Pedestrian updates

I am in school in Singapore, which partially explains why I don’t write as much as maybe I did in previous months. I don’t get the free time here to ruminate about my own and the country’s existence as often as I did in Ethiopia. There are some things I’d like to say about Singapore, a very interesting and very anxious city-state, but I’m not ready yet. Plus, I walk the streets with school on my mind rather than my blog.

So maybe, dear reader, you wonder, what am I studying that’s so important that I can’t take any time for my audience? I’m at National University of Singapore in a one year masters program. In May I will be awarded an LLM (masters of law) degree. My major is Asian Legal Studies. Next school year I will go back to Pittsburgh for one more year, where I’ll finish my JD and MBA concurrently, then be ready to again enter the work force somewhere in the world.

Why study Asian law? My brilliant plan is to become expert in Asian business so that I can specialize in trans-Pacific investment and business partnerships. Law incorporates so much more than legal rules that judges follow. Law is a component of culture, and learning the law of its proprietary culture teaches you about the people, their expectations, as well as how business is/can be done. I hope to secure a job here in Asia and stay here for a few years to add to my “Asian expert” resume.

Why Asia? If you’ve read any business publications in the last 15 years, you may have an inclination that U.S. businesses are obsessed with expanding into Asia and especially China. I want just to have useful skills in a growing business sector.

As part of my grand plan to become an expert in Asian business culture, I’m taking Singaporean banking law, Chinese corporate and securities law, Islamic law (where I’m writing a research paper on Islamic finance, a fast growing business sector, those in the know may know), comparative constitutional law (if you want to learn about a country’s law and people, the constitution is the best place to start – though constitutions are tough to read and understand; I’m writing a research paper on Japan), and comparative legal traditions of Asia (again, knowing countries’ law and their traditions of law is knowing the people and their culture).

I started Mandarin lessons. Five hours a week I’m in Mandarin class. I studied some Mandarin in the U.S., but not enough that I was able to jump to an advanced class here in Singapore. Here, I’m in level I.

So, daily, I wake up early, eat toast with coconut jam (called Kaya, a local favorite), read the Straits Times (the leading local paper, established in 1845, and the supposed government mouthpiece in this supposed illiberal democratic nation), walk to the bus stop past the spas, go to class and sit in the library and read and fall asleep. There are food stalls on campus, and almost every day I eat rice with Chinese vegetables. Other options are Indian food, noodles, Japanese food, and Western food. A Japanese guy asked me if I eat Western food every day, and honestly, I haven’t even tried it yet. The food prices are subsidized (as is my tuition!), and I spend about US$ 1.40 on a lunch of vegetables and rice – it’s almost like being in Ethiopia!

Nevertheless, mine is currently not a very exciting life, and while I do have much to convey about the culture of Singapore, I need a better grasp of the facts before I start divulging in my blog.




My room is very small. I think that constantly transitioning between air conditioning inside and the heat outside gives dude a cold, so I rarely ever turn on my ac on at home. Plus, I have to pay the electric bill. So at home I strip to just athletic shorts, open the window, and turn on the fan. My alarm clock has a thermometer on it, and last night when I went to bed, it was 85def F in my room. The average is about 82def F. This leaves me without a good “room temperature” place to store wine, and I’m trying to learn which wines can withstand the heat and taste good warm. So far, cabernet.

It was tough to find an apartment where I didn’t have to live with a landlord, so I ended up moving into this apartment with four rooms full of strangers. I understand that it’s common for businessmen to keep mistresses in small apartments in Singapore, and at least one of my roommates is probably a mistress. She doesn’t speak English, so I never asked pointedly. But she has a lot of sexy shoes outside her door and entertains men on the weekends and doesn’t appear to have anywhere to go on the weekdays. The same is true of the other non-English-speaking roommate. But she’s a few years older than the other girl. (of course, either one could not be a mistress, but mistresses are more common in Asia than they are in the U.S. – it’s not such a big deal here) There’s a young Indian married couple. And there’s a Malaysian man who owns an insurance business in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He got his bachelor’s degree at UW-Madison. He’s only here every few weeks, spending the rest of his time in KL. He told me he wants to move out because the apartment has gotten too crowded (glad to be your roommate too, I said). However, on a daily basis, most everyone stays in their rooms with the door closed. I tend to leave mine open just to let air flow through. The two Chinese girls and the Indian lady don’t speak English, so even when I see my roommates, we don’t have much to say.

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