blues got the 1st trophy!

chelsea beat liverpool by 3-2 score in carling cup final! that's it! viva blues! viva mourinho! next is league championship and champions league cup! all those manchester united, liverpool and arsenal fans; sorry dudes, but you'd better forget to achieve anything this season, maybe 3 of you can still struggle for fa cup ;-)
go go go blues!

last day in DHL

Well, time flies sometimes... when you have really nice time, it is short... good things should be short, we value them better then. time to pack and time to make next step. dhl is over for me now, this time i will do my best for my new company datatronics and try to enjoy life in taiwan. many nice memories for this traineeship in yellow-red logistics company. many nice memories for life in singapore. many friends to leave behind again to find new ones. i am sure i will meet another devrim, another nacho, another gitti, another triin, another michal, another sharon, another tee, another jing wen, etc. there. will have last look at singapore as i had for kyrgyzstan and turkey while leaving. no need for emotions. i just hope to meet these guys in future and come to visit in singapore.
... now gotta go and complete exit clearence form, return the entrance card, take some photos with colleagues, exchange contact information, hugs, nice wishes, formalities,......, and that's it.

Kuala Lumpur trip

Have you ever been to Kuala Lumpur? First thing you see when entering city is the twin Petronas Towers, especially they look very bright at night. Kuala Lumpur is not that big city as Singapore or Istanbul. Still many interesting places to visit. One of the main attractions is the Petronas Towers which symbolizes the city. But there's nothing that much about them except the beautiful architecture. Most of it is occupied by offices (I'd give a lot to work there!). Another one is the Minara Tower. You can have a really cool view of KL from there starting from neighbourhood till Batu Caves (which are another attraction in KL, these caves contain some temples inside). And you will be supplied by audio device which explains more on what you see outside. Following typical tourist mentality, I visited all these places. But what was more interesting is that I could visit my Kyrgyz friends from same school in Kyrgyzstan, they are Nurbek and Kamchy Jusupovs and their families! I saw them last when they graduated before us in 1996! Nurbek bro studied in KL and got married to a girl from Myanmar, and he is currently working in KL. Kamchi (his younger brother) studied in Turkey and got married there to a Kyrgyz girl, and now he is working in KL and also they have 1,5 year old daughter, Kamila! Very pretty and sweet baby(see bottom-left photo). I stayed in their places while I was there. Also I met another Kyrgyz guy Ades Tynyshev who got married to a Malay girl! Wow! Kyrgyz girls, you better be more careful, boys are going in opposite direction! :-) Altogether we went to Bukit Tinggi for a picnic and visited French Village there. In the evening we were invited for a dinner by a Kyrgyz family who are working in our embassy there. It was great feeling to see so many Kyrgyz after 7 months being away. Food was great too, real Kyrgyz food, not prawns and fishballs and no chicken!
Weekend was great except that I was bitten by mosquito there and got infected with dengue fever. But I survived!

Men's Day!

Do you know what day is today? 23-February, right! Well, it used to be a holiday for us before (during Soviet Union), it was Men's Day!!! Although it is not official holiday anymore, still it is memorable date for us, so Happy Men's Day, dudes! Well, back in my country girls are suposed to be more careful about this date, and not to forget to give at least small postcard for us since 8-March is not that far and it is Women's Day. So, first tickets, then concert!

New Year in Tropics!

Old story to share; how I met my first New Year in Tropics. Definitely, no winter no snow in tropics. So when I got this traineeship in Singapore, I was very excited about not having a winter and meeting New Year in shorts and T-shirts. Imagine, no winter whole year! :-) As it's also my birthday, so I had more reasons to celebrate it. We (Sharon, Shirin, Triin, and me) started our New Year eve with dinner at Jamie's place. After that we headed towards Esplanade area hoping to enjoy New Year fireworks! Thousands of people already were there. We were just on time... But... It hit 12 midnight and nothing happened?! Where is that promised firework show?!... Later we learned that it was cancelled due to tsunami disaster in region, makes sense. Well, not worrying much about it, we went towards Chijmes for Salsa Dance Night, met Yamini n her friends there. It was kinda fun. Some dances. And then Michal appeared from nowhere. Also Triin and others got some icy cake from I dont know where, it was meant for me as I got 24 that time, well we swallowed cake immediately. Well, what's next? Definitely, it was not enough. Especially for me n Triin (from Estonia), for whom it is a big event back in their homes, were insisting on doing some more things so we headed towards Orchard Road. Youngsters all around were spraying fake snows and stripes as we were walking in Orchard, some tourists were enjoying it in rickshaws, some were just sleeping on the benches. Light up in Orchard was beautiful as usual. ( Comment: Singaporeans just need a reason to immediately light-up Orchard Road and make it very attractive to both citizens and toursits. So Orchard is lighted-up almost for half of the year. As it contains mainly shopping malls and eating spots, I think, this is just another commercial trick.) After a rest at coffee house till first trains, we took MRT to East Coast Park to meet first sun-rise of 2005! Well, although cloudy weather didn't allow us to say hi to the Sun from the beach, we still witnessed the first morning of the New Year on the beach with bare feet, T-shirt and shorts. Amazingly, beach was full of people, mainly families, who built tents and spent whole night at the beach. That should be a great time. Well, our extraordinary New Year experience ended-up with a nice Dim Sum breakfast! What a beginning for a new year.

