Chris' Corner

2008-04-22T06:57:00.002+08:00

EXAMS ARE FINALLY OVER!

Truth be told, I haven't been studying the past 2 days anyway... the Public Management paper was decently easy enough that I could get through it by just going through the common sense and experience process.

It's good to have exams officially over though; it means that I can now go crazy on WoW and other stuff without a sense of guilt. I'm having some friends over for dinner on Tuesday night, will probably be cooking mee siam (courtesy of Prima foods) and some grilled chicken kebabs.

And I'm officially headed off to Orlando again with Milena on Thursday! My last chance at theme park madness before I become a working stiff again. Strangely enough, I am looking forward to coming back to Singapore and working again. Part of me wants to get on with my career and do something useful and valuable in my work.

Where should I head off to?

2008-04-08T08:56:00.002+08:00

I'm also kinda planning my next trip after the exams end. I'm thinking of heading back to Florida to enjoy some more Disney, with some time spent in Miami, or maybe back to Vegas to enjoy the nightlife and shows. California is definitely an option, but I'm saving that for when my stint here at UM is over and I'm on the way back home.

Speaking of on the way back home, I'll be stopping off in Brussels, Belgium for about 2 weeks. Milena's having her internship there, and it's a good place for me to do some sightseeing of europe. Cool huh?!

For those of you who've known me, I've been bitching about not being able to travel since forever! And now in the span of 8 months, I've been to Niagara Falls, Vegas, Orlando, Cedar Point, New York, Cancun... I think I'm hooked! =)

Restarting my blog

2008-04-08T08:45:00.002+08:00

After having laid off my blog for what must have seemed like forever, I'm restarting my blog again.

I'm happy to report that it's FINALLY t-shirt weather in Michigan. Today's weather was an awesome 20 deg C, good enough for me to finally go out running on the sidewalks without freezing my butt off.

On a more sober note, there's about 2 weeks left in the Winter 2008 semester. Which means EXAMS and DEADLINES! I have Econs and Stats finals in 2 weeks, as well as a paper for Public Management and another one for Drugs, Crime and Terrorism. I particularly enjoy the latter class; the instructor was a former Assistant Secretary of State and Ambassador to Bulgaria. His experiences and stories are really what makes this class that much better.

2008-03-05T09:00:00.002+08:00

Haven't been blogging since forever. Been busy with life and travelling and studies =)

If you want to see some photos that I've taken, you can look me up on Facebook. My email address is c hr i sng x at um ic h. ed u.

Please translate into normal email speech =)

Blogging from Vegas

2007-12-23T09:11:00.000+08:00

Posting this from the McCarran Int'l Airport in Vegas, waiting for the flight back to Detroit. I posted up some new photos on Facebook... in fact, most of my photos are on facebook. I find it easier to upload to facebook I guess.

Vegas has been fun, if a little tiring. I think I'm way too spoiled now; 3 days of walking and my legs are killing me. Gambled a bit, watched a bit of shows, generally had pretty good fun for a solo trip out here by myself. Wouldn't do it again on my own though, I prefer some nice warm company the next time I get here heh.

I'M SNOWED IN!!!! (and without a nice girl in my house either)

2007-12-16T21:39:00.000+08:00

So what does it mean when there's a "winter storm" coming? Well, it means that about 3 inches (8cm) of snow falls, and since its a Sunday, no one's cleaning it up. The roads are full of snow, my car is covered in snow, the walkways are covered in snow. Very pretty! But it also means that I'm not going anywhere until it's done. I'll have to meet Milena for coffee another time then...

In other news, I'll be headed down to Vegas over the winter break. Solo trip this time round, for less than obvious reasons. Got a pretty good deal on accomodations at the Luxor ($70 a night for an upgraded room, 3 nights). Total cost for this trip will be about $520+ USD, plus expenses money. Won't gamble much, since I'm the kiasu person who just hates losing money.

Should be a blast. I haven't uploaded my florida pics yet. My bad. I'll try to do that in between hanging out with girls, World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy 12. Oh and Netflix DVD rentals.

