Let Freedom Ring!

It's the Fourth of July!  Happy 239th birthday, America, you don't look a day over 225!

After a rather rude comment by someone about "cooling it with the whole America thing," I was determined to make my 4th abroad great.  I decided to keep Friday low key (despite the many social invitations I had ;)) so that I could "hike" on Saturday.

The Southern Ridges is a large green area that connects various surrounding parks via a walk way.  I was originally going to do the entire length (9km), but stopped short.  Shooting off from the main walkway, are many loops and trails, so there's much more exploring to do here.  I follow what must equate to Singapore's tourist board on Instagram and they posted something about the Henderson Waves that really caught my eye and my Saturday day plans were born!

I woke up 7/4 to a crazy storm.  I couldn't see out my window and the rain was lashing against the building.  Basically, the apocalypse had arrived.

The "view" from my window. 

Checked the local radar map.  Singapore is so tiny it doesn't take much to really knock her out.  Notice in fine print in red up top that we were experiencing a "squall" - haha.  

Finally, the weather cleared, so I packed up and headed out.  I had to wait 4 whole minutes for a train!  Those things are slow on the weekend :) During the week, if I have to wait more than 2 minutes to get to or from work, people start to get reaaaallll bijigitty.  (Someone told me that if the signs ever say 6 minutes or more until the next train arrival, people whip out their camera phones, post on Instagram and demand refunds - ha!)

I stumbled upon this Singaporean running blog/website called justrunlah.com (more on "lah" in a post to come) that detailed how to get to and navigate what I wanted to do, which was perfect!  The train stopped right outside where I wanted to start.

 I was so sad to not see any monkeys :(

 Marang Trail.  Gorgeous!  And it smelled all damp and woodsy, almost like home :)

Looking back from where I came. 

 Up, up, up I went. 

 Old mansion that local artists live in. 

 All around Singapore you'll find Heritage Trees, which are very old trees that have been preserved even through the city's rapid expansion.  

Big tree!

I brought my DSLR on this jaunt and, boy, do I need a refresher from my BIL.  Thinking of looking into photography classes here - I think it would be a really fun hobby for me and useful with all the travel I'll be doing. 

 At the top, you reach Mt. Faber park. 

 HERE is where I needed my BIL.  Lighting, spot metering, whaaaa?!

 I love looking through this LUSH window to a METROPOLIS

 Homie was doing some kind of crazy Tai-Chi/ballet moves and he did NOT like my picture taking. 

 The Henderson Waves!

 Nature and industry coexisting.  And they said it couldn't be done!

 The waves create all these cool bench outcropping things.  I saw people resting, reading, snuggling, and even doing yoga. 

 Gotham.

Pano!  (wish it weren't so hazy.  stupid rain)

 Oh, how times have changed :)

 These little workout stations were all over the place.  Singapore, where you can eat a kebab out of a paper bag and never get fat.

 FYI - I simply took pictures of this shit.  Exercise?!  I'm in the middle of a 9k walk for god's sake and these 70 meters of elevation are really givin' me a fit.  Ooohh!  Kebab stand....

 After Henderson Waves, you come to Forest Walk...another long bridge suspended into the treetops. 

 Hi!  I've gotten into a really great beauty routine here.  It's called "I know no one, I give no fucks"

 And that wraps up the Nature Preserve for the day.  They light the bridges at night and the park stays open till midnight.  Can hardly wait to return with visitors!

 I told Brandon my plan was to get to the end and then just wander around until I found something good.  He tried to convince me that it could be good to research and find a place.  "Nay!" I told him.  "I'm an adventurer."  An adventurer with an iPhone who promptly whipped out her phone, found her way home, stumbled upon Chinatown and gorged herself on greasy food and the day's news.  And iced oolong tea!  For $5.  Woop!
(So, he was right.  He rarely is, so I'll give him credit here in teeny tiny writing.)

 Post nature-walk, we had a work BBQ for a teammate who is leaving us :(  It was still the Fourth, so I donned my red, white and blue, found Budweiser and made a night of it!  It's true, NO ONE outside of America cares about our Independence Day, but I'm glad I still celebrated it.  After all, home is where the heart is and the more I see of the world, the more glad I am to have been born with a US Passport (thanks, mom and dad!)

 Did I mention there were SPARKLERS?!?!?!  There are MANY years where even sparklers are outlawed in CO due to fire danger, so this was a real treat.  I lit like 17 and twirled around and was just HAPPY. 

 Then, my boss convinced me to go to Zouk with him.  It's like the best club in the world or something?  IDK.  I'm not used to being pals with my bosses, but I'm glad I am now because we had a blast.  At times,  I was the only one on the dance floor, twirling around like a fool, because I know no one, I give zero fucks (see above). 

July 5 brought with it a raging hangover, so I spent the afternoon at the "cinema" (as my British peoples call it) seeing Ted 2 and then we absolutely GORGED ourselves on Din Tai Fung.  Seriously, the waitstaff was appalled.  CANNOT wait to take visitors here.  So good!  Ted 2 was good, outlandish, but funny.  I was worried about censorship here, but if they censored that thing, I don't want to see the real version.  Yay for movies in Singapore! 

(If 36 pictures in one blog post is wrong, I don't want to be right.)

