It is interesting how your mindset shifts a bit when you move to a country where you literally don't know anyone. When I lived in NYC, there were plenty of times when a friend of mine has told me that they know someone in New York and that we should get together sometime. I don't think that I've looked up a single person like that and said hey, Joey says we should hang out, so lets grab a beer. When I arrived in Singapore, it didn't matter if it was the 6th degree of separation, I am going to meet up with you. You are a friend of a friend? Lets have a beer. You also like the color blue? Lets have a beer.
Before coming to Singapore, two co-workers sent an email to people they knew (kinda) in Singapore. They both emailed me back and said they were happy to meet up. By the end of the week, one of them invited me to a Halloween party, and I hadn't even met them yet. So, in order to avoid an awkward situation where I'm asking around for the person who invited me, we met up for a drink on Friday (Sat was Halloween). We got along pretty well and she reconfirmed my invitation and insisted that I wear a costume. To be honest, I wasn't thrilled with the costume idea because the last 2 years, I either froze my ass off, or sweated my ass off. I felt compelled to comply since I was a guest and didn't want to offend my first friend here.
Around 9:00 the night of the party I was in a bizarre Halloween store (I think) that had weird clothes and a few left over costumes. There was another expat squeezed in the store and said "mate, you have any idear what you are going to dress up as?" I had no idea, and this shop wasn't inspiring me at all. He settled on count Dracula when I had my creative burst. I asked for fangs and jetted out. Since I didn't want to dress up very much, I figured I could go as Eric from TrueBlood. All I needed was a badass black outfit and some fangs. 1/2 way there, I checked out some shops that were scattered around the mall looking for a cool black jacket that had a standing collar. I tried 3 stores and the situation was the same...I was too big (I tend to think their jackets were too small). Desperate, I went with the least constricting, got some hair gel and left for the party
Although they don't celebrate Halloween in Singapore, these girls certainly did. They really got the American concept of it's the one night a year that you can dress in whatever you want (or whatever you don't want). The girls house where the party was being held was spectacular. Huge outdoor patio with a wet bar, pool, tennis court, beer pong, flip cup, music...all the essentials for a good party. When I arrived, I was feeling pretty good about my outfit, and then somebody asked who I was. "Im Ewick from twew bwood" was what I could mumble with the fangs in. It was the best I could do without drooling. Popping out the fangs I repeated myself. Looking at their face I was forced to ask if they knew what True Blood was. Turns out, HBO isn't quite so popular over in the island of Singapore. Now, with the fangs out, I was just a guy with slicked back hair in a too tight jacket. To be fair, some people did know who I was and one girl even said hey your Eric from season two (got to love it).
After a few hours we headed to a club called Butter for the after party which was a good time as well. Next year, I'm going to try and get better fangs.
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