So I’ve started to attend a morning exercise class at our apartment complex called “aqua-gym”. Basically it’s aerobics and light weight training in the water. I went for the first time on Wednesday and my arms were sore from the weight training outside of the water. You don’t realize how out of shape you are until you try working out those muscles. The class is 9:30am on Mon, Wed, and Fri so I’m going to try to go as much as possible until I start work. It’s been fun because a few of the other INSEAD partners also come and the instructor is hilarious, she’s very energetic and keeps us all moving.

Ron only had class until noon today then a short meeting so we thought we’d check out a movie. We hadn’t seen “Bourne Ultimatum” while in the US and it was still playing here. The movie releases have a delay here, like Rattatouile just came out last week and we’d already seen it before we left. I had a heck of a time trying to buy tickets online because their system kept on crashing on me! But I knew I had to keep trying or else we’d get front row seats if we just showed up. It’s very different here (I think I’ve mentioned before) that you should always buy your tickets in advance and you actually reserve a seat. I was finally able to get through after having to tinker with my online payment, they use something here called NETS which is similar to Debit but not quite. We went to the GV Grand Cinema. The theaters are smaller than we’re used to, only about 8 rows, 15-20 seats each row. The entire theater is carpeted too, so no sticky floors! I enjoyed the movie and next I want to see “No Reservations.”

Afterwards, we ended up heading over to Orchard Rd to check out Kinokuniya since Ron needed to buy some Japanese workbooks for his language exam. Then we went to INSEAD since Ron had a meeting so I just stuck around in the library to wait. We had dinner plans at Long Beach IMM Seafood Restaurant which we were invited to by the Taiwanese student group.

We had chili crab:

and black pepper crab:

It was a very messy dinner but pretty good. The chili crab was tastier than the black pepper crab. The chili crab had a good sauce for dipping the meat and bread. We also had our first experience of something called Shandy beer. We ordered it because it was cheaper than a jug of Tiger Beer. It was rather strange when we first tasted it because it was sweet! We asked the waitresses later and they said it’s beer mixed with Sprite. Apparently according to Wikipedia, it is a common drink in Europe. Click here to read more about Shandy on Wikipedia. It was kind of gross after the first glass 😛

After dinner we had birthday party to attend at the Ministry of Sound in Clarke Quay. It’s a club that has 4 or 5 different rooms of music. Ron’s classmate reserved a few tables and some alcohol. We had a good time chatting, dancing, and having a few drinks. It’s been a busy Friday!