An International City

As I have been settling in here in Singapore, I was able to find a few groups of expats and locals who meet up to socialize. This past weekend I had occasion to attend two such events, and it gave me a true appreciation for the interesting diversity of this truly international city.


Saturday night, a group of people met to see a movie at the European Cinema at the shopping mall, VivoCity (coincidentally, VivoCity is located adjacent to the HarbourFront Centre -- where my office is located).

There were about eight of us who met to see the film, and we represented six countries: The Philippines, China, India, Malaysia, Britain, and the USA (but strangely no one from Singapore). Everyone was quite nice and we enjoyed seeing the film and meeting each other.

Sunday afternoon, another group (including some of the people from the night before) met to visit The National Museum of Singapore (see photo). Here we had another eight people: three from Singapore, one from Malaysia, one from China, another from India, and me from the US.

The National Museum was quite interesting too. I thought it was very informative about life and culture in Singapore. The exhibit rooms each focused on a different aspect of the local culture or history. There was a room for photography, food and flavours, clothing and fashion, theater and film, as well as a number of others that we did not have time to visit. It was a great museum and if anyone comes to visit me here, I will be pleased to take you there to get acquainted with the local history and culture.

So, it has been nice meeting some new friends here in Singapore. There is an active community of interesting people who are interested in meeting others from around the world. It is a very exciting and international city indeed!