The Answer

Quite a bit has changed in my life since my last post. Most importantly, I just got a haircut. Of course, I'm just kidding. The biggest change is that Amanda and I are now engaged to be married! It's been something I've been thinking of for years, and now it's a reality!

Cowboys Comeback

Coming back to Dallas for the second time since moving was really wonderful. Before Amanda arrived, I went with Evan and David to see the Cowboys. I absolutely loved it. I had wanted us to do something special while in town, and this was it! It was the first time in years that the three of us had been able to do something as just us. Of course, this is completely understandable. We live three separate lives. However, on this day, it was fun to be together doing something we all enjoy. Plus, since the Cowboys were playing so terribly leading up to it, there was no pressure of them winning or losing hahaha.

Most Important Question of my Life

That brings me to the big story of coming home. Pretty much since July, I had known the timing was starting to feel right. Ultimately, Thanksgiving seemed to be the best option so we could celebrate with the family. However, I knew Amanda wanted it to be special, so I had to trick her a bit to keep it a surprise.

"Erev Thanksgiving" as the Rabbi put it, we went to a park near her family's house. For weeks, I had been saying we'd go on a "Dallas Date Night." My brilliant plan was to then have her think it would be a three part date.

Part one was a picnic in the park. Man, was I nervous. I just kept eating so she wouldn't see how shaky I was. As we finished wrapping up the picnic blanket, I told her there was no part two. That's when I went down on one knee!

It was very quiet, the atmosphere was wonderful with the sun setting, just the two of us. The ring is her grandmother's, so it has very special meaning. To be honest, I don't remember hearing the word yes, but judging by her hug and kiss shortly following, I figured the answer was what I had been looking for.

It's so funny how technology has changed the way family news is spread now.
Of course, we immediately let our families know. However, it's tough wanting to make sure you tell everyone and not have someone see it on facebook! So, we asked everyone to wait on the social media congratulations until we had told everyone.

As soon as we put up our first message, things totally changed.

Here are some of my favorite responses we got.

From Zach Sagett - "Good to hear your finally getting wifed up! Congrats buddy"

From Charlie Hannema (also engaged) - HOUSE! That a baby! Welcome to the cool kids club.

From Sam Korotkin - "Your officially the first of any friends of mine to get married! so this is really the first time ever I've congratulated someone for getting married so I'm really not sure how it works. I guess I just say congrats?!?!

From Andrea Horowitz - "is it possible to me more excited than you?"

From Nicki Marder - "ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! omg im shaking like mad! Congrats over and over and over! I love you both!"

From Scott Schaefer - "That's something to be thankful for this Thanksgiving!!"

From Steve Chaitman - "ahhhhh! i feel this compulsive need to watch how i met your mother in the early seasons! MAZAL TOV!"

From Max Hyman - "Things (I think) I'm thankful for: The Jets barely squeaking out of 3 games in a row, hopefully another 10 win Mizzou football season (though it's a disappointment, let's remember people), Mizzou's new basketball uniforms, and Michael Rosenhouse and Amanda Paige Rude getting engaged!"

Thanksgiving

The rest of our trip was very nice. We had excellent holiday meals with both families. Food was a key factor in the trip hahaha. We had birthdays to celebrate, the first night of Hannukah, lots of wonderful things.

Since we've been back it's been mostly work for the two of us. Amanda is still settling in to her new job. It seems like she's starting to get the handle of it now. Hannukah was really nice, we lit the candles pretty much every night. Work wise, I was helping produce our SC Year in Review show for the last two weeks. I'm happy with the show, but also realize there are parts that could have been better. It's all a good learning process.

We haven't been able to do much wedding planning, but we think we have a date in mind. Socially, we had a good time at our friends' company launch party. Alex and Shavit have created a discount company called CityNomads. It's a online coupon company that is based off group buying. All the best to them!

We've just planned a new year's trip to Ho Chi Minh City. I'm excited to go back and hope Amanda will enjoy it as well.

Enjoy the holiday season!
Michael

Bangkok Bound

Going to Bangkok was very interesting. There were things I've never seen before, and it's probably safe to say, I'd rather not see again. Here are the highlights.

