Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Linspirational or Linevitable?

The Jeremy Lin story has been all the rage these past few weeks, and as a Chinese-American basketball fan who loves puns and whose brother went to Harvard, it's been a story that's resonated with me on so many levels. I've read a lot of other people's opinions on him but haven't seen anyone write any of the major sentiments that I feel.  The major angles that I've seen on him are: wow where did this kid come from? Why wasn't he given a chance before this? Is it because he's Asian? Would he still be a good story if he wasn't Asian? Why are we making such a big deal about his race? Has this story revealed society's intolerant attitude towards Asian-Americans?  Can he and Melo co-exist and lead the Knicks deep into the playoffs?  How is he similar or different to Tim Tebow?

In Hong Kong and China, angles have also included what country will he represent? Taiwan? USA? Could he have ever made it as a basketball player in China? (spoiler alert: no) Is his whole existence a defiance of the Chinese athletic system?

For starters, some people are saying it would be a big story whether he was black, white or green.  False.  It would be a big sports story if he was black or white. It would be a big alien story if he was green.  The case in point is Ryan Fitzgerald, the former Harvard quarterback drafted in the 7th round and led the Bills to a very strong start this past NFL season.  His story was well-publicized while he was playing well and for a while it seemed like he may have become a well-known personality.  However his story was strictly a sports story and never crossed over into popular culture.  Jeremy Lin's story coming out of Harvard undrafted is very similar and would have been a sports story, especially since he's reviving a marquee franchise in the New York Knicks, but the entire reason Linsanity has blown up and crossed so far into popular culture that he's the subject of the opening SNL skit is because he's Asian-American.

We've simply never seen an Asian-American like this in the NBA.  Forget the NBA actually, we've never seen an Asian-American like this in any major American sport.  Trust me, I've kept track over the years. There was Michelle Kwan in figure skating, Apolo Anton Ohno (halfie) in speed skating, Michael Chang in tennis, Paul Kariya (halfie) in hockey, Hines Ward (halfie) in football, Dat Nguyen in football, Brian Ching in soccer, Kurt Suzuki in baseball, the Ting twins who played secondary for USC football, and Timmy Chang the Hawaii quarterback are the most famous ones I can remember from this generation.  And how many of those have you heard of? Sorry but I'm not including Tiger Woods in that list.  With Asian athletes, you can throw in Ichiro and Yao Ming certainly.  Their impacts were huge but very different.  They came from far off countries we didn't fully understand, and thus were objects of marvel and curiosity rather than a topic of societal re-evaluation.  Jeremy Lin is by far the most famous name on the list of Asian-Americans and has sparked by far the most dialogue.  Part of it is that he's playing in a sport that requires elite size and athleticism and perceived to be closed to Asian-Americans.  Part of it is that he's not just crossed a barrier, he's hurdled it and left it in the dust.  Remember, Yao Ming wasn't the first Chinese in the NBA - he was preceded by Mengke Bateer and Wang Zhizhi. If you haven't heard of those people that's good, it means you're a normal human being instead of an Asian sports fanatic.  But it seems that such is the normal track required to break barriers. Someone needs to lay the foundation first. Rosa Parks had to sit so that MLK could walk so that Obama could run. These things take time.  Jeremy Lin last year became the first Taiwanese-American to play in the NBA, and essentially the first Asian-American of the modern era.  This year he became the first Asian American to score 25 points, to notch 10 assists, to hit a game-winning 3, to score 30 points, to register 5 steals, to be on the opening story on SportsCenter etc.  You could argue that Yao Ming set the stage for Jeremy Lin to succeed, but that's completely false.

