Go blue

I think I've arrived in the ultimate of all college towns: Ann Arbor, Michigan. I'm in town for The Nonprofit's annual conference and am staying right on the University of Michigan campus, convenient to the events.

Driving through the downtown area, everything seemed to cater toward the University. Barber shops sported blue and gold signs, pubs were clearly advertising to students and other stores had banners supporting the local teams.

People have told me this is a great time of year to be in Ann Arbor and that it's a shame there isn't a football game this weekend. Supposedly, it's the type of event that rivals Mardi Gras or New Year's in Times Square. For me, it would probably be too much, especially with thousands of people in town for The Nonprofit's conference.

My pal the professor

One afternoon last week, an old professor from grad school rang me up to say she was in town, consulting for a company. She didn't have much free time, but was hoping I could meet her for a drink to catch up at the W Hotel, where the company had put her up for the night. Since I rarely have plans in the evenings, I agreed to meet up with her and dutifully headed to the W bar that evening.

It's been several years since I last saw her, but through the grapevine (and facebook), I knew that she'd gotten divorced and had entered the dating scene. In fact, her older brother was an acquaintance of mine when I lived in DC - sort of an astonishing connection when we realized this while I was her student.

Our conversation was focused on typical things you'd expect from a professor and former student: my job, her research, moving to Boston, blah, blah, blah. But partway through the conversation, the topic took a decidedly personal turn and I learned a lot about her recent dating exploits and more about her sex life than I had expected to ever know! It seems we've easily moved past the professor/student relationship and are quite squarely in the "friends" zone now.

Movie note: Wes Craven's New Nightmare

ONE STAR

This movie made absolutely no sense. And I don't expect much "sense" from movies starring Heather Langenkamp.

Movie note: A Nightmare on Elm Street

TWO STARS

Not even Beaver Casablancas, Principal Tami Taylor and Ella Simms were able to save this movie.

Movie note: A Nightmare on Elm Street

THREE STARS

I guess Johnny Depp's acting talents developed after 1984.

The name game

On my way to work this morning, I was listening to a story on NPR about Taylor Swift and her tweeting. One of the commentators was an expert in social media. A professor at a university named ... Pinky Gonzales!

Imagine my surprise when Pinky began commenting on the story and turned out to be ... a man!

Bemoaning the budget

It's budget season here at my company and, weirdly, I haven't been asked to submit a budget for next year. Since I'm new to the organization, I took it upon myself to meet with Finance yesterday to learn the budgeting process so I could be prepared.

I learned that my manager had expressed the desire to create and propose a budget on my behalf, which was very concerning because he has direct visibility into only 50% of what I need for next year. The rest comes from initiatives that I work on with his boss.

Since he started traveling before I returned from my recent trip, my manager hasn't been available to discuss our budget (which is due in a week), so I rang him up this morning to understand his intentions. Part way through our conversation, he exclaimed that he'd have to call me back and hung up. Since it's now past midnight in his location, and since our Finance lead is asking for my proposed budget, I've taken it upon myself to create a budget for next year and I just submitted it, without having reviewed it with my manager.

Let's hope this wasn't one of those "career-limiting" moves.

Birthday balls

For Jimmy Jam's birthday, Puppy hosted an intimate dinner party the other night. It was a small gathering with Puppy, Jimmy Jam, me, and three other guests.

For dinner, the menu featured meatballs that burst with cheese filling. Very tasty and perfect for our little celebration.

Jimmy Jam started off the evening with a heartfelt moment, thanking each guest for being in his life. But then it descended into a boozey night and we shook off any pretensions of being civilized and just enjoyed the food and company. Just like any proper birthday celebration!

Back to the grind

Since returning to MA on Wednesday, I've been a busy, busy bee. I've arrived at work around 7am for the past two days and I feel like I've been catching up, working non-stop. And there's no end in sight!

Movie note: The Jonses

TWO STARS

Kim Zolciak wasn't tardy for the party scene!