Jewelry

A few very special pieces of jewelry have been giving me a lot of comfort on this journey:

My sister gave this to me on the last night we were together.  It's Colorado made (!), navy (!) and has "M&M" engraved on it for our first-ever nicknames, Monkey & McGee.  Can you guess who is Monkey and who is McGee??  I'm probably not supposed to shower in it, but I can't take it off.  It's now an extension of my left arm and a reminder of my roots.  (You can find it on Etsy)

This bracelet was a gift from KC & Hannah for my MBA graduation.  It's a bangle with the Dr. Suess quote, "If things start happening, don't worry, don't stew, just go right along and you'll start happening too."  It's a reminder of their faith in me.

Brandon gave me this for my birthday.  It's by an Etsy designer that is friends with my friend Andrea in Denver - you can find her here.  "Peach" is just one of the many things he calls me, whether I'm being super nice to him in the morning or I have some fabricated ailment.  I fiddle with it all the time to remind myself that I am loved.

My favorite Korean, Sarah Yoon (or "Jungah" if you're me or her mother), gave me this for my MBA graduation.  We met and studied abroad and lived together in Italy in undergrad and she is one of my best friends in the world (even though we aren't the best at always keeping in touch and only see each other less than once/year).  This necklace reminds me of that experience and that adventure and that life-long friendships are just around the corner.

My work sister, Jess, gave me this.  She's my work sister because, A - her name is Jess, just like my real life sister and B - just like my real life sister, once one of us walks into a room it's non-stop laughter and I lean on her constantly. 

Jewelry is such an easy way to carry home with you and even though I can't get real hugs from these people, I just have to reach around my neck or wrist to know they're "here" and have my back.

Days 3, 4 and 5

Day 3
Happy Monday!  Happy first day of work to me!  I didn't think the heat was so bad until I had to commute to work with my laptop bag -- oy.  Imagine my horror when I walked in the bathroom and this was the first stall I walked into...

First one I've seen in SG.  Boy, do I loathe the squatty potty.  Pee splatters, people.  Also, in places like China where western toilets are much less available, where do people puke when they're hungover?  Thankfully, there were western toilets in the other stalls or else I may have had to quit :)

Work is great.  I have so much to learn, but I also have an awesome boss who is so willing to teach.  He also treated me to both coffee and lunch on my first day.  My work days will be long, but I'm learning that's pretty typical for SG.  People also typically do later mornings and later evenings.  The commute is busy and I'm still figuring out exactly what works best, but it should be about 25 min no matter what.  The office is 1.25 miles from home and I'd love to walk it if it weren't for the HEAT.

 This is a large green space next to my condo building with the sun starting to set. 

 My condo building!

 Sunset from our kitchen window.  10 cranes are in there.  10!  And I thought Denver was booming...

Day 4
Tuesday.  I was on my own for lunch today and found this in the nearby mall.  It's so weird to always be going to malls.

 So delicious and only $5.80SGD

I pass this on the way to the office.  It cracks me up every time because I feel like every woman's feet feel the same as this little sidewalk garden. 

Hi!  Here I am in the office elevator returning from lunch very shiny.  In the mornings, there is always an open elevator waiting for you and the elevator says, "Good morning!"  Also, the close door button really works!!!!

Tonight I went to trivia with my flatmates and their friends.  It was an Australian restaurant and my one beer, mediocre chicken BLT and pitching for 2 shared apps was was $50SGD - yikes.  It was pretty fun and good to meet people.  However, I remembered how hard it is to socialize at trivia and how serious some people take it.  I'll try, try again :)

Day 5
I had a later morning start because I finally got to FaceTime with Dad -- hadn't talked to him since I left, so that was great!  I'm thinking of looking into a "work schedule" that starts at 9am here, so I have time in the morning to catch up with the US.  Nights are harder since I'll hopefully have a social life at some point and I'll be working later than I did before and I just like my sleep.

Today I experienced my first SG rain!  I just watched it from the office -- it wasn't the crazy thunderstorms I've heard of, but it was nice to see some weather -- now it can go back to being sunny :)  We have a little sandwich/soup/salad joint in the lobby and I did that for lunch today.  It totally tasted like home and made me so happy :)  It was a bit more expensive than yesterday's at 7.40 SGD, but I really don't think I could make/bring lunch for much cheaper and we don't have the large kitchen set up like my US office.

Vegetarian sammie and minestrone soup.  Have I mentioned that the office is super cold?!

Really cool and interesting things are happening at work.  I'm not actually working on them yet because I'm dumb, but just getting to sit in on the meetings has been fascinating!  Working in International M&A was always THE dream, but everyone told me I would have to work in investment banking to do that, so I resigned myself to never doing it.  Again, I'm not actually doing anything right now besides training and learning the markets, and when I do start contributing I won't be working front ends of deals, BUT we work very closely with the transactions team to understand their models so that we team can track them once they close and start hitting our books.  We also work with them on upcoming deals so we can build them into forecasts.  Additionally, deals are occasionally restructured and we work with them on that.  Soooo cool!  I'm really energized by the work and little pieces are starting to make sense.  We will see what happens once I actually have to start pulling numbers and creating reports...

We closed our first deal of 2015 today and a few of us went to Champagne happy hour (okay, Prosecco) at Halia in the Raffles Hotel to celebrate.  Only $8/glass, people.  It was fun to celebrate the accomplishment and to spend time outside of work with my teammates.

....

Adjustment has still been hard, but Brandon gave me some good advice in the comment section of "Advice" (here).  I've been putting so much pressure on myself to see and do everything.  A - that's not realistic B - it's not me and C - i'm living here now, so there's no real rush to run through a checklist of sights and restaurants.  I need to get settled at home and focus on work and the rest will come.  I guess I have two life coaches :)