Our new backyard

Believe it or not, this tropical gorgeousness is literally just a hop and a skip from our new place. And we love it. It was an awful weekend for me for the most part-- battling some random bug that rendered me bed-bound whenever Miss Sophie would allow and lethargic whenever I was awake. But then we decided to spend the evening exploring our new backyard and really, it was all the medication I needed to revive my ailing body.

Having grown up in Ann Arbor has made Sophie very much a child who loves wide open spaces, enjoys picking up sticks and leaves, and who can never resist a pretty rock/ stone/ pebble. And I think our evening jaunt gave her all that and more :) She was so much in her element among the lush greenery-- running, tumbling, picking, poking; basically, exploring all that was within her reach. For me, that beautiful fresh air really helped alleviate whatever crazy bug it was that hit me and did me a whole ton of good.

I'll write about the new apartment soon(ish)-- for now, we're really grateful for what's outside, literally in our backyard.

Our new normal

My new normal

It's been almost two months into the new job and I have to admit that I'm enjoying it more than I had expected. There's a lot of the number crunching that I knew would be part of the job, but also much intellectual stimulation, hard thinking (which I do enjoy, I have to say), and co-workers who make the challenging work exciting and interesting.

A new job has also meant a new schedule for all of us at home and that's something that's still undergoing some trial and error. Initially, I took Sophie to daycare and drove to work but that meant having to haul the poor thing out of bed at 6.45am and paying for really expensive season parking near my office in the central business district. We tried that out for a couple of weeks but realized that it didn't make sense financially or time-wise. Now that Jude's on break, he's taken over drop-off and pick-up and I take the bus to work, which has worked out so much better for everyone. Jude and Sophie get to sleep more and I don't stress out about being late for work. I also really enjoy long bus-rides (many thanks to Lush for great company), especially early in the morning, so it's been win-win all round. When term starts up again, we'll switch out depending on Jude's teaching schedule, but hopefully, it'll be more forgiving than a crazy early mad-rush for everybody everyday.

Coming home after 6.00 means little time for elaborate dinner prep. Thank god for our families though who always thoughtfully prepare a ton of food for us on weekends to bring home to freeze. Between that, takeout once or twice a week, and simple foods that are easy and quick to cook like fish, noodle soups, and veggies, we pretty much have dinner covered every night with time to spare to unwind and play and read with Sophie.

As for chores, we're managing to cope quite well-- if we need to, we put a video on for Sophie on weekends and do whatever major cleaning that needs to get done like mopping the floor or cleaning the bathrooms. But since no one is at home in the day, the house never really gets too messy or dirty; the Roomba also vacuums three times a week so that saves us from doing much dusting. Most importantly, we farm out the ironing to a laundry company because honestly, there is nothing I hate more than ironing...

The almost three-month break was nice to have after moving half-way across the world and gave me time to set things up in our new apartment. But it feels good to be back working and thinking about more than just how to hang our posters up or how many sets of bedding we need... I think the guy at our neighborhood DIY store was really getting sick of seeing me every other day with some new request ;)

Up and down bus

You would have thought I had brought her on the most amazing carnival ride ever, or that we were sitting in a fancy space shuttle ready to take off on some fantastic journey. And to a three year old who until a week ago, had never seen a double-decker bus, sitting right in front on the upper deck probably elicits the same level of thrill and excitement :)

Sitting  right up front on the upper deck

Sophie calls it the "up and down bus" and we rode on it yesterday, fully intending to visit the library to get her a library card. But no, Sophie had such a wonderful time sitting where she was and seeing what she was seeing from the vantage point that there was no way she was getting off before she was ready. And so we ended up bypassing the library and taking the bus all the way to my parents' instead, 45 minutes away from our hotel. Thankfully it was all on the same bus line.

You should have seen and heard Sophie-

"We get to sit on a double-decker bus- that makes me smile!"

"You can call me Bus-driver Sophie! Hi! Nice to meet you!"