Destination: Taiwan!

My traineeship life in Singapore is coming to its end, so only 3 weeks left before I leave to Taiwan for another AIESEC traineeship, this time with Datatronics. It will be hard to leave so many friends behind and I got used to Singapore (I had same feeling when I was leaving Kyrgyzstan for Turkey and Turkey for Singapore, real nomad!:)), but this is life. I had noone and nothing while I was coming here, but now leaving this place with so many good friends, nice memories, more improved in sense of work-experience, life-experience, world perspective, cultural exchange, etc. I am happy for past 8 months here, it was one of the best periods of my life. That's why I decided once more to experience this life, life of AIESEC trainee. Now I will head towards another mysterious country Taiwan, this time I will have more difficulties with language as not many people speak English there. It's time to learn Chinese then! I have my girlfriend there, to whom I rely on everything, and definitely it will make my life much more easier in Taiwan. I will work in Taipei (capital of Taiwan), I have already been there twice. I like the city, hope I will get used to their food, I have been to company and it looks like a great place for traineeship. Datatronics is international company so everyone speaks in English there. Check http://www.datatronics.com.tw for more info about my new workplace. So I will spend last weeks discovering Singapore more and meeting my friends more. After that Bye Bye Lion City! And Hello Taiwan! This is Aibek Dunaev, from Kyrgyzstan which is... (and again same difficulties explaining where it is, and that actually I studied in Turkey and went to Singapore with AIESEC Turkey, and this time that I am coming to Taiwan with AIESEC Singapore, complicated:-)))) ) Again I want to join to all AIESEC events and learn and share as much as I can, again I want to challenge myself by dealing with IT projects, learning and applying this knowledge at the same time, again I want to meet new friends, again I want to explore Asia, this time I am planning to visit Japan, HongKong, China, India and the Phillippinnes for the beginning. This excites me baby! Well, Kyrgyz were nomads for hundreds of years, I am Kyrgyz, I am nomad...

Jurong Bird Park

Last weekend I decided to add one another spot to my collection of visited places. Singapore Jurong Bird Park was an option and I had corporate free pass card! :) So I was there and could catch a view of thousands of birds. I also watched some shows, feed pelicans (whose mouth can take up to 13 litres of water!), participated in All-Star Birdshow as a volunteer (the personel girl picked me among among others:-)), watched how eagles catch snakes and other animals, was amazed by Flamingo Lake with hundreds of pink flamingos, visited another fake, hand-made Singapore attraction - world's tallest hand-made waterfall, saw lories bathing and parrot singing Chinese New Year song and giving people red packets with money. I do suggest people to visit it if you have a chance. This is my last 3 weeks in Singapore, so I want to see most of it. This weekend sounds like it will be a museum and Sentosa tour weekend!

This basicly describes me in some weeks. Especially after a nice holiday or trip. Some friends are agree with this. (Thanks Nacho for this funny photo)

Chinese (Lunar) New Year in Singapore

It is definitely one of the biggest holidays in Singapore. Atmosphere is different. Everywhere is red. You can hear drums of lion dances in the streets. Shopping is in its peak! Chinese people visiting relatives, having family dinners, exchanging red packets with money and 2 mandarin oranges with their wishes for happy and prosperious year. Interesting. It lasts for 15 days, but basicly first few days are celebrated widely and also official holidays. So you hear drum voices from early morning till evening. Lion dancers are performing on request. You can see 2 oranges everywhere; on colleague's table, in every house, in the cab, in stores, in food courts, and they are on sale everywhere. Almost most of the shops, offices, working places were shut in first few days, except some Malay and Indians shops/food places who were using this opportunity of being an only option. In Singapore, there were some outdoor celebrations near Esplanade area with some CNY shopping booths (you see! again shopping...), lanterns, fireworks, food, dragon dance show, etc. Btw, during CNY people basicly celebrate it by eating a lot!
Another experience was eating Yusheng (raw fish salad) with my department in a restaurant. Interesting that is that all of you should stand and mix salad by raising stripes high and releasing down while shouting New Year wishes. Looks funny for a stranger. And as I mentioned above, everywhere is red. Red is very specific to Chinese culture. And also golden/yellow color. This year is a year of the Rooster acc. to Chinese calendar. And acc. to it I am the Monkey :-). Well, we, Kyrgyz, have the same thing, but ours change in March, in Nooruz which is a Kyrgyz New Year!! :-) Not only in Kyrgyzstan but in all those Central Asian countries. It is 21-March officially, and it is close to CNY date.
Gong Xi Fa Cai, my friends! I wish you lots of health for this year. Just don't get sick...
For more info about Chinese New Year (taken from Ying Ying's email, thanks Ying! when it comes I will post info about Kyrgyz New Year - Nooruz) click here.

