Saturday, August 23, 2003

Mark and I went to the Singapore Zoo today. We're "friends of the zoo" here, as we were in Atlanta. The zoo here really is amazing. Many of the animals are in cage-free exhibits, including the howler monkeys, and large african storks.
We've resigned ourselves to being here in Singapore a bit longer than we originally planned. We're starting the migration process to Australia (truly painful) and have estimates that this process could take anywhere from 6 to 20 months. The reality is that it's not at all practical to move back to the States before going on to Australia; it just doesn't make since financially, especially since Mark has a relatively stable job here.
I've been keeping myself busy lately volunteering at the United States Education Information Center. I answer questions about U.S. colleges and universities. It's rather interesting, and it's amazing how many Singaporean kids think they can go to Harvard (not likely kids). I've also been taking Spanish classes " Yo soy alumna de espagnol". Still, I'd prefer to be busy with a paying job. I'm working on it.
Interesting Singapore Factoid #871: Many Singaporeans slow down at traffic accident scenes, not to rubberneck, but to get the numbers off the license plates of the cars involved. It's for the lottery. The belief is that the license plate numbers had bad luck, and must be evened out by good luck in the future.

Friday, August 22, 2003

Booted. No more spiffy downtown office. The guy I work with and the bossman of the office where I was squatting got into a bit of a row. Thought it was going to get ugly, but luckily it fizzled before anybody had to get escorted out of the office. I'm going to be working at my cow orker's house for a while, while we look for a new office. Ups my 40 minute commute to about 45, and mostly by bus now, too, so I'll get all pukey if I try to read. And he has no AC. Ratsafratsa.

We saw Secretary tonight. It was good. If you've seen it, maybe you can answer me a question -- I've been away from the States for a while; are law offices typically like they're depicted in Secretary, or are they more like on Ally McBeal?

Sunday, August 17, 2003

Woo hoo 80's! The concert was more fun than we expected. It was a great venue in the middle of town, with lit up skyscrapers in every direction, and it was a nice cool overcast evening. We were cordoned off 50 yards from the stage, since we bought the cheap tickets. There was a local band who opened, who did covers (natch); we were treated to their interpretations of Coldplay, U2, the Beatles, Dave Matthews, and Lynrd Skynrd. Go West was next; they were okay. I only recognized one song. Then ABC. Unfortunately, if you're in ABC, you pretty much have to wear a suit, no matter how hot your concert venue is. The lead singer was resplendent in a purple one this night. They ran through pretty much all their hits; they sounded great, and were well appreciated. Level 42 was last, boring, and enough to send us home.