The Chinese experience and the Chinese-American experience have as much in common as a puma does with a domestic cat (not that one or the other is a puma...).  Even more different were the particular experiences of these two athletes.  Yao Ming was developed by a nation who wanted a sports star. He was destined to be tall and trained for his entire life to become a basketball player.  He came into the league as a skilled center with the support of his entire country and soon won the admiration of his host country. Jeremy Lin grew up in a nation where nobody like him becomes a sports star.  Yao was probably told a thousand times that he'd be the first Chinese star in the NBA.  Lin was probably told a thousand times that he'd never make it to the NBA and that he should quit wasting his time.  This was probably reinforced after he got into Harvard, where starring on the varsity basketball team could easily have been something that would look good on his resume after he graduated and started applying to real jobs. He was probably told many times to get realistic, that he was Asian and he wasn't going to be an NBA star.  Jeremy must have had so much faith in God, confidence in himself and so much love for the game to have kept his dream alive.  And now that he's reached his dream, Asian-American kids all over can somewhat realistically dream to be like him, if not Yao Ming.

I first learned about Jeremy Lin when he was a sophomore at Harvard. A graduate from my high school, Dan McGeary, made his way onto the Harvard squad that year and I occasionally checked their box scores to see what he was up to. I found his last name listed alongside some guy named Lin. Lin? Was he Chinese? Really? I thought to myself, wow Harvard would have an Asian basketball player.  Turns out he was their top scorer and had had quite a successful high school career.  Pretty cool - by this point he was already the most successful Asian-American basketball player I'd ever been aware of. I kept following him intermittently throughout his career. His senior year was a good one, where he made highlights by hitting a ridiculous buzzer-beating three while getting fouled to beat William & Mary, then play great games in losses against UConn, Georgetown (hell yeah) and Boston College. I realized he was legit and would have a real chance to make the NBA.  When he got signed by Golden State, this made ripples among my Asian-American basketball friends. I believed then that he was good enough to be in the NBA, but that he'd been signed because he was a Bay Area kid who'd bring in a ton of Asian fans.  I bet you NBA executives considered themselves very liberal for believing that this kid deserved to be the NBA despite being Asian.  At the same time, they never figured he'd actually significantly help them win games. He was a competent guy they could throw in 5-10 minutes a game and not feel embarrassed in doing so.

It's that kind of racial prejudice that I think Jeremy really had to battle, and has probably been a major factor in why there was no Asian professional baller before now.  The media has been highlighting the racial slurs that Lin occasionally encountered on the floor, everything from "sweet and sour pork!" to the C-word.  But while those are inflammatory, they are temporary blows. Those racists are obviously ignorant and hateful, easily vilified and dismissed. Far more influential are the offhand comments that compassionate liberal people make that unintentionally limits what Asian-Americans feel they can do. It's the way people take for granted that Asians are supposed to be good at math and maybe not so good at sports. It's the way people think they can make casual racial jokes about Asian-Americans because they don't perceive there to be a history of institutional oppression against Asians in this country as there has been against blacks, and because they perceive Asians to be doing fine socioeconomically.  There's a lot of reasons for this attitude, which I discussed here, and while it isn't the worst issue facing the world at the moment, it still isn't right. The Jeremy Lin bonanza has alerted the America media to one issue, whether or not Asians and Asian jokes are held to different standards, sparked by Jason Whitlock's stupid twitter post and a douchebag of an ESPN.com employee (for the record, I don't think the news anchor meant anything insulting, and he didn't need to be suspended). There is a lot that I can say on this topic (and a lot that I have said) but I think we can agree that much of the American public could learn more about Asian-Americans. Anyway Jeremy had to progress through his career constantly as an oddity and the source of countless jokes. He would have had to match each joke with a bucket, work extra hard to overwhelm teammates, coaches and scouts skeptical that an Asian could succeed in basketball. Is it any surprise that he's developed such swag, confidently calling his own play and pulling up for the game-winning 3 at the end of the Toronto game?

In truth, I believe the impact of genetics is considerably overrated.  They obviously exist, otherwise the average male height in China (5'6") wouldn't be so much lower than in Denmark (5'11"). But genetics are complicated, and some phenotypes that we try to assign to genes such as intelligence and athleticism, are WAY too complicated to be so simply understood.  In addition, the genetic diversity of perceived "races" like Han Chinese are dramatically underplayed. But if genetics is less tied to athletic success than we think it is, and genetics less tied to race than we think it is, then how do you explain the relative homogeneity of these leagues, especially the NBA?  I think that is instead a testament to the incredible power of culture and the environment in which we grow up.  While natural talent is often easy to see in sports, it only manifests itself after proper training. After all, a great predictor for a country's Olympic medal performance is its GDP.  It really should be less of a surprise that there is a 6'3" athletic Taiwanese-American guard in the NBA but that it took so long.

