To the hoards of subscribers I have received since my last post, welcome!

I wanted to come clean to you all and admit that my one line substack description, “My global quest to understand various cultures, the human condition, and myself,” is a bit misleading. A more accurate description would be, “White guy goes to Asia and tries to figure out what the hell is happening.”

It’s been 7 days since I arrived in Singapore and wow! This whole concept of an exchange program is so amazing. Over 1000 students from all over the world decided to congregate in a little 5 km (yes, I use metric now) radius and pretend to take classes just like me!

It reminds me of freshman year of college. No one knows one another, and everyone spends all day long just getting to know each other and the country.

I’ve made some good local friends as well! I got on the NUS basketball team and through them have attempted to learn Singlish, a local slang where only 1 out of every 3 words is a real word, and everything else is literal jibberish to me.

Yeah lah.

I have no idea how they understand each other but they’re so far (unsuccessfully) trying to teach me. I also got an NUS buddy named Alex. Alex and I hung out for 6 hours at some Hawker Centers, Singaporean mazes malls, and Sentosa island, which is basically a fairytale land containing a Universal Studios, man-made beaches, golf courses, and more.

I mentioned to Alex my encounter with the taxi driver who said that the Russia-Ukraine War was America and NATO’s fault and he said that Singapore has a lot of “Taxi Uncles,” who have a lot of hot takes and also tend to get their news from their homeland. My taxi uncle told me he was from China, so that checked out. Still, it was fascinating to see that at least some Chinese media outlets use the war as a way to blame America for something. Kind of how some American media outlets blame China for COVID.

One day I didn’t have anyone to sit with during lunch so I decided to sit across from this girl who was also sitting alone. She was wearing a Kyrie Irving jersey so I figured I could at least start talking about basketball. It turns out she didn’t know anything about basketball or Kyrie Irving, but she was from China and lived there her whole life. So I chatted her up about growing up in China and was fascinated with her responses.

Contrary to what I assumed, Chinese people do not dislike Americans. She said she has met plenty of Americans and considers them her friends. As for the whole US-China-Taiwan situation, she considers that to be our governments bickering, but that does not affect how she views Americans.

Regarding COVID, she said that in Singapore, where masks are required indoors and optional outdoors, she doesn’t feel safe with regards to the pandemic, while she did in China. Given how most of the western world ignores COVID now, this was fascinating to hear.

Funny enough though, most of my interactions here have been with Europeans. Around 90% of the exchange students I have met are from Europe, with only a handfull of Americans, Canadians, and other Asian and Oceanic countries making up the remaining 10%. When I talk to Europeans, they have by-and-large asked the same three questions about America:

1. Why is there so much gun violence in America?
2. Why is college so expensive in America?
3. What are fraternities like? (I kid you not, this has been the most-asked question since coming here)

While the first two questions are more understandable from foreigners, I found it hilarious that portraying myself as more of a frat guy than I actually am seems to make me the most interesting person in the room for most Europeans. All they know about frats are from movies and they often say they want to come to America just for the frat parties.

Oh, if only they knew.

Europeans do know how to have a good time. I’ve been out 5 out of the 7 nights I’ve been here, and they are hilarious, especially the British people, mate.

On Wednesday I went to one of the more popular clubs in Singapore, Zouk and it was absolutely packed with exchange students, mostly Europeans. I went with a girl from Zurich, Switzerland named Saloni who I met earlier in the day and it was quite possibly the most fun clubbing experience I’ve ever had, despite the fact that you had to wear masks on the dance floor, and it was a Wednesday. The atmosphere was insane!

If there’s been any conclusion from the first week in Singapore it’s that whenever I leave this fairytale world and come back to reality, I should continue to act like every day is freshman year of college.

Freshman year is not a grade in school. It’s a mindset. You don’t have to be 18 years old to do it. You just have to make an effort to connect with people without expecting anything in return. Freshman year is sitting across from a stranger just because they’re wearing a Kyrie Irving jersey. It’s going out to a bar with someone you only met earlier that day, just because you enjoyed talking to them. It’s reaching out to a stranger to ask where they’re from for no other reason than to make conversation. I’m not a freshman anymore, but the only reason no one stays this social beyond our first year of college is that we get too comfortable with our friends or our lifestyle.

That is a sorry excuse.

Why not see what’s out there? Everyone has a story, and you never know when you might be sitting across from someone who can teach you something that you’ve never been exposed to. You never know when the person you walk up to might become your new best friend for life. You never know that one awkward “Hi!” that dangles in the air waiting to be returned can lead to an adventure that would have never happened had you just put your head down and walked right past the friendship you just threw away.

Why not just make that connection?

Why not live every day like it’s freshman year?

Answers I’ve received to my question: “If you have one piece of advice to share with the world, what would it be?”

Never stop trying new things - Phyllis from China