"Ok everybody, no squirming on the bus! Put your bottoms on the seat, please!"

"Oh look, Mama- the cars look like toys. And I'm on a giant bus!"

"Oh hi, Mr Bus-driver- thank you for taking me to my Por Por's house."

Throughout the ride, she alternated between pretending to drive the "upstairs bus" and hanging on to the edge of the window because something new caught her attention outside-- some billboard of some sort, an interesting looking building, the MRT train zooming close-by, etc. It was probably 45 of the most exciting minutes she's had in Singapore; and that made me smile. I'm glad Sophie is so curious about her new home and how open she is to all the new experiences and sensations. One day, she'll eventually take riding on a double-decker bus for granted-- just as many of us do-- but until then, I'm happy to just sit back, watch her revel in her newfound love for public transportation, and pray that it lasts for a long, long time :)

Homecoming is sweet

The sun's been unforgiving, jet lag lingers, and I still miss our car.

But being bathed with love does have the tendency to take the edge of things like that :) It's been a wonderful homecoming and as it gradually sinks in that we've moved back to Singapore permanently-- you mean, I don't have to cram every family commitment, social engagement, and food imperative into 20 days??-- it's also slowly feeling more and more like we've made the right decision. In particular, Sophie is SO happy to be here. She wakes up with a smile every morning, asking if she's going to see one set of grandparents or the other today; her face lights up with delight when she's informed that she will indeed be; and she's been so curious and accepting of all the new sights and sounds she's encountered just in the last three days alone. She waves at everyone she sees, asks about the plants she's never seen before, is immensely thrilled by the prospect of one day riding on a double-decker bus ("How do they get up there, Mama?" she asks, eyes widening in amazement...), and asks to translate everything into Chinese, which she seems to recognize as the second most widely spoken language in Singapore.

She still thinks her friends and teachers from daycare are "on their way here"-- I think she didn't really get the whole goodbye Gretchen's House part-- but apart from that, we couldn't have asked for a more wholehearted embrace of Singapore from her. The real test will be when she starts school of course, but until then, we're pretty confident that she's loving her new home as much as we could have hoped for her to :)

Cousin love with Julianne!

Home

After almost a decade away, we are returning to Singapore.

It was not an easy or uncomplicated decision to make but it has been the perfect storm of factors and we think this is the right thing to do for now. Jude has been made a very generous job offer that we couldn't turn down and the research prospects in Singapore appear much more promising for me than they are here in the U.S. More importantly, when we asked Sophie if she'd rather stay in Ann Arbor or go back to Singapore, she batted nary an eyelid and replied, "I want to go to Singapore." I think she has very fond and vivid memories of when we were home over Christmas and is really looking forward to reliving them again. She talks about her grandparents, her aunts and uncles, her cousins, and all the things she remembers seeing and doing- she's ready to leave right now if we'd let her :) I doubt she understands the magnitude or permanence of this move but she's happy about the prospect and I guess that's more than we can ask of her right now. And of course, there's our families, who couldn't be more ecstatic about our decision. The happy vibes that were jumping right out of Skype when we broke the news to them could probably generate enough electricity to power a small country :)

We're going to miss Ann Arbor in so many ways- this is after all where Jude and I shared our first home, bought our first car, started and completed grad school, and had our child. And where Sophie is concerned, Ann Arbor has given her just about the most blessed childhood we could have asked for her. It has given her great caregivers and friends, taught her about seasons, and inculcated in her a love for and curiosity about nature and the great outdoors. Ann Arbor made it possible for us to expose her to the array of intellectually and culturally-rich experiences that have shaped her early years. Singapore will do the same as she moves past toddlerhood, but in different ways, and it'll be quite the adventure for all of us.

We recognize that we'll be going home with some degree of privilege-- not of money or status-- but of experience. The last nine years here has influenced us tremendously in the way we now think, behave, and make decisions. And we want to use that experience to do good. To be good. That is what makes me hopeful about this next stage of our lives- that by going home, we can be of greater service than if we stayed here, that we can better contribute to something larger than ourselves, put something out into the ether that was not there before us.

