Lots of Updates and No Time

Since we last spoke we have been really busy.

Saturday we went to our friend, Lisa's birthday celebration, which was hands-down the best brunch we have had since we moved to Singapore. Matt also made a funny joke, but it might come across weird on a blog, so if you're interested email me or Matt. I was proud of him.

Saturday night we went to the east coast and ate good Chinese food and had some beers on the beach with excellent people. It was a mixture of our Jews and some SAIS people. Really nice to not think about Finance for a while.

Sunday our friend Rachel had a t'naim ceremony here. She and Daniel are getting married in the States, but they wanted to have a celebration with their community here in Singapore, so they sort of split up the wedding ceremony. It was especially neat, because they had to create the whole thing from scratch. My favorite is their t'naim document. They wrote it like a daf of talmud - where they had their t'naim (conditions or commitments) written like the mishna, and then they had paragraphs explaining what each of the terms meant - including references from torah and other texts. It was really brilliant.

Sunday night we had a funny experience, because we went to Chat Masala (our fav restaurant) with Naomi and Adi (our guests), and it was empty. It's never empty on Sunday night. We always have to make reservations. We asked if they knew why, and no one did, but we suggested maybe because it was the F1 final race? On the way home, Matt and Adi were petting our neighbor's dog, and the neighbor asked why we weren't watching the race. Every tv in our condo was set to watch. I guess we just don't care...more Chat Masala for us!!

Sunday night we also watched the Michigan game (Slingbox and DVR - it's amazing). I cannot believe what happened. They looked absolutely horrible for the first three quarters - HORRIBLE (and Wisconsin didn't look much better!)...and then all of the sudden...out of nowhere. I just can't believe they won. Really - I can't.

Last night my group had a super productive meeting where Luis and I finished the Finance, Anna and Won finished the Accounting and Brian got a head start on Stats. I think this group thing is good...we just can't do it all!

Last night Matt and I went to the UHC services. Last year there was an earthquake at Rosh Hashana night services. This year it wasn't earth shattering...just nice. We had a great dinner with old friends (it was our anniversary of meeting our closest friends!), and we met a few new ones. Then we had a Rosh Hashana drink...also for Lisa's birthday. Call me crazy, but I wasn't up for the bar with the girls dancing around poles that the rest of them seemed to prefer. I mean it's ROSH HASHANA! I feel bad enough for going to the bar...We ended up at a much more conservative place...but still in Orchard Towers.

Best story of the night...I checked my phone before services, and I had a missed call. It was from Adonai. That's my friend at INSEAD, but I really thought it was HILARIOUS right before RH services.

Long and pointless blog posting...but I guess there's a lot going on, and too many stories.

The Great Deluge of 2008...and a Weird Day's End

Today started at six. I woke up to leave the house at 6:30, but at 6:28 a HUGE storm started. The thunder and lighting were very loud and bright, and the rain was outrageous. It did not stop or let up for a long time. I decided to study my finance at home until it let up...which it didn't, but finally I left at 7.

I got on the MRT, and all was normal, until the train stopped for no reason. This does not happen in Singapore, as you may remember. It took 1.5 hours to get to my school stop (which is usually only 40 minutes on the train). The stops were crammed with people, and everyone was late for work. It was bad, and it was still pouring.

I finally arrived at school at 9:15, and I had a solid hour and a half before I had to talk to an administrator about a program we were running today. More than nothing, but not great compared to the THREE hours I had planned.

We had stats this morning, and then we had our first INDEVOR (I will post about this later) club activity - which was this amazing man, Dr. Ashok Khosla, who came to INSEAD to tell us about the importance of sustainable development and what's happening to our ecosystems. He was so inspiring, and he had so many wonderful ideas. I have so much to learn from him - I wish I had more opportunity. I really enjoyed his talk.

Then accounting, then econ. Then group work until 9. Then I went to the ex-pat grocery store to get stuff to make a cake for my friend's birthday lunch tomorrow.

Well. I arrived at City Hall MRT (where the grocery store is), and there were so many people. The lady of the MRT (I call her Rosemary) - you know, the one who says, "please mind the platform gap"? She was saying, "the station is crowded. If you are not taking a train, please exit the station. The station is crowded. If..." I didn't know that was in her repertoire.

