Singapore, Singapore (long layover on the way to Malaysia)

I flew Singapore Airlines to Malaysia and had a nine hour layover in Singapore. In addition to having extensive comfort and shopping options in the airport, they have different city bus tours that you can take for free, if you have a long enough layover. After the twelve hour flight, which arrived at 6 AM, I signed up for the tour at a desk directly outside of my gate, grabbed a doughnut and a coffee, and met up with other tour-goers about an hour late to go through customs and get on the bus.

I happened to be there on the extra day off that most people were granted because it was the celebration of Singapore's 50th anniversary. Nevertheless, the tour guide was cheerful and  full of good facts about how Singapore is a wonderful multi-cultural place to visit or live ("Please come back and stay for longer than the bus tour").

Part of the skyline from the highway into the city.

The tour had two stops, but I would split it into three parts. The drive to the city, when we learned about the history of Singapore, the high proportion of public housing (85%), the dense public transit system, and where to get a good meal "very cheap". Almost every balcony of all of the high apartment buildings that we passed was sporting a Singaporean flag.

After passing by some colonial buildings and the Formula 1 track, we stopped near the financial district to look at the Merlion - a creature that has the body of a fish and the head of a lion. It symbolizes the city's origins as a fishing village and the roots of its name, which comes from "lion city" (someone probably got confused with a tiger, according to the tour guide).

Of course I joined in with the selfie-frenzy, with pretty poor results.  

On the way to the next stop w passed some buildings that evidenced the diversity in the city: 

"We even have the Jews!" - tour-guide

Not the best shot of a Hindu temple, but check out the color and detail + the national symbols celebrating the birthday.

 The next stop was near a big mosque, in an area full of adorable cafes like these, which were mostly closed:  

Has a nutella sea salt tart

Even a Swedish one 

Rich and Good Cake Shop. This building style is called a shophouse
because there is a shop on the bottom floor that people live above. 

Beancurd City! Actually not in that exact area, but we
passed it on the way and I love the name, colors, and mascot.

Recreation opportunities for all ages:

Fun exercise options for seniors!

 And reminders of the birthday everywhere: 

I didn't really have may expectations about the city, but was so surprised at how many massive buildings there were. The tour did a great job of selling the city as a livable/workable space, although I do not think it would be that interesting as a vacation destination.

Switzerland - Zürcher Seeüberquerung

That is the crossing of Lake Zürich, which happened last week. Most frequently one would überquer a street--- or actually quer a street über, as it is a separable verb.

So scenic!

A friend from Germany was recently visiting me and we were talking about if I liked Zürich and why and a big part of my (somewhat flimsy) answer was the city's relationship with the water. With two rivers and a lake, the summer in Zürich is so chill. Go to a bar next to the Limmat, jump of the neighboring bridge and float down to the next one with your waterproof bag that houses your towel and wallet. So relaxed for a seemingly uptight city. Maybe it is because European cities were usually built next to rivers and lakes and that is not my experience from back home. Anyways, this event further exemplifies this notion.

Every summer (as long as the center lake gets warm enough {70F/21C?}, the city's sport department with several partners organizes a special day when anyone who feels physically capable can pay 20 francs and swim 1.5 kilometers across Lake Zürich from one public swimming area to another. The  course is set up with buoys and balloon towers to mark the way and kayaks and motorboats to keep other boats from crossing and to save anyone who gets tired.

The route: Mythenquai to Tiefenbrunnen.

I first heard about it last year, but it got cancelled because of the weather, despite the two make up days. This year I saw the advertisements in the tram, but didn't know my schedule and assumed it was something for which you needed to sign-up in advance and train (WRONG!). I was planning on doing it next year, with some proper training.

When I got to the office Wednesday morning, I received a group text to my frisbee team asking if/when they were meeting to do the swim. I had a pretty empty afternoon and thought Why Not? (I am trying to say yes to more things these days). Plus, who knows what the weather will be like next summer  - maybe it will get canceled again. I checked with my boss to make sure everything for our event the next day was set and then headed home to grab my suit and goggles at lunchtime.

It was even the nicer kind of swim cap (silicone) - that alone
is  worth half of the entrance fee.

The event website was very clear:

• This is not a competition! 
• There is no timing! 
• There is no registering! (The first ten thousand people who show up and pay are given a swim cap with a number which dictates your start time.... show up between two and six in the afternoon) 
• Decide for yourself, if you are in the right health state for this. Talk to your doctor if you aren't sure if you can handle it. 
• Included: swim cap, warm-up, gift, bag transport across the lake and risotto.
• Verboten: Cameras and flotation devices

On the bus ride there I was thinking about how I had not swum a lap since last September when I was rehabbing my knee (and that was only twice before I got a gym membership and switched to working out on an elliptical) and have not really been doing any sort of endurance workouts recently. I was relying on my experience swimming the 500 yard freestyle event for the high school swim team (almost 10 years ago!) to carry me through. I mean it is over a mile! But also shorter than you would typically swim in a swim practice (so totally doable)! But there is no resting or hanging on the wall! Back and forth in my mind the whole way there.