But for now, there are more modest concerns that occupy us- purging and packing up the house, figuring out the details of the move, and dealing with mundane things like car payments, loans, credit cards, etc. Basically, we're slowly erasing the traces of our life here in the U.S. and re-carving one in Singapore.

See you in August, Singapore.

Sunset at MacRitchie Reservoir, Singapore

Sophie cheers for Singapore

It's funny how things come around- I spent the bulk of my doctoral program studying children's notions of national identity and wrote a 250-page dissertation on the topic. I spoke to 140 students from both Singapore and the U.S. as part of my research and read everything that can be read on the topic. So you would think pretty much nothing can surprise me when it comes to little kids talking about what it means to be a citizen of a country. Unless it's my own two-year old that is.

So apparently, Sophie's teachers have been talking to them about the upcoming Olympics at daycare (I'm not sure what kinds of conversations toddlers can have about international sporting events but ok...). One of her classmate's parents are from Canada and so he kept saying, "I cheer for Canada!" According to her teachers, Sophie was not to be outdone and declared to everyone, "I cheer for Singapore!" Now, on the surface, that doesn't seem surprising. But Jude and I have never talked to Sophie about her citizenship, about how she's born in the U.S. but both her parents are Singaporeans. I wasn't even sure she knows what a country is, lest of all that Singapore is one. So how she knows to cheer for a country which she only remembers traveling to once is beyond me- as far as she's concerned, Singapore could be like Boston or Chicago- the two other places she remembers visiting.

It might be that it's the only place we talk about frequently- we hardly make references to Ann Arbor specifically or the U.S. in general since living here means we sort of take it for granted (or talk about local places instead, like the library, grocery store, or the museum, etc); whereas Singapore is "there", where family is- her grandparents, her aunts, uncles, and cousins, and where we spent Christmas and New Year. I doubt there's any of those ephemeral feelings of belonging or allegiance that are accompanying her "support" of Singapore for the Olympics (honestly, I'm wondering if she even really understands what it means to cheer something on), but right now, it's obvious that to Sophie, Singapore is just different, special somehow.

Look at this picture we took of Sophie's artwork that's on display right now at our neighborhood cafe. It has a little sign in the corner about how old she is and what her Likes are. Sophie's Likes- "The Muppets, Singapore, singing." :)

Sophie's artwork on display at Cafe Marie

Random daycare daily report #22

One of our favorite photos of Sophie during our trip

Sophie is still so proud of her trip to Singapore. Today, a parent was saying to Lucy, "Lucy, you're a big sister now?" and Sophie came running over and saying, "I went to Singapore!" Also, all of her friends take pretend trips to Singapore together. I even heard someone say they wanted to play "Singapore" today. What a sensation our little jet-setter has started! :)

Incidentally, yesterday, as we were picking Sophie up, one of her classmates' mom said to us, "Payton's been wanting to take a helicopter to Singapore. We've had to explain to her that we're probably not going to take a trip to Singapore any time soon..."

What did you do in Singapore?

In the car on the way home from daycare:

Me: So Sophie, can you remember what you did in Singapore?

Sophie: Err... I play with Yiyi Sam. And Uncle Sam. 

Me: And what else?

Sophie: I smoochy kiss Baby Julianne so she won't cry anymore. 

Me: That was nice of you, right?

Sophie: Yah. Baby Julianne is so tiny. She needs a floatie. Like Sophie.

Me: When you go swimming?

Sophie: Yes, I have a Shamu floatie. 

Me: What else did you do in Singapore?

Sophie: I eat SO MUCH  tau sar pau and I see the Merlion.

Me: What was the Merlion doing?

Sophie: Spitting water from his mouth. Are you supposed to do that?

Me: Are you supposed to do that?

Sophie: No. You cannot do that. I was 'fraid of the Merlion. But Gong Gong protect me.