Sorry for the long absence

2007-12-06T20:54:00.000+08:00

It's been about 3 weeks since I last updated this. Besides the Florida vacation, there have been papers and presentations and stuff to do. I'm supposed to upload the pictures from Florida as well, which I haven't. I'll get that done ASAP.

It's officially Winter now in Ann Arbor. I don't care what you call it, -15 deg C outside qualifies as winter to me. Snowflakes fall, my fingers get numb-ish, brrrr. 3 layers is mandatory now, and I shudder at the thought of doing laundry in this weather. (which is what I'm going to do after this post).

Thankfully I've a portable heater in my room that can help turn up the heat somewhat. Heat in my apartment is supplied through radiators powered by a central hot water boiler. Thing is, by the time the water flows to the apartment, it already has lost some heat, so the temperature inside my apartment is a slightly chilly 22 deg C. Brrrrr. I've problems with the portable heater as well. My apartment is pretty oldish, built in the 60s or 70s, so it doesn't handle large power draws very well. Putting the heater on any of the default wall plugs will trip the fuse rather quickly, so I have to leave it in the bathroom (which has power points that were supposed to power washing machines and dryers). I can also use it in the bedroom in the evenings when all the other lights and stuff are off, so it's not too bad.

Alright, I'm off to do the laundry. I promise to get the photos uploaded somewhere by the weekend.

Of Snow and Lazy Ants...

2007-11-18T05:33:00.000+08:00

It's finally started to snow in Ann Arbor... well, something like snow. On my way back from class on Wednesday, I was mildly surprised to hear the little tinkle tinkle of hail falling on my car. Hail is like ice pellets, thankfully they were pretty small and harmless. (Snow comes in the light flaky form). Snow also means that I have to wear multiple layers now, since it's abominably cold outside, and my skin dries up into scaly flakes (ugh).

School-wise, I'm approaching the end of term (Dec 15) and then there's a short 2 week break for Christmas. You would think that the US is predominantly a Christian nation, but in fact, the US takes great pains to keep religion out of the public square. For example, there are laws in some states that you may not display the nativity scene (Baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph) in public because of its religious significance. Similarly, no religious holidays are permitted in the US. In a manner of speaking, I think that Singapore is far more accepting in celebrating the different faiths in our community.

It's always amusing to see how life and nature imitate the culture of the country. After dropping a chocolate chip on the floor (baking accident), I was somewhat annoyed to see an ant trail leading up to the chocolate chip the next morning. The strange part is, the ants move soooo slllooooowwwwwwllllllyyyyyy. Like they were having a leisurely walk. Whereas in Singapore, the ants scurry around like the world was coming to an end. Make whatever conclusion of that as you will =)

I should be headed down to Florida next week for the Thanksgiving break. I'm pretty stoked about FINALLY going to Disney and Universal Studios. Yes, I'm the biggest kid around here haha.

The Colors of Autumn

2007-11-10T03:05:00.000+08:00

Linguistically, since I'm in the US, it should be the "Colors of Fall", but I'll make my exception for my fellow British ex-colonialized countrymen.

It has been a really chilly and blustery autumn lately, with temperatures from -2 to 8, but the wind really makes it a challenging affair. The wind can blow right through 2 layers of clothes and set your teeth chattering. In the morning, the steering wheel of the car is so cold that I have to wear gloves to drive. How cold is it? Take 2 bottles of ice water out of the fridge. That's how cold it is.

I'm headed down to a latin music and dance concert today with a friend. It's part of the University's Arts and Eats programme. For $15USD, you get a pizza dinner and a lecture by a member of the University's music faculty on the history and background of the music/performance. You also get a student priced stall ticket (normally about $35) in one of the best concert halls in the country: The U of M's Hill Auditorium. According to my math professor, the conductor of the Boston Philharmoic Orchestra will only perform in 2 places in the US: The Orchestra's home concert hall and Hill Auditorium.

