A couple of years ago, we were in Singapore just days after the December 26^th Tsunami.To simplify a very long and complex story, we spent a few months traveling between Singapore and Sri Lanka doing relief work.During this challenging time, our lives were blessed by the people with whom we interacted (in both countries), and we came to know and love some amazing individuals who touched our lives as angels tend to do.

One such person is C, an Indian expatriate residing in Singapore with her husband, daughter, and nanny.C is one of the most beautiful people that Ive ever met both inside and out with the looks of a film star and the heart of Mother Theresa.She reached out to Andy and me when things were at their lowest for us, and she loved us unconditionally from the start.The strange thing is that when I met her, I felt as though I was reuniting with a long lost sister, not meeting some stranger for the first time.Our serendipitously-arranged friendship transcends time, cultures, colors and boundaries.

So my soul sister, C, is married to asuccessful businessman with whom she has a gorgeous, spunky 4-year old daughter named A.Last time we were there, A was very young and shy; this time, she is a divine princess with a flair for the dramatic and a passion for the creative arts.Mia (the Indonesian nanny) and I spent endless days with Abuilding Lego-towers, having tea parties, shopping, and allowing my toenails (and inevitably the surrounding toes) to be coated in sparkly silver polish.We read stories, played princess games, created claymation characters, and danced to music videos.It was brilliant to be a child again.beautiful princesses with endless hours of royal fun.I did very little work during my stay in Singapore, but regret nothing about how my time was spent.

Andy, on the other hand, was busy with his courses at the National University of Singapore.Because it was such a brief program, he did his best to totally immerse himself in the work.It seemed interesting, but I was busy being a princess so I dont recall exactly what he was studying (besides comparative law of SE Asia).The NUS campus is a sprawling network of roads and buildings surrounded by tasteful, well-manicured landscaping.Clean, cool buses shuttle students to-and-from their classes; many inexpensive kopitiams (amazing food courts) dot the campus for the utmost diversity in campus dining.

Additionally, NUS has a large, 50-meter outdoor pool where I trained as often as possible.I usually went into school with Andy in the morning (before princess time) to swim with William, the 14-year old son of Andys classmate.While Andy and Williams mom, Anne, were in class, Will and I would swim until we grew bored or were nearly drowned by the current of kayak-polo players with whom we shared the pool.at which time wed play in the pool instead of swimming sets.Regardless of our yardage, we were happy to have companionship while staying in shape.I really enjoyed spending time with William.A 2^nd generation Vietnamese-Californian, William is a sharp, mature, very cool kid who was about to see his parents homeland for the first time in his life.His mom, Anne, is a doctor and engineer turned law-student who would return to Vietnam for the first time since she left 30 years ago.They were really down-to-earth people who were fun to get to know.We ended up getting to know some nice people from Andys program while we were in Singapore, but we didnt really spend much time other than meeting a few times to watch the World Cup with the group.Instead, we spent most of our time with the N family, as there would be time to get to know a few of the other program participants over the next month in Phnom Penh.