I suspected that Google would have the solution, and they do of course. So this first blog is no more than copy/paste of the email I sent a few minutes ago.
Cheers!
It has been a special week, my students have had their mid-term recess, so I have not had to prepare any lectures or tutorials. I thought that I would have loads of time to "get ahead of the game" but that was of course wishful thinking. My students are currently busy working on a mini-project, so I have had a continuous stream of students asking questions. This is of course the best part of being a teacher, so I am not complaining.
I took advantage of my free time to cross the Johor Straits into Malaysia to visit a research group there. It was a great day. Their research is much closer to my own than that of my colleagues here in Singapore. The atmosphere there was a lot more low key. The campus is set in a huge park a long way out of town. Lots of space, and all research groups are located in small pavilion like buildings which were so positively peaceful. A very pleasant change from the high-strung high-stress "keeping up with MIT" atmosphere at NUS. I hope to manage to promote some long term exchange with my Malaysian colleagues. However, I am well aware that promoting exchange with people so far away is easier said than done.
Timo and Ceci are doing really well. They have both got major pieces of work back from their teachers, with pretty good grades, so they are rather proud of themselves (and rightly so). I am impressed by what they manage to deliver, they have had to come up to speed with domain-specific vocabulary in a large number of topics in a very short period of time. By and large, they seem to be at about the right level, although they both state that they find the science here a little easy. Also, due to different rules about dividing lines for age groups here compared to Sweden, Timo is in the right age group, whereas Ceci is more or less the oldest student in class. You win some, you lose some.
We have had a busy weekend. Friday night Marina and I went out with Stefan and Malin, a friendly Swedish couple from Göteborg also here for a 5 month stay with the same Fellowship as me. So that was our first time to enjoy a Singapore Sling in the Long Bar in the Raffles Hotel.
Saturday we did some volunteer work with a group of students. Marina has done a variety of volunteer actions over the past few weeks, including working for a tree-planting enthusiast who spends his life planting trees in Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia. We helped plant 200 trees and shrubs at the entrance to a park. Digging holes, loading wheel-barrows with soil, carting old soil away and so on is totally killing in this climate. After 2 hours I was completely wiped out and didn't really recover all afternoon.
Just got back from church at the Norwegian Seaman's Missionary Church, which also doubles as the Swedish Lutheran Church in Sweden. It is conveniently located on the top of a hill looking out onto one of the many container terminals (gazing at oil refineries, naphtha crackers and contain terminals is maybe an acquired taste, but I love it), and it near home. More to the point, the wife of the Swedish priest in residence was one of Caroline's confirmation leaders in Vallda, proof yet again that it is a small world. The ambiance there is very special, and 5 pm mass is always followed by a pleasant barbeque dinner out on the terrace. Lots of friendly Scandinavians there. The Swedish priest Gudmund is a great sort. He has his racing bike with him, and played Dire Straits "Brothers in Arms" as Postludium music because he felt that it underlined the main theme of his homily. Cool!
Another highlight of the day: Timo and I went for Reflexology Massage of our feet this morning. Typically Chinese, different areas of the foot are supposedly linked to energy flows to different internal organs. So 40 minutes of intensive massage of you feet it supposed to have positive effects well beyond just relaxing your feet. Timo just found it relaxing, I found it very painful just on the outer edge of the arch of my foot. I asked the gut afterwards and he said that it probably has to do with back problems, which is spot on. I learned to type way too late in life, so I spend far too much time hunched in front of a screen and keyboard (4 finger typing, slightly better than 2 finger typing, but I have never really learned to not look at my fingers on the keyboard).
Nicholas: thanks for the confirmation pictures. We looked at them together this afternoon, great memories!