I left my heart

For the past few days, I've been back in San Francisco - the last leg of my multi-country trip around the Pacific Ocean. I've had a bunch of meetings, I guest lectured at UC Berkeley and I got a haircut from the lady who's been cutting my hair for the past eight years.

It was Roommate J's birthday yesterday as well, so of course it served as a reason to get together and I got to see many of my buddies. It's also been unusually hot during these past two days and you can't beat San Francisco on a warm, sunny day. It makes me almost wish I'd never left.

I didn't expect to feel so sad about leaving tomorrow, but I have plenty of reasons to return!

Sydney walkabout

I remember now why I fell in love with Sydney when I last visited 4.5 years ago. Not only is it a beautiful, manageable city, the Australian people are so friendly and warm. Passing through for a mere 14 hours is simply not enough time.

Since I'm no longer a dance, dance, dance all night panda, I retired last night right after my work dinner commitments. So this morning, I was able to get up early, visit the hotel fitness center, eat a proper "breaky" and go for a stroll through the city.

I walked down to Circular Quay, enjoyed the views of Harbour Bridge and the Opera House, got myself a coffee, headed through the Botanic Gardens and wandered around Hyde Park, which hosted an interesting photography exhibition with gigantic photos on banners strung from trees. I meandered through the commercial district, walking through all the shops that were still closed on Sunday morning, and returned to my hotel.

After spending time in so many cities where walking is impossible (motorbikes, lack of sidewalks, unsafe conditions, families living in makeshift shacks on the sidewalks, dying children, poverty, sheep), it was nice being in a city where the infrastructure allowed a leisurely stroll. And fortunately for me, the rain let up as I stepped outside and I could enjoy a sunny Spring day. I need to plan a trip to return.

Boys for sale

For my last day on wool duty, I went to Wellington to observe a ram auction, wherein stud breeders sell their 2-year-old boy rams to other farmers who believe the rams' DNA will help them yield better wool, meat or both. About 10 farms were represented, each with a pen of 12 rams or so.

I saw the farmers whom I'd met in my previous two days and they, their wives and their children welcomed me like an old friend. It was very much a family outing where kids gleefully chased each other around, wives caught up and gossiped, and the men talked shop (or sheep, in this case).

For the first part of the day, prospective buyers went around the pens to inspect each ram and to chat with the stud raisers, thinking about which sheep to bid on. Bidders pulled wool apart, checked out the rams' hindquarters, pat their backs and checked to see how loose their skin was.

Each ram had a card that described different attributes of wool type, "carcass" type and some even had family trees posted above them. A few farms posted signs noting that they retained the right to "50% of semen," to be extracted "at buyer's convenience and at seller's cost." It was a very different way to spend a Saturday, indeed.

When the actual auction began, it was very much like the events one sees on the tee-vee, where a man stands up and starts talking very quickly and very loudly. Bidders either raised their hands or nodded definitively and I tried to stand as still as possible, so as not to acidentally take home a $2,000 ram.

I'm sure I was being paranoid, however, because no one mistook me for a local. In fact, before the auction began, one of the organizers announced that I was visiting from the States and that I had been learning about wool farming. Little old ladies came up to me to discuss my job and to discuss New York while some of the older farmers offered me beers.

Also present were a woman and her daughter, raising money for melanoma research. The farmers agreed that 10% of each farm's top-selling stud would benefit the cause these two ladies represented. The daughter was planning to ride a horse across Australia in order to raise more money for research - a journey that was scheduled to take her approximately three months.

I don't think many people from the US get the chance to visit an event that's so far out of their element, so I was grateful for the experience. These farmers are hard-working, family-oriented men who dedicate their entire lives to their livelihood. They have a wonderfully welcome and tight-knit community and are trying the best they can to promote a product and industry they love. Even though I ruined a pair of shoes in the past few days, I feel very lucky to have experienced what I did.

Farm life

On my second day of visiting wool farms, I got the chance to get up close and personal to the sheep. We first visited a farm near Wellington, and I had a lovely time discussing our challenges in wool sourcing with the farm owners.