Me: Do you like Singapore, Sophie?

Sophie: Yah. We stay in Singapore tomorrow ok? We take the airplane and go to Gong Gong's house tomorrow. That's a good plan.

First family photo of 2012, last family photo of our holiday

Ode to Parkway

It had been the one unchangeable I could always count on, the one shopping mall I've always been able to find my way around virtually blindfolded since I was allowed to visit it by myself when I was twelve. But I guess two years is a long time to be away and in my absence, my beloved Parkway Parade has finally succumbed to the metamorphosis that seems to have beset so many familiar locales around the island. Having lived in the East of the island all my life, this shopping center has always had a special place in my heart, even with the fancier, shinier, brighter malls sprouting up in the city. In its own modest way, it had (well, still has, I guess) everything I need in a mall-- sundries, groceries, food, shopping, and services like my optician and watch repairman.

And having spent so much time there these past twenty some years, I knew exactly where everything was- every shop, how most of the owners and vendors looked like, even how competitors' prices matched up (particularly amongst the mall's many optical shops). So imagine my utter discombobulation when Jude and I popped by for what I thought was going to be an easy (and quick) errand trip. Armed with a list of things to buy and Sophie happily napping at my parents', I was certain I could get everything I needed within the two hours of Sophie's nap. In fact, I was convinced that if we were strategic enough in our shopping, we might even be able to do it all in under an hour, with time leftover for coffee and a snack. Clearly, I didn't factor in 1) the Christmas shopping crowd; 2) the many makeshift shopping carts that have sprung up in every available space all over the mall; 3) an expanded basement food court that I had to meander through just to get to the elevators; and 4) all the shops that have newly opened, expanded, shrunk, moved, changed names, or closed down. It actually made me feel a little sad-- disappointed almost-- like having an old friend change on you... In the end, we did manage to get our shopping done, but in two hours instead of one. There was coffee-- but to go-- and no time for a snack.

Five years ago, I blogged about something similar; five years later, I pretty much still feel the same way. Like I told Jude as we sat in an inexplicable traffic jam in the middle of the day along Orchard Road last week, every generation of Singaporeans has-- and will-- grow old in a Singapore that is nothing like the Singapore in which we grew up.

And we're baaaack!

In the end, the journey was more forgiving than anticipated- there were a couple of sort-of meltdowns, but they were mostly because Sophie was just really tired from her sleep schedule getting messed up. She did really well on the flights, mostly because we were *very* liberal with the whole watching videos on the iPad thing- basically, for 18 hours, we allowed our toddler's brain to turn into Kipper mush. Oh, and consider this my public service announcement to our vegetarian/vegan friends out there who are going to fly Delta in the future- because I love you, I'm just going to tell you right now to stock up on whatever you can get at the airport to sustain you throughout your flight, because you're not going to get anything (sustenance, nutrition, flavor) from the vegetarian meal option. The only things Sophie (or I) would eat were the fruit platters, a cold bagel, and a side of plain couscous. She basically survived on packets of the airline's complimentary pretzels.

But putting that all behind us, we're home now, and that's what matters. Sophie's been thriving on all the attention she's been getting from family, and really having a wonderful time. She's still a little jetlagged and she literally starts perspiring just sitting still in the living room, but I don't think it bothers her at all. Everything is just so new and exciting for her that every second has been spent just asking and learning about new things. Like chicken rice :) And wild monkeys at MacRitchie Reservoir (where we found ourselves early this morning when Sophie decided to wake up at 5.30). But most importantly, Sophie got to meet Baby Julianne in person, and it was really sweet:

"I give Baby Julianne a kiss."

Two weeks. At home. With family. And friends. Christmas. Good food. I say, bring it!