Anyway, I have a great set of photos to share: The Colors of Autumn. Check it out, especially the gorgeous houses/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/19385174@N04/

2007-10-28T20:44:00.001+08:00

Woohoo, it was cold last night. How cold you ask? I was out this morning to grab my GPS for recharging, and there is a layer of frost on my car. FROST! Brrrrrr

Some updates on my life. School's been school, and we've officially crossed the mid-way mark for the semester. Coming up will be Halloween (which is huge in the US, like the equivalent of Christmas in Singapore. Pagans *cough*) and Thanksgiving (4th Thursday of Nov). I have several papers due this week, but unfortunately I just got started in World of Warcraft again. Decisions decisions... anyway, it was great to go raiding with the gang again.

The colors of fall are really pretty, all golds and oranges and browns. The leaves are starting to fall though, so hopefully I can get some pictures up before they all go away. I'm headed up to Professor Waltz's place today; she's having a house party for all students in her Foreign Policy class. It's an hour's drive away (see attached Google Map)

View Larger Map

Holiday plans: I should be headed down to Florida during Thanksgiving (finally off to Orlando), and over to the West Coast in December when school ends. Have traveling companions for both, so it should be a blast!

Fall is back!

2007-10-12T21:39:00.000+08:00

Fall weather is back! And the temperatures are hovering between 4 deg and 16 deg these days. BRRRRRRR!!! It's at times like these when I totally appreciate having a car; being able to drive right up to school and spend the least amount of time in the chilly air is always brilliant. The leaves are turning a gorgeous shade of yellow now, so I hope to get some great pics up for you guys =)

I'm headed down to Cedar Point, Ohio on Saturday. (www.cedarpoint.com). It's touted as the amusement park with the most number of coasters in the US! Woot! I'm gonna coaster all day! October is the off season for cedar point, so I hope to be able to get on all the rides with a minimum wait. BUT, the catch is the temperature is 15 deg in the day. If its chilly just walking around, imagine what it would be like hurtling around at 100kmh in this temperature! MADNESS! I'm definitely gonna dress warm =)

I really ought to make a shopping list when I go to the supermarket. And it's not because I forget stuff. Example: I wanted to get some lemons, honey and soy sauce for a chicken chop marinade that I planned to do for dinner on Thursday night. I ended up with about $100 worth of groceries from just browsing the shelves. Ugh. Oh well, at least I have 2 types of marinades, barbeque sauce, a pepper grinder, balsamic vinegar, lemons, honey, soy sauce and other goodness sitting in the kitchen cabinet. =)

Next post should come with cedar point pics =)

Sweater and Cider Party!

2007-10-07T20:35:00.000+08:00

Some weird parties are thrown in Ann Arbor: Hung out at a "Sweater and Cider" party on Saturday night. It's the Fall season and the apple harvest, so apple cider is available in abundant quantities. Typically, apple cider is warmed and spiced with cinnamon for a comforting drink when the weather gets cooler.

Only problem is, the weather is ridiculously warm this week. The temperatures in Michigan have climbed to Singapore levels, so in all honesty, drinking warm cider isn't going to make me happy. And the theme of the Sweater and Cider party is to wear an ugly sweater to boot (which incidentally, I'd rather not buy an ugly sweater just for one party).

Alright, so my friends and I ended up in T-shirts and beer, but we were sweaters and ciders in spirit heh.

Microeconomics test coming up on Monday, and several essays due in the following week. I'm trying to get all my stuff done by Friday so that I can make a run down to Cedar Point in Ohio for a day of ROLLER COASTERS!!!! WOOT!!. (http://www.cedarpoint.com)

1 month milestone

2007-10-03T20:55:00.001+08:00

It's been one month since school started, and 6 weeks since I first woke up to a US morning. Time really flies...

Gull Farms Corn Maze!

2007-10-03T10:50:00.000+08:00

Been a long time since I've updated my blog. School work's been getting tougher, with tests and papers to write. Weather's still a bit silly though, warm as summer lately, although the evenings are blessedly cool (about 18 deg C in the evenings).

