Today was a good day for me, even though I’m feeling very ragged from all the pressures of travel, my training assignments and managing my team during Q4. I was able to catch up on work a lot in my hotel room, and I also got out for a good outing to see the Gardens by the Bay, one of Singapore’s more famous attractions.
I first went into an exhibit called flower fantasy. I think they named it appropriately!
Next, I went to the skywalk.
Then I went to the flower dome. Here is an exterior picture of it from the internet since all of my videos and pictures were from the inside of it.
Next I went to the Cloud Forest. In this picture from the internet, you can see the flower dome, the cloud forrest and the famous skywalk tree features.
Here are videos and pictures of my time in the Cloud Forest:
On my way home I walked through the mall.
And I continued to appreciate the remarkable architecture in Singapore, including this unusually skinny building on the right.
Back at home the family was having a lovely day of hearth and harmony. First they ate the grape pie they painstakingly made days before. Lily said the flavor was great, but the texture was not quite what she had hoped for.
Then Mary completely on her own initiative baked a cake, and Lydia helped her ice it. They even made fondant from scratch and decorated it immaculately!
Cutting the beautiful cake was a very dramatic moment since no one wanted to see such a masterpiece destroyed. They played a fitting soundtrack to commemorate the moment.
Clarissa had fun in her new Maleficent custom. She is so cute!!
I am so grateful for the unique and exceptional time I’m having in Singapore and I’m also missing my family so much. They are my beating heart, and I’m so grateful for facetime that allowed me to praise Mary with Lily for her cake and also see how cute Clarissa was in her costume. I’m also so grateful for the blog and all the phone calls I’ve had with Lily to help me feel closer to home. I love this family!
This morning Lily woke to find that our house had been egged during the night. That is very disappointing. The police think it may have something to do with our “vote no” sign on the lawn for proposition 2, but there is no way to be sure. Lily hired a power washer to clean the walls for us.
Later in the day, Lily took the kids to Wee-Witches. I love this tradition so much and I’m so sorry that I missed it!
Everyone got their face (or in Ammon’s case, his arm) painted.
I think she likes it!
Before going to bed, Lily put out Ammon’s birthday presents. I’m so excited for my little guy to turn 7!
Over in India, I had my most eventful and favorite day in India. I arrived at the office around noon after getting things done in my hotel room. Then I talked with the head of the India office for an hour or so just discussing my observations from the trip. I sincerely hope anything I said was useful, but he’s so capable, that it’s hard to know.
After meeting with him, I worked on some things and then I gave a training on MEDDICCC (a sales methodology) to the entire India team. Here is the view from the room wherein I trained. One of my favorite memories from the trip is how even in the conference rooms I could hear constant honking from the cars outside and none of the windows were open.
At the end of my training, Navneet presented a gift to me in behalf of the India team.
The gift was a hand-crafted wooden sculpture of the Hindu God Ganesh. Ganesh is a God of good fortune and prosperity and is worshiped at the beginning of a new adventure. I was genuinely touched by the gift. I felt my trainings were haphazard, under-prepared and sloppy and that gives me a lot of anxiety. With all I have going on right now, I feel like I’m falling short in every area of my life. But I was so touched how they received me so warmly and thanked me so sincerely for my stay. I have a lot of follow-up I plan to do as it is my sincerest hope that my trip can be beneficial to the India Qualtrics team. In just one week, they became very dear to me.
Another example of how special the people are is this: Anooj (one of the managers), had already taken the day off today. He personally decided that if I didn’t get a tour of Mumbai (meaning my Mumbai experience mostly would have been the hotel and the SAP office) that would be a shame. Used some of his day off to get a driver and take me all around old-city at the South of Mumbai. In the car he told me all about Mumbai, Hinduism and much more. I didn’t feel confident navigating Mumbai on my own, and I wanted to see the city so much. I’m so grateful Anjoon took such an interest in my experience in Mumbai. Here is a catalogue of our adventures:
This is the train station that was built by the British while the occupied India. It is also where India was attacked by terrorists in 2008. In that attack, the terrorist moved onto more locations after shooting people in the train station including a hotel (which I also saw) and a cafe (which I ate in). This report has details of the heinous attack.
