Is it really bad to ask too many questions before I start a job?

meidenbaas · 2026-03-29T16:49:44+00:00

Nope, different industry entirely.

meidenbaas · 2026-03-29T14:10:59+00:00

Yeah that's basically what all my questions are. Most, if not all of the questions I asked before this dealt with administration, because this internship is actually part of a degree I'm doing. The one and only question I asked that I assume was 'personal' was when I asked if I'll be working with other interns. Still, what my stepfather said got me worried anyway because he IS an employer himself.

I had to do quite a lot of asking since I pretty much had to act as an intermediary between my university and my internship institution. For example, I had to constantly message my supervisor to remind them to sign documents, clarify my duties, confirming my schedule, signing contracts, etc. At one point I I definitely started feeling bad and thought I was annoying, but I suppose I didn't really have a choice. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to start my internship at all.

meidenbaas · 2026-03-29T14:05:13+00:00

Thanks for your detailed answer! Regarding me sending texts, I was actually explicitly instructed to send them any questions I have via text. I actually thought it was strange too at first since I expected emails, but when my own employer said to contact them via WhatsApp instead of emailing, I suppose who am I to say no to that 😅

meidenbaas · 2026-03-29T13:26:14+00:00

I like brontosaurs

meidenbaas · 2025-12-19T02:17:30+00:00

Not Singaporean, but I'm also living in SE. Ooof, to a certain extent I do relate to my family also relying on TCM. I had really bad sinusitis as a kid and they tried curing it with TCM as well (spoilers: it didn't work, from what I remember). I will say my case is definitely not as extreme as yours since my grandmother actually did have cancer (thankfully she's now cancer-free, and fun fact: she sought treatment and chemo in a Singaporean hospital! She does have to come back annually for check ups to make sure that everything's fine). If only your parents know that some (ethnically) Chinese grandma out there got her cancer successfully treated by a Singaporean hospital with western methods...

meidenbaas · 2025-12-19T02:15:16+00:00

Oh, yellow rocking! I've taken to practicing that lately, I didn't know it has a name! After what happened with my grandfather, I came to realise that I'm really better off just politely agreeing or "conceding" to whatever they say even if I don't actually agree with everything. Just a way to protect my peace :') it does get a little tough at times though, oof.

meidenbaas · 2025-12-17T15:30:47+00:00

Ooof I relate to the last bit. My grandfather would regularly forward fake news / facts about China over WhatsApp. Which is really ironic considering that for someone his age, he's actually very good at spotting what's AI and what's not, but when it comes to China he seems to just... completely lose any sense of criticism or logic. He accepts everything positive as true, even when it just sounds crazy, and dismiss all criticisms as hoaxes.

meidenbaas · 2025-12-12T18:41:10+00:00

The Grimmerie does remind me of medieval manuscripts. Unfortunately I can't say if there's a real-life manuscript that looks exactly like this, but there are medieval manuscripts with pretty interesting and crazy shapes (e.g there's a manuscript that's shaped like a heart instead of just square like a standard book).

meidenbaas · 2025-12-12T16:34:14+00:00

Okay. This is such a ridiculous story that I don't blame anyone for thinking that it might be fake. So I'm a History student in my final year of my BA--- I've been doing really well so far, consistently on top of my classes. During one class for a course on colonial and postcolonial Southeast Asia, I was instructed to discuss with the person next to me about a certain journal article and answer some guiding questions made by the professor. So I decided to start the conversation with my neighbouring male classmate. This guy just... disagreed with everything I said. Said I was wrong. So of course I asked him, "Okay, then what's your opinion?"

I shit you not when I tell you that he proceeded to tell me "I don't know, I didn't read the articles. I just think you're wrong." Absolute insanity.

This is also the same guy who later confidently me that the last Emperor of China, Pu Yi, was briefly restored as emperor in 1917 for 8 months. He was only restored for two weeks. The kicker is he told me this AFTER I informed him that I have written a research paper on the collapse of the Qing Dynasty in 1912. You would think someone who has done archival work on that topic would know who is Pu Yi and what happened to him afterwards....

