cindyandmike.com

While Mike was away, my mom, Sam, Maggie and I took a road trip to see Mike’s mom and dad. It was so much fun - we had lots of laughs! And the kids LOVED seeing their Nana and Poppy! Sam loved Dave’s garage, Dave’s tools, and their pool. He also enjoyed placing Dave’s magnifying glass in the VCR. Maggie loved exploring everything in their house. We took the kids to Dollywood, to the park, and out for dinner. Aunt Nicole and Uncle Chris came to visit the kids several times while we were there. It was wonderful to see everyone…..we’ll see the Barnett family again in August for Maggie’s birthday.

Today is our last day of classes.  I forgot to mention that the students clap at the end of class for the professor.  Every class.  We only do that at the end of the quarter in Chicago.  I took Marketing in undergrad, but it’s been about 15 years since then, so I’m a little rusty.  This class has helped remind me of the core principles of segmentation, targeting, etc.  We still have another week of Marketing in London in August.  One of the things I have learned about myself is that I learned a decent amount about marketing while working at my last job at the consumer products company, because those kinds of companies have to be focused on marketing, more than service companies typically.

The other class is more focused on human behaviors behind decision making, such as various types of biases you can have.  I’ve learned a lot about the kinds of mistakes you can make in decision making.  For instance, assuming you have an idea what something is worth, you should always make the first offer to buy something rather than asking the seller for his price.  That’s because the price becomes an anchor, and all future prices are based off of that.  Research has shown that people who negotiate this way get on average a better price for an item than those who ask the seller what they’re willing to take, as the seller’s price becomes an anchor that’s higher.

I have a lot of reading to do between now and London in four weeks, plus several essays to write.  The work just does not let up.

For lunch we had rice, mushroom alfredo pasta, salmon, some sort of fried chicken thinly pound out, some thinly sliced beef in gravy.

After class on Friday they had arranged buses for us to go to Labrador Park, a nature reserve.  It is on a big hill that overlooks the bay.  You can get a good view of all the cargo ships just waiting to come ashore.  There happened to be some Singapore Air Force jet fighters practicing overhead, so I snapped a picture of that.  Dinner was a mixture of ethnic foods, such as white fish in lemon cream sauce, cold Thai beef vermicelli, black pepper beef (mmmm), and broiled chicken.  They had chili crab but I skipped since that’s messy.  We enjoyed some red and white wine which was excellent.

Afterwards we went to Clark Quay to a bar called Emperor’s Palace.  It used to be a Chinese-style home that was owned by the same guy that owned the building the Chicago GSB is in.  Gary and I took our shoes off and sat up high on a platform with cushions and were served drinks.  They had a belly dancer and a guy with a big snake.  Not something you see every day in a bar in Chicago.

After that we went to a dance club The Ministry of Sound.  This place was crazy.  Jam packed on the dance floor, multiple rooms, etc.  They had a water fall that dropped water between the dance floor and the bar, and the dance floor rotated.  I jumped into the middle of it and danced with the locals… they probably thought I was crazy.  I can’t dance of course.

Most of the GSB stayed in a room upstairs that was much smaller that had a dance floor and played 80’s dance music.  My goal was to stay up late so that I could start to adjust to normal time.  I was in bed by 4am.

Day 7 is Friday.  I am really tired today and not feeling as well as I have been, so I skipped lunch.  Looked like Chinese, but I’m not sure.  I took a nap in the school’s lobby for about 30 mins in the late afternoon.  After class a group of us Americans went back to Chinatown for some more shopping.  You really have to try to bargain on some stuff if you want a good price.  Hard to tell what is real vs fake here, so I avoid most things unless I have a very good idea what it should cost.  I keep being accosted by people wanting to tailor me a shirt or suit.  Maybe if I had more time.