Counting down 14 days

A week ago today, Anthony Bourdain's new show, The Layover premiered on the Travel Channel, and for the second time, he launched a new series/season with an episode on... you guessed it, Singapore (read about our excitement over his No Reservations episode on Singapore here). You've got to give it to the guy, I've not met another non-Singaporean who is as passionate about Singaporean food as he is. And I'm not talking about the chi-chi, often pretentious, marked-up-by-a-1000%, white-table cloth, reservations-only experience; he loves-- just as much as we do-- the food that put Singapore on the foodie map of the world. We're talking sup tulang, bak chor mee, pig innards soup, chicken rice, fish head curry, etc.- street food, hawker fare, that lies at the heart of our culinary heritage.

And so, inspired by the episode (and by our recent success with char kway teow), Jude and I spent the Thanksgiving long weekend cooking up a trifecta of Singaporean hawker favorites: chai tow kway (fried carrot cake-- which bears absolutely no resemblance in any way, shape, or form, to the carrot cake here in the U.S.), laksa, and mee siam. Admittedly, the latter two came from premixes from the good people at Prima Taste, but they tasted as authentic enough as we could get them with whatever ingredients we could find here in our little town in the Midwest (laksa leaves in Ann Arbor?- c'mon, who are we kidding?...)

1. Mee siam, 2. Dark fried carrot cake (chai tow kway), 3. Laksa

Maybe it was because we really needed a break from all the turkey and stuffing we were regaled with over the weekend (although bowlsful of coconut milk, spice, and fried carbs aren't really detoxifying by any means...) or maybe it was our bodies' way of getting ready for our impending homecoming, but those three meals awoke in our tastebuds sensations that have laid dormant for too long (two years to be exact, if anyone's counting). We're not just talking about spiciness here (many cuisines in the world relie heavily on spice as well), but that complex and rich amalgamation of sweet, savory, spiciness, and of Chinese, Malay, and Indian flavors I associate only with Southeast-Asian cooking. It's food you can get no where else in the world. It's the food of my soul.

We leave in exactly two weeks. I. Can't. Wait.

Counting down 30 days

It's exactly a month until we arrive in Singapore.

And in preparation, Jude and I have been talking ourselves into a frenzy about the food we're going to be chowing down during our 3-week trip (as always...). It started with this list that he stumbled upon (which I barely agree with, but then again, we haven't been home in two years, so who knows what's come and gone in the Singapore hawker food scene?...) and then tonight, in a spur of inspiration, Jude decided he was going to make char kway teow, a much beloved fried noodle dish from home. Greasy, sweet, savory, and pungent- char kway teow encapsulates all things yummy about Singaporean hawker food. I was beside myself with anticipation...

We had to adapt the original recipe a little to suit Sophie and also the ingredients we could (or couldn't) find. Which means 1) no fresh cockles and 2) spaghetti as a substitute for egg noodles because of Sophie's allergies (no scoffing, you purists- it worked brilliantly). It was actually quite easy to find fish cake and preserved Chinese sausage so we at least managed to preserve the integrity of most of the main ingredients.

Chef Jude hard at work at the wok

Jude made two batches of noodles- one Sophie-friendly version with no egg or chili paste and the other with the works, i.e. extra garlic, stir-fried egg, and a pungent, spicy chili paste. And both were equally A-MAZING. I was literally standing right next to him, picking up the noodles with my chopsticks as he was still stir-frying... It was that delicious.

Our grown-up version

We weren't sure how Sophie would take to char kway teow- she hasn't actually had anything quite like it. But clearly, being a Singaporean foodie is in her blood and she practically inhaled the noodles from the moment we set it in front of her. When I asked if she could share her noodles with us, this was her response:

Shielding her char kway teow from her parents

Best of all, throughout the evening, Sophie called out several times, "Thank you, Dada for making me the noodles!"

Singapore hawker food, watch out- we'll be unleashing Sophie Yew on you!

You can't curry love

The new-found social and political symbolism of the dish aside, I embraced Singapore's National Curry Day yesterday as an opportunity to recreate one of my favorite things from home. My mom makes the best curry I know and nothing I've made has ever come close to her hallowed version. I guess it doesn't help that in the years we've been here, I've only ever relied on pre-mixes. But this time, I promised Jude that I was going to do it old-school, from scratch as much as possible.

