US Trip - Princeton

Pretty busy with work lately and I thought this week is a lot lighter in my workload, I might as well quickly finished the US trip write up. Yes, its taking too long a time to finish. I'll be brief.

After our stop in Omaha, we flew over to Princeton to visit WF's youngest brother there. He's residing in Princeton University to study for his PhD. And since Princeton is about pretty near to NYC (2 hours train ride), we might as well take this opportunity to visit the famous Ivy League campus.

Princeton had produced many well-known scholars and scientists. One of them is John Nash. The guy featured in the movie "A Beautiful Mind". He's still in Princeton, according to my brother-in-law.

I must say, this is a very beautiful university with those traditional buildings. They're famous for its high ratio of teaching staff to students. It is 1:7. So their tutorial classes are really small. Not more than 7 students at any one time. This gives the tutor and students a lot of personal sharing time.

And another amazing part is, there is a guided tour offered in the campus. And the guides are all student volunteers. There are zero incentives whatsoever for doing such a social work for the school. They volunteered to bring visitors and potential applicants around for a more than an hour's tour, to share and explain the school architecture and academic structures. They're so proud of their school that they're willing to put aside a few hours per week to do such volunteer work.

Enough said, here are some photos of the university to share.

Dragon Boat Training

There was a heavy downpour yesterday and to my surprise, the dragon boat people are still having rigorous training in this weather. Maybe there is a competition coming up because they were shouting and rowing in sync.

Tough ECA to join...

More "Cool" Pix

I said I will put up photos of Ning with the sunglasses on since I had posted Zhi's. So here they are.

I was saying the kids wear their sunglasses when the sun gets into their eye while on the road. This one is taken in the car before I sent her to school.


And this one is taken when she's 1 year old. We picked this pair up somewhere in Ngee Ann city, probably dropped by a careless kid. And it fitted her well. So, finder's keepers. I thought she looked like some junior mafia boss.







Now this pair is passed on to her brother. And here's how he looks like (wearing it in the car).

Zhi & the Sunglass

I found these series of Zhi wearing sunglasses and I thought they looked funny.




The first picture, he was wearing his sister's sunglass. The second and third, he was wearing Jas' which he took from her bag and tried to put it on himself.














Ning also loves to wear sunglasses. Now I've got two pairs of sunglasses in the car for each of them to put on when it gets to bright for their eyes when on the road. Let me go and look for her photos and I'll post them here.

Brazil vs Singapore Soccer Friendly

Monday, 28th July was the friendly match between Brazil Olympic Team and Singapore Selection Team (the Brazilian team came over to S'pore to have their pre-olympic training). And WF got two sponsored grandstand tickets for this match.

I'm not really a soccer fan and neither is WF. But since we're staying close to the Kallang stadium (15min walks), we might as well go and watch. And this is my first time watching a live soccer match.

Even though it was a Monday night, the place is about 70% filled. Musics and cheerings from both side of the supporters are very much active. There were drums and tambourines with the Brazilian supporters dancing to the samba beat. The singapore supporters cheering on the home team with big banners. And of course, we did a few rounds of the Kallang waves. Which I thought this was the highlight of the match, to me solely.

The match was almost unexciting and predictable. With the Brazilian scoring 3 goals and Singapore none. Nevertheless, our players did make a shot or two at the opponent but most of shots went skyrocket. And our goalkeeper managed to save quite a few shots which otherwise, the score might have a wider margin.

So much for my first live soccer match!

US Trip - Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders' Meeting 2008

Every year, on the first weekend of May, the world congregates in Omaha to attend the Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders Meeting. And it is touted as the "Woodstock of the Capitalists". Bill Gates who is a shareholder also attends the meeting (you can find out more by googling this company).

This company owns many US corporations like Coca-cola, Dairy Queen, See's Candies, Gillette, Mars bar (the company that produces M&M, Mars etc) and many more. So during this shareholders meeting, there will also be roadshows and exhibitions set up by these various companies (see pictures).

The meeting is one full day. Started early in the morning at 8.30am to 5pm. The thing is, if you say Singaporeans are kia-su. Then people going to the meeting who are non-Singaporeans outbeat me. We went at 7.30am, thinking we must be crazily kia-su and got a shock. There was already a long queue and people are already queuing at the entrance to the convention hall as early as 6am. Despite the strong winds and cold weather. Last year, there were some crazy caucasians who started queuing at 5am and in the rain. Who say we're being kia-su? Btw, the convention hall can seat every single person attending.

The meeting itself is a full day of Q&A. And the world's richest man is indeed an intelligent man. Answering questions from anybody for hours straight. And that was the highlight for WF. For me, it was the exhibitions.

Days before the meeting and after the meeting, there are functions for shareholders to attend. There was the cocktail reception at Borsheims (the jewellery store that sold Bill Gates the engagement ring for Melinda Gates), BBQ at Nebraska Furniture Mart (US largest single furniture store) and shareholders dinner at Gorat's (Buffet's favourite steak house).

Of course, being first time, we attended these functions (except the BBQ) and we met some interesting people too.

Here are some pictures we took. Too bad, we can't take photos with Buffet even though we had an autograph session with him as we're international shareholders. But I've got his autography on my credentials. Yeah!

Back to US Trip - Omaha

I promised to follow up on our US trip. But apparently I didn't. I had been taken up by the relocating to our new place and also activities that centred much around the kids that these US posts were parked aside. Nevertheless, since I had nothing much to write about, let just revisit this trip again.

We went over to Omaha after a few days stay in NYC. To attend the Berkshire Hathaway's Shareholders Meeting and also to get a chance to meet Warren Buffet in person. All international shareholders will get a chance to meet him up close and personal.

If you look at the map of US, Omaha is in the state of Nebraska (next to Iowa) and it is almost right smack in the middle of US. But being in the centre of US doesn't mean it is an advance city or a busy place. In fact, it is quite a boring place as compared to LA, NYC etc. However, the place is so huge that their main street, Dodge Street (and only a STREET) is like our TPE. You need a car to get from one place to another. Even their supermarket is huge. One of the pictures in the slide showed the extensive varieties of beans you can get there. I am so amazed that I had to take a picture.

We went there two days before the shareholders' meeting, rented a car and tasted the famous Nebraska beef. Generally the people are much much friendlier than in NYC. Only thing is, this place is so boring that shops close early and there weren't much tourist attractions. Even the locals admit that it is a boring place. Most of us believe this is the reason why Warren Buffet can concentrate on his work (= passion) because there aren't much distractions or entertainment around.

I've included pictures of what we did and visited during our 4 days' stay, excluding the shareholders' meeting. Mainly, we visited their local theme park, with the roller coaster rides and go-karting facilities, drive around the area and take a look at their prime residential area. Other than that, it is eat and eat, especially for WF.