"Be curious"

Was flipping through some of my e-mails from the last month as I clean out my inbox, and came across this, from insidethegames.biz:


"Look up at the stars and not down at your feet,"

"Try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what makes the universe exist."

"Be curious."

Stephen Hawking during the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Paralympics at the Olympic Stadium.


:) 

Singapore!

If you don't know yet, I took another placement with Commonwealth Games Canada's Capacity Support Program - this time in Singapore for three months. I got here EARLY on Saturday and have had a packed schedule since!

I had a great weekend of exploring and just getting the little things I needed to make life comfy here - some food, toiletries, my own mug, etc. The apartment is soooo luxurious. TV, garbage chute right in the apartment, plus it's serviced. Crazy to me, but pretty standard here, it seems!  Met up with a friend from Vancouver who was here to watch the F1 race (I sadly could not get a ticket to the race, nor could I afford it). I took local transport which is really well marked. The bonus is that it's so clean and it's air-conditioned. Ate some local food which I know I will enjoy immensely while I am here.

My first day at the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC) was on Monday. They currently have a temporary office in the building of the Singapore Sports Council (SSC). I'm a short, sweaty 10 minute walk from the office. There are murals of national athletes all over the interior walls. I was so inspired when I walked in. The SSC has 150+ staff from marketing to sports medicine; all working together to manage sports in the country. The SNOC has 6 staff who so far have been super helpful and definitely keen to get started on Zeus. The staff go out for lunch everyday - generally at the local hawker centres close by where a lunch can be had for about 3 - 4 CAD and choices range from BBQ pork on rice to curry or laksa!

I was fortunate to have an invite extended to me to attend their London 2012 Athlete Appreciation Dinner last night. What an amazing event. In addition to the team being present, the Deputy Prime Minister who is also the President of the SNOC was the guest of honour, the super personable female Chef de Mission, and past Olympians including their first ever Olympic medallist from the 1960 Games in Rome. Probably better summed up here: http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/singapore/story/olympians-feted-ceremony-medallists-get-cash-20120926.

Culturally, I'm a little nervous - only because it seems so familiar at times that I'm afraid I'm overlooking something. I get the humour, many of the traditions, the work ethic, and bits and pieces of the language (aside from English, Mandarin is commonly used). I already feel so much more at ease here than my entire last year which makes me a little cautious. I guess we'll just wait and see! One of the things I do hope to accomplish is that by the end of the three months, when someone asks me what I need in Mandarin, I'll be able to understand them even if I still have to respond on English.

So I hope to get one or two more posts up this week about Hawaii, but if I don't, it's because we're preparing for a week-long Zeus workshop that's happening next week AND it's Mid-Autumn festival this weekend. I'm really excited about both things, but will write about it afterwards!

Zai jian!

Around the Big Island on Two Tanks of Gas – Day 1: Mauna Kea

To my pleasant surprise, my awesome Hotwire deal got me a Ford Escape for $240/week. Even more surprising, I actually had a lot of fun driving this vehicle – maybe the first time I’ve enjoyed driving a domestic car! I managed just over 600mi in hitting all my sites and sights! Let's start with Day 1. 

I flew into Hilo from Honolulu on a Sunday morning arriving around 9:30am. My first order of business after picking up the car was stocking up at the local Wal-Mart with some basic dry goods and some camping fuel before setting off for my first adventure of the week: Mauna Kea. After stocking up and checking into the lovely Hilo Tropical Gardens where I had a cute little campsite and set up my tent in the rain, I booked it up to Mauna Kea OnizukaVisitor’s Center to make their 1pm escorted summit tour. It’s free, but you do need a 4WD or AWD to drive up to the summit. I make it there in the nick of time where we have a 1 hour film to watch about Mauna Kea, the observatories, and its flora and fauna. It’s also where our bodies start to acclimatize to the high altitude.

After the film, we all quickly do our washroom pit stop and then we all get in line with our vehicles to drive up as a convoy. Unfortunately, I caught a really foggy and rainy day so I felt like I was driving on Mars, surrounded by red rock and gravel, while being enveloped by clouds. As we get to the top, I hop out of the car and quickly notice I was a little unsteady on my feet! The altitude had definitely kicked in; I would compare it to being drunk. Being on the escorted tour meant we got to tour one of the telescopes. They took us into one of the Keck Observatory telesopes where we got to see the telescope rotate and move around. It was so massive and so cool to see the technology. This massive telescope weighing many tonnes had hydraulics that would allow just one person pretty much move it with just their arm. Okay, instead of getting into details, watch and listen to this video:

After that, we were free to explore the summit on our own. I was pretty set on seeing if the clouds would clear for the sunset so I was one of the people who decided to stay on the summit despite the single digit (Celsius) temperatures. I made the quick hike up to the summit as marked by a United States Geological Survey Marker and then huddled in the car for the remainder of the hour and a half until the sunset where I wished with all my might I would see it. No such luck. The whole time I was up there was rain, mist, and fog. By the time I started my descent, the summit temperature had dropped to 2 degrees Celsius. So close to snow!

The official summit of Mauna Kea. Okay, I lied. I got a glimpse of blue sky.

So back to the Visitor’s Center I go as they have a stargazing program every night (also free!). They sell bowl and cup noodles and I think the bowl I had was the best bowl I ever had being so cold after being on the summit. So remember how I said the stars were amazing when I was in Martinborough last year? Well, this blows that out of the water. Being at altitude with minimal light pollution, I have NEVER EVER seen so many stars or seen the Milky Way so clearly! I felt like I could just lie there and stare at the skies all night (except that it was cold). I was truly thankful for the volunteers and staff who run that program every night so that they can share such amazing sights. I wish that were my TV every night. At 10pm, the program ended so back down to Hilo I went for the night. I would have had a great night's sleep if it wasn't for the Coqui frogs!