Singapore: Day 61

If I were to summarize today in one sentence, I would say "Goodbyes are difficult."

I stayed up last night and this morning working on this blog, and ended up sleeping at 5:37 AM. I was hoping to wake up at 7 AM so that I could continue writing, but I think two month's lack of sleep has finally caught up with me and I can no longer handle not sleeping. I ended up waking up around 10:30 AM and spent the late morning packing for my Friday morning flight. In the afternoon, I made a trip to Deutsche Bank at Raffles Place to cash my check from NCCS (I received a stipend for my research with them.) Deutsche Bank is located in the South Tower, and it was very formal and high-end. Upon entering the tower, I had to receive a visitors pass that would allow me to proceed to the elevators. Once at the elevators, I had to key in my desired floor and the machine would tell me which elevator to take. The elevators themselves had buttons but I could not use them to maneuver among the levels; the entire process of moving between levels was too formal for my taste, but it was exciting to do. 

Raffles Place

After cashing my check, I checked out Watsons for their La Roche Posay products and grabbed a snack from La Pau Sat, which is across the street from the South Tower. I ordered the kueh pai ti, which is a Peranakan (Malay and Chinese) dish. I've seen it at NUH but never purchased it because I found it too pricy for only a few pieces. I'm leaving Singapore very soon, so I wanted to at least try the kueh pai ti before I leave. Most stalls sell both popiah and kueh pai ti, and today I understood why: both taste very similarly and use the same ingredients. However, the kueh pai ti is generally more expensive (I bought 5 pieces for $3.50), but more tasty. It has a delicious crunch yet the moist softness of popiah inside the crispy shells. The shrimp, cilantro, chili, and crispy shell were a combination made in heaven--- pure perfection!

Kueh pai ti

 After my short snack, I headed into lab. Raffles Place is only two stations away from Outram Park, which was convenient for me. On my way to the station, I bumped into my lab mate, Wei Wei, who was working out at the gym during her lunch break, and together we made our way to NCCS. I ran my last gel, and now I am finally done with my project! However, I still need to spend time analyzing the mountains of data I collected and organize it into coherent figures. I will be e-mailing the prof and Jianxiang when I am back in the states. At 5:30 PM, our lab assembled for a lab dinner at Jamie's Italian, a famous restaurant opened by the chef Jamie Oliver and featured internationally. Tina had previously called the restaurant about reservations only to find the restaurant booked; she even went in person to the restaurant during her lunch break to ask about it. Luckily, we were able to receive a table quickly despite the long queue.

Can you spot the prof?

Wonderful ambiance

We started our dinner with a couple of appetizers: Posh garlic mushrooms on toast, their famous polenta chips, and funky chips. All were delicious and definitely an indicator of the high quality of our dinner. We also had two bottles of wine, which paired well with the delicious meal.

Posh garlic mushrooms on toast

For the main dishes, we split into pairs so that one would order a pasta while the other a main dish. I paired with the prof, and we ordered the veal flash steak and seafood bucatini. The veal flash steak was perfect: the meat was thin and flavorful, and the lemon and tomato added a sweet sourness to the rich and savory meat. Who would've thought tomato and steak would go so well together?

Veal flash steak

The seafood bucatini was also highly delicious. According to the menu, it is "tubular spaghettini steamed in a bag with crab, mussels, clams, squid, scallops, capers, chilli, garlic, white wine, and juicy sweet tomatoes." If that doesn't sound delicious, then I don't know what does. The tubular spaghettini was wonderful; I don't know who invented it, but it is deliciously chewy and holds flavor very well. The seafood was also tasty. I found myself slowly tasting each one to capture the rich flavors. Even the sauce was delicious, because it was sweet and slightly savory, and complemented the seafood and flavored the spaghettini oh too well. The seafood bucatini was definitely the best pasta I've ever had!

Seafood bucatini

Fine dining w/ the lab. One of my best dinners in Singapore!

After we finished our main dishes, we ordered desserts. I had the chocolate and vin santo pot, which is a cup of dark chocolate mousse topped with ice-cream. The dark chocolate was very thick and creamy, and it paired well with the sweet ice-cream. I found the ice-cream to have an interesting taste-- it was sweetened by a hint of alcohol, and because I'm not too fond of alcohol, I only had small bits of it alongside each scoop of dark chocolate. The biscotti was the perfect finish to the strong-tasting dessert.

Chocolate & vin santo pot

The meal was an expensive one ($792), but it was definitely one of the best I had in Singapore. Overall, it was a night spent in wonderful company and the perfect conclusion of my internship with them.

Group photo

I was particularly sad about leaving Jianxiang, the quirky postdoctoral fellow I work with. He has been very supportive and understanding throughout my entire internship: he would frequently urge me to take a rest and to not worry, and whenever I had to miss work due to illness, he understood and cared. He was definitely more than a professional supervisor and instead stepped in as a friend. I am saddened that I will not see him again in the coming years, but he suggested that I visit Singapore every year for two months so his English would become flawless (plus, he obviously wants to see me.) Goodbyes are difficult, especially when they span across continents. I will miss everyone dearly and treasure my experiences at NCCS.

Me and Jianxiang. I will miss you!

Goodbye Jianxiang. Goodbye Bek Chai Heah Laboratory of Cancer Genomics. Goodbye National Cancer Centre Singapore. And as of Friday morning, I will have to say goodbye Singapore.

Yes, goodbyes are definitely the most difficult.