Singapore and School!

Here are pics of the boys on the first day of school and also sporting their Bruce Lee outfits that I bought for them in Singapore.

Bono is trying to stop world hunger. Angelina Jolie, when she's not busy popping out twins, adopting kids or inflating her lips, has an admirable campaign against land mines. And Pastor Rick Warren, author of "A Purpose Driven Life" has a PEACE initiative that is rallying churches all over the world to act in very positive ways. After this most recent trip to Singapore, I realized what my goal in life must be. At airport baggage claim areas, I endeavor to have people stay five feet away from the baggage carousel until their bags are in sight. No more crowding the carousel! There's not enough room for everyone to stand right next to the thing. The impatient people end up being a human blockade for the patient people that are politely waiting for their bags. Everyone should just back away a few feet until they see their luggage. When you have positive ID on your bags, only then should you step forward. Is that too much to ask? At McDonald's we don't stand at the counter until our food is ready. We wait until our order is ready and then we come up and get it. Spread the word to all your friends. We will take back our airports - one luggage carousel at a time! Are you with me ?!?!

Okay. I figure I'd get my rant out of the way first. One more side note on the traveling thing. In Korea, they don't make you take your shoes off while going through airport security, unless you're on a flight to the US. That's curious because in Korea, you take your shoes off for practically everything else - restaurants, people's homes, school, etc. I guess that Shoebomber story never made it to Seoul.

Just got back from a business trip to Singapore. What a green and lush place. Green and lush in a Rainforest Cafe Restaurant kinda way, not green and lush in a drunk Irish guy kinda way. Singapore has such a diverse mix of people. I felt like I was in a Benetton commercial. I wish I could've seen more of the sights but it was pretty much all business. I did have a really good local meal though. I'm pretty brave when it comes to the native cuisine - sometimes a little too brave. The dish I had was very tasty. It had shrimp, noodles, egg, coconut, and unfortunately, some form of milk. Me and my lactose intolerant self thoroughly enjoyed the meal, but did not enjoy the after dinner music my body was orchestrating.

Singapore was very clean. It's amazing what the threat of a cane will do for country-wide cleanliness. There's so much shopping and eating there. Here are a few sights that stuck with me:

- loads of brown guys in the back of trucks on their way to work

- "Chew Fish Head Soup Restaurant"

- Double Croissantwich, Double Whopper, Double everything at the airport Burger King - you couldn't get a single whatever

- crazy motorcycle drivers but at least they wore helmets

While I was gone, Carol had to take on the first day of school duties by herself. With help from our work family, CJ and Jake were delivered to the school in one piece. No crying even. CJ is the only American in his class. They're all English speaking kids but most are Korean. One of them grew up in Australia and has the accent to go along with it. "Eet's not a tumah!" Got a long day tomorrow so I better sign off for now. BTW, it's been great hearing from so many of you! C2