Coming into this trip, I didn't realize that the farms were family-run businesses, often passed down through several generations of farmers. At the first farm, we were warmly greeted by the farmer, his wife and their two adorable children. The farmer's father, who also lived on the property, also joined us, but his wife was off playing bridge with her friends.

We shared coffee and a very delicious cake, discussed issues like sustainable farming, wool prices, yarn quality and animal welfare. Then, we drove off and chased the ewes from one paddock to another before heading off to the shed where the rams were being kept for grooming (in advance of tomorrow's ram sale). In the shed, I got the chance to feel the wool, touch the sheep and enjoy the lovely aroma of a mob of sheep. Let's also mention that my shoes will not be making the journey back to Boston with me.

We then broke for a very nice lunch, prepared by the farmer's wife, and we were off to the next farm where I was able to get my hands on some freshly shorn wool, to examine the differences between this sustainably raised sheep and conventional wool.

The people I've met have been so welcoming and open and generous that I feel very lucky to have spent time with them. For each of the three farms I've visited, it's clearly a family affair with wives and kids contributing to the overall well-being of the farm. It's actually a very idyllic lifestyle and one that's much simpler than the faster-paced city life I'm used to. At one farm, the farmer was marveling at how incredible my host's BlackBerry seemed!

When we discuss wool and garments at work, we really don't discuss the human element of the farmers who toil away day after day and whose entire livelihoods depend on raising high quality sheep. This trip has brought a whole new dimension to my understanding of the supply chain.

Australia game drive

Today's wool farm visits felt very much like the safari game drives I went on last year. We were in a bumpy jeep, mowing down gigantic weeds and I was looking for animals. Instead of lions and hippos and giraffes, we spotted the following animals today:

• sheep (duh)
• cows
• peacocks
• alpaca
• a snake
• a rabbit
• kangaroos

Unfortunately, I only got photos of the sheep.

Movie note: Chloe

THREE STARS

Nudie, nudie, nudie! Good movie until the dumb ending.

Green wool

After approximately 17 hours in transit, I landed in Nowheresville, Australia and visited a wool farm that practices sustainable land management. I learned all about the dangers of over-grazing, how both summer and winter native grasses help sustain food supply throughout the year, breeding techniques that eliminate the need for certain chemical treatments, the benefits of combining a flock of sheep with a flock of cattle, natural ways to reduce soil erosion and that you don't call paddocks "fields."

In contrast to the farm we visited, the neighboring field used conventional techniques, including chemical pesticides and infrequent paddock rotation. The differences in the two fields was staggering. One was lush, with knee-high grasses and the other had only little shrubs and very short grasses.

It was a very interesting day and I learned a lot more than I ever expected to. It was also nice to see some very cute sheep running out of our jeep's pathway - it kind of felt like a safari! But I was so desperately tired that I don't think I made much sense and am very, very ready to go to sleep.

Another failure of the American school system

Until I looked at a map on the plane this afternoon, I had no idea that I've been in the Southern Hemisphere for the past three days.

And this is an exit sign

Yesterday in Central Java, I visited three factories with the General Manager and Social Compliance Manager of the company. From an innovation and factory operations perpsective, the company is pretty innovative and I was interested in seeing some state-of-the-art machinery that I'd never seen before.

I enjoyed speaking with the Production Managers and Quality Assurance Managers, learning about how the company's investment in automation and systems has helped to increase quality, consistency and reduce needed manpower hours.

While we toured the facilities, the Social Compliance Manager kept pointing out very basic health and safety measures they'd put in place, like bright signs to signal where the fire extinguishers are, arrows painted on the floors to designate exit locations in case of an emergency and exit signs above the doors.

It became pretty irritating and I got to wondering if he thought this was the first factory I'd ever visited. I've seen sewing machine eye guards and needle guards before. I know what a first aid kit looks like! Pointing out the umpteenth exit sign is not so interesting to me.