What is AIESEC?

Pronounced as "eye"-"zag".
For those who doesn't know about AIESEC, here's some info. As you know, I got my traineeship in DHL Singapore thanks to AIESEC Traineeship programme. It's hard to get selected in Turkey and so many selection processes, whereas in some other countries just a simple application is enough to be an SN (Student Nominee), a candidate for the AIESEC trainee. For me AIESEC is a big family, huge international network of friendship, with its own culture, dances, games, methodolgy of self-improvement and self-discovery, has good relations with many companies (both MNCs and SMEs), totally run by students, well known in international platform, a great oppotunity to discover yourself, opportunity to experience different countries' culture and lifestyle, important for future career, and just to have fun!
Here's the more official description of it;

AIESEC is the international platform for young people to discover and develop their potential. AIESEC develops youth by providing leadership opportunities to students and graduates through involvement in our international exchange program and through connecting people with similar interests.
For more info, check http://www.aiesec.org .

Birthday Party

I had my, Gitti's and Teresa's birthday party combined together as all of us were born in January. IT was in Gitti's place and Lars and Krishna were kind to offer their support to organize it. Theme was fashion. It was fun, also some AIESEC juniors and seniors joined to the trainees. Gitti got 25, I got 24, and Tee got 23 years old.

Back from sickness...

It's been a long time since I posted my last blog. Reason is that I was down with dengue fever. I was bitten by mosquitos at Kuala Lumpur during my holiday there and got dengue fever virus in my body. It came to certain dangerous level and I was immediately hospitalized. But without worse consequences I recoevered, I took vitamins and anti0biotics, and have been drinking a lot of water (which is very necessary if you are infected) and resting since then. My body got its strength back. Here is the brief info about dengue fever, it is important to know about it, especially, for those who live in tropical/subtropical climate. Here it is;

Q: What is dengue fever? What is dengue hemorrhagic fever?
A: Dengue fever is a flu-like illness spread by the bite of an infected mosquito. Dengue hemorrhagic fever is a severe, often fatal, complication of dengue fever.

Q: What is the infectious agent that causes dengue?
A: Dengue and dengue hemorrhagic fever are caused by any of the dengue family of viruses. There are 4 of them. Infection with one virus does not protect a person against infection with another.

Q: How is dengue spread?
A: Dengue is spread by the bite of an Aedes mosquito. The mosquito transmits the disease by biting an infected person and then biting someone else.

Q: Where is dengue found?
A: Dengue viruses occur in most tropical areas of the world. Dengue is common in Africa, Asia, the Pacific, Australia, and the Americas. Dengue is most common in cities but can be found in rural areas. It is rarely found in mountainous areas above 4,000 feet.
The mosquitoes that transmit dengue live among humans and breed in discarded tires, flower pots, old oil drums, and water storage containers close to human dwellings. Unlike the mosquitoes that cause malaria, dengue mosquitoes bite during the day.

Q: What are the signs and symptoms of dengue fever and dengue hemorrhagic fever?
A: Dengue fever usually starts suddenly with a high fever, rash, severe headache, pain behind the eyes, and muscle and joint pain. The severity of the joint pain has given dengue the name "breakbone fever." Nausea, vomiting, and loss of appetite are common. A rash usually appears 3 to 4 days after the start of the fever. The illness can last up to 10 days, but complete recovery can take as long as a month. Older children and adults are usually sicker than young children.
Most dengue infections result in relatively mild illness, but some can progress to dengue hemorrhagic fever. With dengue hemorrhagic fever, the blood vessels start to leak and cause bleeding from the nose, mouth, and gums. Bruising can be a sign of bleeding inside the body. Without prompt treatment, the blood vessels can collapse, causing shock (dengue shock syndrome). Dengue hemorrhagic fever is fatal in about 5 percent of cases, mostly among children and young adults.

Q: How is dengue diagnosed?
A: Dengue is diagnosed by a blood test.

Q: What is the treatment for dengue and dengue hemorrhagic fever?
A: There is no specific treatment for dengue. Persons with dengue fever should rest and drink plenty of fluids. They should be kept away from mosquitoes for the protection of others. Dengue hemorrhagic fever is treated by replacing lost fluids. Some patients need transfusions to control bleeding.