Another fun and busy week gone by!

It’s hard to believe it is December already, especially since it’s 30 degrees outside.

On Thursday, I had the Spanish oral exam. Tapan and I put together a fun little play and presented it to the class. It went very well, although we ran out of text after 6 minutes. We improvised the second 6 minutes, and it was both fun and creative. On Thursday night, about 100 students went to Father Flanigan’s, an Irish pub, to watch a band of INSEAD students jam. It was “bloody fantastic” to quote the owner of the bar. There was a lot of love in the air. It was a magic and memorable evening.

On Friday afternoon, I played golf with two Korean students. It went quite well, with two pars in a row, including the hardest hole on the course, but I ruined everything on the 7th with a quadruple bogey…. Shift happens. On Friday evening, there was a classic BBQ at Dover, and I manned the BBQ for a large portion of the evening, trying to implement a 6-sygma quality program on the sausages. After a few Simpsons and Family Guy episodes at Tapan’s and Chad’s, I went home for a well-deserved night of sleep.

On Saturday, I got up around 9am and hit the books. It was a very fruitful day, and I completed several assignments and write-ups. In the evening, I was invited to a Singaporean friend’s sister’s wedding. 5 minutes before leaving, it occured to me that I did not have a gift, and wasn't sure what to bring. I asked the taxi driver on the way to the MRT, and he told me that I must give money in a ripakit. "A ripakit???" I said... I then figured out that he meant "Red Packet". I did not have a red packet, but I did find a red pamphlet in the MRT. I trimmed it a bit, put some cash inside and folded it to resemble a red packet... When I arrived at the wedding, I was invited to put it in the box. A photographer was there to take a picture of each person putting money in. I think I got away it... I imagined they laughed quite a bit when the finally opened the packet that night.

The Chinese girl bride was marrying an Indian groom. It was extremely interesting to see how they managed to maintain balance between both cultures during the ceremony. There was an 8-course meal, including shark fin soup, abalone, steamed fish, duck noodles etc etc. I learned the YAAAAAAAAM Sing! tradition, which is the Cantonese equivalent of Cheers!. (not sure about the spelling) Everyone around the table raise their glass and YELL as long and loud as they can YAAAAAAAAAM! When the last person ruins out of air, you scream SING! and down your glass. There were several videos about the couple, and they cut the ceremonial cardboard cake. The couple make three different entries during the evening, each with a different outfit. The first two were Chinese, and the third was with Indian clothes. The groom is a commando in the Singapore Armed Forces, and his fellow soldiers make him drink so much that he was not able to deliver the closing speech, and had to be carried out of the room. No one was drinking at my table, so I peacefully enjoyed Chinese tea and water. I came back home around midnight, and went over to Tapan’s with Genta and Ben to watch Happy Gilmore.

On Sunday, I went to school to study POM until I got kicked out at 6pm. I worked out an appetite at the gym to go to “Carnivore’s” at Chijmes for some Churrascaria to celebrate a schoolmate’s birthday. Waiters come by the table with meats on swords and cut the meat right in our plates. We ate too much and walked over to the Raffles Hotel’s Long Bar for an original Singapore Sling. The drink was invented behind the very wooden bar we sat at, and enjoyed a live band. We then decided to visit the infamous “OT”, Orchard Towers… This collection of about 6 bars within the same building is an institution in Singapore. There are two types of people: men looking for company, and women who professionally “entertain” them. I was expecting a very filthy place where you get rushed with women looking for johns, but it was surprisingly quite mild. It’s like a normal bar, except that there’s an unusually high ratio of women-to-men, and that every woman smiles at you and invites you over to talk. We were eight guys and stayed together as a pack, which made us more difficult to attack. The beer was very cheap by Singaporean standards, and there was a live band that was actually decent. We went home around 2am, and I introduced Leo’s brother and girlfriend to our now famous signature RumShake.

This week is Swiss-German week at INSEAD. On Monday, after a particularly painful day at school, I participated to the Swiss Cheese night at the fancy Swiss Club. It was all you can eat raclette and Swiss fondue. I ate so much that I was a full 4 pounds heavier when I came home! My roommates, Leonardo and family calmly enjoyed a bottle of port that Leo gave me. What a great weekend! It did not help me in my battle against weight, however…