Paul Volcker, IMF, Tanjong beach club, monkey’s and parrots

Jintian wo hen mang, (Today I am busy)

I am two months in and time is starting to fly by. I am learning so much and really starting to feel at home over here. I have friends, a routine and get to Skype enough with my fiancé that I feels like she is just as much apart of my world here as going to class. Obviously a long term solution does not include Skype but man it sure makes the short term better.

Over the past few weeks I have had the great opportunity to go attend some great speaking engagements. All of the speakers were put on by the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy with two of the engagements involving less than 30 people. The more intimate engagements were: 1) Professor T N Srinivasan who had been a professor at Yale since 1980 and advisor to the world bank, he spoke on the relationship between India and China and even signed a copy of his book for me; 2) Mahmood Pradhan- IMF Senior Advisor and Ravi Balakrishan- IMF Resident Representative spoke on the Regional Outlook for Asia, they also spoke on the Eurozone crisis, felt like I was drinking from a water hose of data and economics. Last but not least I got to see ex-Chairmen of the Federal Reserve Paul Volcker speak. He was extremely funny and impressive to say the least. I felt lucky to have had the opportunity to hear from such impressive people, the nerd in me loved going, I am going to keep attending as many of these as I can……yeah huge nerd but I really did learn a lot from each of these speaking engagements which is why I am here, right?

Another friend of mine from UF/SIFE Sunny lives in Singapore. We met up one Sunday and went to the Tanjong Beach Club in Sentosa. Sentosa is the one of the big beach spots in Singapore. Sentosa also has Universal Studios and a bunch of other touristy things to do and see. Think of a mini Orlando set in a beach scene. All of the sand was shipped in from another country, I believe we have the Phillipines to thank for Sentosa’s sand…thanks Ferdinand Marcos (old President). This is part of the reclamation process expanding Singapore. http://www.tanjongbeachclub.com/index.php/main

We were just hanging out on the beach and I decided to go for a swim. They had a cove that opens up into the Singapore Strait where all of the cargo boats come in and out. The water wasn’t clear but it looked like there was netting out on the buoy’s so I swam out to them. Upon seeing that there was no net and I was at the entrance to a very dark huge abyss I efficiently swam back to shore……not a fan of deep unknown water. I know sharks aren’t happy about the whole shark fin soup thing so why tempt them, they don’t know I haven’t tried it. We pretty much hung out at the pool and sat on the beach all day. Tough couple of days for me.

Last weekend Sunny got us tickets to the Barclays Open Golf Tournament and we met up with my friend Muja from FAMU out here working for Universal Studios as the voice of Donkey from Shrek. Rain was very prevalent but we got to see some great golf. I went by myself on Friday and walked with a group of golfers. I was the only person following the group so I ended up chatting it up with one of the golfers who was from Ohio. I followed them for around 5 holes but ended up hanging out a lounge at the 16th par 3 green where I met some American ex-pats. They informed me that there was an extremely inebriated group of Norwegian’s that had not only been causing chaos in the lounge but had stolen a golf cart and picked up a golf ball that had been hit in their path. Save to say they were asked not to come back.

I have made a habit of running a 10k the McRitchie Reservoir every Saturday with a group of Norwegians…not the ones from the Barclay’s tournament. One of the girls in my class had invited me to go along with her friends and husband and it has been great. There are monkeys all over the place, a canopy walk and a run through a small path in the jungle. You are up and down and all around. It is a really great run that doesn’t feel nearly as long as it is.

I also had the good fortune to have watched the Rugby World Cup in a suite at the Marina Bay Sands. New Zealand took the match to win the World Cup for the second time, France played well but the All Blacks were just a better team. The person whose suite it was introduced me to a veteran’s cause that I thought I would share, it’s Clarks Veteran Cemetery in the Philippines that has been nearly abandoned by the US government. Take a second to check out this youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zV5NyuCK2eg&feature=youtu.be . We can’t forget those who gave their lives so we can live ours to the fullest. I hope this cemetery gets the support it deserves.