Friday Night

After settling into the hotel, we decided to go out and explore the area we were staying in. Bangkok is a very big city, with a feel on par of any of America's big cities. Big highways, train system, etc. Well, apparently we were staying near the business district. We quickly learned there was another business going on the streets near where we stayed. Let's just say there were plenty of women hanging around the corners, eager to meet the tourist.

Canal Tour

The hotel offered a free tour for staying in the hotel, so we picked a long tail boat tour. We had a really great guide who spoke excellent English. The boat takes you along the water, showing off many of the amazing buildings there. The temples are simply unbelievable.There are 400 of them in the city, and they are all so intricately done. They take you take an area of the water where you get to feed tons of catfish. Very cool to see all the fish. People can't fish in this one section as it's deemed a holy area.

The houses along the water were all very different. They ranged from some rundown buildings, to some beautiful two story houses. A lot of them had very cool Thai designs as well.

One thing that really stuck out at me was watching these kids play in the water. They couldn't have had a care in the world. They were just splish splashing and looked so happy.

Weekend Market

After our tour, we went to an awesome market. I've been to three or four markets now in SE Asia and this was different than all of them. It was massive. The coolest part was the little shops inside. It wasn't just a bunch of stands selling knockoff watches or bags. They were all like a bunch of cool vintage clothing shops, arts type stuff, food stalls and more. Lots of tourists there, but that's to be expected as it apparently is only open on weekends.

Long Table + Gulliver's Tavern

For dinner, we took a suggestion from a friend and went to the Long Table. It's a cool bar on the 25th floor of a hotel. The food was just okay. The setting was very nice though. After, we went to this cool Western bar we found called Gulliver's Tavern. We were watching all the English football matches, and I just loved being in a true sports bar atmosphere again. I'm going to have to find something similar in Singapore.

Sports thanks to twitter

Last weekend was a huge sports one for me. Unfortunately, my tv options were limited, but luckily I had Internet and was able to check twitter often for updates. Watching the updates unfold for the Texas playoff game was so nerve wrecking. Absolutely incredible seeing all the tweets at the end about A-Rod striking out looking to finish it.

On top of that, Mizzou was having a huge football weekend. Missouri was hosting number one Oklahoma, and ESPN sent it's Gameday crew to Columbia for the first time. Pretty much the whole week leading up to it, I'd been missing Mizzou a lot. It's mostly about missing my friends there. Especially because some of my best friendships at school developed from watching our Tigers together. All that being said, it was an amazing feeling to see the positive messages about the game. When it was over, I could tell I'd have a great day.


Grand Palace

After going for the requisite vacation massage (when they're 15 dollars, why the heck not), we visited the Grand Palace. It is massive. It's not a typical palace like I would normally expect. It's more a collection of temples and shrines. The mixture of architecture really struck me. There was colonial styled buildings and more tradition Thai ones as well. Some were a mix. The only downside, it was very, very, very, very hot.

Sirocco

So, this may be one of my favorite stories. We went to this restaurant thinking it would be a nice type of dinner,

but we never expected it to be like this. On the 63rd floor of this beautiful hotel sits a very nice restaurant. After a quick glance at the menu, it was very clear we were in way over our heads. Let's just say we decided to only have dessert there (and a $13 can of coke hahahaha-never expected to write that line). The view of the sunset from there was really incredible though. Unlike anything I've been able to experience before.

Funny Taxi

As we headed back to the airport, we ended up with a taxi driver that spoke almost no English (we are in Thailand, it's not to be unexpected). More importantly, we noticed he was driving with the gasoline tank on empty. We just had to hope and pray the car didn't stop in the middle of the freeway. Luckily, there was no issue.

A good weekend. There is a ton of culture there. As you may have noticed, I didn't talk about food as much this time. That's because everything was just okay. We ate Pad Thai three times, only once did I really think it was good. The best was a cashew nut chicken we had.

That's a bit about Bangkok.

Michael

Let's Go!

Quite a bit has happened since August here in good ole Singapura. So, let's go!