I used this Violet Oon recipe as a starting point: first point of order, a whole chicken from Whole Foods properly chopped up (they're one of the few places in Ann Arbor where you can request to have your chicken chopped up into fairly small pieces as opposed to the typical 8 portions). Next, the aromatics:

Shallots, ginger, galangal, garlic, and chillies- all ready to be ground

I didn't take a picture of how they look like ground (sort of a speckled indistinguishable pulp) or of the curry paste I made by mixing curry powder my parents had brought from Singapore and some water. The next step was to marinate the chicken, which I think was key to the flavorful meat and robust richness of the curry:

Chicken marinating with curry paste and ground aromatics

The house really started to smell like my mom's kitchen when I then fried up the remaining curry paste and some bruised lemongrass. Adding the marinated chicken and coconut milk only heightened that to a whole other level. When people talk about sense memory, this is what they mean- when a smell can literally transport you to another place, and with that a whole host of associated memories- home, love, warmth, comfort...

Frying curry paste

In goes the marinated chicken

With 3 cups of coconut milk

In the end, it still wasn't quite my mom's curry, but it was about as close as I have ever gotten it- really flavorful, palate-coatingly rich, pungent, and deeply satisfying. Unlike the anaemic pre-mixed curry pastes we've used in the past, this curry had soul... Maybe it was just the fresh aromatics, or maybe because I was thinking of home a lot when cooking, but it was a definite Like Water for Chocolate moment when cooking and eating became jumbled up with a whole bunch of other emotions.

Dinner

Mom, you should be so proud of me :)

Things that make me ache for home

Missing out on moments like this.

A bowl of bak chor mee.

Long bus-rides around the island- going nowhere, seeing everything.

Durians.

Friends who knew me when I had braces, permed hair, and/or bangs...

My inexplicable enthusiasm for Cook-a-Curry Day this Sunday, even if we are participating from afar.

Parkway Parade.

This.

‎"The landscape you grow up in speaks to you in a way that nowhere else does." -Molly Parker

What has Jude been up to lately?

So some of you, dear blog readers, might be wondering - what the hell is Jude up to these days?

Well, in case you were wondering, I can tell you that he's been plenty busy, thank you :)

And just what has he been busy with?

Over Summer 2008, he had the great fortune of being able to go back to Singapore on an NSF fellowship to work at the Communications and New Media Dept. in NUS. While there, he worked with Giorgos Cheliotis and the great folks from the Participatory Media Lab. A project that kept him busy most of his time in Singapore was a study of participation patterns found in ccMixter, an online community focused on the remixing of Creative Commons licensed music.

Well, that was Summer. In November, Jude was back in Singapore for 2 weddings. But in between the weddings, he managed to squeeze in more work at the Participatory Media Lab. And what you see below is the culmination of all those months of effort :)

Yesterday, we finally submitted the paper you see here for the 2009 Communities and Technologies conference at Penn State University in June. There will be a couple more papers coming out of this same project, so watch out for them :)

*UPDATE*
A librarian friend from the antipodes advised me to take the paper down since it hasn't been published yet. Please feel free to email me if you would like to view a copy of the paper.

A great way to fly...

So I'm typing this as we're sitting in The Oasis airport lounge in JFK. We have a 6-hour wait before our Singapore Airlines flight back home via Frankfurt and sitting in a Burger King with three huge bags, two backpacks, and two laptops trying to do work during that time was just going to be too hard. So we sucked it in and paid for a day-pass to the airport lounge and suddenly, we now have full access to complimentary wine, coffee (from a very exciting cappuccino machine), snacks (all the Milano cookies I could possibly want!), cheese & crackers, a hot bar, sandwiches, scones, a "library", comfy couches, shower facilities, and most importantly, free wi-fi :) Jude's got a bunch of reviews to finish and I have 60 audio files to transcribe, so yes, I think we will be very busy here in the airport...