My friend Sunny and I had decided to go to Batam, Indonesia one Sunday. Batam is a resort island that is a 45 minute ferry away from Singapore. The morning of, I had been running a little late so I rushed out of my place, it was raining and when we were looking for tickets I realized I had forgotten my passport…..dumb dumb dumb. So we decided to scrap the trip. After not going to Batam, Indonisia, I was pretty bummed. I got home and napped it up, got laundry done and started reading my book. My Chinese buddy Bowen came by and told me I was reading too much and that I needed to get out and walk in the jungle. I kind of laughed when he said that but it was the best advice I had gotten in a while. I decided to go for a run and my day turned around in an instant. While running at Botanical Gardens, I saw these two women holding two Parrots. Being the curious type I approached them to see their birds, this is where my day took a turn for the better. I ended up spending the next couple of hours walking around the park with Angelo the parrot on my shoulder as he made chicken noises at dogs, whistled back and forth with me, spoke to strangers and I helped him feed on the dry branches. Both birds were dancing and singing the whole time. I felt like Dr. Doolittle. Yeah, the 8 year old came out in me but I had a great time.

Finished five more books, The 5 love languages and Asian Godfathers, Dreams from my Father, Quiet Strength by Tony Dungy and Giving (great read for anyone looking to give money or support non profits). All five for the most part are very different from one another but all were great reads. I have started two more books, a book on leaders in history and a book given to me by a friend I have been going to bible study with about a 3 year old child who had a near death experience and candidly talks about how he was comforted by angels as well as Jesus when he was scared and unconscious on the operating table, both seem great so far. If there is one thing I continue on after this trip I hope I continue to read close to this pace for the rest of my life. I feel liked a changed man in some sorts and I really am enjoying this.

Tomorrow I head out of Singapore for the first time. I first am going to Penang, Malaysia to meet up with a Rotary Group Service Exchange from Oregon and California. Sunday we head to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and I am giving a presentation to the local Rotary club Monday night. Tuesday morning our group of Rotarians head to Siem Reap, Cambodia to help with healthcare and clean water for a local floating village community. Myself and a fellow rotary ambassadorial scholar will be staying an extra two days to sight see around Angkor Wat which has some of the most beautiful temples in the world.

Zaijian!

Rotary Time

So its been a while since my last update, I know you all have been depressed without them. A doctor here read one of my blogs and has now begun prescribing it to schizophrenic and depressed patients instead of Percocet or Prozac with phenomenal results. That’s actually not true but what if it was….really what if?

Ok back to reality, over the past month a lot has happened but for this blog I am going to focus predominantly on my activities with Rotary, which have greatly picked up of late. For those of you with the courage, stamina and goodwill to read on…I applaud you. The honor and vision that you operate your blog post reading cycle with will be rewarded if not now then through the echoes of time. May your first born be strong and healthy…..ok you get the point, thanks for reading.

I met up with my Rotary Counselor, Val Winslow, who is a constitutional law professor at the National University of Singapore, which is their equivalent to Harvard. We grabbed a coffee and had some pastries at a really nice Italian eatery, much nicer place then I personally have been affording myself. We discussed Rotary, law, death penalty, cost of cars, healthcare and a ton more. I went and checked out a church the weekend before and turns out he is an elder there….small city/country/state. We sat there and chatted it up for nearly 3-4 hours. He invited me to meet his club in a couple of weeks. It was really nice of him to take me out and offer to take me to a meeting, I was excited to get more involved with the clubs here.

In the mean time, another Rotary Scholar from Ireland, Emma, (one of the sweetest people I have ever met…seriously ridiculously nice) and I wanted to get all the Rotary Scholars in Singapore together for a dinner. Deepavali/Deewali which is the Indian New Year was that week so we decided to have dinner on Deepavali in Little India. There were five of us that could make it representing Ireland, Japan, USA, UK and France. It was like a mini meeting of the UN. Turns out just like News Year in the US the big party is the night before Deepavali so Little India was pretty quiet. We grabbed some good food and shared what we had

learned so far and trips we all were planning on taking or had taken and Rotary projects and presentations. Bali came up a lot, so did Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia. All of them are really great people. I felt even more honored to be a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar. We are planning on meeting once a month from here on out, hopefully adding more Rotary Ambassadors as we go.

