When I was living full time in Singapore, I was very much deeply entrenched in ‘alcohol culture’.
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When I was living full time in Singapore, I was very much deeply entrenched in ‘alcohol culture’. Booze is a huge way of life there. It’s like the craft beer / cocktail culture of the early 2010s went there and just never really left. We still see young people declining re alcohol consumption but overall, booze culture is huge. The vast majority of professional class expats also have their own booze culture. (Especially the folks from places where alcohol is a big after work thing)
One of the weirder things about no longer drinking at all is how weird that feels. It’s like when I am there now I experience it completely differently.
I wake up earlier and go for walks with my parents; go for several breakfasts with them. Sometimes even go on spontaneous trips with them to Malaysia for breakfast.
There are also more places to go late at night without booze, compared to San Francisco. Being much more of a late night city I like to start taking long walks at around 9 at night. I can walk 5-7 miles (8-12km) and stop for a teh c ping or limau ais at any of the hundreds of still-open / 24-7 local coffee shops. Have supper (usually noodles or roti prata).
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When I was living full time in Singapore, I was very much deeply entrenched in ‘alcohol culture’. Booze is a huge way of life there. It’s like the craft beer / cocktail culture of the early 2010s went there and just never really left. We still see young people declining re alcohol consumption but overall, booze culture is huge. The vast majority of professional class expats also have their own booze culture. (Especially the folks from places where alcohol is a big after work thing)
One of the weirder things about no longer drinking at all is how weird that feels. It’s like when I am there now I experience it completely differently.
I wake up earlier and go for walks with my parents; go for several breakfasts with them. Sometimes even go on spontaneous trips with them to Malaysia for breakfast.
There are also more places to go late at night without booze, compared to San Francisco. Being much more of a late night city I like to start taking long walks at around 9 at night. I can walk 5-7 miles (8-12km) and stop for a teh c ping or limau ais at any of the hundreds of still-open / 24-7 local coffee shops. Have supper (usually noodles or roti prata).
I don’t really think about alcohol at all anymore. It was a big part of my life. For me, I just decided to stop completely.
That makes Singapore much more affordable (alcohol prices there are eye watering. Think of the most expensive prices for booze you can imagine and then double it. It’s probably more. US$20-30 for a cocktail?)
Sometimes I miss the social environments that accompany the drinking culture.
Sometimes I wish I never had to leave Singapore, but I also know that if I had not, my health would be terrible from overwork and alcohol and sleep deprivation. That’s not even counting the queer / marriage stuff. (They don’t recognize same sex marriage)
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I don’t really think about alcohol at all anymore. It was a big part of my life. For me, I just decided to stop completely.
That makes Singapore much more affordable (alcohol prices there are eye watering. Think of the most expensive prices for booze you can imagine and then double it. It’s probably more. US$20-30 for a cocktail?)
Sometimes I miss the social environments that accompany the drinking culture.
Sometimes I wish I never had to leave Singapore, but I also know that if I had not, my health would be terrible from overwork and alcohol and sleep deprivation. That’s not even counting the queer / marriage stuff. (They don’t recognize same sex marriage)
Still. I miss it deeply.
I realize in hindsight it’s a unique experience to grow up in a city that is also a state that is also country where it’s summer / the same temp all year round.
I feel so deeply connected to it, in love with it, repulsed by it.
I want to speak English Mandarin Hokkien and Malay in the same sentence. I want to go to three different breakfasts with my parents. I want to see old friends; maybe some exes, I want to be a busy body and go to everything and I want to be out all day every day until I am tired.
My wife likes to say that I likely struggled the first few years of being an immigrant because I had so much external stimulation from living in Singapore / Jakarta / Mumbai that I literally don’t know what it’s like to be in a different environment. I think that’s true.
I’m glad that I learned to finally be okay with just staying still and not doing a million things (sort of. It’s still extremely hard) but it’s also a comfortable skin that I get to wear when I’m back in that world again.
I miss the frenetic pace of life of big Asian cities and I miss feeling like I have melded into them fully and I miss feeling in sync with all of their glorious delicious amazing foods and languages and weather.
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Still. I miss it deeply.
I realize in hindsight it’s a unique experience to grow up in a city that is also a state that is also country where it’s summer / the same temp all year round.
I feel so deeply connected to it, in love with it, repulsed by it.
I want to speak English Mandarin Hokkien and Malay in the same sentence. I want to go to three different breakfasts with my parents. I want to see old friends; maybe some exes, I want to be a busy body and go to everything and I want to be out all day every day until I am tired.
My wife likes to say that I likely struggled the first few years of being an immigrant because I had so much external stimulation from living in Singapore / Jakarta / Mumbai that I literally don’t know what it’s like to be in a different environment. I think that’s true.
I’m glad that I learned to finally be okay with just staying still and not doing a million things (sort of. It’s still extremely hard) but it’s also a comfortable skin that I get to wear when I’m back in that world again.
I miss the frenetic pace of life of big Asian cities and I miss feeling like I have melded into them fully and I miss feeling in sync with all of their glorious delicious amazing foods and languages and weather.
What I feel I miss from my immigrant identity is context.
I speak English, I look a certain way, nobody ever really figures I wasn’t born or raised where I now live.
But inside, the context is missing.
I don’t know any of your 1980s tv references. I don’t know any of your tier 2 sports people. I have the highlights of history but not more.
Compared to the other places I miss, where i feel I was made, where i have so much context.
