... a Drop of {e} ...

This year, I went from being employed by a multinational company to be an employer of a multinational staff.
From renting a house for as long as I can remember, to actually owning one.
And soon enough, from being a single lady, to a married woman.
All in a year's time, in seconds of signing contracts, giving cheques, sending emails, saying 'I do'.
Wow. Talking about big changes in life.

But I guess each of us need to move one at any point of our lives. I just never imagine all these things will happen in a single year!

As exciting *and overwhelming* as these new things can be, I can't help but fearing that when all the dust settles and I go back to the ordinary pace of life, I'll be:
a. Overwhelmed of trying to adapt to these new status/changes in my life.
b. Be bored to death and start searching for more thrill as if it's normal.

Either one, one thing's for sure... I can't go on without His grace and guidance.

So as I hang my consultant cap and easing myself to the unknown world of entrepreneurship, I whisper abundant thanks to the One above and a prayer.
For strength, for wisdom.
For grace, for humility.

Here I am in Chevron House, sitting facing Singapore river in the midst of high rise buildings surrounding Raffles Place.

I just read through my old emails sent since I was still in US, and those that I got when I first came to Singapore. And I couldn’t help but to give thanks to God. In any situation, I really can see that He is enlarging my capacity and always trusting me with greater things, be it in my career, relationship and my life. It’s amazing if you look back and see the distance you’ve traveled so far.

We’re often caught up in the heat of the moment and often forgot that after we passed those moments, they won’t come back. Of course I miss US and the work, people and things that I used to do and meet there… however, I’m glad that I’m no longer there. I’m glad that moved forward. I’m glad that I’m in another place, and most importantly, I’m glad that now I’m here.

Singapore, Tuesday, October 16th, 4:07 PM

Is it infamous for someone to be dramatic over one's life? When you think about it, regardless of any most amazing and life changing thing that one can achieve in one's life, time still ticks away, people move on and sooner (if not later) they will forget. Realizing this, deep in our soul, we hope and we strive that somewhere in this big busy world, sometime in the course of history; someone would take notice and remember that there is a person called me.

That's probably one of the subliminal reason why people make friends, husband needs wife, parents need children. We need someone to hear our stories, to be a witness of our lives. We need someone to remember, because there will come a time when we too, may forget.

Just one of my overly dramatic thoughts.

Been reading lots of good books lately... Night (by Ellie Wiesel), The Kite Runner, Ireland, Memoirs of Geisha, Intrepeter of Maladies (won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize). Among those titles, my personal favorites are The Kite Runner *grin* and Interpreter of Maladies. The first one has unbelievably great storyline, plus its protagonist is a writer... and I’ve always wanted to be one so I can easily dive in to his way of thinking and perspective.
Night, a Noble Prize winner, carries a powerful record of the Holocaust by the Nazis in Auschwitz. It is a true personal account of the writer’s experience himself so every single details of the book gave me a strong chill down the bone. Knowing that all those cruelties beyond words did happen, and knowing that this kind of genocide still happens today, even as I write this blog.

Coming my way in the next few days: The Time Traveller's Wife (Audrey Niffenegger),The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)and To Kill a Mockingbird, a classic by Harper Lee. I've never watched the movie, but I heard raving reviews on its controversial subject (at least when it was first published)...so that should be an interesting read.

And next on my list:
Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
Everyman by Philip Roth
Waiting by Ha Jin

I know! You can officially call me a voracious reader now! But reading is truly a great way to spend your time. You can learn boundless of knowledge, meet different people (or characters!) or fly around the globe! Spend an hour in Africa, France or New York... anywhere you want to go. One word at a time.

I’m in Minneapolis – St. Paul, the amazing twin cities. One thing that captured my attention, and a bit of my heart when I first landed was how lively its airport is. You can see a lot of people from France, Russia and other countries swirling here and there with their luggage, something that I don’t see very often in DC or O’Hare. And surprisingly, the signs in the airport are written in two languages, English and No, not Spanish or German, but Chinese. Probably that is exactly why I like this city, or at least its airport to begin with, it has a huge international ambience.

I flew in by Northwest Airlines, which has its hub right here in Minneapolis. Apparently there are a bunch of big companies that planted their headquarters here in the 10,000 lakes-state. Best Buy and Target are one of them.

So far I’m loving the place. Haven’t got a chance to see the downtown, but I did go to Mall of America, the biggest shopping mall in USA. It is HUGE. I went there twice and can only cover half of its ground. You can find almost any major brands/store there, that plus AMC theaters, a fun park, Dinosaurs museum and an aquarium. My legs are pretty sore right now from walking from the East side to the West side, so here I am at Gate 13, recovering myself. The first day I went there, the Minnesota Vikings (football team) was there and that drew a pretty big crowd. It turned out that they were introducing their new uniform, which I don’t really like. Purple is just not my color, y’know.