High Holidays

Had my first set of high holidays here and they were very nice. The difference isn't as much being in Singapore, it's more about becoming an adult and deciding what the holidays mean to me. We had a lovely Rosh Hashanah. For first night, we went to a young adults dinner our friends organized. It was a great atmosphere with an excellent community feel. Second night, we went to the synagogue for dinner. Smaller group than I expected, but still okay. The highlight was that there was an Ashkenazi minyan for prayers, so I felt more at home. The next day, we went over to our friends Jonathan and Margaret's for lunch. They are so nice to let me come over for holiday meals - great friends.

Yom Kippur wasn't as smooth sailing. I took off on Saturday, but it was smack in the middle of my three day, three in the morning, work weekend. Add to it, I came down with a cold on Friday. So, I wasn't feeling real well coming into it. It put me in the position of having to decide if fasting really made sense. To be honest, I had never really understood the reasons for doing the fast. Well, on Friday night, I found out the reasons we fast, don't wear leather, stand a lot, etc. I decided to fast as long as I could, but if I really felt like having to eat, go for it. I was able to hold off, and we had a lovely breakfast at our friends Matt and Mel's (they just had a baby this week, a huge mazel tov to them!).

As far as the rest, we had one meal in the sukkah and were able to go for a little bit of Simchat Torah. I've been working the mornings this month, which means having to go home earlier to get some sleep.

Singapore Grand Prix & Sports Report

Formula 1 racing came to Singapore late in September. To me, this was really awesome. They create a street track downtown by the Marina for a night race. It's so impressive - it not like going out to the Texas Motor Speedway. Literally, it sits downtown.

On the Friday before the race, I got to go cover a press conference for Lotus Racing. Had a good time meeting their drivers. It's always fun to be out in the field a bit.

As far as other sports go, the baseball season is wrapping up. The Rangers are doing very well. Hopefully it stays that way! Some of my work friends seem to have really gotten into it this season which is great. I mean, when things like Roy Halladay throwing only the second ever postseason no-hitter, it's kind of hard not to like it!

We had a NFL workshop the other day. I was just trying to show everyone why it's the most popular sport in the states right now.

Basketball is on the brink of a new season. No one is talking about the Mavs, because let's face it, until they really do something, it's kind of the same 50 win, early playoff exit expectation for this season. I do think that underdog feeling could help. This season, I will say Miami Heat, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh seemingly a thousand times (may be a bit low with that prediction). Still, really excited to see it start up again.

Social Stylings

The coming and going of friends continues here. It's all to be expected though if you're mostly friends with the expat community. I mean, Amanda and I will leave at some point. It's just part of living here. However, that has all come with some fun events. We went to a Glee themed going away party, a burrito night, a great poolside welcome back barbeque and a housewarming party. As with everything in life, it's all fluid.

Travel Bug

One of my biggest reasons for moving here was the opportunity to travel the globe. Amanda and I took September off, but that made me really want to go somewhere. Luckily, things are falling into place. We're heading to Bangkok for a weekend at the end of the month. I expect it will be hugely different from our Krabi, Thailand experience. After that, some of our Mizzou friends studying in Australia are coming to visit.

Then, it's off to Dallas for Thanksgiving - really excited to see everyone! This will be Amanda's first trip back home, and I'm sure she'll love it.

As for 2011, I'm hoping to really explore. This week, my friend told me about a great fare from Singapore to New Zealand. So, after some website surfing, we booked a trip to Auckland in May! I'm super excited. We'll try to travel around a bit, but we only have 8 days, so we'll have to make 'em worth it. This doesn't mean I don't still want to go to Australia, we'll just have to go another time.

I really am trying to take advantage of living in this part of the world. Singapore is such a great springboard to travel to other places. Speaking of, still on my list of places to visit, Hong Kong, Bali, Australia and Seoul. South Korea is the main focus as I want to go while Jordan is still teaching there. Of course, all this is work days and budget permitting.

So, hard to believe it's already been ten months here in the little red dot! I still love being here, and it's great having Amanda with me.

Last note, we found a really delicious pizza place. It would totally pass my cousin Zack's test!

