Reset search
INSEAD 2016 SingaporeINSEAD 2016 Singapore
SatelliteEdit route

INSEAD 2016 Singapore

September 2016 - June 2017
A 268-day adventure by Ale Read more
  • 6footprints
  • 4countries
  • 268days
  • 33photos
  • 0videos
  • 34.0kkilometers
  • 33.4kkilometers
Follow Calendar Share Bucket list
Date ascending
  • Ale LeonINSEAD 2016 Singapore
    Day 1

    And so the MBA adventure begins

    September 10, 2016 in Singapore ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    After returning from a wonderful trip in south east Asia, it was time for Sammy to start school. After a hectic orientation week, we soon realized that I was probably going to be seeing very little of my hubby and this of course made me quite sad.
    Oh well, it is only 10 months for a reason and I'm sure it will bring good things. I've met a few other ladies who have kids the same age as Alex and hanging out with people who know what your going through has helped make it easier. Everyone is really nice.
    After a lot of thinking, I've decided to put Alex in school. I think he'd get more out of our time here learning from teachers and playing around with kids his age than being constantly dragged around by me in the stroller in the humid heat of Singapore. I've been evaluating options, and it's been a bit daunting. It's never an easy decision to whom you are going to entrust your child.
    Hopefully by this time next month he'll be in school. Something that is quite interesting here concerning child care, is the fact that the centers watch children from 7 am to 7 pm (12 hours, yikes!), they all wear uniforms (even at 1.5 years of age)and they are all bilingual (Chinese and English). We'll see how it goes... Poor Alex, he's already confused hearing the languages all the time, but who knows, maybe it will make it easier for him to learn Mandarin if he decides to learn it later on.
    As for me, I've been keeping myself busy taking care of stuff that is missing from the apartment and planning a trip to visit my dear friends Grace and Merlyn in Malaysia with Alex later this month. It will be a nice test run before our trip to Texas in December.
    Finally, my birthday is coming up next week, don't know what Sammy has planned, but I'll be happy just spending a whole afternoon with him. Whatever it is, I'm sure it'll be great.    Read more

  • Ale LeonINSEAD 2016 Singapore
    Day 19

    Trip to KL, The Vacation That Wasn't

    September 28, 2016 in Malaysia ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    The month of September started with great promise, in fact half way through the month everything had be going fine and dandy. On my birthday, Sammy got a babysitter for Alex while we went out to dinner at one of my favorite restaurants: Lawry's Prime Rib. I couldn't believe this restaurant is in Singapore. We had a great time and Alex seems to have had fun with his sitter. When we returned, some of our new friends came to have some cake. My new friends Indra from Germany made the most delicious churros and my friends Rashmi and Amu got me wonderful chocolate and wine. It was a great birthday and I couldn't wait to head out to visit my friends Grace and Merlyna (Lyna) in Kuala Lumpur (KL).

    Alex and I set off on our first trip by ourselves taking a short flight and were picked up by Lyna and her boyfriend Faz. Our first night was great, we had a lovely dinner, talked a lot and had a good night's sleep. On our first full day in Malaysia we headed to the city center and visited the famous Petronas Twin Towers but not before having lunch at a place called Little Penang Kafe, a place I will never forget, and not for good reasons.

    After visiting the 84th floor and seeing the views from there and from the crosswalk from the famous movie "Entrapment", we headed back down and, as we were leaving the lobby, Alex threw up.

    Thinking it was probably because of the fast ride down on the elevator, I changed his clothes and put him in the stroller. Unfortunately he puked again and a few minutes later, yet again.
    After 4 episodes I knew we needed to see a doctor but after the fifth time, it was time to go to the hospital as I got very worried that Alex was getting dehydrated.

    I called my friend Grace who lives in downtown KL who offered to drive us.
    Alex was put on an IV on his leg. That night was one of the longest night's of my life. I was so worried about my little one and only managed to relax when he was sleeping peacefully a few hours after being admitted.
    As I started relaxing, I started paying attention to a slight pain in my stomach and although I tried sleeping it off on the hospital reposette, I soon had to get up and puke myself. I was pretty sick as well. Fortunately, the bug only lasted a day in my system. As for Alex, he was doing much better after the first day but the doctor wanted him to stay an extra night.
    The good thing was that he was feeling better, the bad thing was that he was very restless and we were both itching to get out. I was exhausted and fed up.

    We were supposed to go visit Malaca with Lyna and Faz but because of the incident, we didn't go. Lyna and Faz went with Lyna's family and later called saying they were both feeling sick as well. It was so bad for them they ended up going to the clinic. Whatever bug we got was pretty bad and we think it was from something we had at the little Pending Kafe.