Couple of the Ford school folks and I dropped by the Gull Farms Corn Maze on Saturday. (http://www.gullmeadowfarms.com/) A corn maze is just that: literally a maze carved into a corn field. It's also a farmer's market, where you can buy fresh apples, apple products, pumpkins and stuff! =)

It was a 1.5hr drive each way, and my first real experience on the highways in the US. Michigan highways are unbelievably boring, just miles and miles of straight, bumpy concrete slabs and nothing but farmland all around. Yawn... I can't imagine what it would be like to drive 4 hours to Mackinac Island

Bought a bag of apples, some apple cider, apple butter (sweet baby food haha) and a half dozen of ridiculously crispy deep fried cake doughnuts.

Some photos for your consumption =)

A) Things to do in the Corn Maze:

B) The Corn Maze. We cheated by bashing through the maze:

C) Milena, me, Siobhan:

D) Inside the Farmer's market

Completed Kitchen!

2007-09-21T11:13:00.000+08:00

Finally finished up what I wanted to do for the kitchen/dining area! Pics for your viewing pleasure

BEFORE:

AFTER:

SUB ZERO!!! RAWRRR

2007-09-16T20:54:00.000+08:00

For the blog fans and campers, you might realize that it has officially hit sub-zero temperatures in Ann Arbor. Totally unexpected though, a cold front moving across the north-east dropped temperatures down. Wore a light fleece to sleep at night, since the central heating doesn't come on unless sub-zero temperatures are forecasted for 2 nights in a row =(

On the other hand, the football team performs better when it's cold. We crushed Notre Dame 38-0 in Saturday's game, officially ending our dry spell and duck egg. Much celebrations around! There's something awe-inspiring about being in the largest football stadium in the US =)

Took some shots of Ann Arbor and my school building, which is just about the newest on campus at the moment. Downtown Ann Arbor, as I've mentioned to some before, looks a lot like Malacca with white people. Narrow streets, shopfronts, street parking, the works. Welcome to small town USA. This is a shot of Weill Hall, which is the building for the Ford School of Public Policy

And turning 180degrees around, this is the view of the streets of Ann Arbor. Ok, I chose the shot which most represented my observations. =) There are better locales in Ann Arbor heh

Great for a laugh!!!

2007-09-11T07:39:00.000+08:00

Alright, the following website got me ROFLing a lot today... don't know why I happened to chance on it... (WARNING: Rated NC-16)

http://www.hotchickswithdouchebags.com

Read the blog comments, they are absolutely hilarious!

The Original Borders!

2007-09-06T09:58:00.000+08:00

Cool fact that you didn't know about Ann Arbor: Borders the bookstore opened its first branch in Ann Arbor, and it's spread all over the United States and ended up in Singapore as well. =)

Managed to buy a 27" TV for about $100, it's an old Sony with the curved screen. But I figured that it'll be a TV that I could sell for $20 at the end of the day and it wouldn't bother me at all. Unfortunately, carrying that damn TV from the Eclipse to the apartment gave me a massive backache... it still hurts when I try to get out of bed.

Also, I managed to buy a 1 month old PS3 from an american dude for the affordable sum of $385 USD (retail price is $499 USD). Great deal, I even have the receipt as proof. And the PS3 is something I can ship home to Singapore at the end of the study trip here.

School's started and it's been very interesting and stimulating. In particular, I'm taking a class on International Policy, which requires me to write and present an International Policy issue and discuss proposals to overcome it. Sounds a lot like work in IRAS, but on a much more macro scale. I'm also taking a class in Values, Ethics and Morals in Public Policy, which focuses on the softer, moralistic side of public policy. In essence, we ask ourselves questions on values and ethics: Should economic analysis be the only way in which public policies are evaluated? It's a good question to ask, seeing as how the Singapore public service bases a lot of its decisions on pure economic analysis.

With these classes come readings, a whole lot of readings. I think I'll be spending lots of time preparing for class, as opposed to actual homework. But it'll be fun, it's exactly what I need to jump start my brain again.

The Big House

2007-09-02T18:26:00.000+08:00

Just attended my first big American Football game on Saturday at the UM Big House, which is THE largest football stadium in the US (about 107,000 capacity). The place is huge, and the atmosphere is electrifying. The guys here really love their sports and it shows.