The crew. Changing the club charter to a swim club
 (or exploring opportunities in Water Ultimate... Underwater Rugby is already a thing, you guys)

I met my teammates (and a former teammate) at three, we got our start numbers, sun screened and watched the group before us do the warm-up. I thought warm-up meant there would be some part of the lake where you could swim a bit, but it was basically an aerobics class with music and an instructor and two backup dancers. So just imagine hundreds of people in bathing suits and caps stepping and dancing almost in unison. People who were just at the swimming area to escape the heat also joined in --- it was about 95F (quite warm for a country with very little air conditioning). When it was our turn, I didn't even fall over and mostly kept the rhythm.

The warm up from 2009 (Source: 20 Minutes {the free morning newspaper})

We started in heats of a few hundred swimmers (I don't know about our group, but the initial group was 800 people). The beginning was intimidating. The water was so cold and we all went in the water assuming everyone would be faster than us, so I was basically stuck behind layers of people swimming breaststroke without putting their heads in the water and chatting the whole time. I tried to squeeze between people to pass them so I could swim crawl (1500 meters of breaststroke - no way I would make that!) and was kicked in the ribs a few times. I made my way over to the fast lane, with no intention of being fast, but rather wanting to utilize the space that the fast folks left behind them. Life was much better over there!

View from the shore last year. "Fast swimmers" to the left of the balloons, "swimmers" to the right. (Source: postmedien.ch)

By the time I made it to  Buoy #1 the temperature was great and I felt accomplished for at least getting started and kept trying to do the math about how far I had left to go (they never said how many buoys there were). Luckily at 350m, 650m, and a few other intervals they posted the actual distances so I could gauge my progress. With each one I felt more confident that I could finish. I couldn't quite swim in a straight line, but it wasn't nearly as drastic as the time in middle school when I somehow swam under the lane lines (during backstroke?) and either finished or did my flip-turn in the (luckily empty) lane next to me. Leisurely freestyle with occasional directional reorientation and navigation around people, with no fatigue, in the sun- it was so nice and enjoyable.   

Even if your Swiss German is not tiptop, the video on this site will give you a good idea of the experience/scale.

I finished and went to the tent where volunteers were handing out drinks. I assumed that it was something like Gatorade, although at running races in Germany, I have seen them hand out beer and alcohol free beer. The cup was warm, but it was 90+F so I chalked it up to a lack of refrigeration and took a sip. BROTH! Soup. Not intuitively refreshing at all, but some how enjoyable enough that I went back for seconds while I was waiting for my teammates to finish.

We collected our gift water bottles, free risotto (it didn't have much taste, but to have dinner included at a sporting event that only cost 20 bucks was a nice touch) and carry-on sized sunscreen, then headed to a slightly less crowded and more shady area nearby for some swimming and a bit of a picnic. 

VERDICT: This was sooooo cool, despite growing up as a swimmer, I had never done an open water swim before. I think I would like to try to do more of it or just more swimming in general. I was on the faster side for this very causal event, but not for a competition - it would be nice to train a bit more seriously or at least with a goal in mind.

Also, talk about Swiss efficiency! Almost 9,000 people showed up at a the equivalent of a public pool (albeit with a very big lawn) over the course of 4 hours and made it across the lake with no preregistration. You would wait in a fairly short line (there were some surges when the nearby trams and buses arrived, but I don't think anyone waited more than 7 minutes) hand someone 20 francs in return for a cap that had a tag for your bag so you could pick it up on the other side, an instruction sheet and a meal coupon inside. 

This was on a mid-week afternoon-- that is a lot of folks skipping out on work (most of the people I was there with were teachers or PhD students, but that is still a pretty impressive crowd).

When I got home and checked my work email, I found out that more people had signed up for our workshop on Thursday and by the way we need you to moderate a workshop group. This caught me off guard, but my group ended up having a great discussion about sanitation supply chains :)

Enjoying a European summer so far! I'm off to Germany for a fun 4vs4 ultimate tournament next weekend, then hopefully a bit of enjoying/exploring Switzerland before a tentative Southeast Asia work trip in August.  

Burkina Faso

I was just in Burkina Faso for work. I took my pink messenger bag that I used the last time I was in the country seven years ago (before this blog)!