    After Malaca, Alex and I were supposed to visit Penang with Grace. This town is about 5 hour drive from KL, however, after the hospital I didn't think it prudent to put Alex through such a long drive and decided to cut our trip short.

    Thank God we came home safely and in good health. I guess I'll get to see more of Malaysia some other time, it was still nice to see Grace and Lyna and I was so grateful they were there for me through everything at the hospital. I'm thankful that even after so many years I have great sister friends.

    October is less than week away, I'm sure it will only bring good things. I'll let you know how it goes.    Read more

  • Ale LeonINSEAD 2016 Singapore
    Day 36

    last stretch of P1

    October 15, 2016 in Singapore ⋅ ⛅ 33 °C

    After our adventures in KL, we've decided to hold off on travelling for the time being so that Sammy can focus on finishing the period with good marks. Alex has adjusted to school and that had given me more time for myself. I've been exercising and getting more work done working on some social media projects and translations. I'm trying to finalize the arrangements for an arabic class as well. Things are finally starting to mesh and get into a rhythm, and it feels amazing!!
    Our latest adventures have not been nearly as exciting as the last one. Alex and I got a cold and mine got a bit complicated as it knocked me out for a couple of days but later got better and Alex and I went to the Chinese garden. It was really beautiful and saw cool structures including a statue of Mulan that I was please to find out, was actually a real person. Sammy didn't join us as he is at school shuffling between tutorials and stuffing. I was starting to get worried he is overdoing it.    Read more

  • Ale LeonINSEAD 2016 Singapore
    Day 98

    P2

    December 16, 2016 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    After an intense P1 in which Sammy spent countless hours studying at school, the pressure got to him and made him sick. He got a virus that gave him terrible headaches that made him miss his last exam and take a trip to the ER. Fortunately a few days later he began to feel better. We were also lucky that we didn't have plans to travel in the few days we had between P1 and P2 as we would have had to cancel the trip.

    The second period began in a more relaxed tone after Sammy's health scare.
    This second period was a lot shorter than the first.
    I took these 6 weeks to focus on exercising and socializing with the other partners. I started teaching spinning at the school gym and eventually even took the spinning certification course and exam. I am now certified to officially teach Spinning for the next 2 years. I'd always wanted to do this and now I have. Time really flew by.

    During P2 we had really great holiday parties and celebrations. It all started with our first celebration of Diwali with some of our Indian friends followed shortly after by a great Halloween party, our first real dance party since before Alex was born! A few weeks later we hosted more than 25 of our new friends from school for a thanksgiving dinner that I cooked including a turkey, stuffing and sweet potato praline casserole among others. A week after we got to celebrate Christmas with some of our friends with kids. You can definitely day it's been a busy period.

    The second week of December was our last week in Singapore in 2016. Alex and I set off on our longest journey ever, taking a 14 hour flight to London, having a 6 hour layover and then taking a 10 hour flight to Austin.
    My dad picked us up from the airport and together we drove to San Antonio where we had dinner at my favorite burger place, Chester's hamburgers before being dropped off at my aunt Silvia's house.
    Right now it's a little after 1 and even though we've been here now for 2 days, we are still struggling with the jetlag.

    I can't wait to see my hubby again on the 23rd when we all fly out to Miami for for a week long cruise with all the family from my mom's side in the Caribbean.

    Overall it's been a few months of holiday fun. Now It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas and I can't wait!    Read more

  • Ale LeonINSEAD 2016 Singapore
    Day 169

    First months of 2017 (P3 and P4)

    February 25, 2017 in Singapore ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    It's been too long since I've written an update so here's a bit of a summary of what's been going on since we finished P2...
    We had a wonderful Christmas on the cruise ship in the Caribbean with my family and a fun new years in Miami where we got to spend some time with Sammy's dad as well. After we came back to Singapore it was time for Sammy to start P3. Again he was working very hard and his and his classmates' focus began to shift from full time study to work-search mode. Everyone started getting nervous about recruitment and you could begin to feel the tension in the air.

    I started teaching spinning on a regular basis once a week, continuing my social media work and exercising at the gym. At the end of P3, Sammy went to Dubai for a class and Alex and I went on a weekend trip with 4 good friends from India and Iran. We went to Jogyakarta on the island of Java and had a wonderful time visiting amazing Buddhist and Hindu temples.

    When we came back, many of our friends left Singapore to continue the program in France. In a way it was a reminder that time was running out; Our Singapore adventure was almost over and after P3, time only sped up.