Here is a video that shows how intense the foot and motorized traffic is. By way of interesting comparison, after it is a downtown intersection in Singapore that I was at the very next day. Very different vibes that is for sure!
I think this is a city government building, but I’m not sure. Isn’t the way they light up buildings amazing?
This is the Gateway of India. The monument was erected to commemorate the landing of King George V and Queen Mary at Apollo Bunder on their visit to India in 1911.
Here is the hotel which I mentioned was also attacked by the terrorists in 2008. Also, Obama stayed here after the attack, and that was a meaningful gesture for Indians.
We then passed a very popular clothing market that spans a kilometer:
Then we went to a market. It was a very unique experience. The place is famous for haggling, and also I think people could tell I was a tourist and many people approached me trying to get my attention. One person complimented me on my shirt as he walked next to me, and before I knew it, he was telling me he could make a shirt like it in two hours. People were very persistent!
Then we went to the cafe where the terrorists shot more people. You can still see the bullet holes in the walls. I got chicken masala and it was superb. I also had a salted lemonade. It’s the second one I’ve had in India, and I loved it!
I like telling Lydia that Bob Marley (my favorite musician) is one of the greatest and most celebrated musicians in the world. I love seeing evidences of people’s love for him around the world.
After dinner I went to the airport. I am so grateful for the experience Anooj gave me!
At the airport, I was interested to learn that the plane taking me to Singapore was the A380, the largest airliner in the world, and a double-decker. It has four huge engines, very long wings, and you can see the multiple loading tunnels for people to board. It didn’t seem wider than other international jets, but as soon as I boarded, there was a staircase to take some passangers to the top-level, and that was interesting.
When I connected with Lily at the end of today, her big update was this: “I WILL NEVER MAKE GRAPE PIE AGAIN.”
I empathized that peeling the grapes must have been a nightmare, to which she said that was the easy part (the kids helped with that part). The hard part was deseeding each grape one by one. She said they are the most delicious pies in the world, and she did it for the kids, but she is never doing it again. Given that I will never again in my life have a chance to taste one of Lily’s grape pies, I asked her to save some in the freezer for me 🙂
In other news, the family has been putting up Halloween and fall decorations inside and outside of the house. Lily is so amazing at creating these festive memories and I’m sorry to miss them!
Ammon has been drawing spooky Halloween pictures and in the video below, you will hear him telling about them.
I’m starting to enjoy India a more as I’m getting a little more rested. I am completely captivated by how lovely the people are and I’m so grateful for all the new Qualtrics friends that I have made. Today I went to lunch with some of the top performers on the team. The food here is incredible. Not only was the restaurant amazing, but even my breakfast at the Trident Hotel each morning has been superb. There is such a complex and advanced usage of spices, flavors and ingredients that dishes burst with flavor and unique and complex tastes. I forgot the name of this desert, but they said it’s the most famous/popular desert in India. It was similar in taste and textures to tres leches from Mexico. EVERYTHING has been so delicious. I could eat every meal from India, if my stomach would allow it! My stomach continues to have serious issues. I wont elaborate except to say that I got back to my hotel room in the nick of time, and yesterday the situation was so dire, I almost did not make it back to my hotel room in time. It was a very close call.
I almost didn’t post the picture below because I didn’t realize it was Clarissa! I’m so used to seeing those curls! Ammon and Clarissa had their haircut today. Ammon especially needed one, but he really wanted to keep growing it out more.
Clarissa has really been enjoying this dress Lily bought for her recently. I think it was from Target.
Lily has been finding immense value from sessions with our therapist Vhari. She did sand therapy again.
I’m in Mumbai and surviving. The people are wonderful. The people I’m working are very hard workers, very skilled and professional, sincere and so warm and friendly. They are the best part of being here. The hard parts are the jet lag and fatigue, my incredibly upset stomach and mild headaches and balancing the India work as well my work for my team back home. It’s also difficult to know if I’m doing any good for the team out here. The leadership is so competent here, and most of them have been in sales longer than me and have worked for very legitimate organizations like Oracle or Salesforce before coming to Qualtrics. It has been a challenge to feel I’ve been bringing value just because of how knowledgeable they already are. But the experience is so unique, and I so love having an experience that is so out of the ordinary.
This morning Lily went on a hike with her beloved friend Emily. Technically she is also family as she is Lily’s 16th cousin (or something like that). Look how beautiful those colors are!
