My first 28 hours back and this really unoriginal blog title

It has been about 28 hours since I left the U.S and landed home. The plane ride felt amazingly short this time. The 20 hours felt like a mere 4 hour flight. Oh ya, that's because i got two empty seats next to me and I got to stretch out and gloat at taller people who looked squashed up in their one-seat cubicles. It pays to be short. Until I had to take my baggage out of the overhead compartment. I bet they were all singing midget songs in their mind at that point.

My ride out of philly was more than just dramatic. We (Eddie and I) totally underestimated the time it took to move-out. We were suppose to leave at 2:30pm, but at 3pm we were still at lunch in the commons and trying to use up our dining dollars. Move out was hell. The rackety cart made out of cardboard would trip over potholes every few seconds as we wheeled it out of the extremely disable-unfriendly quad. Seriously, it's like the management puts random flights of stairs in places that totally did not need it just to keep disabled people out. After paying $40,000 a year for school (for you guys not me), Upenn doesn't have enough money to install ramps in the quad, mend up the potholes on the walk and buy plastic carts? What do they do with the money? Make massive ugly metal artwork outside Qdoba? Oh ya, they did do that, didn't they?

So we piled the car high with stuff till we had no rear mirror view, wobbled through Jersey at break neck speed, hit some pretty bad traffic, kinda lost the airport and finally arrived 15 minutes before boarding time, just to find out my plane got delayed because of electrical problems. Very dramatic. My mind was so wound up that I had to watch Fun with Dick and Jane in the plane to calm down. Don't ever watch that show. Really. Trust me.

So back to Singapore I came at about 6:35am on polling day where it was raining and humid. After living out of a suitcase for one year, I came back to my old room and felt claustrophobic among all the crap I have hoarded for decades. I have clothes I wore since I was 12 in my closet. And yes I did try to find out if I got fit into them. My expansion horizontally has been quite dramatic in the last 10 years to make up for the lack of vertically. Spring clean. Spring clean. After which I hit the salons and got my eyebrows and nails done since i haven't quite tweak a hair or file a nail for the last 10 months. The eyebrow technician (no im serious, thats what her name tag said) and the manicurist looked at me like I was some overgrown eyebrow monster with scarly hands, and asked me when was the last time I groomed myself. My eyebrows were too much in pain for me to answer.

After that it was my first salsa lesson! It was great. Everyone was really friendly, but i couldn't help but feel like i was in some governmental SDU conspiracy to get singaporeans to procreate. SDU, standing for Social Development Unit, is a massive government matchmaking agency, to well, get singaporeans to hook up because apparently we are incapable of doing it ourselves. So yes, back to salsa, fun and I can't wait to hit the salsa clubs soon.

So with my legs aching, my brain throbbing from jetlag and trying to remember my pin number, I concluded my first day in singapore, knowing that my dominant government won seats by a lesser margin this time, and hopeful that singapore might have a shot at true democracy someday.