For dinner Juan and Mark and I went for sushi at a Japanese place recommended to us by a local.  Woohoo, sushi!  I’ve been waiting for this all week.  The menu was mostly in Japanese, with sometimes the English version of the Japanese word, e.g., Toro is fatty tuna, so it would say Toro.  They didn’t have Toro, but you get the idea.  Their regular Tuna was the best I’ve ever had anywhere.  We also had some pan fried dumplings, sea bass, and yellow tail.  We had some pan sauteed squid as well.  Good stuff.  We split the bill, so my portion was about SG$60.  Not too bad for Singapore, but we didn’t eat too much.  That’s ok I was full.  The service was extremely slow and they barely spoke English.  Some of the things we ordered did not arrive.  That’s ok, the tuna made up for it.
After dinner we went back to Emerald Street to have a few beers.  I was in bed by about 12:30pm.  Needed some sleep.

We were told repeatedly that the classroom was cold and to bring a jacket.  I think once I put on my jacket for a few minutes because I was wet. But it’s what most in Chicago would consider hot in here.  I’m sweating.  This is an example of the “adaptive effect”. Over time, you adapt to your surroundings. In a few months this would be cold to me. Ok, so now I have imparted some knowledge from my classes this week on the masses.

We turned in our Swatch case today.  At lunch we went across the street and found another mall.  You would seriously not believe how many malls this place has.  They are all over the place.  They had a Swatch store, so we browsed.  They still have the gaudy watches of the 90’s, but now they have more Rolex-like stylish gold and silver watches.  Mostly silver, as gold is not “in” these days.  Nice, but expensive at SG$180-280.  They’re trying to go a little more up class than they were in the past.

For lunch we had Indian food.  I typically don’t like curry, but I tried some chicken curry and it was good.  Can’t eat too much of it though.  The naan bread was not as good as in the past.  I’ve noticed that sometimes it is oily and sometimes dry.  I like the oily version better.

In the evening we went down to the beach and Mana Mana Beach Club.  The beach here is very narrow, maybe 20 feet of sand from water to vegetation.  It is man-made.  There are palm trees and other trees here.  The weird thing is that off shore you can see about 200 shipping vessels.  I mentioned earlier that Singapore is the busiest port in the world, and here you can see it.  Weird to see some kids swimming in the water, as there is no way it could be clean with all of that shipping traffic.

After drinks we walked down the beach to our restaurant.  On the way we walked by an mad-made water ski park.  The park had a pulley and cable system whereby the skiier would hold onto the tow that was attached to a cable above their head.  This cable, which was held suspended about 20 feet over their heads, then pulled them around in a circle.  It was about 200 yards by 75 yards.  Pretty interesting idea.  I know I haven’t posted many pictures, but I promise to do that soon… this was a cool one.

We ate dinner at Jumbo Seafood, an outdoor cafe on the ocean.  It was really very crowded and hot, plus it was raining outside.  But the food was good.  It came out in courses.  The first was whole battered shrimp, then watercress, rice, a whole fish (we asked what it was, but I can’t pronounce… it was good… I ate the cheeks too and people thought I was weird), chili crab, and black pepper crab.

After dinner we went to Clarke Clay to the Pump Room.  Clarke Clay is an outdoor restaurant and bar area that reminds you of Las Vegas, e.g., the Paris hotel comes to mind.  The roof is about four stories above the ground and looks like clouds.  Lots of foreigners here in these parts, from all around the world.  We met a couple of Irish girls (love that accent.)  Did I mention how much alcohol is?  $SG12-16 for a beer and $SG15-25 for a mixed drink.  At US$1 = SG$1.3 you can see that it’s crazy expensive, more than NY if I recall.

The bar had dance music between sets of a very good band that played 80’s American music like Bon Jovi, U2, Guns N Roses, etc.  The lead singer was a man dressed as a woman (common here I guess.) I went home and was in bed by about 2pm.

Today we had Marketing in the morning again.  For lunch we had Thai food.  I guess they’re going to give us a different ethnic food every day.  I really enjoy Thai food, and this was some of the best Thai I’ve ever had.  I had basil beef, some sort of chicken, shrimp, and some rice.  The beef was so good I had seconds.  On our afternoon break they had steamed dumplings with chicken, which were good. Jet lag kicking in this afternoon again.  Lots of coffee.  I need to get more sleep tonight.