In the evening, Lily spent time with another beloved friend Thalia who lives in South Africa. They haven’t seen each other in a very long time and Lily said she enjoyed her time with Thalia so so much!
Yesterday and today were two of the heaviest work days I’ve had in a long time. The good news is that it’s because business is picking up. I felt completely worn out when I got home (at 7:30), but I was very cheered to see Lydia entertaining all the kids and all of them playing together. I felt so grateful for such incredible children.
Clarissa has been drawing and coloring A LOT lately
So, I have to gush about Lily for a little bit. In Orem there is crazy drama going on around proposition 2. Essentially, a small group of city council members, rich people and super conservative people wanting more control over what happens in schools have put a proposition on the November ballot to split off into a single city school district. There are a few problems with this (even though there are no downsides according to a feasibility study they commissioned from a friend of a friend who created the company three weeks before working on the study). The problems are:
Single city districs are extremely costly because all the extra fixed costs (data center, district building, superintendent etc) and the smaller student base means higher cost per student
Loss of special ed and other specialty services provided by the district that will have to be stood up
Lower purchasing power (Provo is single city and they buy supplies from Alpine because Alpine gets them for a great cost)
Higher taxes, other single city districts have much higher taxes
MOST importantly, almost none of the teachers, administrators, PTA school-board wants this. In fact the PTA is 95% against and took an official position against it and a majority of teachers say they would look to leave Orem if it passes for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is the fear of their retirements, pension, status and wages being negatively impacted.
Anyhoo, there is much more to talk about on the topic. There would be some pros to leaving like not having to fund the construction of the growing areas around Eagle Mountain, but the cons definitely outweigh the cons, and besides (as the former Mayor who joined our cottage meeting eloquently pointed out) we collaborate and scratch each others’ backs. Others in Alpine funded Orem school construction when we were booming and now we are going to help when other communities boom. That’s just part of working together as a district. Alpine will split at some point and most people think it needs to, but being a single city district seems like a super bad idea.
Lily claims that her greatest superpower is righteous anger. I can name MANY other super powers that she has, but it is true. She is good at righteous anger. She has taken a deep interest in this cause. She’s worried about educational quality, increase in taxes, property value going down, the erosion of collaboration in our communities, and the handing over of power to wealthy people with extreme political views who are not representative of Orem at large. As a result of her feelings she has canvassed our neighborhood multiple days and talked to dozens of people. She has handed out flyers, messaged all her friends, emailed the mayor, befriended the former mayor, networked with the PTA, gone to a cottage meeting with our schoolboard member in attendance and put a sign in our yard. One day I went on a walk to relieve stress and she joined me so she could canvas the neighborhood around our block. She was incredible! She was so charismatic and charming, and persuasive, but not pushy, and ultimately she informed a lot of people and got some people interested in our cottage meeting. She was so good at sales (better than me honestly) that I just felt so much admiration. I was also shocked because she has so much social anxiety and is very good at socializing, but doesn’t do it too much because of how stressful for her it is. Seeing her out in the streets fearlessly championing her cause both inspired and surprised me. Jokingly, I looked at her and said, “who are you?”
But I’ve learned that Lily has deep integrity of heart. And when she thinks something is wrong, she is prone to ACTION, and not even her own anxieties can stop her. That is one of the things I love most about Lily.
I was so pleased with the result of the cottage meeting which was the culmination of all her efforts inviting people that I had to take a picture.
Today I went to Aurora for my passport appointment. Everything went as planned and they asked me to come back at 2:00 to pick up my passport. That gave me time to go back to Colorado Springs, pick up the family (Lily had packed and gotten the kids all ready), grab brunch and head back to Aurora. At 2:00, I got my passport!
Here we are at brunch at The Market of the Gods & Cafe:
People were watching Tennis while waiting for food
On the way home we finished The Hobbit and the older folks in the car LOVED IT. We got perpetally more and more drawn in until by the end Lily and I were waiting on every word with bated breath. Mary and Lydia loved it so much too. That book truly is a masterpiece.
Also, as we were driving home, we were absolutely STUNNED by the scenery going through the Colorado mountains. The fall colors put the whole scene over the top. I think it is one of the prettiest drives I have EVER been on, rivaled only by Mt. Olympus in Greece (which was also in the fall).
