Round 10: Updates

It's been only a week, but quite a wee bit has been happening recently. Good, productive things, I must say *grins*

As some of you may know, the first exam paper was on Monday, 2.07. After 2,3 days of relentless attempts to understand, memorize and study the past exam questions, I gotta admit, the efforts paid off. The questions that came out were almost identical to the past years!! LOL, it was certainly a good break for those who also used the Past Years.

This Professor is unfortunately notorious for failing his students, more so when more students take his exams. And this time, there was a nice show-up of more than 70 students! But as soon as I turned the front page, I could already feel the others around me smiling. Summing up, a good note(result) is pretty achievable.


Last week, just as I clicked Send for my email application for internship at Bosch Reutlingen, the handphone rang. A foreign number...hmm.

"Hello Mr Leong, this is Mr XXX from John Deere European Office." I had submitted my internship application weeks ago, now only then call! Wha...efficient xia.

He didn't waste too much time on pleasantries and came straight to business.

"Yes Mr Leong, are you still interested in the internship?"

"Yes of course, when it is still available!", I replied, trying to sound all cherry and jolly to hide my nervousness.

"Yes it is..So how about an interview next week? Which day will be available?"

And so, on Wednesday , decked in a dark blue striped shirt and a pale blue white-striped tie, I headed off to John Deere Werke Mannheim for my interview.

Well, to cut the long story short, dear Mr XXX came 30 minutes late (haha german punctuality or does he just think i'm small fry?), asked questions, was impressed and the next day emailed me the green light. Woohoo I got the place!!

The benefits of having the internship at John Deere Mannheim are obvious: it's located just behind the Hochschule. So there's no need for me to shift house, and the timings to head to work will just be like going for classes.

Hochschule Mannheim

But more importantly is the internship assignment. For those in the Engineering Management sector, Lean Manufacturing and Toyota Production System(TPS) would prolly be familiar terms. Ever since the TPS, other manufacturing big-shots have tried to integrate their own versions. And that, is what I will be doing for the John Deere branches in Germany.

Mr XXX even mentioned possibilities of outstation travelling, and even to Holland!

That was prolly the highlight of the week for me. Even though I'm keener on motor design, construction and working efficiency, I said yes to this offer. Somehow inside me, I had the feeling that this assignment will have a pretty good impact on the resume. If things go well, I might even be able to work further on their Deere Production System(DPS) for my bachelor thesis.

Despite not being able to chat with the gf yesterday, Saturday turned out alright. Headed to a small city-village at outskirts of Mannheim and Karlsruhe, Waghäusel, for a group study session with a good friend Dominik. We hat discussed to meet up shortly before the exams to study and work through questions together. Carsten was also there and for 5 hours and 2 coffee breaks, we made intensive progress, albeit a tad strenuous.

The Workplace during a round of coffee-break


Dashing Dominik Weinlein

Dominik's impeccable Kitchen

Dominik's mother cooked lunch for the family and the guests. It was simple but delicious - rice and noodles with salad, finely-diced carrots and turkey with mushrooms. Unfortunately I was so hungry, I tucked right in forgetting to take any photos.

Dominik's garden where lunch was served.

Just finished watching the Klitschko-Brewster rematch - Klitschko won and retained his heavyweight world champion title after Brewster's trainer threw in the towel. But I think I've rattled too long again. Shall just wrap up here and blog about the fight another time.

Damm, it's almost 2 am and I'm hungry again. Better sleep soon...nite:)