Toodles,
Michael

M&M Go Global

Parenting is a continual process, or so I'm told. And yet, so is being a son or daughter. For me, having my parents come in town was another chapter in this book.

My lovely parents came in town for two and a half weeks, and it was very cool to show them the life Amanda and I have here.

Bintan

Right after M&M got here, we headed to Bintan, Indonesia. This island an hour ferry ride from Singapore is really a resort destination. Unfortunately, it rained quite a bit, which put a dent in my plans to be beach bums. However, we were still able to make it to the beach at times. The hotel we stayed in was pretty nice. The food at the restaurants was good. All in all, it was a good mini trip, but not the cultural trip my parents may have been expecting.

Seeing Singapore

As stupid as this may sound, I was proud that my parents went and saw Singapore for themselves while Amanda and I were working. At times, I was able to go to lunch with them, and then send them on their way as I went to work. They saw Little India, Chinatown (home to my mom's new favorite hairdresser), Arab Street, Dhoby Ghaut area (going almost exclusively by bus), Orchard, etc all on their own. Of course they're adults and are able to do this stuff on their own, but it was still a pleasant surprise to me.

The highlight for me was going to the Singapore Flyer with them. I had purposely waited to go on the large observation wheel until they were in town. It was a really nice time- went at night and saw the city in bright lights

Cruise

My parents being the cruise loving people they are, went on a five day exploration of SE Asia aboard the Star Virgo. Luckily, I was able to join for most of the trip. The ship was supremely average in my opinion, but I enjoyed all of the ports. We went to Penang, Malaysia and Phuket, Thailand. I'd been to Penang, but this was a completely different experience. We saw things I hadn't been able to visit on my last trip. Phuket was nice. Saw some more cool Buddhist temples, plus went to the beach after. Yet again, I love Thailand and I'm ready to go back.

Showtime

While they were here, we went to two live theater shows, "Boeing! Boeing!" and "Fried Rice Paradise." Amanda and I had a bit of an advantage as we have more of an ear for Singlish. Some of the jokes we were able to catch that my parents couldn't. Then again, there were jokes in Chinese that none of us understood. Still, we enjoyed both performances. It was a good change to see live productions again.

It was great having them in town. Our guest room was put to good use (wink wink - come visit, we have a room set up). It did make me realize a bit more of the life I'm not having at home, but this still feels like where I'm supposed to be.

Those are the brief highlights of a great two and a half weeks.

Michael

Michael-Jordan Take On Saigon

Knowing my good buddy Jordan, I figure my two days in Ho Chi Minh City would be action packed.

Tuesday night

I got in and Jordan was still finishng up his day's tour, so I hung out in the hotel room and watched ESPN Star Sports of course! It was cool watching SportsCenter and knowing the video and script I worked on earlier was being broadcasted in this country.

Once he got back, we headed out to Pho 2000-the restaurant President Clinton ate at on his trip to Saigon in 2000. It was really tasty and to my surprise the beef was completely legitimate (again making me wonder why it's so different in Singapore).

Anyways, the next stop was the night market. It seems like once you've been to one night market, you've been to all of them. Really nothing special to note-although their fake northfaces looked pretty good.

Wednesday

Tunnels tour

Of course a big part of coming to Vietnam was to look at some of the war stuff. Something that interested the two of us were the Cu Chi tunnels. These are the tunnels the Vietcong had in certain areas - helped move without being seen. Really, the system is very smart, but I just couldn't believe how small these tunnels were. Apparently, they've been doubled in size and I was still really uncomfortable. You kind of "duck walk" through the tunnels and my knees just were not having it. I only went part of the way and then took the early exit - my legs can still feel it.

In general, the war stuff made me quite uncomfortable, but more on that in a bit.

Nam Phan Restaurant

After the tour, we got dropped off near the war remnants museum. But before more "feel good" memories, we wanted to have lunch. Luckily, we stumbled upon one of the nicest looking restaurants I've ever been in! This place was a rennovated mansion and boy was it awesome. We both felt completely under dressed - but it turns out our stomachs were ready for the occasion. The food was sooooo good. We both got an appetizer, a main dish and a Pepsi for a total of 26 USD. It was easily a sixty dollar meal in the states at least. It really just shocked me.