Two weeks of clothes, field gear and (of course) cleats (for a tournament I went to straight from the airport when I got back to Europe).

We spent a few days in Ouagadougo meeting with government and international development actors and stakeholders. There were also other folks from the institute (past and present) around town, which was neat. Then the team headed to a town a few hours away from the capital, which is known for being the place that the buses stop between Burkina's two largest cities. We used it as a base for accessing the other towns and villages that are part of the project.

Checking out a brand new, never been used, ventilated double pit latrine.

I have over 600 photos from the trip - mostly of toilets and their buildings, but also of residences, water and waste systems, interviews, and workshops. I'll spare you the bulk of them. This was a challenging, but rewarding trip (+ no one I was with got malaria this time!): everything was in French, and it was over 100 degrees Fahrenheit every day, but I think we got solid data and a great grasp of the project elements we were studying.

One of the interviews was with the proprietor of a dolo (millet beer) home-brewery/bar. I didn't see any bottles of StarSan, but the women did comment that things were much cleaner since they had a sink basin installed through the program we were evaluating. 

There was no official work on Sunday, so my colleague and I tried to take advantage of the nearby Deux Bales National Park. With hopes of  catching a glimpse of elephants or hippos, we set off after lunch to meet our guide. We did spot some illegal cattle, some flowers, a few birds, lots of termite mounds and something very large in the antelope family running away.

An elephant had been there in the recent past - the guide guessed the day before we were there.

Cool trashcan. The bin is hinged, so the waste can be easily tipped out, but can be covered from rain and some vectors. These were fairly common in the town, but had JICA logos on them. The waste was collected by donkey driven carts, but unfortunately I could not get a photo - I did take a video of what might have been a transfer station, but have not gone through the movies yet.

The coolest paint job of the houses we visited.

A newly built EcoSan toilet. You squat with your rear over the big hole, peeing into the center hexagon, which drains through a hole in one of the corners. This allows the liquids and "solids" to be separated - meaning less smell, theoretically easier hygieneization, and the potential for nutrient recovery.

Spargelzeit!

... That means it is ASPARAGUS TIME! in Switzerland and Germany, but I will use it to refer to what I've been up to recently on the continent since returning from Tanzania, Haiti, and the USA. 

The restaurant we went to for a team dinner during Skybowl
(a local tournament) had an entire separate menu for items containing Spargel.

Spring has arrived in Züri and it is marvelous! My balcony garden has begun: a tomato plant, a pepper plant and some dill (so far). I'm back to riding my bike a little more and enjoying being out in about in the city; however, this sign was a little unsettling:

My new homebrew is ready. I tried to clone a Magic Hat #9 to no success. When I opened the first bottle over half of it spewed out as carbonation. It was drinkable, but sour and had much heavier apricot scent than what I was hoping.

Disappointing beer. Also in this photo: FC Bayern marvelously losing to BVB!

ZUF won Skybowl! Probably thanks to all the Spargel available on the menu the night before the upper pool games. Like last year, the chocolate trophy did not last long. 

Gewonnen!

Over the long May 1st weekend (it is labor day over here), I joined some friends from Munich (with whom I played in February in Stockholm) for the Bibione Beach Co-Ed Challenge. Their club sent three teams. The one I was on didn't do so hot on the field, but won both the spirit and party prizes. I tweaked something in my quad while throwing before warming up on the first of three days of playing, so was not very effective that day and was still working it out through the second day. By the last game on Saturday, I was feeling like I could almost go full speed and the woman who was marking me totally smashed my toe - it is still colorful and not totally bendable. Basically, I am getting old and need to remember that warming up is important (can't do much about preventing the toe issue though).

Most people on the team have red hats like the folks in film The Life Aquatic, the team's German namesake - Tiefseetaucher.

I recorded part of a module for a Massive Open Online Course for work.
It really could have gone better, but if you want to see it you can register here.

CLT+AVL, USA

Since I was in the proper earth-quadrant, I passed through North Carolina. Good thing I had this detour planned, because my parents are moving out of their house where quite a bit of my stuff has been living. I got rid of a lot of stuff, but can not bring everything to Europe with me. (Thanks for the continual storage space, folks!) I spent some time in the mountains fly fishing with my dad, then we headed to Charlotte for a few days of cleaning and hanging out with the whole family - the little sister was also in town. I was also fortunate enough to see my Grandma and an Aunt and Uncle - I didn't have time to make it to Raleigh, but will *knock on wood* be there in Autumn.

Asheville might be known for its beer, but the food that comes with it is pretty dope!

mole-mint lamb meatballs with cucumbers

Honestly, I ordered "the glutton" for the novelty value.
Fried chicken on a brioche doughnut with Gruyere and something maple. 

