Aggie Spirit in Singapore

This will be the quickest blog post in history for me because I leave for Bali within the next hour but wanted to briefly write about our week so far.
Tuesday evening Brian and I went over to the American Club for Aggie Muster. We were delighted to find about 40 other Aggies there to celebrate with us. For those unaware of the tradition, each year on April 21, Aggies gather to reminisce about our days at Texas A&M and remember those who have died in the past year. When you're a student, they hold a formal and solemn ceremony on campus. This year I saw that Defense Secretary Robert Gates was the guest speaker (he was the university president prior to his current position). Once you graduate, depending on where you live, it becomes a more casual event. They say that if there's another Aggie living within 50 miles, you should get together with them on that day. So, we did that, Singapore style. It was great to see such a good turnout and I had an unexpected connection. One of the new playgroup members I am just beginning to know also happens to be an Aggie! I know that my sister is laughing at this point because she says, "Those Aggies are EVERYWHERE!" Looks like that's true...
So, that was a fun diversion for us and hopefully they'll organize some happy hours so we can gather with some of those folks from home again while we're here. Of course, Tuesday also would have been Tanner's 8th birthday, so I thought of my precious dog more than usual that day. I sure wish he could have enjoyed his annual frosty paw treat.
Elizabeth started swim lessons on Tuesday and she did incredibly well. She's taking private lessons from a gentle older Asian man named Bob and by the end of the 30 minute lesson, she was swimming about 6 seconds under water independently. She didn't want to stop at the end of the lesson so I stayed in the pool with her after Coach Bob left so she could practice. Thank goodness she's eager to learn. I personally love that Bob comes to our pool for the lesson. Pretty easy to do swim class with a child when you just have to go downstairs for it!
On Wednesday Emily's playgroup met at the Botanic Gardens children's area. We now have 4 members and 2 of us have older daughters that will join us until school starts in August. We have 2 boys and 2 girls in the young group and it's nice to be able to look forward to that outing mid-week. It was my first trip to the Botanic Gardens and found it to be beautiful and huge. Karen and I rode together in a taxi and he let us out on the complete opposite end of the park. It took us a brisk 30-minute stroll to reach the children's area so it's not a small garden! There's no admission fee to the gardens and now that I know where the parking areas are located, I'd like to go more often to let the girls run around.
I'm out of time so that's it for this week. I'm blissfully ignorant about my upcoming travels. I can't even remember the name of the hotel where we're staying. I think I'm enjoying the difference of traveling alone when I don't need to pack at least 4 suitcases and plan for all contingencies. How liberating! I'm thankful that Brian is willing to take over for me for a few days to enjoy some rest and girl time. I'll write again early next week!