On top of that, by some quirk of the airline karma, Jude and I actually found ourselves bumped up to first class on our Northwest flight in here from Detroit. I was quite sure we paid for coach tickets, but when we got priority tags on our bags and the seat numbers on our boarding passes didn't match the seats I had chosen yesterday, we almost thought we had accidentally bought first class tickets. But no, I suspect the flight was overbooked and they bumped all Northwest frequent-flyers up to first class to make space. I'm not complaining of course and I got my orange juice in a proper glass instead of a plastic cup, which is always nice.

So our journey home so far has been a galaxy away from my last trip back alone- touch wood, but no errant birds in sight... And I'm really glad I'm not traveling alone. Having Jude's company makes all the difference in the world :)

Funniest wedding invite - ever!

I kid you not, this is an actual wedding invite from a childhood friend ... sent via email ;)

Dear all,

I am getting re-enlisted into National Service on 30Oct08, and would like all of you my comrade-in-arms to witness the event at Regent Hotel.
Please confirm your availability. Unlike that day 18 Dec 1993, where they gave me a rifle and told me that its my wife (what idiots!!!), this is the real thing!!!!

FINALLY......I AM GETTING MARRIED....LIKE most of you................

Don't ask me whether i am sure or not? When i renewed my car insurance, they told me i can pay lower premium because I am 36...a responsible age.

I never believe in "Once Armour always Armour, but i guess Once a HEEJACK, ALWAYS A HEEJACK...
Our motherland is safer now that i am OUT of the army.............

Once a brother, always a brother.................please come and we can have one big reunion.

Things I appreciate...

...about being back in AA:
1) My first sip of Starbuck's Pike Place brew: it's still my favorite roast from them. Plus, I refuse to pay S$4.50 for Starbucks in Singapore (after conversion, it's still ridiculous) so my first cuppa this morning was particularly precious.

2) Running in weather that doesn't make me want to pass out after 10 minutes. Although I realize that the cooler air is also thinner (whatever that means) and I had to breathe a little harder than when running back home.

3) Sane driving. (See here.)

4) No longer having to watch the current season of Project Runway via YouTube. Waiting for five videos to very slooooowly load- I'm told by my resident computer techie that there's something called "lag" and videos just load slower in Singapore- just for one episode was only barely worth it.

Things I don't:
1) Throngs of undergrads on the first day of term. I miss my "yay-it's-summer-no-undergrads" Ann Arbor... It's still not as bad as the claustrophobia of Singapore, but after enjoying those couple of months of peace and quiet in May/June, today was not nice...

2) The parched dry grass everywhere- even my beautiful lavender isn't holding up very well. I think I take the perennial greenery of Singapore for granted sometimes and forget that in Ann Arbor, green is something quite fleeting, whether we're talking about long, frosty winters or rainless summers that toast everything into an ugly brown.

3) No yummy home-cooked food. Yes, we cook, but somehow, pasta and casseroles just aren't quite the same as chicken curry, handmade hae cho (shrimp rolls), long-simmered soups, and other lovingly-prepared comfort foods.

4) Our family and friends. Enough said :(

Virgin qik post :)

I first heard about this service from Kevin Lim. And it was more apparent that qik is a web service I should be paying more attention to when the Prime Minister of Singapore showcased qik in this year's National Day Rally. (Check out the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvxD8-L68bA) But more than anything, it was interesting to see the live streaming of my video as I was using the qik service. You can check it out below:



This is quite a nifty service. And what's more interesting is that this is a homegrown Singapore startup :) I can definitely see myself using this service a lot more. It was pretty easy to install qik on my iPhone. I am quite sure that qik installs on a variety of other cameraphones. It's pretty cool to stream your videos live ... think of yourself as your very own broadcast channel :)

Serene's presentation at the Rajaratnam School of International Studies

Serene has been invited to give a talk on her dissertation at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University. Details of the talk are below. Drop by if you are in the vicinity :)