Crystal blue waters

I just spent some time in the hotel pool, floating around and pretending to swim back and forth. It's a clean, clear pool that gets lots of sun and at this hour, I had it all to myself.

But when I got back to my room, I noticed that the undersides of my nails had a blue tint. I have a feeling the hotel uses some sort of blue coloring to achieve the "turquoise" waters.

Health class

In high school, I had to take the mandatory semester of health class, where we learned about physical fitness, sex education and nutrition from an older man with too much energy who talked like a gnome. I wasn't so great at concentrating in this class and my health education culminated in getting kicked out during the final exam for talking and being asked to return once I completed it. Once finished, I came back and passed out donuts to a few of my friends.

Now that our company is investing in a health education program with some of the factories that produce our goods, I sure hope none of the factory workers we enroll have the same cavalier attitude I did in high school.

While in Ho Chi Minh last week, I had the chance to kick off this initiative with a factory and the local Vietnamese NGO that will be delivering the health education curriculum. Essentially, we're sponsoring a program that helps female factory workers gain a better understanding of reproductive health, nutrition and sexually transmitted diseases, among other health issues. In turn, factories experience lower absenteeism rates, reduced turnover and higher productivity, thanks to healthier workers. And investing in women has impact beyond just those who experience the health training. Women take what they learn, apply it to their families and help to uplift entire communities.

The local NGO partner shared the approach, plan, curriculum and impact assessment with me and the factory management team and made sure to point out that "We don't discourage sex, we just want them to be safe!" I think this made the Korean managers a bit uncomfortable.

After the kick-off meeting, we had a chance to tour the factory, meet some of the workers who would be participating and discuss additional outstanding issues. The factory tour also proved illuminating because it is a very well-run and organized facility. It's one of the nicest factories I've ever visited, so I'm glad we've chosen a high-performing partner to launch this initiative with.

I feel lucky that I've had the opportunity to bring this program to my company's supply chain and I enjoyed participating in the kick off. These are the kinds of projects that make me excited for my job and keep me optimistic about the impact my role can have. In addition to this facility in Vietnam, one factory in Bangladesh is also implementing the project with our sponsorship. As we monitor the performance of these projects, I'm hopeful that we will be able to demonstrate both health benefits and business benefits so that we can continue to launch similar initiatives with other high-performing garment factories in our supply chain.

Only fragrant fruits, please

Checking into my hotel in Semarang this afternoon, I noticed a small sign at the reception counter informing guests that cigarettes and "strong odors" are not allowed in the lobby. I figured maybe some guests had a BO problem, but when I got to my room, I saw a sign with the following:

Dear Guest,
The Hotel has a policy of not permitting the following:
* Durian fruit is not allowed on the premises.
* You are not permitted to remove the mattress from the bed and place on the floor and other furnitures moving is prohibited.
* Smoking in Non-Smoking rooms is not permitted.

I guess the hotel has had its fair share of interesting incidents in the past.

Monster dinner

Last night the factory management team I'm visiting treated me to a traditional Indonesian dinner in Jakarta. We ordered a whole feast of dishes with lumpia, noodles, tons of seafood and ... the most ginormous prawns I'd ever seen in my life!

Before ordering the prawns, the factory owner asked if I would be adventurous enough to try one of the restaurant's specialties. Not one to shy away from a culinary challenge (I even ate crocodile last week in Vietnam!), I agreed to try a prawn and it was delicious! Normally, I hate the work involved with de-shelling prawns and twisting off their spiny heads, but I simply went for it and relished the results!

Pandanapped

I was sweating pretty hard for about 45 minutes yesterday from the Jakarta airport to my hotel, thanks to my stupid, over-trusting self and an over-active imagination. Prior to arriving in Jakarta, I'd been told to stay vigilant, be careful and remember that Americans aren't the most welcome people in Indonesia.

