Well this blog is definitely going to be a long one......

This week has been so amazing and the HR team really went out of their way to make my leaving and my 21st a memory I will never forget!

Tuesday saw my 21st birthday and after being sent some cup cakes from home as a little surprise I took them in to the office to share with everyone - little did I know what they had planned! At around 2pm after lunch and a hard morning of work I got a call from Iris made from Bhupinder's desk on the opposite side of the building to come over for a minute. Thinking I had made some awful mistake or was in for yet another great learning experience I grabbed the notepad and headed round. I stopped at the sight of the whole team standing round a chocolate birthday cake with "happy birthday Natalie" written in icing on it, candles lit and them singing happy birthday in the middle of the busy office! I was so thrilled and surprised and rushed right over for some cake! After having a mid afternoon lunch we headed back to our desks. I had only just sat down when Iris came over and asked if I would join her for some juice in the canteen as the cake made us all thirsty so I said yes definitely - not suspecting a thing! After Maryanne joined us we headed back to my desk for some more cake; opening the door I was hit with 5 HUGE helium balloons! Needless to say the whole office was up out their chairs to have a look and the health and safety manager looked pretty concerned with the balloons plus the lights! After some photo taking a few colleagues came out the kitchen to be met with cake and balloons - after they left my bin was full of the biscuits they ditched in order to eat some cake instead! It was such a great day and was followed by an evening out at TGI Friday's and Raffles Long Bar for one famous Singapore Sling which was brilliant :). Such a great day and I can’t thank the team - especially Iris and Maryanne - enough for all their effort and planning :)

Wednesday went along nicely with the group photo of all my contacts and even the Vice President of HR for APAC made it along which was great! :) After the photo it was a quick tidy up of the projects at work and then off to Forbidden City Madame Butterfly for my leaving night dinner with the rest of the HR team here. The meal was lovely and the place was themed beautifully with chandeliers, statues and a big fish tank as the bar! After having a lovely varied meal of soft-shell crab, scallops, XO beef and the like we were just about to leave when my mentor Duc stood up and starting a speech! It was really nice of him seeing as he was clearly mortified at the whole spectacle but it was a lovely speech none the less! He said how I had helped him greatly during my time here and he really appreciated the help and all the work I had done :) It felt really nice knowing that I had helped in some way to his heavy work load :) He then handed me a Go Green bag filled with presents (I’m crazy about the Go Green initiative so now it’s a running joke in the team). They had been kind enough to give me a charm bracelet personalised with the icons of my time here; the orchid, the camera, the umbrella! The martini glass, the crab and the letter DHL clung to it :) I love it! It was such a thoughtful thing to do and I once again have to thank Iris for her great ideas and kindness :)

My final day was on Thursday as Friday is a holiday in Singapore so it came quicker than expected! It consisted of finishing up my projects and completing final touches of extra bits and bobs I was helping Duc with. I got the chance to chat to Bhupinder about the graduate recruitment scheme at DHL in Scotland and in Australia which are definitely things I will look in to on my return as every employee loves working here since it is such a great company! After all the work and cleaning things up it was finally time to sign out all my I.D cards, laptop etc and say my goodbyes which wasn’t easy. I will definitely be keeping in touch with everyone and the Go Green colleague of mine has even said she will definitely keep me in mind for projects when I get back home! Even though the timing will be awkward she said it would be a great help and I was thrilled! My dissertation is actually now surrounding the Go Green initiative so being able to keep in contact with the head of the initiative for APAC is a dream come true - it just shows that networking even in the canteen pays off!

Today was my last full proper day in Singapore and the fun didn’t end! As it was a holiday I made the most of it and arranged my last day to swim with the sharks at Sentosa's Underwater World :) it was such a great experience and one I would definitely recommend to the next intern who comes along next year! Iris and I both had a few hairy moments down in the depths but was all great fun! Got lots of photos and conquered some fears; Iris hers of sharks and mine of water :) After the shark swimming we saw the pink dolphin and fur seal shows and got to have a meet the creature’s session with each! So it was a great experience! To finish our 'fishy' day we had a 'fishy' meal consisting of the best mussels in the best sauce I have ever tasted! All in all a great final day :)

To think that tomorrow I will be jetting off back home is really a sad thought. It has only just hit me that my adventure here is over and that I won’t see my friends here for a long time so the airport goodbyes are not being looked forward to - I doubt there will be a dry eye in the group! We have all arranged to stay in constant contact and meet up at DHL headquarters in Bonn at some point in the near future as we have all become really good friends.

During my time here I have learned a lot during my work. My degree is in economics and I have honestly used hardly any of what I have learned during this summer! This is proof that no matter what you are studying you should not be driven away from applying for the Saltire experience. This whole summer has been a learning curve for me and to say exactly what I have learned will take far too long! My mentor has taught me a lot about the 'real world' and how to go about preparing yourself for graduation and job hunting when leaving university. I have also learned a lot about myself over the past 8 weeks; I am not as shy as I thought, not as scared to try new things as I thought and not as incapable as I thought. I really have grown in to myself so to speak and the Saltire experience has really changed me for the better. Now I can’t wait to get back in to the university life and work harder than ever to make my mark on the world!

Thanks for everything Saltire!