This week I finally got to the beach!!!! I needed that. Good times and tan lines. Sand in my hair, don’t care. Other than swimming, my favorite thing at Sentosa was the taco truck. There was a canopy with a circle of quaint food trucks, and it was such good grub. We saw people zip lining and bungee jumping, and although I was close to convincing my parents to do it with me, we were happy on solid ground until we went over the rope bridge in order to get to the southernmost point of Continental Asia. It ended up raining a little while we were there, just enough to be a pleasant cooling mist. It felt like we were in a tropical rainforest, and the ocean was this beautiful dark teal color. It was refreshing and a much needed break from the city.

Another thing we had to check off the list was the night safari. We got lucky and ended up getting spots in the very front seats of the open-aired shuttle, giving us optimal leg room, as well as optimal visibility of the animals! My favorite animals to see were the leopard and the lions. My least favorite was the wolf because I think I actually jumped out of my skin when I saw it skulking by. After the safari ride, we wandered the paths of the zoo in the dark for so long we had to have seen every single animal that was there; the slight rain definitely didn’t stop us. One thing that I was impressed with was how happy the animals seemed to be compared to other zoos. The handlers were talking about how they were really passionate about protecting endangered species by giving them a protected home here. It was clear the intentions of the zoo were good ones, and not just meant to be a tourist attraction.

The workplace was buzzing on Thursday, everyone dressed up in their business best in anticipation of the networking event that evening. Apparently we were going to a boxing match!! Everyone in the office was in an extremely cheery mood and mega excited, but I was oblivious to what all the big hype was about. I didn’t know much about boxing other than getting my dad boxing gloves for Christmas one year and watching Rocky. I meet the other interns at Marquee, where the event is being held, honestly having no idea what to expect. Christian, our CFO from Australia, meets us at the front to escort us in. We are led past the crowd to a booth of couches directly next to the ring, and are surprised to find out that he is actually in charge of the event! No, we weren’t close enough to the ring to be showered in sweat or anything like that, but we definitely had his VIP seating, which made it that much more of a bizarre and rare experience. In between the amateurs and pros, there was also an auction in which Mike Tyson boxing gloves, PGA flag signed by Tiger and a dozen golfers, Mclaren Lando Norris helmet, and one of Ed Sheeran’s guitars were some of the cool things being auctioned. Bianca had previously worked on putting the slides for the auctioned items together without knowing what it was for, so she was having fun giving the interns hints about what was being auctioned before it was announced. It was kinda amazing and awe inspiring to see the involvement that our company has in the tech industry, and to be able to experience this big elaborate event from the inside.

Friday morning I got up early to go to the Sky Garden at CapitaSpring before work. Then, we went to coffee of course before I bid them adieu for another 8 hour work day. The one thing about hard work is that being able to leave on a Friday at the end of a work week has got to be a top 10 best feeling. My brother was back from his trip to Bali, so we hit up that one Harry Potter bar that he likes for fire drinks and food (on actual fire). Walking around Chinatown, one of my favorite things to see was all the old men in the park playing mahjong. I’ve noticed that the community within different cultures in Singapore is super strong, and I’m glad to be exposed to their cultures. On that note, Saturday morning we went to Jurong Lake, where the Chinese and Japanese Gardens are located. We got to see the temples, bridges, gates, and natural beauty of the gardens. Being able to spend a whole day with my parents, I was happy to overlook the sweltering heat and the energy was still high after going 3 miles. We were able to cool off at Hard Rock Cafe, wanting some familiar food. The kids’ party that was screaming and running around the tables for half the time we were there just made me appreciate sweet silence and peace and quiet even more. We had a very lowkey Sunday of shopping at Orchard and lunch at Din Tai Fung, which Ariana recommended to us, before my brother left for Shanghai and my parents went home. I was super happy they were able to come and do so much in the little amount of time they were here, and thanks to Alexa’s countdown which I will now be adding to my phone too, I’m getting excited to be back in the home country in T-26 days!!