In short Jeremy Lin is precisely one example of what I truly believe the world needs (my post on this). We needed someone like him to show that a typical Chinese-American can become an NBA star, that Chinese-Americans are not intrinsically unathletic.  And we need others like him. South Asians are perhaps even more unrepresented on the American sports scene, which should surprise everyone in HKUPA who has been skied by Rumi. We need more people attempting to do things they previously thought impossible, until future generations have to study history to understand the meaning of the word "stereotype."

As to his reception here, if anything it's being underplayed. People think it's cool, but the NBA isn't as huge in Hong Kong and I don't think people understand the situation well enough to know how amazing it is. My coworkers are very impressed by his Harvard economics degree and his finishing moves but only a few are closely following him.  From what I hear, he's unsurprisingly a much more fervent topic in Taiwan, and many people automatically assume he'll represent Chinese Taipei in international competitions.  I expect he will as well, but not before trying as best as he can to represent USA.  As a Chinese-American likely to represent Hong Kong in the World Ultimate this year, representing the US is a no brainer if you can make the team. I obviously have absolutely zero chance of making the US team. Lin has a slight one.  Chinese Taipei has already offered him a spot on the team, so I'm assuming they can work out citizenship requirements.

In the People's Republic of China, I read that his rise is also crazily admired, but not without raising a few questions.  I'm sure government officials wished Lin had more ties to mainland China, but as an American born to Taiwanese immigrants and a fervent Christian, it is unclear how Lin's success will help spread Chinese influence or improve Chinese athletics. Furthermore, his entire life story is completely counter to that of any successful Chinese athlete.  A creative unorthodox point guard who attended to his studies and graduated from university, Lin has little in common with the giants who are identified by the PRC at a young age and plucked away from their homes into training centers and molded into basketball players.  As far as I see it, China is incapable of producing a Jeremy Lin.

All in all I think this story of Jeremy Lin, still in its infant stage, is an amazing one. He is a special, balanced person and I pray that he remains that way. It is useless to deny that his story is amazing in large part due to his race.  Far more useful is to ask why his race matters so much, and what we have to do until it doesn't.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Singapore



In Hong Kong, Chinese New Year's is the biggest holiday and we get 3 days off as public holiday. That's nothing though, compared to mainland China where most people get 2 full weeks off and the trains are famously packed. I took advantage of the days off and flew to Singapore, where they also celebrate CNY and get 2 days free. I had been to Singapore apparently when I was 12, but remember nothing about the trip other than being terrified of getting caught for chewing gum and getting caned. My second cousin Parissa lives there now and we always have an awesome time when we hang out, and so I went. It seriously may have been one of the best short trips of my life, rivaling the German-Prague-Krakow trek.

Things didn't start off smoothly. I booked Jetstar Asia, one of the cheapest airlines out here. The ticket price was already hiked for Chinese New Year, but I booked super early flights to get decent deals.  Jetstar is one of those sneaky airlines though who charge for everything, including your seat, and any checked luggage. In addition, all carry-on was limited to 10kg, COMBINED, which I was unaware of.  The charge was about $15 USD, PER KILOGRAM overweight.  My options were restricted to paying $1000 HKD for the weight charge, or $350 HKD to check my luggage.  Not happy.  I also didn't do my research and didn't learn what the Singapore exchange rate was before I got there. Unwilling to use the money changers or atms at the airport, I needed to find a cab that would take credit card, and the first one didn't. A second guy then came up to me speaking with a very mild Singlish accent and offered his luxury cab. He told me it'd be a bit more expensive, and offered 45 as an estimate, and not knowing what that meant, I took it.  Turns out the exchange rate is $1 USD = $1.27 SGD.  Whoops, I was expecting much higher.