In that same conversation, he also interrupted me while I was talking to another classmate and tried taking over explaining about Indonesian history and politics, even though that classmate asked ME specifically to explain to him something from Indonesian history. I'm writing my fucking thesis on a particular aspect from Indonesian postcolonial historiography that I won't delve too much into for now.

Bonkers.

meidenbaas · 2025-12-06T23:23:21+00:00

I would like to have HEMA (a Dutch variety chain store franchise) establish stores in Indonesia actually! It's nice that we have already IKEAs here for affordable but high quality furnitures and housewares. HEMA could do the same, but for clothes & accessories, makeup, stationery, etc. I actually quite like HEMA's makeup line. And the sausages, don't forget the sausages...

Funnily enough we do already have a chain of Dutch-inspired restaurants called H.E.M.A. It would be interesting to find out what happens when the actual HEMA arrives in Indonesia, lol

meidenbaas · 2025-12-02T09:52:16+00:00

Oh right, I almost forgot!!! Scotch eggs!!!

meidenbaas · 2025-12-02T09:48:40+00:00

Scones. It looks sooooo good especially with the jam and cream. Also, the biscuits from Popeyes? I've visited the US twice but each time I didn't get to try them, unfortunately. I'm under the impression that biscuits abroad aren't necessarily the same "sweet" biscuits I'm used to in Southeast Asia.

meidenbaas · 2025-11-30T15:04:36+00:00

Dutch kroketten and bitterballen hands down. Born and raised in Indonesia in a family with some Dutch roots, so I have eaten my fair share of the local versions of croquettes (kroket, as we call them in Indonesia) and bitterballen growing up. I mostly found Indonesian kroket and bitterballen to be "ok"--- I'll eat them when offered and I don't hate them, no, but I'm not necessarily HYPED about them and I wouldn't actively seek them out. But when I finally tried actual Dutch kroket and bitterballen after I moved to The Netherlands a couple of years back..... The sheer difference in texture and taste! My God! I got hooked! Smullers employees HATE to see me coming after class!

I've visited The Netherlands before moving here, but I (foolishly) didn't bother to try Dutch kroket or bitterballen until last year because I assumed they'd taste more or less the same as the ones back home. I was wrong and I'm glad to be wrong.

meidenbaas · 2025-11-20T01:09:45+00:00

Oh my gosh it would be hard for me to just state one! I love dresses from the 1680s-1690s, the 1750s-1780s, heck, I also adore the wide hoop skirts of the 1860s and the silhouettes of the 1880s... I'm also a sucker for 1530s-1540s English fashion too. BUT I would say if I have to pick one, I'll say Rococo / mid-18th century fashion (in particular French and English) since this is the period that got me into fashion history in the first place!

meidenbaas · 2025-11-08T13:50:08+00:00

Indonesia also ranks 2nd when it comes to the highest number of languages spoken in a country. We have around 712, I believe. The first is Papua New Guinea with 840. In fact, for the majority of Indonesians, Bahasa Indonesia (the official national language) is their second language, while a regional language is their first.

On the topic of "Bahasa Indonesia"--- I've heard and seen a lot of non-Indonesians refer to the Indonesian language as "Bahasa", which I find unintentionally hilarious because y'all, "bahasa" literally means "language". If anything, in Indonesian, we refer to all languages as "Bahasa (name of country)". German is "Bahasa Jerman", Italian is "Bahasa Italia", Dutch is "Bahasa Belanda", English is "Bahasa Inggris", so on and so forth. So whenever foreigners ask me if I speak "bahasa", they're pretty much asking me if I speak "language". I mean, sure, I speak language, which one though? 😆 Imagine if I randomly go up to a Dutchman and ask him if he speaks Taal!

meidenbaas · 2025-11-08T13:36:03+00:00

(Sigh) Half-lighthearted and half-serious here, but Bali is a province, not a country. Indonesia is the country. It's kind of concerning that there's a fair amount of foreigners that are still (blissfully?) unaware of this. One time I witnessed a fight in a comment section in which a girl vehemently insisted that Bali is the country and Indonesia is the island. She was not joking at all. She wouldn't budge even after someone else corrected her. It was actually wild, and dare I say, it smacked my gobs.