    Alex has been growing so much! During P4 we got to celebrate his second birthday on multiple occasions: at his school, at the playroom in INSEAD and finally on a barbeque we organized together with some Dutch friends. As you can imagine, one of Alex's new favorite song (even after more than a month) continues to be "Happy birthday".

    Another important thing that happened during P4 was Sammy's knee surgery. During the first week of P1, Sammy had a bad fall playing soccer and tore his ACL so hadn't been able to really exercise since. we decided to get the surgery out of the way as soon as possible so his knee wouldn't get in the way of recruiting.

    So many things happened in P4, it was a blur really. Some of our Mexican friends (Ale, Joe and Eric) from our time at Lutron came to visit us for a few days from Taiwan. We also had my friends Michelle and René from Panama visit for a week.
    Days turned into weeks, weeks into months and before we knew it we were at the end of P4. We celebrated by going on a short trip with some friends from Germany to Phuket in Thailand. Our friends have a daughter that is Alex's age and we all had a great time together.

    Now we are starting the final period in the program and in a little over a month we will be leaving Singapore. We will go to Dubai to visit Sammy's family and then off to France for Graduation. It has truly been a wonderful adventure and it's true what they say, time does fly when you are having fun. Thank you Singapore!!    Read more

  • Ale LeonINSEAD 2016 Singapore
    Day 268

    Farewell southeast Asia!

    June 4, 2017 in Vietnam ⋅ ☀️ 37 °C

    After an intense P4, Sammy and I have decided to move to Boston so that he can take a job opportunity at wayfair.com. With our future a little bit more defined, our last month in Singapore went by in a blink of an eye with final brunches and goodbye dinners filling up the calendar.
    Before we knew it, it was time to do our final tourist trip in southeast Asia: a 10 day trip to Vietnam!

    We arrived in Hanoi on the 15th of June and after a decent dinner, we explored the old part of downtown. We ran into some interesting college students who asked if they could interview us for an English class. They were extremely friendly and it was very nice to meet some of the locals.
    After a few hours of walking around town, taking in as much of Hanoi as we could, we went to bed and rest it up for the next part of or adventure.
    The next morning our driver picked us up to start our 3 hour long journey to Halong Bay.
    We boarded our 3 day "Signature Cruise" which is a traditional Vietnamese boat or "junk", as they call it, and set sail through the beautiful stone islets. The views were amazing and the service and food was really great. We got to see a floating fisherman village and a fascinating pearl farm where Sammy got me some lovely earrings.
    On our second day on board, we went on a slightly smaller boat for a day trip to kayak at a different area of the bay. We were lucky that it was raining as the
    heat the day before, had been unbearable. Even though he is only two, Alex went kayaking with us and had a great time!
    Overall the cruise was a lot of fun however it was very sad to see how dirty the bay was as you always could see garbage floating along. On the third day it was time to leave the boat and head back to Hanoi airport to fly to Da Nang so we could start the final part of our journey in Hoi An.
    We stayed at a quaint, nice and extremely affordable place called the Green Apple hotel.

    Hoi An is one of those little towns that could have been take it of a story book. The ancient town full of old wooden shops adorned with colorful silk lanterns is simply gorgeous; add to that a charming riverfront with beautiful bridges and traditional row boats and you are in an Asian fairytale.
    It was the perfect scenery to celebrate Sammy's birthday a few days after we arrived.

    I had very high expectations of the food and was a bit disappointed with a few exceptions. I thoroughly enjoyed the local crispy pancakes and the banana flower salad (sounds wierd, I know but it actually is similar in texture to cabbage and doesn't taste at all like banana) but more than anything, my favorite thing was the Bahn my (ban mi) sandwiches.

    In addition to being a picturesque town, Hoi an has amazing beaches. We took advantage of the crystal clear, warm waters and soft sand to relax during the hot days. Alex had a blast jumping waves and playing with the sand.
    It was the perfect mix: beach during the day, walking in the ancient town during the evenings (not an exaggeration, that's what it's called).

    The town is also known for its top notch taylors that can make any garment you want at an affordable price in just a day or two!
    I had to take advantage of this and get a nice dress made for Sammy's graduation.

    Overall, I couldn't have asked for a better way to bring our Southeast Asia adventure to a close. Vietnam is truly amazing and I would love to go back someday.

    Now it's back to Singapore for a day of packing before heading to Dubai to visit the family.    Read more

  • 2024© FindPenguins
  • Home
  • About us
  • Blog
  • Group Tracking
  • Press
  • Terms
  • Privacy Policy & Cookies
  • Support
  • Legal notice
  • English