With these warnings in the back of my mind, I exited the immigration area and came face-to-face with a crowd of people, most of whom were offering taxi services and others sporting signs with hotel logos and passengers' names. Since my company had arranged a car to pick me up, I searched the signs for my own name, but didn't see it among the sea of people. As I stepped back to survey the scene again, a little man in a plaid shirt approached me and said, "Hotel Mulia?"

"Yes!" I exclaimed, for that was the name of the hotel where I'd reserved a room.

He grabbed my bag and directed me out of the airport and into an elevator. We went up one floor to the departures level where his silver Mercedes was parked on the curb. Like the driver, there was no indication this was an official hotel vehicle, but he popped the trunk, tossed my bag inside and opened the door for me to enter, which I did.

I saw him turn to the airport security guy and hand him a wad of cash before he hopped into the driver's seat and made a phone call. He asked me how to spell my name and repeated it into his phone.

Once that transaction was finished, he filled out a receipt with my name and the price of the transfer and asked me to pay with cash - either in local currency or in US dollars. I simply didn't have that much money and I insisted that the ride be charged to my hotel room (like normal hotel-arranged airport pick-ups). We haggled a bit more, then he seemed to acquiesce, locked the doors and zoomed away.

As we pulled out of the airport, I put the pieces together: an unmarked vehicle, no indication that this was related to my hotel reservation, a kick-back to airport security, an insistence on cash payment, a less than friendly country to Americans. And I decided I was being kidnapped!

I had no way of knowing whether or not he was taking me toward the hotel or taking me to some empty warehouse where I'd be tortured and where my employer would be called to pay for my release. How could I be so naive? What would I do?

I turned on my phone and got my recent numbers on the screen. I figured I could call either my boss or Puppy if things took a turn for the worse and scream that I was being kidnapped, probably resulting in a swift bullet to the brain.

So, I just kind of sat there, heart racing and eyes peeled for any way out ... until we pulled into the hotel parking lot and went through the obligatory bomb check - also kind of unsettling in my moderately panicked state.

Long story short, I made it safe and sound and remain in one piece, able to blog about my paranoia. But next time I'm in a similar situation, I may call the hotel to confirm that I'm getting in the right car.

Shopping mall land

As far as I can tell, Singapore is simply one big shopping mall. And everything is insanely expensive, so I'm not sure why one would bother coming here to buy anything.

For my day off, I went to the Marina Bay Sands hotel and casino, featuring a pretty cool "Sky Park" with incredible views of the city. It also has a shopping center with luxury brands that I can't afford.

After I got bored of the Marina Bay Sands, I headed to Orchard Road, which is simply one huge mall after another. I really don't know where people here get all their money to support all the shops.

Singapore slinged

Because I couldn't fly directly from Vietnam to Indonesia, I decided to spend a night in Singapore, someplace I'd never been before. Plus, it gave me the opportunity to see Japo-Latino, who's in the country on a two-year expat assignment.

It was also nice to speak with some native English speakers, and I appreciated not having to keep up my halting, slower version of the language, which I'd been using for just over a week.

We hit the local bars and I was introduced to a "flaming lamborghini," some sort of syrupy-sweet cocktail that bartenders light on fire. Totally unsafe, totally strong and totally too much. After that, I really didn't need any more drinks, but we soldiered on and I drank way too much.

And per local going-out rules, once we'd drunk too much, we hit the food stalls at Maxwell Market and stuffed our faces with tasty street food.

Thang Long 1000

My day in Hanoi coincides with the city's celebration of its founding 1,000 years ago. Today is the first of a 10-day celebration, which sounds like a fun and festive time to visit.

In reality, it's been a big pain in the derriere. There's been a huge influx of people from all over the country and the streets are even more crowded than usual. Major arteries are shut down and traffic is re-routed around celebration areas.

Instead of the usual 45 minute drive from the airport to the city center, it took approximately 1.5 hours. It's pure madness with people and motorcycles taking their time clogging the streets and traveling any way they please, regardless of traffic laws.

It's a shame, because Hanoi seems like a pretty city and I'd love to walk around the lake. But during this madness, I'm just glad to be back in my hotel room.