We worked on project until about 11pm. This Marketing case was on Swatch.  Remember them?  Well apparently they still exist.  I saw a Swatch store so I’m going to look into it.  Bigger in Asia, little less popular in Europe.  I haven’t seen them in America for years.

Since everyone had to work late on this case, dinner was catered, American sandwiches.  I had a steak sandwich and mushroom soup.  Beef is very good here, tender, usually.  The mushroom soup was good.  Kind of boring, but the food was ok.

I went back to the hotel and worked more on the case.  We have to turn it in Thursday afternoon.  For some reason they switch and we have Marketing in the afternoon the rest of the week.  I went to bed about 1am.

Today is Tuesday and is our first day of class.  We turned in our BMW case for Marketing.  We have Marketing in the morning and Decision Making in the afternoon.  Both professors are young, mid 30’s, and both are rising stars at the GSB.  The Marketing guy is from Holland and talks like Lars Ulrich of Metallica.  Very animated, walking around constantly.  Interesting guy, I think he has ADHD.  The Decision Making guy is very intelligent, a behavioral scientist.  He has a vision impairment.  Not blind, but he cannot see very well, so his assistant has to tell him when there is a question.  I like both classes, although they are not quantitative, which is what I prefer.

The classroom is auditorium style, just like Chicago.  I chose a seat with nobody’s name plate on it and went to get coffee.  When I got back I was kicked out of my seat.  She wasn’t very nice about it but did offer an apology for kicking me out.  So I chose a different seat next to someone I did not know that well from Chicago and someone from Asia.

I found today that a few Americans in Europe the Americans from Chicago ask the most questions and offer the most info.  The Asians typically don’t say much at all, and most of the Europeans are quiet too.  Apparently some of the Asians think we’re loud.

The wireless is finally working for me at school, but not very well.  Sorry I don’t have much time to create posts, only in the evening.

I think I mentioned they are having an Asian specialty for every breakfast. Today it was fish soup.  Hmm, not sure that’s what I can eat for breakfast.  I decide to skip and go with a croissant (French food in Singapore?) and a pastry that has apples and maybe figs or dates or raisins in it.

For lunch we had shrimp scampi, fried fish with ginger, some vegetables, beef with peppers and onions, and fried rice.  I’m not sure what type of food it was, but it generally looked like Asian food.  Good.

Jet lag started to hit me this afternoon.  I drank 4 cups of coffee.  Then I was jittery and tired.  Nice.

We worked on the case for Swatch for Marketing which is due Thursday.  Then we went for dinner at local Singapore hangout.  It was a giant outdoor food court shaped like a letter “O”.  You find the food you want, they take your order and deliver it to your picnic table.  Gary, the local guy who is in our group, did the ordering for us.  We had giant tiger prawns with garlic and butter, calamari with chili, watercress with some sort of spices, Indian bread (naan?) with some sort of meat, maybe ham, and fish balls.  I had lime juice for drink.  The food was awesome!  I want to come back.  It was great to see how the vendors were very salesmanship oriented, but polite.  When they delivered the food to our table they would tell you how they prepared it.  The tiger prawn guy was especially proud of his garlic, he used a lot of it.  Because there are so many vendors, it is competitive and important you make good food.  Inexpensive for Singapore, which frankly is expensive, more than London typically.

After dinner we went to Emerald Street, a nice little side street with bars off Orchard.  The locals hang out here.  We played pool at this bar for several hours.  Mike from the London campus and I won every game all night.  Best I’ve ever played.

I’ve noticed that the music playing everywhere, stores, bars, etc., is all American music, both new and old.

I didn’t fall asleep until about 2:30am.

Today we go to the GSB for the first time.  It’s basically across the street in a very oriental looking building.  It’s very beautiful.  I’ll post some pics.  In fact, this was the first oriental building I have seen to this point.  Pretty much all the buildings look like they could be in some US city, especially with all the street signs in English.  Sure the people looked different, mostly Asian but some Indian/Pakistani, but I guess I was expecting it to not look like so modern.

