I had to get up early to meet up with the SSB Fellows, but Bridget got up and had breakfast with me anyway. :) We had dragonfruit, which is really cool. It's a pink fruit the size of a small pineapple with a white flesh with small, black seeds, similar to a kiwi (without the green). It was really juicy, but didn't have a ton of flavor. And we didn't get a picture, but you can google it. :)
After breakfast, I met up with the SSB Fellows for a tour of Edwards Life Sciences. We toured their facility where they manufacture artificial heart valves. They receive the cow tissue from somewhere else and perform all of the stitching and assembly to go from tissue to a fully functional heart valve. Really fascinating! After the tour, I was walking back with Dr. Fogarty and asked him if he implanted those valves when he was practicing. He was very gracious and said that he actually developed the first generation of tissue heart valves in the world. He then started into the whole story of how it came to be. :) He actually worked with Edwards Life Sciences on it! So, I felt a little dumb asking him, but he didn't make me feel bad at all. It seemed like he enjoyed tellin the story. :) Anyway, after the tour we (all of the SSB people and Dr. Fogarty) went back to the SSB offices and had lunch. It was a veritable feast with all kinds of great food! I tried all of it and it was amazing. Chicken, squid, fish, curry, veggies, ota ota, etc. I had three whole plates and there was still a ton left over! I didn't have my camera with me, so no pictures... sorry. In fact, I didn't get any pictures the whole time. I really wish I would have gotten a picture with the SSB fellows, but it didn't happen. Anyway, after lunch we had a good half hour with Dr. Fogarty to just chat about whatever. It was really interesting hearing his perspective of medical innovation in the US and the opportunities he sees for Singapore. But I won't bore you with all that stuff. :)
After the "lunch and learn", the next event as later that afternoon in the Asian Civilizations Museum. Since we had some free time, Fiona suggested that I go wander around the museum before the event. She had some stuff to do, so I went and checked out the museum. It was a nice museum. Sometimes I have a hard time in museums because it feels like I'm inundated with stuff to learn and I end up just feeling overwhelmed. This was one of those kinds of museums. I started by reading the placards and checking out the pictrues, but it took me 20 minutes to make it through part of one exhibit. And there were like 8 exhibits. So, I just started wandering and looking at the cool stuff. :) After wandering for awhile, it was time for the event, which was the "SSB Thought Leaders Seminar Series". The event was kind of like a talk show with two "guests" and two "hosts". The two "guests" were Dr. Fogarty and a medtech entrepreneur who started one of the most successful biotech companies in all of Singapore. So, the questions revolved around comparing the medtech environment in the US and Singapore and the opportunities and challenges for medtech innovation in each. I found it quite interesting and insightful. There was alot of experience represented in the two men up front, so I always try to take some pointers. :)
Anyway, after that wrapped up, I caught the subway back to the hostel to meet up with Bridget. She went on an all-day scooter tour (see her post on that), so I didn't just leave her at the hostel all day. :) But, while I was with the SSB fellows, I asked them the best place to get chili crab. It is a famous dish in Singapore, so we wanted to try it. They recommended a nice place on the river downtown. So, Bridget and I took the subway down to the restuarant, only to find they had a 2-hr wait. Since it was our last night in Singapore, we decided to put our name in anway. We grabbed some (relatively) cheap pizza to tide us over until we could get in to the chili crab restaurant. Once we finally got in to the chili crab restaurant, we ordered our highly touted chili crab. And we weren't disappointed. :)
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| Chili Crab! :) |
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| Arrghhh! Watch out for Chili Bridget! :) |
Since it was so much work to actually eat the chili crab, I was exhausted. It may have been due to getting up early and having a busy day, but I doubt it... :) So, we caught the subway back to the hostel. The subway was quite handy in Singapore. :) By the time we got back, the lights in our dorm room were off, so I just brushed my teeth (as always!) and went to sleep. :) I think Bridget was close in tow. :) And our 2nd day came to a close...
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