No worries though, this is a vacation right. The driver turned out to have an incredible life story, having spent most of his life as a high-end cook.  He was Singaporean Chinese, as are most people, and spoke just about every Chinese dialect I could think of.  It turns out the Chinese community in Singapore is extremely unique.  Large communities of Teochew, Cantonese, Hokkien, Hakka and Hainanese make up most of the city. Back when my driver was growing up, kids would bounce around from group to group and pick up most of the dialects. My driver was Hakka but picked up all of them, and then spent time working in Shanghai.  An interesting note is that now Singaporean Chinese all learn Mandarin (originally a Northern dialect) and write in Simplified, even though all those groups are Southern dialects and Simplified Chinese is purely an invention of the PRC. Singapore has consciously decided to try to align itself with China and has thus tried to limit the dialects and promote Mandarin/Simplified. Anyway my chef driver speaks 6 freaking dialects and though I obviously couldn't test them all, his Cantonese was better than mine. He had also lived and worked in England, Canada and Australia, cooking Indonesian food but quite 7 years ago because it was high stress. He said holidays were the worst because you never get them off and instead usually have to work more. Anyway, that's not the point of this blog post, but it was a memorable cab ride and how often do you remember cab rides?

View from the top of Marina Bay Sands
Parissa lives in a nice ground floor level condo about a 5 minute ride from city center.  Uncharacteristically, I did unjustifiably little research before this trip (I would not recommend anyone travel to a country without knowing the exchange rate) and on the taxi ride to her place I passed by a giant ship resting on top of 3 building blocks, and I almost gasped audibly. What is that? It's the Marina Bay Sands, my kind multi-Chingual driver told me.  It's a super swanky hotel built within the last two years, worth checking out the view from the top. And so I would.  If you don't know what this building is, Google Image search it now.  I have too many other awesome photos I want to share. I'll wait.

Parissa took me to a mall nearby to get money, and I was immediately stunned. What was it? Oh, I could walk along in the mall and stretch my arms out. After coming from the intensely dense Hong Kong, it felt refreshing to be in a city with elbow room. It soon became apparent to me how little I knew about Singapore, despite having read a dozen wikipedia articles on it. I knew about the 4 official languages, English, Malay, Mandarin and Tamil, and that it is the only modern state to become sovereign against its own wishes, and had friends from Singapore and heard the Singlish accent.  I figured that as an Asian city state, it would have a ton in common with Hong Kong, its fellow Asian Tiger.  While it may share some important similarities, coming from Hong Kong I noticed far more differences.

When you come from mainland China onto Hong Kong island, your world is immediately westernized.  I had kinda assumed that Hong Kong was the most western city in Asia, which is after all, the Far East and not very western at all.  Compared to Singapore though, Hong Kong may as well be Zhejiang.  Singapore was still definitely an Asian city, but from the sidewalks to the building lobbies to the brands, Western influence had left a strong unapologetic impact on the feel of the city. Even if people weren't speaking English and the signs were in Thai, my western-raised being would still have sensed familiarity in the surroundings.  That mall surprised me. In that warm climate, sections seemed straight out of California, while other times I noticed distinctively Asian stores and Chinese dried goodies.  As I saw more of the city, I realized how insane the quality of life was.  The downtown area was as nice as any urban area I'd ever seen, almost overflowing with money in the form of architecture, but the rest of the city that I saw was just as nice and clean, if more modest.  Growing up in the US, we are raised to believe that we are blessed with the best environment the world has to offer. After all, people left Europe, Asia, and all other parts of the world to come create our country.  Living in Beijing, I experienced by contrast what quality of life really means and the difference it can make.  But I had always assumed that American cities rated highest in "quality of life." Now I realize how incredibly wrong I was.  The quality of life I saw in Singapore is higher than any American city, and a 2011 Mercer survey agrees with me. American cities are almost all plagued by relatively high worldwide levels of crime and at least some bad neighborhoods.  They're also not known for efficient transportation or being particularly clean.  Singapore ranks 25 on the list (#1 in Asia), and has low crime, super clean streets, a decent subway and little overcrowding.