Well, it would have been even more electrifying if we actually won. In what must have been the biggest upset in college football, the Michigan Wolverines were beaten by the Appalachian State Mountaineers 32-34. ASU is a division 1-AA team, which is the equivalent of a English Premier League Division 1 team, and UM is a ranked team, which like a premier league team. Totally heartbreaking and a terrible way to start the football season.

The weather yesterday was blazing hot as well.. didnt bring a cap or sunscreen, and I think I'm gonna end up with sunburn on the face and arms. Ouch. Lucky I have moisturizer to prevent the skin from peeling off, but it's still rather tender.

School starts this week, but it's the Labour Day holiday weekend now. Monday is Labour Day, so school officially starts on Tuesday. Enough spazzing around, time to get back into the swing of things =)

My Eclipse

2007-08-30T19:37:00.000+08:00

Yes it's in silver, I really wanted black but it was out of stock. This particularly sweet looking coupe is the US-only Mitsubishi Eclipse 2007 model. Mitsubishi was having a 2007 clearance sale, and offered a factory rebate of $2k on the vehicle. On top of that, the dealer was eager to move units, so he also sold the vehicle at invoice price. And since he couldn't get me a black model, he threw in alloy wheel locks and an alloy fuel door for free.

Won't tell you how much I paid for it, but I love this car and it's really a car that I would never get to drive in Singapore. =)

Of course, there's all issues and concerns going around: Is it car thief target? Will your fellow students resent an Asian guy driving a coupe and vandalize it?

Frankly, I don't really care. I like this car, and I'm gonna keep driving it =)

There's something strange about coffee...

2007-08-29T07:49:00.001+08:00

Today's blog will be on the wonderful world of coffee in America. Or more like, I don't understand why coffee prices are so weird here. For the record, I'm a serious coffee drinker, so the economics of coffee are important to me =)

Let's take a typical jar of Nescafe instant coffee, like the many many types of instant coffees you see in Singapore. Only in the US, instant coffee is considered a rarity; a luxury if you will. A 200g bottle of instant coffee costs a whopping $8... or about $12 SGD. Normal coffee prices for Nescafe deluxe in NTUC will only set you back $8 SGD.

In contrast, ground coffee, which is a rarity in Singapore, is the cheapest, most available coffee product in the US. I accidentally bought a 200g jug of ground coffee, for an amazing sum of $2.80 USD. Now, making coffee from ground coffee requires a fixed cost, which is the cost of the coffee machines, and they use drip coffee makers around these parts. An economical model will set you back about $18 USD.

Economically speaking, if you purchased a coffee machine and coffee grounds, you would potentially break even with the instant coffee option within 3 jars of instant coffee (3 months of consumption for me).

I would suppose that my research question would be: Why does instant coffee command a price premium in America? My suspicions are the cost of processing coffee in the US are much higher than those in South East Asia. Store space in the US is cheap as well, so manufacturers can offer big 500g tubs of ground coffee without significantly increasing the costs of stocking and displaying the product. (Approximately twice or three times the volume of ground coffee is required to produce the same amount of coffee as a teaspoon of instant).

What does this mean for the average lay coffee drinker in the US then? Buy a coffee machine, and buy coffee grounds. Instant is too expensive in the long run and not as tasty as freshly brewed coffee.

The Empty Room

2007-08-27T10:21:00.001+08:00

Some folks have asked how my room looks like... so I'm posting the pictures I took when I first brought my stuff in (without any set up yet). Didn't do up my room much though. In terms of net floor area, the entire place is about the size of a HDB 5 room flat living area. My apartment is on the ground floor.

Without further ado, the toilet. The architect who put a full, waist high WINDOW on a ground floor TOILET is a genius.

Pic below is the bedroom:

Kitchen. The kitchen in on the right of the door and shares the same space as the living room:

Living Room, complete with dirty and dusty carpet. Same great crapet, I mean carpet in the bedroom. The stuff you see on the floor is a vacuum cleaner and the linen set.

