Solar Panels

Today was my third day at the company and I’m beginning to find my way around the place. I’ve got a desk on the second floor, which is where the factory is located – they get little silicon slices in and put them through a load of processes to make them into solar cells. Then they all go downstairs to the assembly bay where they get stuck together in 6*12 arrays and have some protective layers put around them to turn them into solar panels. So far I’ve mostly been getting set up/familiarising myself and fiddling a bit, but I have a nice little experiment lined up for tomorrow which should be interesting.

My new apartment is shared between me and two other lads at the company, it’s not as nice as my ‘hotel’ at the university but it’s fun to have some roommates! Despite fears to the contrary, we have a western style toilet (a definite must) and a washing machine, and also a kitchen! Haven’t cooked anything yet but I may do soon… Work is 8.30 – 5.30, although lunch and dinner are free so it’s not so bad.

The downside is that it’s a little far away from everything – even the nearest metro station is a good bus journey away, and the supermarket is about 30 minutes walk. Not too bad during the week, but it’ll be a hassle this weekend when I want to look around – apparently there are various museums and other things worth looking at. Well, maybe...

My apartment is in a little ‘housing estate’, but its more of a satellite village, with its own stream, vegetable sellers, motorbike repairmen (motorbikes are about £99 and VERY popular here, all the lads carry their girlfriends around on the back) and several vegetable fields. We’re out early and back late so we haven’t got to meet the neighbours yet.

Here is a photo of me with some of the high up people in the company:

In other news, it turns out that Ghandi is very much alive and playing football for Malaysia in the current Asian cup. Unfortunately his leadership couldn’t save them from a 4-1 drubbing by the Chinese in the first game last night (which we, of course, watched at the flat). Possibly the cleanest, and least inspirational game I’ve ever seen.