I was just thinking, "please get out of my way. PLEASE GET OUT OF MY WAY! I'm tired. I am sick of finance. I want to do my shopping and go home and eat dinner. It's almost 10 pm. Please!"

I did my shopping. I went back upstairs, and as I got to the MRT entrance, I heard, "vroom. Vroom. VRRRRROOOOOOm." My first thought is, "it's the F1 in Singapore this weekend. They're probably playing those sounds in the mall - because they would do that here." My second thought was, "Maybe this is the first F1 night race practice that I read about in the paper, but it's not HERE. I'm in a mall." Then I looked out the window, and there it was! The track is just outside the MRT, and I could see and definitely hear the cars going by right next to me.

I must say that I think that racing cars is dangerous for no reason, not friendly to the environment and just generally useless and pointless, but I did get excited a bit, because there were so many people there who were happy, and it must be good for the Singapore economy, right?

Anyways - a weird beginning and a weird end.

AND, Matt came home from Hong Kong today. Yay. I'm much happier with him around.

Look Left! Look Right!

I have been in school for four weeks, and I have a pulled muscle in my neck for the second time. Both times it was in the same place, both times I woke up with pain, and both times I wasn't really able to turn my head to the left and even less to the right. Now it even hurts to look down. I had to ask Tenley today if I spilled on my shirt at lunch. I couldn't quite see the power point slides in class. I have no idea how I'm going to sleep tonight.

More important, though, is the future. I think I must be stressed, and I guess I'm even stressed in my sleep! My goal is to figure out how to get destressed before bed so at least I can wake up and turn my head.

Maybe Matt and I should go back to drinking tea together before bed. If it weren't so damn hot here...

Crack Open a Guinness...and Teach Some Econ?

I'm still not comfortable blogging about INSEAD...I'm working on it, knowing that some of my classmates could be reading my blog, but none has identified himself yet, so maybe no one is?

Here goes...

We have this hilarious teacher for micro econ. He came in the first day of school in shorts, a Hawaiian tshirt and flip flops and explained how he was upset about the rise in the price of beer. He stays in Hawaii and teaches at Hawaii Pacific University, but he is guest teaching at INSEAD for a couple of semesters/years(?). He is just excellent. He actually reminds me of Steven Cobert in the way that he's totally over the top, so creatively funny, and just knows a lot. He entertains us to no end in class, and I would say that 50% of the time he's just outrageous.

Setting the stage - there are a couple of National Weeks at INSEAD. This is our first one, and it's British/Irish week. The bar has turned into a pub, and there is Guinness for sale. Apparently all day.

Today, we had econ at 2, and two of my classmates were late. They ran in, two minutes late, and they promptly delivered a Guinness to the front table of the lecture hall where the prof cracked it open, had a sip, and continued to teach us about how to set a price for a good.

I actually think I could devote my entire blog to this guy, as he comes up with such great stories and tid bits, but I will not. That might make him uncomfortable.

Stanley Clark, Markus Miller and Victor Wooten

Friday night we went to an amazing concert. It was at Esplanade - where we have seen an "eh" performance of The King and I as well as a really boring, weird, modern Indonesian dance performance. I am pretty sure we have been there for other things, but I can't remember.

Anyways - this was definitely the best. Stanley Clark, Markus Miller and Victor Wooten are all three bass (guitar) players. They formed a band of THREE BASS PLAYERS! It's a pretty neat thing. They have a back-up keyboardist/synthesizer as well as a wonderful drummer (with an excellent body), but they were the stars by far. I really like(d) the band Bela Fleck, and I have lots of their music - partially thanks to Kenny and partially before I acquired his cd collection. Victor Wooten was one of the bassists in that band, and they really highlighted their bassists - which is pretty unique for a band. He makes his bass make sounds that I have never heard before, let alone coming out of that instrument. I heard a superb interview with him on NPR, and when I saw that he was coming here I was pumped.

We went with Peter, Maria, Gal and Ohad and Karthik. I can't really explain what it did to my insides, but I hadn't heard good music in such a long time, and I so rarely feel lost in something beautiful while I'm in Singapore. I know that's a sort of negative thing to say, but everything is so organized and planned, and you never get carried away by the authenticity of something. I absolutely loved the music. They have a cd called Thunder, so if you're looking for new music - go for it!!

In other news we went to an INSEAD party afterwards that auctioned off men. It was pretty funny - but though I try, partying hardy is just not my forte.