Another funny thing about Americans is that all their vacuums are of the upright variety, whereas in Singapore we like ground units with a long hose. I suppose its because the upright variety supports carpet brushes better (my vacuum unit has a rotating carpet brush)

I couldn't car-less

2007-08-26T17:55:00.000+08:00

Good morning all, it's Sunday morning in Ann Arbor, and I'm awake at 6am. Felt terribly sleepy at 10pm the night before, so I turned in to rest. The warm days of summer are coming to a close I think... it's about 23 degrees in the morning now, a drop from 25-26 a few nights before.

I'm also completely car-less now, having returned the rental to Hertz. My TT of funds from my Citibank account was only effected on Friday, which means I'll probably see the cash on Wednesday only.

I'm quite sure that I'll need a vehicle to get around the place, even if it's only a bicycle. The nearest serious grocery place is about 2 bus-stops away, but the bus comes once every 20min on weekends, AND I'll have to change buses once to get back to the apartment. That's potentially 40min of waiting for buses to do groceries. Bye bye frozen foods!

I suppose the apartment is more or less up and running. The main things which I lack now are a big floor rug, a couple of floor cushions and a TV, but these are hardly the essentials of life. At least I have it reasonably good. My MOH friends are holed up in a hotel that's a 10min walk to the nearest bus stop. Mine's just on the road in front of the apartment.

My only source of major concern now is that I can't find the instant coffees (or least I wasnt looking very hard). Most folks here use the drip percolators to make coffee, so everything is in coffee grounds. That's really unlike Singapore, where most coffee is sold as instants. Food for thought huh? I'm glad I packed a small bottle of boncafe along, but it's running out! The humanity!

Krispy Kreme Day

2007-08-24T08:46:00.001+08:00

In true Singaporean tradition, I'll be showcasing some of the food I'm eating in Ann Arbor.

Today is about Krispy Kremes, the only true donut to queue up for. Donut Factory is very very pale imitation of what Krispy Kremes are about.

Now, I can't get fresh KKs in AA, but these are the next best thing: Half-dozen (that's 6 to you non-Americans) KKs for $2.99 ($3 say $3 lah... $2.99 for what?). What's even better is a DOZEN KKs for $4! ($3.99). In the interests of calorie control, I have elected to pass on the dozen.

Room update: Finally set up most of the things I wanted to do. I'm really glad that I planned for a 3 day car rental because the $200 bought me lots of convenience: Managed to purchase my mattress and have it delivered, bought linens and pillows and visited IKEA in a nearby township all in a single day. As a result, most of my necessary furnishings were in the apartment by Wed. Bought a vacuum to clean up the place as well, but it's terribly loud and noisy.

There's some outstanding matters I have left to do: Check in with the International Students center to complete my visa and immigration procedures, and to check that the money from my SG Citibank account has been successfully TTed (wired) to my US bank account.

The weather here is remarkably like Singapore: about 30-31 degrees in the day with huge sunshine, and 24-25 degrees at night (office aircon levels). It even rains here on a daily basis: short, intense bursts of rain.

After 28 hours journey, I'm finally there

2007-08-22T07:57:00.000+08:00

It's been a real tough 28+ hours to arrive at Ann Arbor, but I'm finally there.

Following up from the Narita post, I flew ANA from Tokyo to Chicago, on an absolutely packed flight, with me seated on the aisle next to a big sized whiny China guy and his flabby mother. I can tell you, 12 hours of that isn't exactly the most comfortable experience around.

Chicago O'Hare airport is probably the most run down airport I've seen so far, with carpeting full of stains and crumbs and the ceiling cladding rusting in many places as well. You would expect more from an airport near one of the major financial centers and cities of the USA, amirite? Strangely, Detroit Metropolitan was newer, more intelligently laid out and has more facilities as well.

Rented a car from Hertz. Including Loss Waiver clause, a 72 hr rental ended costing me about $200 USD, which is about $100 a day. Horrendously overpriced, and thats already with the 20% citibank discount. But it's a definite must to have.

