Away from home, cont.

OH HEY. Look what's being revived from the graveyard of neglected blogs. What better reason to bring back your attention to this embarrassing specimen of silly writing than the exciting news, of which you were already aware, that I decided to make the crazy flight from Boston to Singapore to visit Drew for two weeks. So welcome back!

The Flight

Korean Air is still my favorite airline; however, no excellent airline can overcome the hell that is a 13+ hour flight when sitting in cramped economy class. I could feel the clots building up in my veins despite furiously pumping my legs in that crazy compulsive fashion that made my aisle-mates scooch away from me as I undertook the supposed prevention of what's been termed "economy class syndrome."

DVT prevention exercises. Remember, for that added crazy look, don't stop.

Need I tell you that I broke out in sweats a couple of times thinking about pulmonary embolisms when I would suddenly find myself short of breath and start questioning if the tightening in my chest from my anxiety may actually be pleuritic pain.

Your neighbor will appreciate you even more when you start making this motion on top of your crazy leg dancing.

I was a mess. So when I landed in Seoul, Korea for my layover I was exhausted. I went to go sit in the waiting area for my final flight to Singapore, opened my book, and promptly did this:

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... except it was even worse because I was dressed like a hobo. But, like a champ I woke up RIGHT when they were making the final call for my flight. Despite wanting to shoot myself for thinking that the flight from Seoul to Singapore would only take 2 hours instead of 6, I nevertheless made it to my final destination with mind and body still intact. 

And yeah, remember when I complained about how Drew looked and smelled after his 24 hour flight back to Boston? Well here's what I looked like when I got off that plane. 

Drew graciously gave me a welcoming hug and helped me with my luggage. It was 1am Singapore time, but he was kind enough to humor me and agree to celebrate my disbelief of making it through alive by agreeing to get ice cream.

Ok, lots of pictures of the trip to come soon!

Drew's Return and the Cape

After multiple delays Drew's plane finally arrived at 9:40p on Sunday. Given my geriatric tendencies this was past my bedtime, and so our happy reunion where we were supposed to run into each other arms in joy turned into a zombie walk as my only goal was to reach him so I could fall asleep against him....  

That is until the reality of what more than 24 hours in a cramped space with recycled air does to a person's hygiene. The big hug and kiss I had planned to give him turned into a small peck and a pat on the belly. Drew understanding the visible stink lines radiating from his body responded with a pat on the head. Though we hadn't seen each other in 4 weeks, our reunion was the equivalent of "sup bro."

We then watched the hypnotic procession of luggage as we tried to distinguish Drew's black suitcase in the sea of everyone else's similarly colored luggage. Next time we are getting neon colored suitcases with flashing LED lights.

Drew can't believe he's made it. He also can't wait to shower.

Despite the late hour, we decided to stick to our original plan and drive down to the Cape that night. Thanks to Drew's jet lag, he was good to drive.

I was good to drive once I got my hands on all the snacks Drew got me and quickly reminded him of the uncontrolled quickness that I can stuff these down my face. Drew immediately started to wonder why he missed me.

Green Tea KitKat!!!! Just as good as I had hoped.

Softest mochi ever.

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The Cape!

The Cape was wonderful as usual. There was a list of errands for us to run, which was perfect to get Drew out of his jet lag. Add on top of that getting ready to leave for Alaska, and Drew remarked after our first day, "I wasn't even this busy in Singapore!"

We treated ourselves with lots of yummy food.

Lunch at the Weatherdeck. Drew quickly adjusted back to good old greasy food.

 

He's also looking (and smelling)  much better after a couple of showers

The next day we went to Pain d'Avingnon.

We visited Mimi! Drew shared photos from the trip on his iPad.

 

Despite the wet and gray weather, we spent some time in the garden. Broccoli was starting to come out. We planted beans, peas, carrots, radishes and spinach.

Maddie looked on with interest.

Glory Be had her own agenda.

 

 

Flower petals were everywhere as the apple tree was in full bloom.

Almost there!