Back in Charlotte, I was forced to get a manicure with my Auntie B (Thanks! The "Game of Chromes" gel color I got to-go works great and I've gotten lots of compliments on it.) and was able to do some US American things like watching baseball and going to a bridal shower.

Family at the new-to-me downtown baseball stadium. So urban.

Technology can be difficult for the newly retired.

The lil'sis and me at her BFF's bridal shower.
Congrats, Emma! Sorry that I can't make it back for the wedding.

Gma aka my (probably) number one blog-reader.

Two sets of sisters. It  was great seeing all of you.

Haiti

I was in Haiti in April to help run an innovation workshop for a sanitation NGO and look at their operations in two Haitian cities. To learn more you will just have to wait for my dissertation to come out in a few years.

Post-its and ideas galore!

Poop-compost with an ocean view.
To get to this site, we drove through the city dump - basically a DREAM COME TRUE!
(not the way the dump worked, but seeing it first hand)

They are doing some experiments to determine what sort of benefits
come from using their soil additive. 

After all that intense learning and research, there was time for a day at the beach. A thirty minute moto ride from the city where I was staying + another 20 on a boat landed my friends and I on a picturesque beach. As we approached the shore, several fishermen paddled up in kayaks with their catch, which we could then have cooked on the beach. My friends had been there before several times and knew one of the cooks, so they had him negotiate with the fishermen for us. There was time for relaxing on the shore, volleyball, and  snorkeling. I saw coral and so many fish! I had sort of given up on finding a time to go scuba diving, but now I am resolved to make it happen.

Type of boat that took us the last stretch.

Yum :)

My list of sea-life that I saw. I will try to match up the descriptions to images later.
(My google search for "fish that look like pickles" yielded no useful results.)

The beach itself was kind of strange. For the past few years, Haiti has been added as a stop on one of the big cruise lines (rumor has it that they just tell passengers that they are going to Hispaniola Island). Basically the passengers have to stay in an enclosed area with a water slide, zip-line, jet skis and inflatables, but can pay extra to be taken to the nice beach where we hung out. They let non-cruise people go there on days when there is no cruise ship.

You an see the the huge water slide in the cruise stop area.

With a productive workshop, interesting field visits, and a surreal beach experience under my belt, I flew back to the US for some quality family time.

Window seat!

Tanzania

In March I went to Dar es Salaam for a PhD training course on the sustainability of distributed infrastructure. That means we looked at various aspects of small energy, water, and sanitation systems. The course was organized by two different German universities, but there were students from Africa, the USA and other European countries, studying everything from engineering to geography to sociology to architecture. As an undergrad I did a program to bridge engineering and the humanities, but a good chunk of the non-science stuff was a little incomprehensible to me - and even worse for the pure mechanical engineers. I heard some complaints from the human geographers about the technical stuff.

Snack break! The globs tasted like hushpuppies.

Explaining my poster.

The last day of the course we did an exercise where we walked around the city and tried to document some of the infrastructure systems (or lack there of). Street coffee was pretty interesting and quite tasty. Guys walk around carrying a container of coals with a kettle balanced on top and a bucket which contains cups and water for washing.

Mobile coffee solution.

My group found instances of reuse and recycling. This ranged from book binders selling their paper shreds and men chopping up electronics with machetes.

Prices paid for different metals.

The last day involved a trip to a village that was two three five hours from Dar to visit a village where an energy services company was implementing a solar microgrid. Unlike most solar power companies who sell or lease panels to individual households, they install tripods with solar panels and batteries around the village. This allows the system to grow based on the actual (not the expected) demand. People then pay a connection fee and buy chunks of electricity (similar to how you would by pre-paid mobile phone minutes). The generation and load can be monitored in real-time over the cellphone network. The systems don't work with conventional electronics, so the company also retails compatible appliances. After showing us around, one of the founders rode back to Dar with us and was gracious enough to have a conversation about how they operate and a little about their growth strategy. I will probably not use any energy case studies in my dissertation, but it was interesting to think about if any of their approaches could be applied to water, waste, or sanitation infrastructure.

Me in fieldwork-mode (L) and a solar panel tripod with energy box (R).

The direct Dar-Zürich flight leaves quite late at night, so I was able to spend the day with some course-mates at a nearby beach, Kigamboni.

The Dar skyline from the ferry to the beach.

It was a little windy. It was a private-ish beach guarded by masai warriors.

Chipsi mayai - a potato-egg dish with hot sauce. It is eaten with toothpicks, which are not very effective knives.

Get ready for a post dump: accounts of my trips to Haiti and the USA are almost ready to be released.