Because to my totally expected horror, 1696 Cram Circle Apt 11 is a really dusty place with dirty carpets and an absolute minimum of lighting. Such as none in the living area (though theres an overhead light in the adjacent kitchen area) and none whatsoever in the bedroom. Zero. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Looks like the priority of purchase now is a vacuum cleaner, a mattress, more than a few stand lights and a desk and chair to work from.

As at this moment, I've gone about 36 hours with 5 hours of sleep. Will most probably turn in early tonight and attempt to reset my body clock. Ann Arbor is still amazingly bright at 8pm in the evening... looks like 645pm Singapore time. Oh well, it'll be dark much earlier in the winter.

And yes, driving on the right side of the road is a major pain. Especially since the stick controls are switched around (i.e your signal switch is swopped with your wiper controls). Gotta mug up on the Ann Arbor Basic Theory, cos I have no idea whether I'm allowed to u-turn on certain streets.

Will post up some pictures when the digital camera is fully charged. Tomorrow is gonna be a full day of buying and cleaning. I might even have to stay a second night at the motel. We'll see... some costs are hard to avoid.

Greetings from Narita!

2007-08-21T07:34:00.000+08:00

Greetings from Narita Tokyo! Time here is 835am and I'm now resting from from 45min tour looking at kawaii nihon sales staff. I'm stopping over in Narita for a 2 hr transit before heading off to Chicago on NH12. Expecting to arrive on 21 Aug 9am. Which is pretty weird cos that's supposed to be 25min from now. Oh well, the wonders of modern technology. What's even more annoying than weird now is that my entire blogger page is in japanese (the hyperlinks at least). "Smart" technology shouldn't assume I'm a japanese speaker just because I log in from a Japan IP.

I'm also paying 500 yen just for 2 hours of internet access (well, actually the password is for 1 day). Now I completely appreciate why Changi is so traveller friendly: The entire airport back home is a wireless hotspot free of all charges.

All the cafes here sell stuff in japanese yen, and I don't feel like blowing my USD on crappy exchange rates for overpriced coffees, so I'll wait till the flight to get tanked up on caffeine. Didn't sleep much on the singapore-narita leg, since spiderman 3 was on (didn't watch that yet), and the ANA stewardesses felt it was necessary to grace each "fasten seat belts" event with an announcement. I swear that on more than one occasion, the pilot must have accidentally bumped the button on the way to the gents.

Anyway, my Canon camera ran flat on batteries and the charger's in the checked in luggage, so I have to rely on my trusty (and crappy) Palm Treo camera to take shots of the Narita International Departure area. It's dull and boring, lacking in character. Thank goodness I could find a nice power point to sponge off some power for the laptop.

Alright, I'll post back in again when I reach the USA. Might be Chicago where I'll lay over for 3 hours. We'll see. =)

Edit: A shot of Narita from where I'm sitting now:

Congratulations Glenn & Collette!

2007-08-18T20:25:00.000+08:00

A big congratulations to my brother Glenn and his wife Collette, for today they celebrate their wedding after 9 years of courtship =)

On another note, I almost couldn't make it to the wedding. Was battling a serious bout of gastric flu on Friday morning, with a raging fever in tow on Friday night. I thank God for His grace in allowing me a speedy recovery (only ~18 hrs of sickyness) so that I can attend Glenn's big day. =)

While we are on the topic of thanksgiving, I also thank God that:

1) I tend to get one big bout of gastric flu a year or so, so I prefer to get it before I fly off to the US
2) This gatric flu has significantly depressed my appetite, which has been growing with all the send-off/farewell lunch/dinners I've been having.

There's always a silver lining somewhere haha! =)

STICKY DATE PUDDING RAWR!!!

2007-08-16T17:52:00.000+08:00

It is my greatest honor to introduce the pleasures of sticky date pudding to my dear readers. My greatest thanks to Jean Ng (national netballer mind you) for introducing this brilliant dessert to me =)

Sticky Date Pudding is a traditional English type pudding (that means it's a sticky cake, not your mushy mango pudding type), sliced in half with a mountain of vanilla ice cream sandwiched in the middle. The pudding is then smothered in the ultra-sweet freshly made butterscotch sauce. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.....