The next week came and Val came with his wife and picked me up to bring me to my first Rotary meeting. The meeting was across the country so it took us a long time to get there….around 30 minutes in heavy traffic haha. Yep that’s right 30 minutes to get across the country….not many places where you can say that. So I was told that I was not going to be speaking at this dinner so I did not bring my presentation. Turns out that was not correct…yep I had been tricked…..but just like any red blooded American we have no problem talking about ourselves to a group of strangers, so getting to talk about myself for 15 minutes was awesome…..I mean they actually had to ask me to stop…ok not really and I really don’t like talking about myself all that much…..or do I? I actually focused a lot on my work with Guardian ad Litem, why I was so drawn to Rotary and how much I have enjoyed my experience so far.

This meeting was actually two club meetings in one (Rotary Club Serangoon Gardens and Rotary Club Victoria) attended by the District Governor who oversees all Rotary clubs in Singapore and Malaysia (66 in total). The District Governor comes once every couple of years or so so this was a pretty special meeting. They shared some of their projects, one was singing with, teaching and feeding children at an orphanage, a trip to aid the needy in Thailand which has been going through some of the worst flooding in a century and surveying of a chicken factory, yep it was a broad range of projects to say the least, all doing amazing things. I got contacts so that I could participate the next time they go.

My presentation went well and so did the other Rotary Scholar who was my friend from France, Paul Louis, that had attended the Deepavali dinner. I was asked a lot of questions about US politics and my opinion of the Singapore government as well as many questions about how I was liking Singapore, my age and kind of surprisingly whether I had a significant other or not. The girls in the room were disappointed when they found out I was engaged…yep can’t make stuff up like that…..tears were shed…..riot police were called…I felt like I was a Beatle leaving a 1970’s concert…..it was intense. Well maybe that is a slight exaggeration but they definitely were disappointed, I can tell these things. Both Paul Louis and I were given Rotary Club banners from each club to share with our home clubs.

I am going to be speaking at another meeting this week and another one the following week. I have also booked my first trip outside of Singapore, a Rotary trip to Penang and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Siem Reap, Cambodia. In Penang a Rotary Scholar and I are going to be spending the weekend helping a group working for a Government Sponsored Enterprise (GSE), don’t have the specifics yet. In Kuala Lumpur, I am going to be doing another presentation at a local Rotary club before heading to Cambodia with a group of their Rotarians. In Cambodia we will be visiting two ongoing projects, one a clean water project for Floating Village Communities on the Tonle Sap Lake and the other is the Village Healthcare Volunteers (VHV) project which is a program for the development of a network of village healthcare volunteers in the same Floating Village Communities.

We are also going to be visiting Angkor Wat which I am extremely excited about. I will be writing a more in depth blog about all of this after the trip.

I am still really enjoying Singapore and can see why people love living here. The country is beautiful, there are some really great people here, the food is fantastic and we are a hop skip and a jump from so many amazing places.

I am learning a lot, trying to take in all I can and appreciate every moment. I very much miss my friends and family, especially my fiancé Emily though. Emily has been great and Skype is a god sent. This experience has been wonderful due in great part to Emily and all of your support. Thank you.

Mr. Prata, Mandarin and Marina Bay Sands

Canting Zai nar!? (Where is the Cafeteria?)

Blog #2 is upon you and get excited, we have tons of hawker food, a pool day at Marina Bay Sands http://www.marinabaysands.com/, my many attempts and failures trying to use the Mandarin I have learned in class out around Singapore, my new buddies from China and India, bubble tea and much more.

School: I am in week three of my program (5 days a week, 4 hours a day) and I feel like a bi-polar mess. One day I feel like I am making great strides and am the king of Mandarin and the next day it feels like Mandarin turned into my big brother Derek when we were younger and he would pin me down and torture me. You feel like you have the ability to do something about it but you actually are powerless to the much more dominant force.

