Fatal Scorpion, Heavy Duty, Contour Line, Secret Garden

This was what came up on my TV twice on Saturday along with a red 'hazard' looking sign. What the hell does that mean?! And when you google it, nothing comes up. I was about to get on the MRT to go up to a 4th of July event. Is there a heavy duty scorpion on the contour line around the Secret Garden stop? I have no idea if any of this is possible or if those things exist. But when you google it, nothing, and I mean not a hint, comes up of what that means. So I braved the MRT anyway. According to the Singaporeans I met later, Fatal Scorpion is a platoon in the military and what came up on the TV is telling them they're about to be called in for duty. But since apparently most men in Singapore have to serve for a short stint, it's more like a 2 week refresher then you go back to your regular life. But if I had to serve in the military, I definitely want to be in the Fatal Scorpion platoon.

I found out about this 4th of July event by googling "Americans in Singapore" on Friday. It had been 4.5 days since I'd had any real human interaction and I didn't care how lame it was to travel 30 minutes on a train to an event by myself. I needed to talk to someone damnit and not the creepy shelf stockers at Cold Storage.

So I googled Americans, and up came the AAS site (Americans Association in Singapore). I see the 4th of July event as the main event, but more importantly, I see a sports link to the left (please tell me it shows where to see college football, please tell me it says where to see college football). When I clicked on it, the sports listed are: softball, golf, and dragonboat. Dragonboat?! I have no idea..

So far, no football. But maybe some people don't start thinking about college football in February like I do. No, no way. I'm screwed.

Allright, I brave the MRT for the 30 minute ride to Sembawang for the 4th of July event. Grossly underestimated the event. There were hundreds of people here. And 90% were families and 75% all knew each other. It was like I was the new guy at a corporate outing but hadn't started yet so I didn't know anyone. I also thought there'd be quite a few solos but there was not. Juuuust me, myself and alcohol. I swore to myself I'd stay for the fireworks so I had 2 hours to kill. Which I killed with 3 beers walking around by myself. It was really, really, really depressing.

I almost decided to leave when my liquid courage kicked in. So like a lion stalking my prey, I circled the grounds for a group of people that looked like fun. I just went up to them and said "I've been here for 4 days and I don't know a soul, so I thought I'd introduce myself". They said ok (didn't look at me like a freak...thank god) and now I have a Singapore best friend, Stephanie, who's been here for 2 years. Hung around with her friends and some native Singaporeans for a while (they just come b/c they like to celebrate holidays), then we ventured up to the bar and met some Navy boys...sailors if you will. Fun times to be had for the rest of the evening and I made it through the fireworks. And get this, they had Coors Light and Miller Light. I was in heaven. I don't pretend that I actually want to be surrounded by Americans and drink Miller Light the whole time I'm here, otherwise, why'd I come? But I was so pumped to see a teensy bit of home. However, despite what the lid says, it does NOT protect the taste and it did NOT taste the same. First had a Coors, then had a Miller, I was a little distraught and just gave up all together. It's real people beers or bust from here on out.

*I was a slacker blogger and took only one picture of the event. And it's a pic of Stephanie and 2 sailors. I wanted a completely ridiculous American pic but I've somehow missed the crazy American stores around here and I left my American flag shirt at home...damn.

Here's the best part of the entire entry. I ate Indian food. No joke. We made plans with the sailors to meet up on Sunday, the following day, in Little India since none of us had ever had it before except for resident tour guide Stephanie. Trust me, it was not my idea, but I promised myself I wouldn't say no to things I hadn't tried before just because I didn't want to. She ordered the mildest things on the menu and it wasn't that bad. She also brought a co-worker from Switzerland who was hilarious - Barbara - if she makes another appearance in the blog, which I hope she does. I felt very global even though I was sitting at a table with 4 American sailors. But there was Indian food and a Swiss gal...that's a step right?

Then we all went to a British Pub in Little India. It was fun. But Little India is NOT Little India at all. I'm pretty sure it IS India. I do not tell lies. I left at around 10:00 since I had my first day of work in this country ever today and didn't want to do it hungover. Even though there was some significant effort to convince me that if I started hungover, they'd have low expectations and I could only go up. Thankfully, I'm too smart for that and said no dice. It is the reason I'm even in this country. Bedtime it is. I get on the MRT for the 2 stops home and am the ONLY girl on the train for like a mile. It was like a bad horror movie. Super scary, though I know Singapore is one of the safest cities. I'm alive, btw.

Finishing up my first day of work. I'll update on that in tomorrow's entry. It deserves it's own entry. One last thing I want to leave you with --- clearly it means something different here but I see these pouches everywhere.