Singapore: ASEAN Cup, PGP & Singlish

January 2005

Instead of doing a day-by-day approach for the rest of my six months here (which even I would find boring), I will let my photos tell a story, and supplement it with a week-by-week thing...hopefully posted every Wednesday morning [I am most likely to be away for all or part of the weekends]

So...where to begin...

Wednesday 12th January
Had my cluster welcome tonight [a cluster is the corridor in which I live - there are 15 rooms in each cluster]. Met about 5 of the 10 occupants of my cluster, and they all seem quite nice. None of them I expect to be best-buddies with, but it is finally refreshing to feel like I am not living in a vacuum. As I have mentioned on here before, it does feel at times that there are no other people in my corridor - only shadows that disappear when I open my door. From now on, that should not happen

Also enjoyed a free beer at Munchie Monkey's (the only place licensed on campus, and even then it isn't anything like Manning). This place only opened this year, and it is only allowed to sell beer and pre-mixed drinks, and even then, only in glasses, so that they can't be taken away. How stingy is that?!?!? Aussies would go crazy if they got rid of our Uni bars - they are such an important social venue...Singaporeans: take note. Get a bar on campus.

Ended the night at Insomia, a bar in CHIJMES, a converted Church compound. It was fantastic until they started playing Lu & I's songs, and I got very home-sick.... I also had the misfortune of missing the last cab from PGP there, so I got to take public transport on my own...really cheap night though.

Thursday 13th January
Had an interesting experience tonight at the 'Cross Cultural Exchange' session, with various staff members and students attempting to explain and define Singapore over the course of two hours. To their credit, I think they managed it quite well - all the basics were covered - the four official languages and cultures, the pluses and minuses of Singapore, the food etc... and of course, Singlish. We had a lesson in Singlish which was really fantastic. A Singaporean Chinese representative from PROSE (Promotion of Standard English) stood up and spoke in perfect Queen's English (i.e. nothing like Aussie slang) for 10 minutes about Singapore, and then read us the first poem written in Singlish. Immediately, her accent changed and she became a natural Singaporean, complete with emphasising 'lah's at the end of every sentence. It was surreal.

Also ate durian again....ugh! Whilst I feel I *should* like it, as I know I looove the ice-cream, I just can't take it....it tastes a lot like it smells in my mind. The ice-cream though, is still one of the nicest things in the world. mmmm....

Friday 14th January
Went shopping for a large part of today, and visited Suntec City with Shirl & Lauren (US). Suntec was quite cool, and the laser-water show at the World's Largest Fountain was pure kistch. Great touristy fun.

Saturday 15th January
Tonight I was meant to go out and see the hall play 'Romeo Loves Juliet'. No that isn't a typo, the play is a comedic adaptation of Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet. Yes, yes, I know that alone should have sent my running, but when in Rome....

There were also strong rumours that it was going to be done in Singlish, so this I could not miss.

However, it was not meant to be - the person who was meant to get me tickets didn't get them in time, so we ended up not going. I heard later that it was laughable and supremely stupid (unintentionally it seems), and was so bad that just before the interval they announced the English Premier League score. And to top it off, there was no Singlish!

Instead, I went to Chinatown for the light-up ceremony, marking the start of the Chinese New Year festivities with some new friends. Mark, Andy, Caroline, Mercury, Erik, Thilo & I met in Chinatown and managed to watch the fireworks from obscure angles, as we expected the fireworks to be later than they were. It turns out this was the first time in over 20 years that Singapore has had firecrackers for the CNY light-up. From there we walked from Chinatown to Robinson and Clarke Quays, and then over to Boat Quay. Singapore River at night looks amazing, but still has nothing on Sydney. Only one view matches it, and I have yet to take photos from there. It's on the ECP (East Coast Parkway), and it offers a panoramic view of the Singapore CBD & Esplanade.

Sunday 16th January
This was the day we had all been looking forward to....the Grand Final of the ASEAN Tiger Cup. The Tiger Cup represents ASEAN's intra-regional football competition, and each country fields a team. The 4 finalists were Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. The final, between Indonesia and Singapore, was nowhere near as interesting and dangerous as the semi between Singapore and Myanmar, but the turnout was unbelievable.

For starters, it was the first non-European football (soccer) match that had sold out in Singapore for over 20 years, and 95% of the stands were filled with supporters wearing red - Singapore's national colour. All 50,000 tickets sold out in under 2 days. It was also great to see so many Singaporeans of different nationalities as one was great, as I have heard many state the inter-racial harmony may not be as deep as it seems.

The match itself was rather uneventful, with Singapore winning 2-1, and thus winning both final matches 5-2. This was to be expected, especially with such a vocal home crowd.

What was more interesting, however, was the complete lack of local support after the game. Once it was over, everyone spilled out towards the MRT and home. Given that it was a Sunday night, I would have maybe expected street parties until say midnight, but there wasn't even that. No ticker-tape parade either... it's so different to Australia, where we go crazy after small victories. Nothing is too small for a parade!