I have been attempting to use my Mandarin out and about in Singapore. I literally have been saying xiexie (thank you) to everyone (even if there is no need to thank them). After about 200 times of saying it, I think I might possibly kind of have the tone and pronunciation down. I am actually getting responses from some people. This is where my success ends, I met the father of one of the students where I live the other day and he is from China. I attempted no less than 8 different sentences said at least 4 different ways each time with almost zero success…..it felt like the first time I parallel parked. No matter how many times I tried to get it right, I just couldn’t make it work.

There is a bright note in my Mandarin. There are a few guys from China (Kevin, Bowen and Sora) in my place that are working on their English so they love coming to chat with me. They are all under 18 but are the nicest guys you could ever meet. We meet for dinner once a week and chat it up at night some times. They have been working with me on my Mandarin and I help them with their English. My other buddies from India, VK and Mayank also join in on the conversations. The diversity is great and it is really cool to hear from all of their perspectives on their governments, Singapore, life, America, etc. I think this is what Rotary’s Ambassadorial Program is really about, making friends and growing lengths through the process.

Last weekend a buddy of mine that interned at Lehman Brothers with me came to Singapore for work. He was put up in the Marina Bay Sands. Upon hearing this I got real pumped. Yep, if you have Googled Singapore Marina Bay Sands is usually the picture that comes up. Attached is a picture of us in the infinity pool overlooking the Singapore skyline. You actually can’t get up to the pool unless you are a guest of the hotel which costs a hefty sum of money to stay at, so this was quite the perk. Yep, it’s good to have friends in banking. Thanks Dick Fuld (old CEO of Lehman Brothers)…wait never mind. Safe to say we had a great afternoon hanging out by the pool. I even tried a Singapore Sling for the first time, actually was pretty good. I recommend it to the ladies….it’s a big red drink with fruit in it so not the most masculine choice of drink but had to try it.

Most importantly the food section (Singapore is known for its food):

1) I tried Pearl Milk Tea for the first time (also known as "boba milk tea" in America), which contains small chewy balls made of tapioca starch, called "Pearls". Honestly…..not a fan, they were too many of the pearls and legitimately felt kind of sick after drinking half of it. It is very popular over here though…not my cup of tea though….(key bad joke drum set sound “bad-up chiiiii”) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubble_tea

2) Have eaten maybe 3 “western meals” since being here. The food is great. Been eating a lot of Indian food (Prata, Chicken Masala, etc.), lot of Chicken Rice (staple dish in Singapore), Korean food and Thai food (e.g. red curry, phat tai). There is an Indian restaurant serving Southern and Northern Indian food called Mr. Prata where I live and I eat there most nights. For some odd reason they seem to dislike everyone, I feel like they are mad every time I order food and even more mad when I pay them…..makes no sense to me. I originally thought it was me but I have been told they treat everyone like that. It’s not even a cultural thing, its just those guys at that restaurant. Pretty good food though, convenient and cheap.

3) Hawkers are where I typically eat. Hawkers are cheap food that you can find nearly anywhere. The hawker food is just as or close to as good as the expensive food here. Not sure the food is very healthy but man it tastes good.

Other news: Finished two more books (Same Kind of Different as Me and Millionaire Teacher) and almost done with two more books one is called Asian Godfathers which is a historical breakdown of Southeast Asia and the men who run it and the other is a biography. I have been running with the author of Millionaire Teacher Andrew Hallam. He is a high school teacher in Singapore that has amassed almost $2 million in investments (he is only 40) just on a teachers salary and describes his extremely simplified investment strategy focusing on index funds. Oh and at one point was one of the 3 fastest runners in Singapore for 5-10k’s. Safe to say he paces me when we run.

Loving that the Detroit Lions are 5-0.

Week 1 in Singapore

Ni Hao!