War Remnants Museum

After stuffing ourselves, it was time to get back to more knowledge. The museum is completely one sided. I mean being in a communist country it was understandable, and essentially the North eventually won out in the war. The photos, captions, displays, all made it very clear - the people wanted communism, the Americans wanted destruction.

Look, I wasn't alive then and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have been in favor of the war, but it was really pretty crushing. Whether it was right or wrong for the US to go to Vietnam can always be debated, but to me it seems like it was the war between communism and individualism, and the battleground ended up being Vietnam.

I do think if I was alive and an 18 year old kid, I would have been really unhappy to have to go there. Then again, I admit, I haven't done all the research necessary on the war.

Afternoon Snack

Feeling extra good about ourselves, we decided to walk back to the hotel (probably a two mile walk). It was really nice as we saw a lot of the real city, not just tourist spots. Again, we stumbled into a great garden cafe and decided to have a snack. So, we picked the healthiest option of course - creme broulet. The atmosphere was really as nice as the food. Yet again, a lovely decision.

We finally got back to the hotel to recharge before our night out.

Barbeque Garden

Jordan is a big fan of Korean Barbeque. In Seoul (where he works as an English teacher) he goes about once a week. Which meant he was quite eager to try Vietnamese BBQ. It was an easy sell for me, meat + fire = good. The place we went to had a great garden set up, pretty much right in the city.

It's pretty simple, they bring platters of meat, you sit and cook it, then eat it. Again, what made it great was that we had a ton of food (meat, kebabs, corn, onion rings, drinks) all for 10 US each. In a way, I'm glad the food in Singapore isn't as cheap or it'd be dangerous.

A Whole New World

Our next stop was to find dessert. I know it looks like all I do on vacation is eat, but, okay maybe that's kind of true, no excuses, it's what I love to do.

Right across from where we were staying was the New World Hotel. We scampered in, hoping for some decent and not expensive dessert. Winner, winner cheesecake dinner! Jordan got strawberry cheesecake, I got "Mississippi mudcake" (which kind of resembled a durian). It didn't taste like durian though! Sheer heaven and the ice cream was even better. Homemade and silky smooth. That wraps up Wednesday.

Thursday

Most Manly Activity

We woke up ready to get our massages. Right near the hotel was a nice looking spa, and it was cheaper than the one at the hotel. It was an experience for sure. Let's just say I didn't go for a certain added option, but it was still a nice time.

Beef Bonanza

Maybe it's the stupidest idea, but I love eating beef, and it's a more rare experience in Singapore. While we had set out loooking for a pizza place, we ended up finding a great place called the Black Cat. Luckily, we didn't pass it up (superstition joke, hahahaha, it's funny if I point it our right?). This couple next to us were eating this Texas sized burger - 500 grams of meat. Seriously, this was like one of those you eat it all, you get it free types. We did not try to take down the "Big Cat," but we each really liked our food. I got a hamburger that beats any I've had in the little red dot so far.

Fleury of French Findings

France had colonized Vietnam for more than a hundred years (which ended in the 1940s). Well, as you'd guessed, there are plenty of French influenced buildings. As I had an hour before needing to go to the airport, we tried to pack in as many sights as possible. We saw the Notre Dame Cathedral, a beautiful train station and many other relics. We tried to find the city hall, but just missed it.

Speaking of just missing - I got to the airport in plenty of time for my 5:30 flight. Unfortunately, my plane wouldn't be joining me. My flight was cancelled, but I got rescheduled for the 9:30 PM flight.

So, I wrote the majority of this blog on my iPhone while sitting in the Saigon airport.

Anyways, it was great to see my pledge brother and catch up over sights, food, food, drinks, food and food.

I wonder where we'll meet up next!

Michael

A Krabi Birthday Weekend

I've been fortunate to have had very wonderful birthday celebrations in the past, but I have to admit, going to Krabi, Thailand for my 23rd birthday might take the cake.

