Break Glass in Case of Emergency

I had an unbelievable experience today.

I work in a building with 38 floors. This is the tallest building I have worked in.

For some reason, the building decided that we would be the ones who break the glass and set off the fire alarm for a fire drill. They gave us notice for weeks that the drill was happening. Most people left for the afternoon so they didn't have to walk down the 23 flights of stairs. Not me.

At 3:10, the fire warden, the fire dudes, and more fire dudes knocked on our door, and they told me it was time. They had put some dry ice in the hallway, and they said, "there's the fire." I said, "Oh - I better break the glass." They gave me a pliers and I broke the glass and the fire alarm went off for the whole building!! They even took pictures, but I don't think I can get my hands on those.

Other than that, we had dinner with Rachel, Matt's ex, and a great girl that I saw off and on growing up. We went to our favorite Indian restaurant in our 'hood, and we had a great time. She was flying through town on her way from Aceh, Indonesia (doing conflict resolution work) back to the States. I guess it's been 6.5 years since that fateful wedding...

The Happiest Dance

I read this article in the NY Times about this video on You Tube. It is the happiest thing I have seen in a while. I can't explain it, but it just made me tear up. Please watch it. It's really beautiful.

Apparently Desperate for Golden Grahams

I had no idea, but apparently I am desperate for Golden Grahams.

I got them on Saturday at the Navy commissary, and I was so excited to have some for breakfast yesterday. The box is bigger than the other boxes that I usually buy, so the internal bag didn't fit in an air tight container that I use for cereal - to not let the ants enjoy my food.

I put it in a mostly antless place, and I thought, "I'm sure the ants won't get to this in one day, and tomorrow it will fit in the container."

I was wrong. This morning I pulled out the bag, and I saw a couple of ants.

There were about three or four in the top of the bag, so I immediately cut that out. I saw a couple of others near the bottom, but I couldn't spot others. I decided the Golden Grahams had to be saved. I went to work with a couple of bowls and an air tight container.

First I poured a bit of cereal into a bowl, looked for ants with my hands, then poured it into the container. I went through the entire box doing this, and the truth is that I only saw ants at the end - and only four. I killed them all (suckers), and put the cereal in the refrigerators. I figured the cold would kill any ants that I had missed.

There were no ants in my bowl of cereal this morning. I looked carefully before each bite.

Would I ever do this in the States? I think not. I would have screamed like a little kid and thrown it out. I guess I have changed. I guess I'm just desperate for Golden Grahams.

The 5th of July

This year we celebrated the fourth on the fifth. The American Association of Singapore had a big celebration up in Sembawang (where our friends Jeff and Tenley live). J & T also invited us to tour a the USNS Mercy with them. It is a ship goes around the world responding to disasters and performing standard hospital care in places that are in need. The ship was cool, but the tour stank. First picture is our walk in their neighborhood to get to the bus to get to the ship. It was raining. Second picture is a ship that was turned into an oil refinery. It is huge. It looks like it's getting some repairs at the shipyard. Third picture is inside the ship.

After the ship, we got to visit the US Navy commissary at the shipyard. They have tons of American food and things, and they're super cheap! I got sour patch kids, batteries and golden grams. Yum!

After that we dropped off our yummy purchases, and then we went to the AA celebration at the Terror Club up there. Why it is called a Terror Club? Apparently after a British ship. I think they could come up with a better name.
Anyways - we ran into a bunch of people we know, we ate burgers, ben and jerry's, heard some old guy cover band that played American music including the Stones and the Dead (and were really good!), saw a lady with a flag through her head, and generally enjoyed ourselves for a bit.

THEN, we went back to their house. Please note the picture of the mangoes organized on J & T's lawn. They have mangoes falling from the sky. That house in the background is their's. Pretty cool, eh? We played puerto rico. We like that game. Jason said it ranks #1 board game in the world on some games website. THEN, we went to a park next to their house to watch the fireworks. They were really good! The puppies were scared. Please see the picture of the hiding puppies.

FINALLY, we went back to their house and learned Seafarers of Catan. It's an addition to Settlers of Catan, and it was wonderful! It was like learning a whole new dimension of this thing that we already loved. You get to build ships and have a totally different board, and there are new challenges and additions. We loved it.

During Seafarers, we got a puppy bath and had some sleeping puppies on our laps.

We also turned on the TV to watch Williams vs. Williams championship point. Pretty exciting.

It was an excellent day. Felt like vacation.

Mock Ups

I finally figured out how to describe what Singapore looks like.

You know when people are trying to sell apartments, before they start building a building, and they come up with a picture of what it will look like? The grass is really green, the people are all smiling, it's always sunny...do you know what I'm talking about. Here are two examples one two. They're not the best examples, but they'll help explain what I'm talking about. I'm sure you have seen them before.

In the States, when they build the building, it doesn't quite look like that. In Singapore it does! I was looking out the window of my office yesterday (we're on the 23rd floor of a sky scraper in the central business district), and I realized that it looked fake - people walking where they should be, no garbage on the streets, GREEN grass that no one walks on, so it looks perfect, sun almost always.

I had used the words "fake" and "contrived," but both of those are too negative - it's just perfect looking - like the mock ups.

>780 Showers

When I lived in the US I was usually a one shower a day kind of girl. If I happened to be particularly dirty, I would throw another one in for kicks. In Singapore there is no choice. As an environmentalist and a person who finds it a pain in the ass to get naked, I am still required to take at least two showers per day. Even if we sleep with the air con on, I still wake up sticky and gross, so the morning shower is obvious. Spending a day in this humid heat also leads you to take a shower before bed. The thought of getting in bed without taking a shower after doing anything grosses me out.

I have calculated that I have taken at least 780 showers since I moved to Asia. 366 (2008 was a leap year) x 2 plus 25 x 2 (I have been here for a year and 25 days). This equals 782. This is because while sometimes I have taken THREE showers in one day, there have also been a few Saturdays where I go to the market dirty. In addition each place we have traveled to also required two showers - except the biking trip in Thailand where there were not two showers available to us (and we got so disgusting within five minutes of biking, the morning shower wasn't worth it).

That's a lot of showers.

Out of the Professional Closet

I finally came out at work.

I am coming out on this blog as well.

I am going to business school in five weeks. I have been accepted to INSEAD, a French school that has its other campus in Singapore. It is a 10 month program (meaning I will have an MBA in ONE year from now!). I feel so fortunate that I get to go to this program. Since I learned about it and visited it, I have fallen in love with it, and I cannot wait to get started.

It feels so much better to get that off my chest!!

After I took the GMAT, I did significantly better than I had hoped for, and I realized that INSEAD was really an option, so I stopped writing about it on the blog - and I have been living in a professional closet since this posting in June 2007!