I asked Lily to take pictures. She took picture or two and a short video and refused to take any more because she said it was depressing how poorly the photos captured the grandeur of the scenery. The yellows were glowing. It was so gorgeous!
Then Ammon announced he had to pee. At first it seemed like a big inconvenience, but the stop really worked out. Not only did the kids all get a snack at the vending machine, but the rest stop was a gorgeous area right next to the river and we read all about the stretch of road we were on called Glenwood Canyon. It turns out is the most celebrated stretch of Interstate in the United States, and for good reason! Below is some of the information we found at that rest stop as well as a video of the rest stop area.
We also got some fun pictures!
We pulled in around 11PM. How I love traveling with my family!
This morning we woke up to beautiful Pike’s Peak which was the inspiration of the “America, America” song. Gorgeous isn’t it!
We all woke up early and got ready for the day and left by 7:45 so we could catch my 9:00 Passport appointment in Aurora……except that I didn’t double-check my appointment time and my appointment was actually at 8, even though I remembered it being at 9. Whoops! I felt bad and stressed because I already have very little time to pull off getting my India Visa after I get my passport, but it was what it was, and I scheduled for a new appointment tomorrow morning.
That gave us a whole day to spend as a family. Lily, as always, was our amazing guide for what to do. She promptly bought us tickets to the Pike’s Peak Cog train. A Cog train has a gear going down the center of the track to help it go up and down the really steep grades (over 20% in places).
While sitting in the train, they announced that it would be 28 degrees at the top of the mountain and suggested last stops for sweat shirts for underprepared families. I also saw the windows were open on the train and I panicked (I didn’t not realize the windows would all close towards the top to help the train stay cool). I ran quickly to the gift shop and bought 4 extra sweatshirts for the family, not being totally sure what I was buying because I was hurrying so fast.
The trip up the mountain was absolutely STUNNING and we loved our conductor who shared so much interesting information and made funny jokes.
At the top, I wanted to explore, but everyone else was very cold and wanted to stay inside the visitor’s center.
Here is a close up view of the cog in the center of the track.
While wandering around, I got some good pictures and videos to capture the grandeur of the view and terrain. I also had time to commune with God and myself, and find peace and balance. It was a peace inducing experience for me.
Here is the original structure built at the top in the 1800s. Winds can get up to 200 MPH up here (highest wind was clocked at 180, but it broke the measuring device and people think that day winds got over 200.)
I was delighted to find the trail that could take one down the mountain. It really reminded me of the landscape for the last bit of the King’s Peak climb in Utah.
The way down was equally gorgeous and we played fun games like thumb-wars.
Here are some video links to capture some of the downward journey.
After our train ride, we went to have lunch in Manitou Springs. It was fun to research mountains over lunch. We learned that the top 100 tallest mountains in the world are all in the Himalayas (by a long shot), the top tallest mountains in the US are in Alaska, and none of the top peaks are East of Colorado etc.
Another Spring! Ammon made a funny joke yesterday when he said, “no don’t drink the water, we will all live forever! Just kidding.” It was a funny nod to Tuck Everlasting when we were trying one of the Springs.
Outside of the restaurant
After lunch, Lydia went shopping with mom while I took Mary, Ammon and Clarissa to the arcade. I think we were all happy with our respective choices.
It was so fun for me to introduce all the kids to pinball for the first time. Lydia met up with us after shopping and even played a little pinball too.
After the arcade, we went to the Olympic and Para-Olympic training center in Colorado Springs. I had no idea that the US Headquarters for the Olympic and Para-Olympic Committee was in Colorado Springs. The campus used to be an Air Force campus, and when the Air Force shut it down, Colorado Springs gave it to the Olympic and Para-Olympic Committee for $1 because Colorado Springs really wanted the Committee to make their headquarters there. The plan work!
We did not visit the headquarters building or the museum, but we visited the training facility for the Olympics and Para-Olympics. World-class athletes 18 and older can live and/or train here if they desire.