Sometimes it’s difficult to know that I now live most of my life without ever getting to load or share or experience the deepest of my contextual memories. That’s what I feel like being an adult immigrant, even one who has been away for so long and who has seemingly assimilated.
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What I feel I miss from my immigrant identity is context.
I speak English, I look a certain way, nobody ever really figures I wasn’t born or raised where I now live.
But inside, the context is missing.
I don’t know any of your 1980s tv references. I don’t know any of your tier 2 sports people. I have the highlights of history but not more.
Compared to the other places I miss, where i feel I was made, where i have so much context.
Sometimes it’s difficult to know that I now live most of my life without ever getting to load or share or experience the deepest of my contextual memories. That’s what I feel like being an adult immigrant, even one who has been away for so long and who has seemingly assimilated.
If it helps you feel any better, I'm native born and have zero points of reference with most of the people here. I think it's pretty common. We've been fragmented for a long time.
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When I was living full time in Singapore, I was very much deeply entrenched in ‘alcohol culture’. Booze is a huge way of life there. It’s like the craft beer / cocktail culture of the early 2010s went there and just never really left. We still see young people declining re alcohol consumption but overall, booze culture is huge. The vast majority of professional class expats also have their own booze culture. (Especially the folks from places where alcohol is a big after work thing)
One of the weirder things about no longer drinking at all is how weird that feels. It’s like when I am there now I experience it completely differently.
I wake up earlier and go for walks with my parents; go for several breakfasts with them. Sometimes even go on spontaneous trips with them to Malaysia for breakfast.
There are also more places to go late at night without booze, compared to San Francisco. Being much more of a late night city I like to start taking long walks at around 9 at night. I can walk 5-7 miles (8-12km) and stop for a teh c ping or limau ais at any of the hundreds of still-open / 24-7 local coffee shops. Have supper (usually noodles or roti prata).
@skinnylatte This sounds like heaven to me.
(I used to live in Brooklyn (NYC) and would spend my weekends just stepping outside after breakfast and walking until I got tired and took a train back home, arriving sometimes after 10PM or 2AM. I LOVED walking across the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan.) -
What I feel I miss from my immigrant identity is context.
I speak English, I look a certain way, nobody ever really figures I wasn’t born or raised where I now live.
But inside, the context is missing.
I don’t know any of your 1980s tv references. I don’t know any of your tier 2 sports people. I have the highlights of history but not more.
Compared to the other places I miss, where i feel I was made, where i have so much context.
Sometimes it’s difficult to know that I now live most of my life without ever getting to load or share or experience the deepest of my contextual memories. That’s what I feel like being an adult immigrant, even one who has been away for so long and who has seemingly assimilated.
@skinnylatte
The Third Culture Kids have many similar feelings. However, many of us can never go back. Diplomatic & military kids have no place to return to. Almost all the people have moved on, the culture changes. Nostalgic visits are a bit depressing, until you reframe it as visiting a new place where you already know the names of the roads.
I'm sure there are many immigrants who can never go back, for more somber reasons.
Glad you're here, & glad you can also visit your childhood culture. -
What I feel I miss from my immigrant identity is context.
I speak English, I look a certain way, nobody ever really figures I wasn’t born or raised where I now live.
But inside, the context is missing.
I don’t know any of your 1980s tv references. I don’t know any of your tier 2 sports people. I have the highlights of history but not more.
Compared to the other places I miss, where i feel I was made, where i have so much context.
Sometimes it’s difficult to know that I now live most of my life without ever getting to load or share or experience the deepest of my contextual memories. That’s what I feel like being an adult immigrant, even one who has been away for so long and who has seemingly assimilated.
This is hilarious because I was born in the US and have never left North America, and I also don't know any of that stuff.
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When I was living full time in Singapore, I was very much deeply entrenched in ‘alcohol culture’. Booze is a huge way of life there. It’s like the craft beer / cocktail culture of the early 2010s went there and just never really left. We still see young people declining re alcohol consumption but overall, booze culture is huge. The vast majority of professional class expats also have their own booze culture. (Especially the folks from places where alcohol is a big after work thing)
One of the weirder things about no longer drinking at all is how weird that feels. It’s like when I am there now I experience it completely differently.
I wake up earlier and go for walks with my parents; go for several breakfasts with them. Sometimes even go on spontaneous trips with them to Malaysia for breakfast.
There are also more places to go late at night without booze, compared to San Francisco. Being much more of a late night city I like to start taking long walks at around 9 at night. I can walk 5-7 miles (8-12km) and stop for a teh c ping or limau ais at any of the hundreds of still-open / 24-7 local coffee shops. Have supper (usually noodles or roti prata).
@skinnylatte love your food escapades and explanations.
It does feel quite hobbbit-like to have lots of breakfasts.
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I don’t really think about alcohol at all anymore. It was a big part of my life. For me, I just decided to stop completely.
That makes Singapore much more affordable (alcohol prices there are eye watering. Think of the most expensive prices for booze you can imagine and then double it. It’s probably more. US$20-30 for a cocktail?)
Sometimes I miss the social environments that accompany the drinking culture.
Sometimes I wish I never had to leave Singapore, but I also know that if I had not, my health would be terrible from overwork and alcohol and sleep deprivation. That’s not even counting the queer / marriage stuff. (They don’t recognize same sex marriage)
@skinnylatte
Price of alcohol scale:
A Singapore Sling in Manhattan < A Manhattan in Singapore < A Bud Light at the Stadium -
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