Everyone in Hong Kong had in fact told me similar facts, either immediately before or after stating that it was such a boring place.  The Lion City's less official nicknames include "The World's Only Shopping Mall with a Seat on the UN" and "Disneyland with the Death Penalty." But I didn't see it that way at all. After the excursion through the shopping mall, Parissa took me to a restaurant right by her place that sells Prata (delicious bread of Indian origin) for a few bucks. It'd be the first of amazing meals that I'd eat there.  From there, we journeyed crosstown and met up with many of her who were at a Chinese restaurant celebrating the Chinese New Year.  Singaporean (and Malaysian) Chinese have this bizarre tradition of ringing in the new year called Lo Hei or Yusheng, which is definitely not common in other parts of the Sinosphere.  They gather a bunch of noodles, carrots, spices, other random Chinese food ingredients and overlay it with smoked salmon and tons of sauces.  Then the fun begins and participants dig their chopsticks into the bunch and throw it up as high as they can to mix them, and create a giant mess.  Every ingredient is supposed to have some great meaning (generally a Chinese pun) but to me it was just silly fun.

We dropped by afterward to a bar in a neat part of town called Emerald Hill, where the bar scene was pretty standardly fun from what I've experienced, except that drinks were outrageously priced. The cheapest beers were $15 SGD, due to an absurdly high sin tax.  The Singaporean government is one that believes it can regulate morality, from its alcohol tax, to its $100 gambling fee for all Singaporean citizens at local casinos (foreigners can lose money for free), and caning the bare butts of severe lawbreakers. It probably works well for some people, and not so well for others. We weren't at Emerald Hill for too long though because Parissa's boyfriend Mike somehow managed to get us into Ku De Ta, one of the top clubs in all of Singapore, located at the top of Marina Bay Sands.  The way this opportunity rolled around was convoluted, and I had absolutely no idea how it all worked at the time. Both Parissa and Mike are very active in the Bowdoin community in Asia, and a fellow alum was attending the Booth School of Business in Singapore.  This alum and his classmates were all high rolling MBA students who liked to live the lifestyle of investment bankers, and thus rolled into Ku De Ta and ordered bottles - a few weeks ago.  They couldn't finish all of them, and the club allowed them to keep them there for a month.  Well somehow this gang wasn't in Singapore for the rest of the month, except for this one weekend.  So they needed to finish all the bottles for good this Friday night, and called Mike and other alum for help.  Mike enlisted me and Parissa as well and somehow we strut into Ku De Ta without paying the $38 (!) cover charge (the cover suggests that a bottle of Goose could have been four digits, so ordering the 12 or so bottles that they did is absurd beyond belief). But even more absurd was that this guy apparently hung out with his buddies for an hour, decided this place was lame, grabbed one bottle of goose and bounced, his MBA friends in stroll.  I don't think I ever even met him.  3 other Bowdoin guys were left and I kept thinking one of them had to be the kind benefactor, so I kept over-graciously thanking them.  Turns out we were all freeriding and had 4 or 5 bottles of Grey Goose and Macallan's to finish. Somehow we did, but it was challenging towards the end.  Mike decided he really wanted to get me a girl, and before I could object he rolled up to a pair of dancing girls and introduced me.  Soon I was semi-willingly embroiled in the game while Parissa looked on, half-amused and half-amazed that this was how men operated in clubs. We closed out the place at 4am, and I remember having my first real conversation with the girls and then bidding them farewell.  Heading back to the Bowdoin guys, one guy named Big Will came at me and said, "Cal, go back there and just grab that girl and say, 'Let's go.' "  "Let's go?"  "Let's go.  It's a game-changer."  Parissa laughed her head off and asked me, "Do you need my place tonight?" Mike looked me and nodded vigorously.  The absurdity of the situation really overwhelmed me. I did not make that move but I learned a lot that night.