On Thursday night, I got pretty nervous as the weather reports called for bad weather all weekend, including "torrential rain." I guess this is to be expected as it is apparently rainy season there at the moment (yeah, I hadn't looked that up before booking the trip).

So as Friday rolls around, I'm fully expecting a miserable weather weekend in what's supposed to be a gorgeous place. Luckily, when we got there on Friday, it was cloudy, but not really raining. I was amazed when we got to the hotel. For the amount we paid, there is NO way we could have stayed somewhere like that in the US.

We scampered out of the hotel and into a tuk tuk (motorbike taxis where the passenger seating is next to the bike and driver). To walk to the town is about fifteen minutes, by tuk tuk, it's two minutes and a dollar per person - so, well worth it. The Ao Nang beach town is relatively small, but perfect for what we wanted. Lots of restaurants, easy access to look at the water and plenty of tour companies to help out. After a nice late lunch of pineapple fried rice and spring rolls, we set out to book a trip for the next day.

After talking to our fifth tour company, we picked our Saturday activity - a full day boat trip to the Phi Phi Islands! I had heard how beautiful they were and the tour package made a lot of sense. The only thing to worry about was of course the weather.

Friday night, we had an awesome dinner at this place called Jeanette's. We had a pad thai (have to in Thailand right?) and chicken wrapped in banana leaves. The food was so goooood! Plus, it was white meat chicken-this may not seem like too much of a big deal, but the majority of chicken served in Singapore is all dark meat. So, this was a really pleasant surprise. The whole restaurant was great, beautiful atmosphere, nice staff and it was really inexpensive.

So, we woke up bright and early on Saturday morning to go on our day trip. The clouds were out, but I held out hope. As we start heading out toward the first island (about 40 minutes away), our tour guide tells us 28 passengers that it's high tide and the water would be very choppy. Boy was it! We were bouncing up and down, water splashing into the boat. I thought for sure Miss Amanda wouldn't be able to handle it, but she did really well. As we head further from Krabi, the weather got better and better. By the time we were at Bamboo island, it was all sunshine! The first island was pretty nice, but nothing spectacular, still the water was very nice.

The second stop was more of just something to see - the Viking Cave. I wasn't really paying attention to what the tour guide was saying, but it was still cool to look at.

The third stop was breathtaking and easily my favorite. After passing beautiful rock formations, the boat stops in the middle of a lagoon, surrounded by these gorgeous rocks. The water was as teal as it could possibly be. I took my birthday leap into the lagoon and the water was simply perfect. It was really paradise. The Lagoon was probably the highlight of the trip for me - it's just so beautiful and to be there with Amanda was exactly what I wanted for my birthday.

We tried to make it over to Maya Bay, the site where Leo Dicaprio's "The Beach" was filmed, but the water was waaaaaaaay to choppy. To be very honest, I was a little nervous the boat would tip over. After abandoning that plan, we headed for Phi Phi Don. The main tourist island of the Phi Phi Islands. There the tour group had lunch over looking the water. After, we explored the town a bit. Lots of shops, food stands, etc. After not really knowing what to do, we made it to the main beach. It really was very pretty, but really busy. It's hard to imagine what it would be like in the peak season.

The tour made one more stop to go snorkeling. The water was really clear and pretty. Saw a little bit of coral and some yellow and blue fish. That wrapped up a lovely tour day and then it was back to the hotel.

Saturday night, Amanda and I shared a pizza for dinner. The coolest part was that we were sat at table number 23 - how perfect was that? We didn't even realize it until halfway through the meal. For dessert we got fried banana with ice cream, not quite as good, but still nice.

Sunday was a bit tough to plan for. With a flight at four and not sure what it would be like at the airport, we decided not to do any more tours. We did have a very nice lunch in food heaven though. I mean seriously, all the food was so good, service was great and we never spent more than $15 US for any meal for the both of us.

To close out the trip, we went to this massage place where you put your feet into the water with a bunch of small fish. They bite at your feet to clean them off. It tickled so bad! I just could not stop laughing for about two minutes. After that though, it was kind of like having bubbles around your feet.

