Never in NY

The following are two different experiences, the first is in chronological order to my previous blogs, the second fits so I'm going to put it here.

On my first full day in Singapore I become acutely aware of the fact that I have no food or water so I decide to go to the closest market to do a little food shopping. While checking out at the register, the cashier says you only have 2 apples and 2 oranges, you need 5 apples and 5 oranges. I say yes well I only want 2 apples and 2 oranges, so just ring me up for those. She replies no it's 5 apples and 5 oranges. This goes on for some-time and the Lady says politely, I'll watch your food since you've already paid and you can go back and get the rest of your fruit. At this point I'm holding up the line and I really just want to go so I tell her to forget it and I'll just leave. Behind me the girl who had tried to help me explain to the cashier what I really wanted says I'll get your fruit for you. Despite my protests, she full out runs to the other end of the store, picks out the other 6 pieces of fruit, puts them in a bag and sprints back and hands them to me. I was shocked. In NY, the person behind would have been cursing at you and the cashier, but would never volunteer to get items for you. She was smiling the whole time too.

Example number two, and even more unbelievable, a true testament of how nice people can be. On Friday, my 5th day at work, this girl who happened to be working here from the Tokyo office overheard that I needed a document notarized. I had been briefly introduced to her, but really barely knew her. She said that her friend was a lawyer and that she would invite us both to lunch that day so he could notarize my document. I thought it was pretty nice of her to arrange that and for him to agree. After some Japanese food, he looked at the document and said oh no I can't sign this, this requires a special type of notary, very rare. I said thanks for trying expecting to have to figure out what to do from there on my own. He thought for a moment and said, I have a friend who can do this, she works in a building nearby I'll show you. By show me he didn't mean point to it, he walked me inside, waited until his friend was available, introduced us, and asked if she could help. She asked for an employment pass (which I didn't have) Side note, if you are a foreigner you need an employment pass (EP) to do just about everything. She then asked for a passport which I didn't have. All I had to offer her was my meaningless NY drivers license. I'm sure if it wasn't for my new friend Glen, I would have been refused. Second side note. Everything in Singapore is by the book. I mean to the letter. I can give you one hundred examples already, to the point where it doesn't even make logical sense sometimes but rules are rules. Anyway, she did me a favour, and then charged me the regular fee of 45 dollars. Third side note. ATM's. Unlike most other places in the world, you can't just go to any ATM and expect money to spit out. You have to go to your specific Bank ATM. I was clean out of cash and had no way to pay her. Glen graciously paid her on my behalf (totally embarrassing) and we walked out to find an ATM. We wandered through a subway station where we finally came upon an HSBC machine. After trying unsuccessfully to jam my debit card in the slot, I realized this was a pay station (something unique to Asia I think) but definitely not an ATM. So after all that, Glen walked me back to my work since I wasn't sure where we were at this point and just said, send me a check when you can. That was a 1 1/2 ordeal for someone he didn't even know...pretty amazing.