Parissa and I woke up around noon, struggling mightily. Were the liquor not so fine the previous night, it would have a more difficult struggle. We ventured to a mall by her office for lunch where I tried "Laksa," another Malaysian Chinese invention that is part coconut milk, part wonton soup, part curry broth. It was delicious but definitely not the right food for me after a 4am night of clubbing. Afterward we strolled through the downtown area, called Orchard, which I found to be as upscale a downtown as I'd ever seen in the world. The buildings were sleek and awesome, the walk was very comfortable despite the heat, and we came across an old-fashioned Singaporean "ice cream sandwich" which literally was a rectangular ice cream bar wrapped in a slice of bread.

From there we took the MRT towards Marina Bay to see the Singapore's famous Stone Lion. I didn't know much about Singapore but I remembered the lion and how its supposed to be the mythical animal of the city. Apparently people take a picture where it looks like they're drinking from the lion. I did one of those and also took a quick shower.  This part of town seemed to be an older part, with the cool-looking suspension Cavenagh Bridge (built in 1867 and has a sign preventing cattle and horses from crossing) and colonial-style houses along the river.  For the most part, colonial architecture is rare in Singapore, as well as in Hong Kong.

From the Lion we walked all the way around the bay and back to the Marina Bay Sands and I checked out the gigantic mall underneath.  I realized that the complex was actually a casino property, developed by the same people who own the Venetian in Las Vegas and Macau.  The underground mall also features a canal system, an ice skating rink, museum exhibits, the casino, and piles of pure gold coins that you can jump into and swim in like you're Scrooge McDuck. Ok one of those I made up.  But it was seriously one of the most lavish and over-the-top developments I've ever seen, and as it turns out my company had a hand in its award-winning design.  But anyway we paid to go to the observation deck at the top of the hotel, where I got to see a lot more of the city in daylight.  It was drizzling a bit and all the other tourists stood under a roofed area away from the edge, but Parissa and I didn't care at all and walked around to our freedom.  The city skyline was decently impressing - certainly no Hong Kong but I found it interesting how the city was both so well-developed and growing.  Those two adjectives had previously to me seemed mutually exclusive. The skyline also includes the Helix Bridge, a pedestrian bridge crossing a part of the bay with a twisting spiral facade shaped like DNA. I have a random semi-intense interest in cool bridges, but sadly I didn't get a chance to walk across this fine molecular structure.

Malay food quickly being destroyed
That night ended up being a lengthy one.  Parissa and I had Malaysian dinner ordered by her delightful and bubbly Malay best friend Aisyah, along with international friends Shaad, Cian and Brendan.  Malay food has long been one of my favorite cuisines, despite the fact that it was limited to occasional trips to the chain restaurant Penang in east coast cities. Their food has a ton of influence from Indian and Chinese cuisines. Our dinner included delicious chicken in a curry sauce, samosas, and these amazing potato wedges.

From there Parissa and I ventured to a house party at a swanky apartment overlooking the Marina Bay, where fireworks would be launched for Chinese New Year that night.  The party was one of the classiest I'd ever been too, thrown and attended primarily by older more successful people, and even included more Lo Hei.  One 30 year old banker was stunned to discover our true ages a few hours in, and kept repeating, "you're 23?!?!"  Like many ex-pat parties in Asia, I met a lot of very cool international people and had a fantastic time, topped by a spectacular view of the fireworks. Mike and I were also very conscious of the Patriots game (AFC championship against the Ravens) which would be starting at 4:30am Singapore time.  He had started his day with a destructive champagne breakfast and bowed out at midnight, promising to wake up in a few hours and meet up for the game.  Aisyah, Parissa and I left the party at around 2am, where I mentioned how fun the night was and that I was ready to powernap. They were like ok we'll drop you off at home and then go clubbing.  I closed my eyes, drifted off for a second, then opened them wide and exclaimed, "no you're not.  I'm going clubbing with you."  And so we went to Clarke Quay, a normally hopping ex-pat clubbing area, where I determined to pull an epic all nighter.  The place was almost all dead though because of the holiday, except for one club that was charging a $25 cover.  We skipped along and went to another club, which said they were closing.  The bouncer there told Parissa however that he could stamp us and that we could get into the previous club free.  Parissa and Aisyah were skeptical and worried incessantly that we were being punked, but I went ahead without shame.  The other club's bouncer was dealing with a girl pleading him to let her in, and I walked right up and showed him the stamp.  The bouncer said to the girl, "Now why don't you have a stamp like me?" and opened the ropes for me.  I turned back to the two girls and winked.  However, they ran into a load of trouble when they tried to pull my move, as the bouncer quizzed them on where they got that stamp.  Turns out he was likely just giving them a hard time to amuse himself, and they eventually got in.

