Party Time

 Looks like the crew is having fun in Eden!

Happy Birthday!

 Mike and the boys are off to SD to celebrate Georgia's birthday.  Happy birthday, Georgia!

It looks like the cousins are already having a great time together. :)

Last Day of Elementary!

The boys have completed their last day of elementary school -- on to middle school next year!  Wow!

(Yes, our district starts middle school at 5th grade, even though everyone thinks that's a little too early.)

It wasn't officially the last day of school -- there are a couple more half-days left -- but the boys were leaving early to go to SD for Geo's birthday celebration. :) 

Hello to Hong Kong

 Hong Kong is a huge city, all tucked in among the mountains. It looks like the movies -- busy and gritty and signs everywhere and people everywhere. But despite that it's relatively easy to navigate for a tourist -- a lot of people speak English (at least in the areas where tourists go), and they have a great public transit system. But I'm glad I did a walking tour with a guide the first evening, to help get oriented to at least part of the city.  (It was supposed to be a small group tour, but I was the only one who signed up, so I paid a little extra to have them do it as a private tour. More from the tour later!)

Changi T4

 I took a quick trip to Hong Kong this weekend, and I flew out of the new terminal in the Changi airport (Terminal 4, not to be confused with Jewel, the new fancy shopping mall that they've just opened near the airport).  The new terminal was amazing!  The check-in process was all automated, including passport control, but there was a very helpful Cathay Pacific staff member there to help.  The terminal has cool art, tons of neat little seating areas, including the arched chairs, little clusters of chairs around televisions showing different movies (with a sound pole nearby so that people in the seats could hear, but it wasn't blasting to everyone), and of course, lots of places to charge electronic devices. 

One of the food court areas is designed to look like traditional Singaporean buildings, and not only that, but they have a fun digital "silent movie" about a matchmaker that plays on the "buildings" every so often. 

Even the toilets are smiling (see the last picture)!

The boarding process was also amazingly smooth -- they again have it automated so you just have to scan your boarding pass.  It was a huge plane -- I was in row 68 and there were more rows behind me -- and the boarding process happened super-fast.  Very impressive!

There were protests in Hong Kong on Wednesday that involved violence, primarily from the police. (The citizens were protesting against a bill that would allow extradition to China, which they feared would allow for persecution of political activists.)  One in six Hong Kong citizens were in the streets protesting.

I considered cancelling my trip, but then Thursday seemed more calm and the next protest was not scheduled until Sunday, when I was heading back here to Singapore. I checked the State Department website (and the Canadian equivalent) and they did not have a travel warning, and the part of town I was staying in was a completely different area (all the way across the harbor) from the protest area.  So, I decided to take the chance and go. (I did register with the U.S. embassy just in case, which I usually don't bother to do!)  In any case, it was all completely fine for travel and I'm safely back in Singapore (although of course the question of the extradition bill is not fully resolved yet -- the leader has postponed consideration of the bill but not agreed to withdraw it entirely, and the protests that began on Sunday are continuing today). 

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Fathers Day to Mike, the Grandpas, and the Uncles!  We love you all!!!

Tropical Work

Here are a few pictures from the campus where I work -- the last couple are from our open house day for prospective students (and the final one is an elevator).

View from the 8th Floor

Meanwhile

Back home, the kids had their spring concert, and the weather finally improved enough for some soccer!  (James's team won Saturday's game by 4 to 3.)

Walking Around

 My apartment is so convenient to lots of things. Joe and Agnes recommended the Singapore City Gallery, and it's right down the street from me. It has really cool scale models of different Singapore neighborhoods, and right now it has a great exhibit on Singapore's Master Plan (which is exactly what Agnes has been working on -- she's an urban planner). I don't know how much of it will actually happen, but it looks like they have the right ideas -- creating green space, preserving history, getting jobs and people in the same place, preparing for climate change, etc. 

There's also a neat bookshop/coffee shop in the same building -- I love their wall of books!  :)

Chinatown is just a little further on; quite touristy, but fun to walk through.