Anniversary Thoughts

(am back, yes! graduation thesis and other things eat up plenty of time..future posts will be shorter but more frequent, I hope ;-)) (children's physical education cannot begin early enough...not a niche market in Singapore)

SINGAPORE FLING...

Singapore has seen quite some events during the past weeks of my not-writing. The IMF meeting that took place here a few weeks ago let the world see what can happen in a country where the assembly or procession of 5 or more people in a public area is considered an offence under the so-called Miscellaneous Offences Rules. Some organisations were not let in at all, which made Singapore face a lot of criticism..Sometimes Singaporeans who I tried to ask about their opinion here just decided not to answer at all...maybe that's safer than blabbing out something that could eventually fire back. At least the bright side was that the country flourished in all possible ways to give a nice picture. Little India's Deepavali festival preparations were brought forward because of the event..therefore that part of the city is already now an ocean of lights and colors.

Also, the city is under a thick haze these days, which is due to large-scale rain forest clearings in the close Indonesian island of Sumatra. Reports say that some people are already experiencing small health problems...I only realized the slight smell of smoke after a friend told me today and I had a very deep breath around lunch time ;-) Not so bad...Singapore's still the cleanest spot around in Asia...also, one more reason to sit it a safe AirCon'ed office all day..

(yes, this does exist. Not so often, but to a certain degree tolerated by the officials)

...IS OVER? NOPE

I find it quite remarkable that I have been in Singapore for one year now (except of course all the trips that I did including the one break in Germany). But on paper it does say one year...and I do feel a change happening. I am currently passing the honeymoon time...the initial Singapore fling is over and I feel that I gradually see this place more from the eyes of a resident. This includes that I begin to take formerly odd things for granted and that I have to really convince myself to go to the tourist attractions that I have not yet seen. And then one tries to distinguish from the 'normal' caucasian tourist (which is a nutty and stupid behavior, but it does happen). Even the 8 months that I spent studying and travelling in New Zealand in 2003/04 look like a distant tourist trip in comparison to how I feel adjusted to this city now. I start thinking that one has to go beyond a certain threshold of time to feel this...a growing intuition to know a place but never being able to really be part of it.

Do I want to stay here? Maybe...as time passes, the growing social net of friends and colleagues makes it more and more difficult to finally turn away...China and especially Beijing do still look very appealing for my first real employment next year, but have I really seen all of Singapore? Or have settled down and got infected by the standard sickness of not exploring the place where you live but always travel somewhere else?

(A chinese shrine just outside an open clothes shop...goods to be offered to the gods)

THE SMALL THINGS...

These days two friends from Germany (Ronny and his girlfriend Nicole) are visiting me here...and just by realising how they see Singapore for the first time do I understand how I got accustomed to so many details. The eternal fight to find cabs at rush hour, the crazy mugginess and heat every day, the hot spices and chili that I don't care about anymore, the Mandarin chitchat everwhere that is so funny and enlightning, the incomprehensible bus system that stands out in crass difference to the flashy MRT trains, the latest bluetooth headsets Ipods slimphones pdas that everyone seems to have, the nature of singapore as being one big wifi city hotspot, the crazily overprized starbucks-cafés that became my second home, the endless range of gleaming flashy shopping malls, the street cafes and hawker centres that are overcrowded almost the whole day, the cleanliness and rule-obedience that easily meets German standards (if this is now good or bad..), the escalators that can be found everywhere even in dance clubs, the big German limousines that one can see on the highway just next to a load of Indian workers who sit on a truck's loading space, the always slim Asians despite a diet that sees so much unhealthy fried food, the friendly looks of some people who automatically think one has to be important to live and work here as a Caucasian...

to be continued ;-)

Maik

(Singapore...land of escalators, pic taken in a MRT station)