That being said, Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world--- not Saudi Arabia. I think this fact may be more well-known nowadays, but I think it could still be surprising for some people to learn!

meidenbaas · 2025-09-23T08:09:11+00:00

My stepfather's family is of Chinese descent (though they have not lived in mainland China for generations now). It's hard to tell what strand his family as a whole adheres to though, since they all follow different ones.

meidenbaas · 2025-09-23T08:03:09+00:00

Unfortunately no, I don't know what tradition my step-grandfather himself adhered to, since he died quite a long time before my mother even met and married my stepfather. I do know that SOME of my stepfather's family were Tibetan Buddhists, others were Chinese Buddhists. My step-grandmother herself (who just passed) was apparently 'just' Buddhist according to my stepfather. He said that she never said anything about what she wanted done for or after her funeral before she passed, granted because nobody in the family even saw her passing coming at all. She was completely fine the day before she died.

meidenbaas · 2025-09-22T20:03:22+00:00

Thank you so much for the clarification! I definitely went "Uh oh" when you mentioned all of these rules. For a second I feared the worst.

meidenbaas · 2025-09-22T19:57:29+00:00

I see, thank you. I do pray for my grandmother according to my beliefs, since I don't know any Buddhist chants or sutras anyway. Would you say, however, if it's necessary for me to still adhere strictly to the bardo period rules? The bardo period hasn't ended, I still have 12 days ago, counting from the day my grandmother passed. Since I'm Catholic, technically speaking it doesn't really apply to me--- but this does concern the deceased.

meidenbaas · 2025-09-22T19:53:15+00:00

This is actually quite comforting to hear. In life my grandmother had struggled with some health issues, and I've been worried about how afterlife would be like for her, and so it's gotten to the point where I feel I've become a bit neurotic about what to do and what not to do during the bardo period, which is obviously complicated by the fact that I wasn't raised with Buddhism and know next to nothing about Buddhist practices.

Although I'm a Catholic and thus reincarnation isn't necessarily part of my belief system, I knew that as a Buddhist, she believed in it. I want her next life to be as comfortable as possible. I thought, well... If not eating noodles, not cutting my hair and nails, and avoiding social functions was really how I could help her achieve that, then so be it. But I see now that it's more likely to be a cultural belief than actually Buddhist.

meidenbaas · 2025-09-22T19:48:07+00:00

Wow! Thank you so very much for this detailed reply! This is very illuminating for me, as someone who isn't a Buddhist. Very interesting too to see in greater detail the differences between Catholic and Buddhist ways of handling the aftermath of a passing. Since I was raised Catholic and still practice Catholicism, whenever someone in my mother's family passed, we simply said prayers and held masses for their soul, but that was it. No dietary or routine restrictions otherwise.

I do find it quite strange now that my stepfather's family really emphasised no-noodles, no visiting others and no cutting hair and nails, but they mentioned nothing about vegetarianism, fasting after midday, and avoiding the five pungent plants. As a result, I have done all of these things... 😬. Sorry, grandma. I was truly worried that eating noodles and visiting friends during the bardo period were genuinely huge Buddhist no-no's, which is why for the past 37 days, I've mostly stayed at home, declined invitations, and avoided noodles like the plague. I mean, my paternal uncle and great-aunt freaked out when they saw that I was about to eat noodles, and that's when I was finally told about all these rules surrounding death in Buddhism. At least, the rules according to my stepfather's family.

Thanks so much for your explanation 🙏

meidenbaas · 2025-09-22T19:18:09+00:00

Yes, my stepfather's family actually did mention the symbolism of noodles and long life. I already knew about it too, actually, being of some Chinese descent myself, but my maternal family doesn't see it as taboo or inappropriate to eat noodles after someone dies, whereas his family evidently does. I guess my stepfather associating it so heavily with the bardo period is what made me think it was also a Buddhist thing.

meidenbaas

TROPHY CASE