two weeks in lion city

it’s been 15 days since i landed in Singapore. i have a list of preliminary observations which i keep on my notes app just so i can remember to talk about them.

1. i can literally walk anywhere. coming from KL where getting anywhere is nigh impossible without a car, my first few days (up until now still, tbh) in Singapore was spent walking around central area, in awe that i could literally get anywhere without having to worry about traffic and parking. maybe this will be a con later on (as i cannot deny that travelling times have doubled precisely because i have to get everywhere by foot/ public transport), but as it stands now, having everything be so accessible feels super easy and convenient.
2. this is a perfect segway to the next point i.e. the convenience of everything. especially in respect of meals, i never have to worry about not having cheap food to eat because there seems to always be a food centre within walking distance no matter where i am. it made me remember a time when i was still staying in Arte on a weekend and wanted to have lunch but didn’t want to have to a) drive out to eat b) spend RM40-50 for cafe food downstairs or c) spend a similar RM20-30 for food delivery. but here, going anywhere feels very accessible and convenient. the downside being, of course, the time trade off. a car journey of ~20 mins is now about an hour by public transport. but i’ve not met any instances where i had to rush yet, so this trade off does not appear to be substantial at the moment.
3. it feels very safe everywhere. this is a given, Singapore being known for being a low-crime city with heavy and comprehensive surveillance, but i never really felt the practical consequences of living within such an environment until after moving from KL to SG. it’s so safe that people here appears to just have their front doors open the whole day. related observation: there are no mosquitoes that enter the house even with the front door open at night. what’s up with that
4. i’m not going to lie, before coming here, i consulted a fair number of people familiar with the city on how living in Singapore is like. the main two things i heard were: a) the food is not as good and b) the people are not as friendly. for point a, ok fair, but i’ve never been a big foodie (except where Real BKT is concerned) so i’ve never really thought of this as an issue during my whole two weeks here. for point b, which was actually my greatest source of anxiety, i actually sort of geared myself up to anticipate being treated in an unfriendly manner by locals upon my arrival but – everyone i’ve met here so far have been nothing but super friendly. from my colleagues to the aunties and uncles at food centres to some random uncle on the bus during my morning commute. then again i’ve only been here for two weeks so one can argue that my perception of SG is derived from a limited scope of experience, but so far my initial expectations of the food and people here have been greatly exceeded.
5. this one is a minor one that amuses me quite a bit. there’s no denying that Singlish and Manglish are greatly similar. i’ve been told a few times by Singaporeans i’ve met that i don’t “sound Malaysian” or that they can’t tell that i’m not a local. not that it means anything because i feel like conversationally, i see no great distinction between how Malaysians and Singaporeans speak. but there were two differences i noticed in the words/ pronunciations deployed by people from these two countries – where Malaysians often say “got”, Singaporeans say “have” instead. the other one is a pronunciation-related one, where Malaysians pronounce “us” as “uhs” whereas Singaporeans seem to pronounce as “ahs”.

okay now that we’ve got the good/ funny stuff out of the way and most people would’ve stopped reading by now; despite having been here for two weeks, i still feel like an impostor in this country. many bouts of “wtf am i doing here” often arise. it’s not even a work-related thing, even though i had some struggles initially, but more of a “i can’t believe i made myself come here to this foreign city alone, was it even a good idea”.

again, i am not exactly suffering here. whenever anyone asks me how’s SG i always answer positively, which is the truth. it’s also not like life here is tremendously objectively different from my old life in KL. in fact, i was incredibly excited during my first week here, always wanting to go out and explore and i still do, fascinated by skyscraper views as well as the myriad of new activities i could do, but at the very end of my first week here, while lying down in bed in a room that i was crashing at a relative’s friend’s place, i missed the feeling of belonging and familiarity which i have appeared to have left behind in my old life in KL. now that that’s gone, something i had voluntarily discarded by up and leaving my comfortable life of five years in KL, i felt a bit like a floating nomad with no anchor to any particular foundation just yet. i trust this is normal, having only moved to a new city for two weeks, but it’s an insidious kind of anxiety that creeps up in the dead of the night when i am no longer preoccupied by the busyness of a new routine and newness of a new life. and it is not a great feeling to have, as it often leads to strong feelings of yearning, nostalgia and melancholy.

there are many things i miss in this bubble of solitude – the routine i had, the assurance i felt about my life, and the friends that i could reach out to easily.

(it also doesn’t help that i still see multiple phantom memories in several familiar locations here which exacerbates the melancholy, but my first instinct whenever encountering these spurts of flashbacks is the desire to overwrite them with new memories.)

so this is my Two Weeks in SG Wrapped. hopefully the next time i return for a subsequent update it will have a more positive tone to it.