We met a world-class rifle-shooter who won a gold medal at the Pan-American Para-Olympic games. He lives at the facility.Air rifle and rifle shootingWeight roomSwim lanes with warm (82 degrees or thereabouts) water. Also those yellow tubs hold weight that athletes have to lift while swimming in the water. Michael Phelps has swam here, I believe for training.Michael Phelps won over 20 medals. Trischa won oover 50 and is the most decorated US athlete in history.Those buildings are the living quarters.Wrestling
We got super fortunate to see some men’s gymnastics. They were competing here to see who would qualify for the men’s gymnastics team to join the national team in the upcoming world competition in London. They were amazing!!!
Then we went back to Manitou Springs (which we have fallen in love with) to walk around it again and eat dinner. Then the most unexpected and tragic thing happened. Lily was driving (because I was feeling tired) and as we pulled up to a crosswalk at the other side of an intersection, we saw a lady crossing the street get hit by an e-biker going very fast. A car had stopped for the pedestrian and the e-biker went around the car to keep going and accidentally slammed right into the pedestrian. The pedestrian amazingly only fell to the ground with relatively minor bumps and got right up. The e-biker however lost control and flew off his bike. He was not wearing a helmet and his head hit the ground hard. I ran out the car and tried to remember everything I could from my days as a first aid instructor, which unfortunately was not much. I knelt down and kept calling to him, and he wouldn’t respond. I kept telling him he would be ok and help was on the way. He wasn’t moving or responding, and I knew that moving him could further injure him so I just stayed there with him while people called for help. He was face down in the asphalt and his head was badly bleeding. When help arrived, I talked with the pedestrian who was shook up, but O-K. I then gave a witness statement and headed back to Lily. Lily was very traumatized and we spent time reflecting on how her trauma and sympathy for the person most badly hurt changed the details in her mind to suggest that the woman was on a bike and she was the one being careless and caused the accident. We both felt new appreciation for how people can experience things in ways that were not objectively true especially when trauma is involved.
While I was at the injury scene, Lily was talking to bystanders and the kids were playing in the park.
Ammon had fun burying his gold medal (he and Clarissa each got one as a gift at the tour from the tour guide). It got less fun when Ammon couldn’t find his gold medal that he buried. We tried helping him to find it for a few minutes, and then gave up. We wondered if someone else found it and left with it. Ammon was crying and so so sad about it. To make it up to him, we let him choose the prize for our arcade tickets later in the night. He cashed them out for candy.
Our group was a bit shook up by what we had witnessed, and my heart aches for that man who was in very bad shape. I’m encouraged by the fact that he eventually came to and was shouting to the paramedics “I will sue your a@#!”. He definitely still had some life in him. Lily and I took the moment to tell our kids to always always always wear their helmet and to always be careful when riding a bike. I believe if this man would have been wearing a helmet, he would have fared way way way better and maybe even gotten up and been able to walk off.
After cashing in our arcade tickets, we saw another spring. It was not working, but we used our imaginations and pretended to drink the water.
We ate at a Tibetan restaurant and it was delicious!
Afterwards, the family got ice cream and I got chocolate goodies.
I enjoyed this sign on the way home
When we got home, we all played ping-pong and foose-ball for about an hour. It was so fun to just cut loose and play those games with my kids. I love my family so much!
Today was a wonderful day, with the exception of our heartache for the man who got in an accident. They had to take him away in an ambulance and he was clearly hurt very badly. I pray he recovers ok.
Today We got out at a decent time (8:30?) and we drove to Great Sand Dines Naitonal Park. We continued to enjoy the Hobbit on the way as well as some children’s audio books for Ammon and Clarissa.
When we arrived it was cold and rainy. We checked the forecast and knew that it might be that way. Unfortunately, Lily did not pack anything other than nice sandals and she was also in shorts so she stayed in the car while I went and had fun with the kids on the dunes. Even though it was cold and raining on and off, we still had a ton of fun.
On the way there, we had to cross a stream that formed on the sand from the rain. Also, Lydia and Mary were trying different ways to move their bodies (running backwards, side-stepping, straight-leg stepping) and rating how much they liked each method and they had me try a few methods and rate them as well. It was great fun and I captured it here in this video:
After walking on the flat sand for a while, we climbed a small dune hill and the kids played on it. It was really interesting to see how stepping in the sand would break the wet crust (from the rain) and expose the dry sand underneath:
On the way back, we charged the hill as though we were the riders of Rohan:
And we also pretended to be characters from The Hobbit
And of course, Clarissa was obsessed with water.
