10 days ago, we boarded a plane from Vienna to Frankfurt and from there made a few thousand miles until we arrived in Singapore and got a little stamp that allows us to stay here for 90 days. I’ve only been here in June so it wasn’t the ‘I have no idea what’s waiting for me’ arrival, but I was nervous. I actually still am.

The last weeks before coming here were intense. Stephanie had her masters exam, we cleared out our first flat within a week or so, I had freelance work that lasted a bit longer than I expected. And then there was the emotional stress of saying good bye to friends and family and telling your plans again and again. There are funnier and easier things than doing this, I guess …

Happily, Willem, whom I got to know at the Great Football Giveaway, also moved to Singapore recently and he offered us to stay at his place, while we’re sorting things out. Like with Barbora when I was here in June, it’s great to stay with a friend.

So what did we do so far?

As we always do, walking. Chinatown, Downtown, Little India, Orchard Road, a bit of Geylang, Marina Bay and some areas in between. Walking isn’t particularly popular here, given the temperature and humidity, but it’s still the best way to explore and look humiliated afterwards.

On the second day, we paid a visit to The Substation, the center of Singapore’s alternative art scene. Stephanie had already told me before, but there’s really more going on in terms of arts and culture than I expected. It still seems to be pretty small, but there’s for example the Singapore International Photography Festival going on at the moment.

There’s a big and really interesting Andy Warhol exhibition at the ArtScience Museum (together with a Magnum Photography exhibition and more SIPF)

There was a MiniMart at Substation featuring young, local artists, and we bought our first piece of art here (10S$). I really liked the illustration style and I hope to get to meet the young artist again and hopefully do a little interview.

Then, two days ago, we went to the Comedy Masala, the ‘comedy underground’ in Singapore. It’s a weekly standup comedy night featuring aspiring comedians run by  Umar Rana,  a banker by day and comedy host at night. Oh and he’s Pakistani and likes to make jokes about terrorists. Sitting in the first row, we obviously also got a bit of a special treatment and a little introduction into Singapore’s ‘foreign talent’ discourse. Who doesn’t like a bit of abuse now and then? Anyways, it was fun and interesting to see how the diverse group of comedians worked the even more diverse crowd. Lots of jokes touching cultural stereotypes, sometimes cheap shots, sometimes more sophisticated stuff (but who am I to know the difference?) …  And it’s good to learn those anyways.

Then we’re obviously meeting interesting people about and have chats about job opportunities here.

Oh and then there’s food, really good food (not my photos, so far).

And malls. In Singapore, all roads lead to the mall, as Fred noted. We haven’t really done much shopping but sooner or later we will give in, I guess. That reminds me, I have to get a phone …

Then, yesterday, we moved out of Willem’s and into a new shared flat with a really nice guy and girl from the UK. In an hour or so we’re going to meet an Austrian designer and walk around a bit in the ‘Arabic’ parts of Singapore and later there’s SocialSatay, organized by Simon Kemp and We Are Social.

What’s up for the next weeks?

More walking, I guess, but further out in the heartland.

More chats with more interesting people.

There’s Asian Horror Night (yay!) because of – you guessed it – Halloween.

There’s the German Film Festival and Italian Film Festival.

And we’ll see, maybe some travel planning. There’s so much to see.

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