picked up some vintage comic books. The shop owner was the sweetest and gave me a discount on my book as well!