For breakfast they had a typical American continental breakfast with a twist.  Every morning there would be at least one or two things on the buffet that was traditional in Singapore.  Today it was a steamed dumpling with cabbage and fish and shrimp inside.  I liked it.

We had a local senior business panel talk to us about doing business in Singapore.  The summary about Singapore that people usually start with is about how they have strict laws like the gum law (cannot sell gum here and if you spit it on the sidewalk, well, run.)  But when it comes to business, they welcome you with open arms.  Anyone can own a business in Singapore, no foreign ownership restrictions.  And you can incorporate a new business in just days.  Plus they welcome business professionals with welcome arms when it comes to applying for a permanent residency.  Apparently this all dates back to the British empire days when the Brits wisely setup Singapore as a “free trade” post with no taxes and little to no trade restrictions.  So Friedman wasn’t the first to think of that free markets thing.

Interesting factoid - Citibank has 9000 people employed in Singapore.  Largest employer.

After lunch my group got together and we finalized our case for the first marketing class about BMW.  We have met a bunch of times about it informally, but we needed to be more formal and make progress on finalizing the draft I had created on my flight.

In the late afternoon we had a bus tour.  The tour was fantastic.  Our guide not only knew about the architecture and history, she knew a lot about history, religion, culture, everything Singapore.  A lot of the reason that Singapore is such a melting pot is because of the Arab dynasties, Napoleon, the British East India Company, etc.  Very interesting tour.  The presidential palace is across from our hotel, and they chose to keep the British tradition of the changing of the guards.  Cool.

First tour stop we got off the bus and walked through an Indian neighborhood.  Had a fruit market and little shops selling various stuff.  Then we stopped in an Arab neighborhood where they are known for their fabulous fabrics.  I know nothing about fabric, so I was more interested in the architecture and the people.  There was a beautiful mosque.  I wanted to go in, but I don’t know all the customs and wanted to be respectful, so I passed.  By this point over the two days I’ve been here I have had no less than ten guys chase me down to offer to make me a suit. No time for that really, but it sounds like fun.

Next stop was Chinatown.  Bigger than I expected, and much more authentic to me than San Francisco.  Chinatown used to be the shoreline, and at some point they added to the island to the point where it’s no longer on the water.  We wandered around for about half an hour.  It’s huge, so I couldn’t see everything.  I think I want to go back if I have time before I leave.  I found a cool gift for Cindy.  On the way out we enjoyed a fresh coconut milk for SG$3.  Somebody said it’s good for your stomach, which sounded good to me.   I’m pretty sure I’m dehydrated.  And the jet lag, which I did not have yesterday, is getting to me this afternoon.

When we got back to campus they had a lion dance for us.  It was neat.  We had some food, which included shrimp tempura, some fish, rice, curry, and some other things I don’t know the names of.  I had some Indian bread that was really good, forget the name.

We finished our group’s BMW case.  I headed back to the hotel but couldn’t sleep. So about 10pm I went for a walk down Orchard Road again.  I like to see big cities at night.  Singapore is very safe, so it’s no big deal walking up and down the street.  Got back to my hotel round midnight, but didn’t fall asleep until 2:30am.

Happy July everyone! Maggie is becoming quite the big girl….the other day I found her trying to climb the stairs! Can’t leave this one alone, ever! She’s gone before you know it, and is still always b-lining for the dog bowl. Last week, I could put her outside in the grass and she wouldn’t move - the girl didn’t like the feeling of grass on her fingers; now, she picks the grass and eats it. Things change every day! She’s totally teething - 6 toofers are coming in all at once - could you imagine? It looks like it hurts. And the drool - makes your shirt wet!

Sam is up to his usual stuff….loves being outside, cries when asked to come in; loves reading books, cries when we stop; loves splashing in the bathtub, cries when we dry him off. You know, typical days in the life of a 2 year old.