At 4 o'clock we bounced and headed to a bar, where Parissa's friend Chase knew the bartender.  He had convinced the man to open up the place at that ungodly hour and put the game on.  Only 3 of us were there to watch, not including Mike who did not budge through his alarm or several phone calls. The game was the first Pats game I'd watched live in Asia, and it was terrific to get that familiar routine back in my life, albeit at an unfamiliar time slot. When Billy Cundiff missed that easy field goal to put the Patriots in the Super Bowl and to cause me to shriek in surprise, it was close to 7:30am. It was a pretty fantastic way to start the new year.

I think that Monday consisted of a great Western brunch and then dinner in Little India at a fantastic Northern Indian restaurant.  After downing a few pounds of lamb chicken and naan bread, Mike asked me if it was the best Indian meal I'd ever had.  I easily put it in my top five, although some of the meals I had in Real India were pretty amazing too.  We walked around that area for a while, where I bought a coconut and drank its milk, and felt a very different urban vibe from the Western/Chinese parts of Singapore.  Little India isn't too far a walk from Arab street, another cross-national avenue of hooka smoke, Arabic signs and coffee shops that don't sell pork or alcohol. After 2 straight absurdly long nights, this was a chill break. Parissa and her friends planned to go to Johor Bahru, the Malaysian city right across the border from Singapore, the next day for a day of cultural exploration and bumper cars.

The next morning, my last full day, however we discovered that just about everything in JB was closed and decided not to go. Cian (who had already arrived at our scheduled meeting spot), Shaad, Aisyah, Parissa and I restructured our plans and ventured via ferry to a nearby island. The island proved to be a nice walk, had surprisingly lovely beaches (considering how much shipping goes into Singapore), and a coconut that proved to be a very good substitute for a football.  We trekked through the jungle (it felt oddly like Jurassic Park) and came across a large ultraquick lizard and argued about whether it was a Komodo Dragon (it wasn't). The afternoon included lunch at Newton Centre, presumably named after the city where I grew up, where I had some awesome Hokkien prawn.

That night we met up with Annabel, a former Georgetown acquaintance whom I became friends with recently when she was working in Hong Kong, and whom I thought would get along really with Parissa. I think I was correct.  I also thought that there might be a chance that Gabe Albert would come by.  Gabe is the older and bolder brother of my senior year roommate Jordan and when I posted my arrival to Singapore on Facebook, asked me how long I'd be there. Though he was based in New York, he and two other friends whom I had previously met were taking an epic tour through Southeast Asia.  We figured out he'd be getting in late on Tuesday, the night before I was leaving, and I left him a message with where we were going and hoped for the best.  Turns out they got in at around 10 on a bus from Kuala Lumpur, came straight to the place we were, walked around for 15 minutes looking for me, thought they found me, called my name like 10 times and were about to give up when I heard and turned around.  That night, though by far the briefest of all my nights in Singapore, drinking wine with Parissa, Annabel, Gabe, Marisol and Bobby was both incredibly random and incredible special and a small microcosm of why my life on this continent is so great.

Ultimately I had an amazing four day trip to Singapore. I left with a very positive impression of the city as a tourist, though I'm not ready to make a fully informed opinion of the country as a whole.  It certainly looks like a pristine problem-free nation from the surface, with racial diversity rivaling that of any global city and exceeding that of any other nation. However it's not a place of great civil liberties and has firmly engrained racial prejudices. It's education system seems top-notch and it's economy blossoming, but the city and its citizens seem to have little to offer of the arts and sports. Perhaps, it is possible that the life in Singapore is too nice.