One of the highlights of my Saturday was cleaning out the house. When I got to the garbage can, I saw that there were MAGGOTS ALL OVER IT!!! I haven't really cooked since I started school, and I guess we don't use our garbage can too much, so I have no idea how long they were there. I think it must be from some yucky cat food from last weekend. I wanted to crawl out of my skin and die. Matt took care of it. Sometimes I really appreciate having a husband.

Last night we went to our friends, Brandi and Terry's house to play Settlers. We had the best game I have ever played. We were all in it - and it was so exciting to the end. Did I ever write that I love that game?

Today Matt is doing his pool exercises for his rescue diver certification, so he's gone most of the day. I went biking in East Coast Park with Deeksha - which was super nice - except for when she fell off her bike and skinned her knee. She did a really good job of not hurting any other parts of her body, though.

No Cheat Lie One

Aunt Phyllis is right. I didn't tell the story about the taxi driver.

So the other night I was on my way home from school, and I asked the taxi driver where his favorite food is in Singapore. He told me he loved the crab in Geylang. I asked if it was near the side of Geylang with the prostitutes or the other. He assured me that there were prostitutes all over Geylang. I then asked about the prostitutes in Little India, since I haven't seen them yet. He said they're for "old man."

He said all men cheat on their wives. "No cheat lie one." i.e. If he tells you he doesn't cheat, he's lying. I said, "really? you think EVERYONE cheats on their wives?" He assured me that certainly everyone does. I said, "I think it might be more accepted in Asia than it is in the US." While I do believe that many men in the US cheat, it's harder to find people to cheat with, and it's definitely not socially acceptable. Here it's not exactly accepted either, but it sort of is.

Anyways - I said, "I'm pretty sure my husband doesn't cheat on me." He said "Tonight. Spot Check." Spot check? Spot check...what? I asked him to explain. "Check his bullets." His BULLETS? He went into detailed descriptions of what I should look for.

In other news I went to a super heavy but really good Russian movie tonight. It was called "The Banishment." Very good. very long. In fact - it was so long that the Japanese restaurant below the theater - the restaurant that I really wanted to go to (for the root beer float - don't ask) was closed. Disappointing.

Google

I'm obsessed. Not as obsessed as Ruthie, but I really love Google.

I use:
gmail (and am the biggest promoter)
gmaps
blogger (obviously...)
Google calendar
iGoogle (my homepage is iGoogle - you can set it to load anything you want including your friend's blogs, news, new Spanish words, "how to's," weather...)
Google Analytics (to see who YOU are reading this blog)
I love their online tools - like spreadsheets
I also have a great Google t shirt (thanks Jer!) and I'm trying to take a picture of me in it in each country I go to since I got it

I really believe that Google just gets it better than any other company I am aware of. They are so able to see what people want, and they give it to you without any bull. I'm currently reading "The Google Story" so I will offer more insight when I'm more than 1/2 done with it.

Working at Google is my dream.

I ran a Jewish family program two weekends ago, and a woman who had just moved to Singapore asked if Matt and I wanted to go to her house for Shabbat dinner. We accepted, and on the way over, I received a call from my friend, Pam. "You know that she is really high up in Google in Singapore, right?" NO! I did not know this! I was super excited, but I tried to control myself during dinner and only let it slip once that I love Google and want to work for them. The good news is that she said they're hiring "MBAs like [me]."

Google came to our campus to recruit tonight. They're mostly recruiting the people who are graduating in December, but I went to hear the presentation. The presentation content was good - the delivery was "eh." But I still want to work there. I talked to the recruiter, and she said that the Singapore office is really growing right now, and they will be hiring in lots of departments. Good news for me. (We're most likely to stay in Singapore when I graduate).

I walked away and thought all was well and good, but then I realized that I think that Google might be holy. I went back to my locker to change out of my fancy recruitment clothes, and I did a really weird thing. Usually when I'm in a religious setting, I'm very aware of things that have God's name, and I don't put them on the ground. I would never put something on the ground and then realize it and then pick it up - I'm pretty conscious of it from the beginning. Well, I had that same thought as I started to put the "recruitment page" from Google down on the ground. I subconsciously thought - this is holy. Don't put it on the ground.

That's weird.

I love Google.

Picture is me writing this blog posting.