And in case you're wondering, that title is correct. Minnesota has approximately 10,000 lakes, spreaded all over the place. I've been to only one so far ^_^*, but when I took off last night, I did spot at least 8 small-medium lakes from the air. From above, they almost seem like tear drops that have fallen to the ground.

All good things must come to an end. This is gonna be my last week of project in the great land of DC area, after a full swing of six months travelling back and forth Chicago - DC!

Just on my flight this morning, I counted the amount of air trips I've taken for the past six months and it amounted to more than 48 trips! In six months alone! And that does not include leisure trips. It probably sounds normal for other road warriors out there... as it sounds normal to all my co-workers. Many people ask me if I ever get tired of travelling and my response have always been, No way! It's been a blast! Maybe not yet.. since I'm still technically single so flying everywhere at anytime is no sweat at all. In fact, it's more like a free treat or a short holiday.. with some work involved. :)

Anyways, since this blog is here for a reason, and one of that reason is (i hope) to inform you of lil' things I've learned throughout my journey... Here is a list of travel advice and what nots, in case you're planning on visiting the capitol area, specifically the wonderful sunny area of Tysons Corner, VA!

- Best airport to land: Reagan National Airport in DC IF and ONLY IF you're flying ATA. No long security lines, no hassle checking in... it's the heaven for air travellers. Worst scenario: Flying United from Chicago to the Washington Dulles airport (in the suburb). LONG lines for everything, and let me just tell you.. Gate G stands for Ghetto.. so come prepared.

- Best Hotel to stay in Tyson's Corner: When money is not the issue, then Ritz Carlton is the place to be! Ritz stands for service and by Golly, they really mean it! A warm plate of brownies awaits in your room when you check in, twice room-cleaning service; one in the morning and another one in the evening, in which they'll dim the lights, place chocolates on your down-feather pillows, make the bed and turn on the music to a soft classical piece. Mmmmm...
Next to that will be the Marriott (my personal favorite!). Hilton is always too crowded for me, they always have some conferences going on so I always feel like staying in a college dorm. And they had a black out for 45 mins during my last stay!! They have great gym though.

- Best Asian cuisine around Tyson's Corner: For Korean, try the $12 lunch buffet at Songbird. For Thai, go to TaraThai or PayaThai. For Japan, the Chirashi and spicy salmons at Mikado are pretty good. Chinese? The Hunan King.. I'm not sure if it's the best since all chinese restaurants in this area honestly taste almost the same! :P

- And this goes for other business travellers out there... During my down time, when I had enough of watching HBO or splurging at the nearest Mall, I tried to be active in looking for creative yet educative ways in spending my time. Some places that may be interesting: Personal Mandarin courses since there are a lot of Asians (including Chinese) around this area.. I've had some sessions and eventually got some new Chinese friends. Music lessons is pretty cool too (http://www.musicarts.com/). There's one around this area and a piano lesson cost around $100 per month. You can rent out musical instruments too. Dance lessons with Arthur Murray is also not a bad idea.

So my point is don't get stuck in your hotel room doing nothing (of course, unless if you need to work) coz it can get pretty depressing! And if you just got tired of happy hours or have no team dinners/activities in your agenda.. then there're a lot of other options available! Just go to Yahoo Local, and search whatever you wanna do and Bam, you're there!

So, there it is.. my two cents for the travelling world. This journey won't stop here though, since I'm gonna be travelling somewhere else for a different project starting next week.
But I'll surely miss my team here, and I'll surely miss Washington DC!

Music is such a powerful tool.
I am not a professional musician (at least not yet!) yet I enjoy listening and playing all sorts of music styles and instruments. The fact that you can paint images of emotions, messages or even places through certain arrangements of melodies really amazes me. Each note a song carries can lift your discouraged soul, break your heart, or brings you to deep thinking through its lyrics.
Imagine movies without music and you’ll get a bland presentation, just like a cake without taste.

It’s at times like this when I truly realize that I love music so much! To create a beautiful ballad is like inviting people to just stop and enter a tale of love, a journey from one melody to another. And what so great about music is, it’s not the only world in which this tale exists. When one listens to a song, the music in that song is just a media for one’s mind to travel wherever it may lead. Music is just a vehicle where listeners have the freedom of creating their own imagination of whatever messages or emotions that music brings. For instance, when you hear a Mozart piece, person A might imagine a beautiful castle with royal surroundings, where person B might have a classic museum with beautiful paintings in mind.

That’s why music is so universal. It’s a language anyone can understand and comprehend, not merely limited to those who can play musical instruments or music literate. I’m currently listening to Mandarin music although my Mandarin skill is very very limited. The chance of me understanding every words the singer is singing is slim to none. Still, I'm able to grasp every stroke of emotions that the singer/musician tries to capture through his or her music.
That is a place I’m longing to be at. To create beautiful music, and add another melody to this world.