Drew has less than 8 hours before he boards a plane back to the U.S. He goes from Singapore to Tokyo to Washington D.C. and then Boston. He's supposed to arrive at Logan around 6:30pm Sunday. Can't wait! Especially since he'll be coming back with these! The Chewy bars are for his flight back.

Drew's task for when he arrives at Narita Airport is to find green tea KitKats. One of the best things about Asia is that there is green tea and red bean flavored everything. Also rice flour based pastries. So good!

Drew and Alex went to lunch with one of Alex's friends. Drew refused to take a picture of the food because he didn't want to come off as weird. Pfft. He ate a burger, and since it's been a while since he's eaten heavy American food, he said that he felt sick and sluggish afterward. Maybe this is the start of adopting a healthier diet and lifestyle.

Later they went to the office and worked some more. Drew said that they should okay with what they got done over the past 4 weeks. He's leaving Singapore with much more confidence and has learned a great amount, though there's still lots more left. There may be another opportunity for more training, but it has yet to be made official. So we'll see!

Last Day of Work and Last Day of Classes

Today was Drew's last day of work in Singapore and it sounded like he and Alex were still trying to get a lot done. He shooed me away when I tried talking to him on chat saying that he was busy, so I have no idea what went on today. Tomorrow I believe the plan is to go around Singapore some more. Perhaps get some of those last minute souvenirs.

Today was also my last day of classes. Hurray :)

More Errors and My birthday!

Drew and Alex spent the day dealing with DLL hell.Their number of program errors shot up to 11,000! They worked their programming magic and fixed the errors for now, but Drew said that more was sure to come. It's never ending. They celebrated with spicy chicken ramen and rainbow sushi. 

My grandparents would be very happy to see that Alex is making sure to eat every grain of rice.

Today is also my birthday! I got a wonderful email and card from Drew. Sending a giant cookie five times the size of my face would have also been acceptable.

 

Errors

Drew and Alex continue their work. One of their programs wasn't working right and would crash the computer. Drew spent half the day trying to figure out why the program was crashing, and the other half trying to fix the error. With some help from Alex, they got the error fixed... however, fixing that error revealed other errors. How many others?

588 Errors!!

Drew and Alex dealt with these errors appropriately by dropping everything and going out to dinner with the rest of the lab. Drew assured me that the errors will be fixed in due time. Despite their non-working program, Alex was in a good mood and dinner was on him.

It looks like last night's speedy take-out was not satisfying, so they got the good stuff this time. Spicy beef noodles, pork buns, dumplings, fried rice, more dumplings, crispy duck skins.

By the way, this is what I do all day. Sit in the dark peering over these guys' shoulders. Sometimes I bring a container of cereal and munch on it while looking on, and it's like I'm in the theaters watching a slide show... sort of. They are some of the smartest people I've met. I wish my brain worked like theirs.

Countdown begins!

In case you haven't been obsessively counting down the days until Drew's return, there are 5 more days left until Drew returns to the U.S! So what's the plan for the remaining days? Work work work. Drew and Alex continue to try and get as much of their project done as possible. Though it doesn't have to be finished by the time Drew leaves, they're still feeling the time crunch! Since working long hours into the night is practically synonymous with take-out Chinese food, Drew and Alex indulge in the quick, easy, greasy but very yummy cuisine.

Although Drew's arrival seems to be approaching quickly, it's hard not to get prematurely excited about his return only to then realize that five days is still some time. So inevitably today I felt a bit down, plus it's also overcast, chilly, and drizzling. Blah. So what's a person to do? With the same rationale that I use for justifying large Froyo intake, this was my way to help me get through the day.

1. Nap.

2. Engage in emotional eating.

3. Engage in shop therapy. Fall in love with a dress not available in my size. Buy dress anyway.

4. Ignore gas prices. Drive to favorite library in suburbs.
Do not be fooled by my age and upcoming birthday, because I headed to the graphic novel section, gingerly stepping over 12 year olds reading in the aisles.

5. Escape into book.

5. Get back into pajamas. Make tea. Crawl into bed and watch Fraiser. I once heard from someone that Frasier is a show that only grandparents watch. I cannot seem to do anything age appropriate...

All I need to top off the day is a kitten massage. D'aww!