My big tip to all Singaporeans.

COLDPLAY

IS COMING TO TOWN!!!!

Make sure you don't miss it. Seriously. Absolutely. Positively. Take my word for it.

What a month!!

Yup, the past month has been so amazing and it seems that I've gone through so much within the space of 30 days! Let me think what are the most notable ones you should know about..

1) Celebrating Sharon's birthday - Feel free to ask her what I bought her.... but guys don't let your girlfriends find out.

2) New York - Yup I managed to spend a whole weekend in the famous Big Apple... all thanks to my wonderful audit firm. :P

3) Retreat - Nope I wasn't running away from anything, but I was at a Catholic Engagement Retreat for engaged couples. Sharon and I really enjoyed the whole session and we feel alot closer and much readier to get married.

4) Season Finales - Yes.. in the space of a week I am temporarily saying goodbye to Amazing Race, Desperate Housewives, 24, and Lost.... and for Will and Grace it's a permanant goodbye. Without them for the next few months what the hell am I going to do?!

Seems alot doesn't it? Well take my word for it... the past weeks were really fun-filled and exciting and yet emotionally and physically draining.... or maybe it's just me getting fat... hmmm...


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Now I must say, despite seeing the New York so many times on TV, it was still a wonderful experience being in Manhattan! Maybe it's because I've spent the past half a year in boring ol' Houston but I found that New York was really vibrant and happening! With lotsa people on the streets up to the wee hours of the night, all that noise and all that sound (*ahem*), it seemed like there was so many things to do and see there! Click on the picture below to see my album.....

"The busy Big Apple...."

Anyway during my NY trip I managed to meet up with my ex-colleague Cheryl Chung. She came over to work about a year and a half ago and she's been enjoying it ever since! Aside from the fact that there's still so much that she hasn't done in NY, she's also been able to travel around the States.. from Florida to California and much more.. all because of... erm.. our audit firm again... hehe...

I put up at her apartment, which was kinda nice actually, considering the horror stories I've heard about small and expensive apartments in NY... and because I didn't have to pay for any accomodation, we managed to pig out on a few occasions, most notably at Bubba Gump, Forrest Gump's theme restaurant, and also at Churrascaria Plataforma, a super duper expensive Brazilian buffet restaurant (the bill came up to USD$155!!!). Needless to say we had a good time and I probably would visit NY again if I have the chance.....

"Forrest won't be running after a meal like this..."


PS: Now you know why I'm getting fat. Argh....

Tikam, tikam!

I was never lucky at tikam, tikam. But I guess I am lucky this time round. I passed my business valuation exam! Yeah!! One down three more to go before I get certified. Woohoo!! Hopefully, I will be able to go New York for the next exam if time permits. Tim had such a great time in the Big Apple without me while I was slogging in Virginia. He simply loves the city, walking around checking out all the places we have seen so much on TV, from Liberty Island to Brooklyn Bridge to Central Park to Ground Zero. I want to get the first hand experience too!

Another racist attack

It’s been a while since I last updated this blog. Well, I had been pretty busy during the past few weeks trying hard to study for my business valuation exams which I finally took on Sunday in Dulles, Virginia.

The 3-day course was very enriching with the lecturers citing so many real life examples on cases that they had come across in their 40 years career as business appraisers. However, one small incident marred the impression I have even for the educated. Here’s a little conversation I had with one of the lecturers:

Day 1

As Student A and I were about to walk into the conference room after our break, the lecturer stepped out of the room.

Lecturer: Hi Ladies.

Saya: Hi

Student A: Hi…… (And being typical American, she started chit chatting with him)

The lecturer talked about how he had been traveling for the past 30-40 years and spending most of his time in Latin America. He left for Latin America 3 days after getting married (mind you, without his wife) and had been to many Latin American countries and yada yada yada…

Lecturer: Well, as you can see, I am bilingual. Fluent in both Spanish and English.

He then turned to me and asked, “So are you bilingual as well?”

Saya: Yes, I speak Mandarin as well since I am a Chinese.

Lecturer: So you are a Chinese

Saya: I am a Singaporean.

Lecturer: Oh, so you are an immigrant?

Saya: Nope, I am not. I have come here to work and will go back to Singapore whenever I feel like it. I will definitely not be staying here.


Day 3

While having dinner with my colleague in TGIF, the lecturer, together with another lecturer and a fellow student, walked in and sat at the table adjacent to ours. We sort of like started talking by shouting across tables.

Lecturer: So did you take a boat here?

I heard his question but pretended that I did not hear it. Then he asked again, “Did you take a boat here?”

I answered nonchalantly, “Nope, I did not take a boat. I took a plane here. I am not an illegal immigrant.”

Lecturer: Well, I like to think that you took a boat here.

I was pissed but did not rebut him further.

After a couple of minutes, he asked, “So I guess you will be getting married to someone and settling down here?”

I knew where he was coming so I said, “I will definitely not be getting married here. I only come here to work and will definitely want to go back to Singapore.”



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Somehow or rather there is a fairly large group of Americans out there who are still living in their own tiny world made up of only the U.S.A. It doesn’t matter if these people are educated or not, they feel that all the people who come to the U.S. are here to get out of poverty, to lead a life that they will never imagine possible if they were to remain in their home country. These people are here because they want to get green cards to become American citizens. America is a place of gold and opportunities where everyone will give a hand and a leg just to be here.

What naïve thinking! It’s time these people wake up their idea and see how the world has moved while they were still sleeping. Not everyone is here to fulfill the “American Dream”! Can’t they simply just think that we are here to widen our horizon and experience life outside our country? And indeed, we are experiencing the harsh reality of life right now with all these racism which we never have to face when we were in Singapore.

Perhaps Houston is really a nicer place to live in compared to other cities in the U.S. So far, I have not faced any racism within Houston. It’s only when I traveled out of this city that I had racist remarks hurled at me. Two out of two so far (remember the airport incident?). Let’s see if our California trip will make it 3 out of 3.