September 15, 2011, the day my Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship began. 27 hours of plane flight, 4 awkward plane meals, 2 books read (Outliers, Tuesdays with Maurie (real sad) both great), 4 movies watched (none worth mentioning, X-Men: Origins was pretty good actually), 3 plane bathroom breaks, 3 semi-naps, two stops (DC, Narita, Japan (had sushi in Japan…it was really good) and I am now literally half way across the world. No joke, if you are EST and it is 7 am, it is 7 pm in Singapore which actually makes the time difference easier to remember. Try digging a whole through the middle of the earth, you might just pop up in my new city (I by no means am advising doing this, you would be highly unsuccessful but you get what I am saying). I am officially a minority, even though with ginger hair I am always a minority but now I am really a minority. All good things though, this adventure/opportunity is about stretching myself and learning about a part of the world that quite possibly will be the biggest economic region for the 21^st century. http://www.economist.com/node/21528979?fsrc=nlw%7Cedh%7C09-22-11%7Ceditors_highlights It is crazy to think that I am living in Asia, yeah never thought I would say that…..I am living in ASIA……still sounds crazy.

This is the first blog of many over the next 7 months living in Singapore while I am studying Mandarin at the National University of Singapore Extension Campus acting as a goodwill ambassador for Rotary International http://www.rotary.org/en/studentsandyouth/educationalprograms/ambassadorialscholarships/pages/ridefault.aspx. I couldn’t be here first and foremost without my ever so gracious and amazing fiancé Emily allowing me to come (yep I said allow, it has begun), secondly without Rotary Club of Tampa-Hyde Park’s sponsorship and Rotary District 6890’s generous scholarship and finally without my family and friends support.

For those of you that haven’t gotten all of the news over the past year since studying abroad last summer here is a quick rundown of events, cliff notes version:

Start last year of JD/MBA, meet amazing girl named Emily at UF tailgate, work 7 jobs at one point, date amazing girl named Emily, take trip to NYC with Emily after falling for my charm…..proceed to miss flight home…smooth, take job as a legal intern at Jabil Circuit, take final consulting trip to Honduras, graduate from Stetson with JD/MBA, take FL Bar, go on cruise with Emily and her family, go to Wisconsin and NC with Brother for 2 weeks to see mom, buy engagement ring thanks Uncle Stafford and Aunt Sallie Mae, get engaged to Emily (luckiest guy in the world), finish reading Atlas Shrugged and A Reason for God (yeah interesting dual book reading both worth the read), watch final season of Entourage (great ending), you get the gist…..it’s been a big year.

Now here we are back to blogging about traveling but now with a smidge more maturity, graduate schooling final wrapped up, a very significant other back home (thanks Em) and a lot longer of a trip. I am going to be coming back Dec. 12 from Singapore to spend time with Emily and the family but will be back to Singapore after Christmas, likely back for good mid April. So if any of you are feeling the travel itch, or swinging by Southeast Asia, please let me know.

A few things I have done and noticed since leaving:

Done

1) Eaten a lot of food, they have great food for cheap in Hawker centers aka indoor food markets (haven’t had any stomach issues yet so that’s good)

2) Visited the National Museum of Singapore, very cool, pictures are up on Facebook

3) Bought a cell phone in Little India……haggle haggle haggle

4) Found out at midnight sitting on Singapore River that I passed the FL Bar

5) Watched the Gators victory over Tennessee at 5 am on my computer in my hostel lounge in Chinatown

6) Video Skyped into one of my best friends, Lonnie Whitehead, wedding. Watched the wedding ceremony and had my own table at the reception…thanks Lonnie and Shannon

Noticed/Learned

1) Japanese runways and terminal signage are only in English there is not one word/character of Japanese

2) Singapore kind of like a big metropolis based in a tropical jungle paradise…..except there are malls everywhere…I mean everywhere

3) It costs nearly $40,000 to just get the rights to own a car (that’s not even including the cost of purchasing a car)

4) The country of Singapore is growing everyday….literally, they just keep adding dirt to the island edges. One day you have beachfront the next day you are staring at a new condominium, enjoy that property value depreciation.

Miss you all.

-Andrew