On the way out, I did a quick 8 minute jog to see a trail that I wanted to see (Montville Nature Trail). It was a very short .5 mile loop and very pretty.
Then we drove the three hours back to Colorado Springs and went to tour Air Force Academy. The whole experience was a treasure. The campus is in an incredible forest right on the base of beautiful Colorado mountains. The movie we watched talked all about how cadets are broken down their first week (Day 2 they are woken with bangs and screams at their doors) and the built up throughout the rest of the year to understand principles of integrity, honor and team first. It is a special school and it was clear that people really value their time there (from the video). After watching the movie, we went on the trail to take us to the famous church (intended for both faith-based and non-faith-based moral centers). The church was closed for renovations (and completely enclosed) so we didn’t get to see it, but the trail was beautiful and the weather was nice. I’ll post a picture of the chapel from online to show what it looks like when it’s not covered up.
We weren’t able to see this because it was covered.
Below is a video of the trail to and from the church:
After our amazing trip to Air Force Academy, we went to Old Colorado in Coloradoo Springs and ate at a cantina service Mexican food (Westside Cantina). It had a Mexican Wrestler theme (luchador and had very interesting pictures on the walls.
We were a bit nonplussed by Old Colorado and Lily had the idea to go to Manitou Springs for desert so we headed there.
We were SO charmed by Manitou Springs! Our family LOVES carbonated water and there are naturally carbonated spring water taps all around Manitou Springs! The weather was gorgeous and we all went to a candy shop (Lily went to a donut shop) and we all got sweets. Then we just walked all around that charming town and we bumped into 4 of the Spring taps and tried the water from each of them. We all felt merry and just chatted the whole time feeling happy. Lily was feeling blue and stressed today, but I think Manitou Springs was a highlight for her as well. It was my favorite part of the whole day. Here are some pictures!
I loved the water so much, after we all loaded in the car, I stopped by a spring tap one more time to fill up three of our water bottles.
I was up until after 1:00 last night finishing up all my work. Lily has also been exhausted from how hard she has been pushing it. Both she and I felt we were hit especially hard this week and it was delicious to sleep in. Then we packed up and were out the door for Colorado Springs by Noon.
Why are we going to Colorado Springs this weekend? Well, I am supposed to fly to India in one week and as I was applying for my India Visa a few days ago, I learned that India will not allow me to travel there if my Passport expires within 6 months of the dates of my trip. I immediately called the US Passport office and learned that the only way for me to make my trip is for me to get an expedited in-person Passport appointment, and the closest place for that to happen is at Aurora, Colorado. And so a few days ago, I scheduled my appointment and walked upstairs and announced to the family that we were going to go to Colorado over the weekend.
The drive to Colorado Springs was 9.5 hours and as always, Lily picked out an amazing audio book for us to listen to. She picked The Hobbit orated by Andy Serkis. He is the one who did the voice and acting (the CG was based on his movements) for Gollum in the Lord of the Rings movies. His oration was jaw-dropping, especially when it got to the parts with Gollum! But really, every voice was incredible and he brought the book to life in the most wonderful way. The older ones in the car really loved listening to The Hobbit
On the way to Colorado Springs we saw some gorgeous scenery with the leaves changing:
We also noticed (I believe from our map) that Colorado National Monument was right on the way (near Grand Junction). We are suckers for National Monuments, so we decided to go.
It reminded us so much of Mesa Verde. The topography was so gorgeous and the red rock with greenery reminded us of Sedona. We went on a very short hike (Otto’s Trail).
At first, I was a bit annoyed three of the kids were taking so long to walk because they were filling out their junior ranger books while walking. But then I thought it was cute and I took a video. Eventually, I took the books from thee little kids because we were on top of a fingerlike narrow pass on the mesa with cliffs on both sides, and the pathway was starting to get more narrow (hence the need to focus on where they were going). There were railings at the tip of the finger and it was amazing to look out.
On the way back, I made fun with Clarissa a bit when she was complaining about how long it was (Round trip it was 2/3 of a mile):
It was a such a great half-way break to stretch our legs and get some sun. We then ate at QDoba in Grand Junction and drove the rest of the way to our lovely AirBnB which Lily booked for us.
