Hooray, I'm about to embark on my first ever six-day work week. (Yes, working in Canada has spoiled me )

I just got back from the office after leaving after 7 PM on a Friday night. And then I'll be meeting up with some of my coworkers at 8 AM Saturday morning to head down to site to complete some initial preparations and testing for an upcoming SAT.

And can you believe I'm being paid less than half the amount I used to make in Canada!

But at least my coworkers are all pretty fun loving, so it's never a dull moment.

Also, I somehow apparently scored a free all you can eat KBBQ.

Yesterday while I was away at site, the recent NUS grad who recently joined up won a bet with our team lead, which scored her a free all you can eat KBBQ. And then today, she somehow managed to convince our boss to treat me to that as well.

So now it's just on me to pick a date and time for us to cash it in.

Today was my first ever experience visiting a (construction) site for work purposes. And man it was huge. I didn't even see half of it.

The site is a huge area of land where a factory is currently being constructed (our company is responsible for some of the systems between the factory buildings). I would take pictures, but photos are not allowed. But man, after going through a morning of safety training, I donned a hardhat, fluorescent vest and steel-toed boots, and then headed out onto the actual site for a quick tour of what I would be involved with.

The moment I stepped on to the site, I seriously felt like I was inside some kind of Discovery Channel program - those ones about major construction projects. All around me were huge half-built buildings, huge water tanks and massive piping. There are literally hundreds of construction workers on site. It was probably one of the most epic things I've seen on any of my work terms to date. It appears to be a fairly big project. The walk back to our trailer has me pass by numerous other trailers housing numerous other contractors and engineering firms, which are also involved in the project.

But it's hot as crazy. People likened it to a desert. And stepping out onto site, I have to agree. The site is located on reclaimed land, and there is sand everywhere. And being Singapore, it's hot. So it's like a hot desert, albeit, a hot and humid desert. Couple that with the fact that safety requirements dictate that you always wear long pants and long sleeves. Plus don't forget your hardhat and safety glasses.

Luckily, it rained for a portion of the day. And with visible lightning, all work on site was halted for about half an hour. During that period, I was able to rest and enjoy the cool air conditioned trailer. (Actually, it's not a trailer... our site offices are located inside three separate shipping containers).

I was supposed to be on site for the entire day tomorrow too, but we were having some issues with the special and expensive multi-meter we needed to carry out some of our tests, so I will only be going down to site in the afternoon after someone picks up a new one for us to use.

While mostly all the work I've done so far is entry-level, everything I'm doing is new to me, and that's acceptable for me.

Hopefully I'll get the chance to move onto some coding eventually - as the type of coding used in PLC programming is vastly different from PC programming. And by vastly, I mean vastly. Last week, one of the full-time staff showed me some of the code that he was working on. And when I looked at it, I was literally like ... huh...? What the heck is this?

It was basically a bunch of solid and broken lines around the screen, with various symbols. Ladder logic, he told me.

I have yet to look it up on Wikipedia for myself.

I was talking to the other co-op student last night at a company BBQ, and apparently, she has already had the chance to move onto doing some programming. Hopefully I'll get to before the end.

Looks like they will be shipping me off to work on-site soon... am supposed to go onto site this Thursday to complete my safety training.

I didn't think I'd need my safety shoes again, so I left my Raytheon-paid-for safety shoes back in Toronto. Will be needing to purchase another pair here in Singapore.

Of course, I'll be able to expense them. Just a bit of an annoyance, as shopping for safety shoes isn't exactly something to look forward to.

I am interested in going on site to get a bit of perspective on what exactly the project I've been working on consists of in the real world. But I'm hoping that I won't be having to stay on site for the remainder of the work term.

Yay, 張懸最新的專輯在來! 這個專輯的名字叫"城市". 我沒聽過因為還沒release啦! 但是我已經preorder!

哎等不了啊! 我以為張懸是我最喜歡的台灣歌手. 雖然我的國語不太好然後常常聽不懂她的歌詞, 我仍然很喜歡她的音樂. 真好利害! 她的吉他skills真好利害! 聲音也一樣的!

張懸的音樂你聽過了嗎?

六月... 等不了!

The other week at church, the speaker mentioned three things:

  1) Faith
  2) Foundation
  3) Fellowship

Perhaps it was the alliteration which helped me to remember it, but I think these points also stuck to me as something that I need to watch myself for.

My first four months in Singapore haven't been super spiritually great, and looking at that list above, I would have to agree that those three aspects are quite important to keep in my walk. Looking back, I see that yes, I had faith, but seriously continued exposure to foundation and fellowship.

Losing any one or more of these three aspects can be quite detrimental to one's walk. Lose your faith, and you lose the reason to keep up with anything in your walk at all. Lose your foundations and you'll heading off track to somewhere, which will likely misguide your faith. Lose your fellowship and you'll lose the opportunity to be spurred on and to spur others on towards Christ.

So take two, for my remaining three months in Singapore, I know that I need to make the effort to get back to my foundations and fellowships (is that even proper English?). I finally hooked up with the youth/college/careers cell group at the local church I've been attending last night, and in someways, it was encouraging and quite refreshing. I need to stick with this.

Yes, the next three months will be over soon, and I'll be back in the perceived/expected comfort of TLCF and UWCCF again, but then what opportunities to grow in my faith would I have missed? And am I really honouring God with this opportunity He and He alone has given me to be in Singapore?

At the beginning of the cell group meeting, the leader posed a question asking what the nicest thing someone has done for you before, and how you responded.

How do I respond to what God has given me? How have I reacted to Singapore? I'm not sure I can give a very satisfying answer? I mean, it's not that I'm saying I need to do something to repay God for blessing me with this opportunity. But it could be as simple as just saying a sincere thanks. And offering up sincere worship.