DHL Wins 3rd “Great Package Race”

This is a very interesting article about delivering Shipments to wicked places:
http://www.scdigest.com/assets/newsViews/07-04-26-1.php?cid=1031

Here is the article:

"Gets Package to Five Far Off
Locations in 2007 Version of Annual Georgia Tech Contest

SCDigest Editorial Staff

It’s not over, but it is: DHL has won the 2007 edition of the “Great Package Race” competition dreamed up by Professor John Barthold at Georgia Tech, where the three main parcel shippers are annually to see which can get packages the fastest to challenging locations all over the globe.

The packages were shipped on April 13 from Atlanta to five extremely difficult locations. While not all the packages have been delivered, Georgia Tech has already declared DHL the winner (see The Great Package Race, 2007). As of April 20, DHL had delivered all of its packages. As of April 25, FedEx had delivered three packages, one was being held for some kind of payment, and one had been declined. UPS had delivered two packages, had another still en route, was returning another (“service not available”), and had declined to take one.

The locations were challenging, to say the least:

• Apia, the only city on Upulu, one of the islands comprising the country of Samoa,
  in the western Pacific Ocean. Upulu has no street addresses.
• Florianopolis, an island off the coast of southern Brazil just above Uruguay; considered by the carriers to be a “remote area.”
• Harare, capital of Zimbabwe, which is currently experiencing hyperinflation and political unrest.
• Tikrit, birthplace of Saddam Hussein and a center of Sunni insurgency in Iraq.
• Yangon, until recently, capital of Myanmar, one of the most isolated countries in the world. The city was formerly known as Rangoon, Burma.

So just how much does it cost to ship a package to Tikrit these days? DHL did it for $125.26, and got it there in 4 days."

Promoting Home

One of the Hungarians at the National University of Singapore asked me to join some other Hungarians and prepare a traditional Hungarian dance for an event organized for all Exchange students of the University (This was quite a while ago, but only had the time to blog it. Better later then never).

The Embassy of Hungary sponsored this initiative with few valuable home made products, so it was a must go for sure.

We got together 4 people and put together a nice choreography on a Saturday afternoon, then rehearsed it on Monday evening and had a very successful performance for the students on Tuesday. I was sceptical about how it will be because none of us was an expert in this, but at the end we managed to put together something very nice.

I really enjoyed getting the national costume on and doing some dancing. I have been playing on violin and double bass in a folk group when I was home, but since I have left, I did not do anything on this front, so it felt very good to start again and do some dancing :):) Here is a picture of my great solo dance, hehe :)

Doing things like this get me out from the day-to day life and makes me feel closer to home, while promoting home. I am happy that I have done this and looking forward to things like this to spice up my life on this red little dot near the equatorial.
I look quite good in "Szekely Nepviselet" huh?

Wicked Friday Morning

Last Friday I did quite a funny thing (yeah, it takes at least a week till I manage to blog it). My friend, Imran, invited me to go to the local Queensway Secondary School and have a speech about international Friendship, as it was “International Friendship Day”. Rene (a german AIESEC-er) and Imran spoke as well for the kids. I think it was pretty interesting for the kids as well and hope they got the message that even if their country is small in size, they can make it big by having strong relations with people all over the world and that even if the world is big, it gets smaller and smaller by the fact that you have international friends in different countries.

It was quite funny, and the event was at 7.30 in the morning, just before the kids started their classes, which was quite a challenge. It was my first time in a secondary school and it was interesting to see how a school is here. Quite interesting to see how they get "educated" to be good singaporeans, having big panels with how they have to behave and live to be good singaporeans inside the schools. These have the same messages as the TV ads and all the other propaganda.
Doing this kind of funny and interesting things make the life in Singapore a bit unique and getting involved in other things then work helps to have a balanced life. These small little things out of the blue are cool to do!

AI Reunion

Easter Holidays were quite good this year for me. Though there was no Easter Spirit or any stuff like that, but we organized a reunion of the people who I worked with in Netherlands in AIESEC International. Unfortunately not everybody could came, but half of us could get to a nice Malaysian island for a 4 day holiday :):):):)

Besides the fact that it is always good to be on a tropical island and enjoy the sand and the ocean, it was great to spend some time again with these people and catch up with them.

It is good to see that the same connections that were there 2 years ago are still there and people are the same, even if they went through various experiences. It was good to have nice conversations under the stars and at the lights of the moon which were reflected on the water. I love this gang and I am glad that I could know them, work with them, learn from them. I am glad to know them as my friends till the rest of my life.:):):)

Breaking News!!!

My brother just became a father as a his first boy has been borned into the family last night:):):) I am so excited, it is sooooo cooool :):):):) Congrats Bro!!!! :):):):) Pictures will come soon :):):) Big Celebration Today!!! Yuheeeeeu!!!!

Update: Here are the pictures :):):)

The happy Father :)

Acting cute already :)

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Lina! Wish you all the best in the coming year :)

Impressed with the Romanian Government Services

Yesterday I had one of the most pleasant surprises with the Romanian authorities so far. We had a lot of confusing information whether I have to pay taxes at home as well or only in Singapore, and stuff like that.

So we all read all the double taxation protocols, the tax law from home; contacted people from home to figure out, but we got contradicting information and could not get a convincing conclusion.

What we did not try, is to contact directly the ministry of finance. We just assumed that things are the same as when we left Romania and there is not much use contacting them because we would not get a reply, or the reply would be very confusing and useless. But I finally did it and just wrote a mail to the National Tax Authority. I was totally shocked when a reply came in 3 hours with an exact, clear and precise answer. The reforms are really happening in Romania and the government finally is doing a good job. I am very impressed with it. Especially that I do not need to pay tax. :):):)