So, that's my Krabi weekend in paradise. I had a blast and can't wait to go back to Thailand soon!

Michael

My New Roommate

It's hard to believe Amanda has been here for almost three weeks already! At the risk of sounding completely cliche, it's like a new chapter of my Singapore adventure has opened up.

Seeing Singapore Part 2

With Amanda in town, I feel like it's my job to show her the city. So, in a way, I get to see all of my favorite parts all over again! Its been interesting to see how Amanda reacts to Chinatown, Little India, Arab Street, our neighborhood, etc. I definitely haven't seen all this city has to offer, so for me, it's another chance to explore. She seems to be dealing with the culture shock in her own way. I think it's funny what she notices versus what I had.

I have to admit, she already exceeded my expectations by landing a job in the first week she was here! It's crazy impressive, plus her office is right smack dab in the middle of the Central Business District - think downtown, big city. Unfortunately, our off days wont always match up, but that's the danger of working in tv.

NBA Cares Event

I got my first reporting event here late in June. Five NBA players came to Singapore for a Basketball Without Borders camp, and I loved covering it. As much as I love producing, sometimes I miss getting out of the office and trying to make a story. Well, this event gave me the opportunity. The players visited a children's home and also hosted a skills camp for high school aged kids. With all the talk about LeBron, Dwyane Wade and the other huge free agents and the big money out there, it was nice to see these NBA players taking time out to visit kids and help extend the game across the world.

4th of July

I had no idea what to expect for my first 4th here in the little red dot, but I was pleasantly surprised. On the 3rd, Amanda and I went to a big American Association event. We got there just in time for fireworks, then had dinner (burgers, beer, classic Americana). It was really nice. The next day we celebrated America's independence in classic fashion - visiting the Singapore National History Museum and then eating Mexican food at the taco bar nearby ;)

End of World Cup

So for the last month, I've been completely consumed by the World Cup, and I've loved every second of it. I watched in 2006, but this was very different. I know a lot of the players now, the background stories, the histories, all of that stuff that makes it more enjoyable. Plus, it's great at work considering that without it, we'd just have the dead of summer. The highlight for me has to be watching the USA's last game in group stage against Algeria while at work. With the Americans on the verge of elimination, Landon Donovan scored in extra time in a last gasp effort. I immediately got out of my seat and ran through the office as if I'd scored. I was so happy-it's easily one of the best sports moments of my life. I feel like it's something that will be in my memory bank forever.

To wrap up the WC, I went with two of my co-workers to Singapore's Dutch Club. I mean, it was the perfect place to watch Holland vs Spain. The only issue is that after working a 12 hour shift, staying up for a 2:30 AM kickoff is quite difficult. I ended up almost falling asleep at the end of the first half. So, I rushed home and got in front of my tv. While I hate to admit this, I ended up falling asleep around the 80th minute, only to wake up at the very end as the Spanish were celebrating. Still, I loved the WC and am now sorely disappointed that it will be 4 years till the next one. In 2006, I was in Columbia working at Hillel to try and get in state residency. I wonder how my life will be different in 4 years-we shall see.

Coolest Work Moment

Over the weekend, I had the coolest jaw dropping moment of any tv related thing. Friday night, they asked me to be on SC Week in Review to talk about the LeBron James signing, WC, tennis, etc. Two days later I get this post from a girl I went to elementary school with :

"Hey there old friend! Did I just see you on ESPN sport center talking about world cup awards?!?! I'm in Bangladesh right now and have no idea which country's espn gets broadcasted here, but I'm positive it was you that I saw. I'm glad to see you are doing so well after all these years!"

How crazy is that?!?!?! I really couldn't believe it. You all know how happy I am with this job and this just reaffirmed my appreciation for it. I mean, I didn't even realize the show went out there! Plus, this friend moved away before middle school. I don't think we'd talked for maybe 10 years. Plus, it's surprising she was able to recognize me after all this time. It really put a huge smile on my face.

Well, we're off to Thailand this weekend for my birthday! This will be my second big trip and I've been looking forward to it for quite some time. A full blog will follow.

Y'all come back now ya here!

Michael