Eye-opening experiences, and I think I've jumped out of yet another well once again.
I used to think that doctor lawyer architect engineer were about the only career options to choose from, but scholarship day really opened up my eyes to so much more. It has showed me that things don't have to be so rigid, that your uni degree doesn't have to be in anything as specific as those mentioned above. In fact, even if you take a degree in something general like sciences its still possible to go to so many different  agencies to work. Scholarship day has also opened me up to the possibility of working in the public sector. I used to be very close-minded about this, and was quite firm in my belief that I didn't, wouldn't, just couldn't take up a scholarship with a bond at the end of it, felt that it would be stifling, that an 18 year old just had no place making a decision that would change at least the next 8 years or so of his life. Well, now I know that things aren't as rigid as they originally seemed. They're pretty flexible, really. If after working for 2 years or so in XY department you feel that its not suited to you, or you just grow plain bored of working there, it's entirely possible to request to be transferred to another department without having to go through all the hassle of resigning and looking for employment elsewhere. Additionally, I don't think I've ever been the type of guy who's utterly obsessed with money above everything else, though more is always better, of course. I wouldn't mind serving this country in that capacity, and after talking to the people tending all those booths, it seems to me that the working environment is pretty fine, s'long as you're passionate about what you're doing, of course.

A;though I said everything above, and though I'm quite glad that several of my misconceptions regarding work in the public sector have been cleared up, I am aware that things may have been sugar-coated. I mean, its a presentation to potential scholarship applicants for crying out loud. They want as many applicants as possible, and thus would want to present as good an image to them, in order to attract them to their respective departments. There's nothing wrong with that, of course, but just keep in mind that they may not have presented the full view of things =)

Went to survey condos at Bukit Timah with Clarissa after that for PW. After having some initial trouble locating the bus stop which was near Marymount (it's not my fault that streetdirectory.com made it look sooo close to Marymount station ok...) and missing our stop, we eventually got to Bukit Timah Shopping Centre. After lunch, and photocopying our surveys, we then immediately got into action. Nah, just kidding. We spent the next 10 mins or so just stapling those freaking surveys together. And at the end, there was one missing sheet, which actually foreshadowed what was to come (I'll talk more about that later)

AFTER that, we took the bus down to Hillview. We finally got there after missing our stop YET again, a very simple yet crucial question occurred to us: "Now what?" Just how could we get in past the security checkpoint at the entrance of the condo? Then a brilliant idea occurred to me *lightbulb!* to just walk past it like nobody's business. It worked, too XD The guard just sat there doing nothing as we walked in. Infiltration complete >.< However, once we were in, we were kinda shocked that we had actually managed it, and were totally at a loss as to what to do. Had we broken the law? Had we just committed a criminal offence? Were we now one of those trespassers who would be persecuted? I had no idea. Though the idea of simply ambushing residents and asking them to assist us in our project was extremely appealing, as I did not intend to get into jail at such a tender age, we eventually decided to roam around randomly looking for the management office. Perhaps THEY could assist us in this little misadventure. Then came the next hurdle in our quest for glory - management only opens for half the day on weekends !@#$@# So...after realizing we'd come all this way, even sneaked our way into this condo just in order to see management, only to have them closed because of this thing which we hadn't even considered, we were pretty eff-ed up, no? After much raging and subsequent deliberation, we decided to just leave a letter we had prepared to them asking for permission to conduct our survey there. Quite predictably, this had to screw up too. Remember that missing sheet of paper? Apparently, it was in Clarissa's yellow file, which she had coincidentally, just co-in-ci-dentally, left at the photocopying shop at Bukit Timah Shopping Centre. This file just happened to contain all her PW stuff, including the letter we had intended to submit. F-M-L. Awesome. They say that true human ingenuity only comes out in troubling times, and so was the case in this time. Faced with these multiple hurdles, with apparently no way to overcome them, we decided to change our plan, and just obtain the mailing address of the management office, so we could send the request letter in to them. We then left the condo, and spent the better part of an hour trekking up and down and around the nature reserve visiting the various condos we had marked out, just in order to obtain their addresses so we could  send letters to them. I can't imagine how ridiculous the whole situation was XD There we were, walking straight up to a condo, and just plain telling the security guards we wanted to write a letter to its management, so could they please give us their address. WHEN WE WERE JUST IN FRONT OF THE THING. GRR. Really retarded >.< We couldn't have planned it any worse, really. Well, all said, the walk was quite enjoyable. The gentle breeze, the cool freshness of the air - except from the exhaust fumes from the cars on the road of course - , the peaceful chirping of the random critters in the area, and the sheer abundance of the greenery, which was really pleasing to the eye. I even spotted this kite/eagle/something standing on a tree, which was pretty cool, at least IMO.

At the end of it, we went back to the shopping centre, retrieved the file from the photocopying shop and just stoned at Mac's for awhile, talking about some retarded stuff before going home. The perfect end to a perfectly retarded yet strangely fun (for me) day.

As you can see, I'm still working on my narrating ability, so cut me some slack here, k?

"Special" training today by coach. Woohoo! It's all good.