Available from Cafe B******* (uhhhh cant remember the name haha) at Tanglin Mall or Paragon (5th floor or so I'm told)

1 week to Fly Day! (which is on a Monday)

2007-08-13T09:09:00.000+08:00

With much anticipation and a tinge of nerves, the fly off date is now 1 week away. Just bought a spanking new suitcase from Carrefour (28 inches I think) and I'm now looking for a value priced notebook backpack that I can take along as hand-carry/cabin luggage. While I do have a smaller trolley bag, I'll look like a total arse if I try to pull 2 trolley bags at the airport. Much better to have a small duffel bag to stuff the clothes in while the electronics and documents go into the notebook backpack.

Speaking of flying, I must look in askance at my IRAS colleagues for what I feel must go down in my history book as an example of Public Service Anal-itis. Since Personnel Branch was swamped with work in the early-May period, I took it on myself to source out my airline tickets to the US. There are several flight routes to get there on the various airlines, and, being the responsible employee that I am, opted for a decent carrier with one of the lowest (if not THE lowest airfare). I'll fly ANA to Chicago and then switch to a domestic to Detroit. The cost of the ANA flight was $1840.

So, I put forward my claim to PB and here's the what happened:
1) IRAS tells me that I should have gone through them for a ticket. According to PSC policy, public service organizations should favour SIA as a carrier. BUT, the SIA route is more expensive

2) Then, IRAS says that it's agent quoted only $1780 for the ANA ticket, so it won't reimburse me the full $1840.

So, I've saved IRAS some cash by NOT flying SIA, and IRAS still wants to cheap me of $60? I'm grateful for the scholarship and all, but this just completely stinks of bureaucracy and rules-lawyering.

A Masters degree and Me

2007-08-06T16:27:00.000+08:00

For the gentle readers who don't know where Chris is heading off to for the next year or so, I'll be doing a Masters in Public Administration at the University of Michigan for about a year or so. (Actually 10 months)

Why a Masters, and in the US at that? I needed an opportunity to recharge my thinking and my intellect. One of the risks of working long term in the public sector is the slow evolution (or devolution) of the individual thinking process into the organization's thinking process. Moreover, my work (in IRIN) over the past 3 years was solutioning towards my division's business needs. When your parameters are so clearly defined, it's difficult to explore new horizons of thinking.

I guess I could say that I felt stupider as the years went by and needed a change. I'm not interested in a certificate or putting the alphabet soup on the business card. I find the whole business of promoting people based on their certificates to be mildly offensive, to say the least. I want to do a Masters in the US because the people there think differently. Their (and I mean students and professors) values are not our values, and I want to know how and why the different peoples of the world think they do. And I want to be challenged in the way I think, in the ideas and values I hold dear. That, to me, is the most important aspect of a graduate education. Comments from the floor are welcome =)

The second question: Why Public Admin? will be answered in a subsequent post. It's a little more involved than this one, so I'd like the time to formulate it.

Oh, and if you need my MSN contact details, it's wulfheim at hotmail dot com. Just a little precaution against the email farming bots.

What's a Niebelung

2007-08-02T10:26:00.000+08:00

Non WoW-ies might be asking who or what is a Niebelung (!?). The horror! Niebelung is my persona in the World of Warcraft game.

Yes, I play a cow for entertainment. Moo.

Countdown: 2.5 weeks before I fly off

2007-08-02T09:05:00.000+08:00

Thought I'd get started on my blog before I fly off... =)

Preparations are going rather smoothly I think. Although I haven't really packed up the things I want to bring over to Ann Arbor, I'm not planning to bring over much. Maybe about 2 weeks of clothing, shoes, workout and swimming gear and the usual bunch of electronics that I feel lost without.

Also, I bought a bluetooth GPS module from DeLorme (www.delorme.com). Comes loaded with the 2008 US street maps, and should be very useful in my furniture and car hunting expeditions in the first 2 weeks there.

Gonna bring some shirts to the tailor for alteration today.