Where do teens from SAS hang out on weekends?

[MamaCass]

I'm relocating with my 14 year old daughter in late July. My husband arrives in April 09. Will be coming on a "look see" trip to find housing. I wanted to see what areas of SG do the teens at SAS hang out on the weekends? I'm feeling like The Woodlands maybe too far from "town" for my daughter to have some freedom to explore and do teen appropriate activities. My husband will be working near the Newton MRT.
Thanks for your help

[road.not.taken]

It really depends on what you mean by 'hang out'. Some hanging out is innocent, some not so innocent. There is plenty of underage drinking by students acros race, natiomal and socio-economic boundaries, but especially International School students (and more specifically western expats) who tend to get served younger and more often than their Singaporean compatriots. Places like Mohammed Sultan Road, Clarke Quay and Newton Circus are hot spots. Definitely plenty of SAS kids there as well.

More benign hanging out happens all over 'Orchard' where kids from all over go LANing, meet friends, shop, go to movies, eat out. Orchard is a big shopping district, but when teens use the term -- it usually means a few block strip. My kids eat at least one meal per weekend at the American Club and sometimes bowl or just hang out there. We live close to the action, and they know they can bring home as many friends as they want. Most weekend nights they end up here with a gang to watch a movie or play Wii or Xbox or swim.

Woodlands is a world unto itself. Too far removed for me and mine, but some families love it. It's quite isolated though and most kids of your daughter's age will prefer to be closer to town. Hope this helps.

[cbavasi]

We don't have teenagers - but often on a Fri/Sat night we'll be at the American Club and there are so many teens there - often just hanging out or leaving to go to other places with their friends. I always think it would be such a great place to be if you were a kid... seems to be a popular meeting place.

[MamaCass]

Thank you to cbavasi & road.not.taken; both replys are very helpful. We will look closer to Orchard and the American Club. I'm not interested in my daughter getting mixed up with the drinking crowd. Wanted to know what the "good" kids did for fun. Since she'll be my only one with me I'll be happy for her to bring home friends anytime.

[sundaymorningstaple]

Be warned however, that rentals, while starting to drop, are still directly proportional to the closeness to down town, with districts 9-11 generally being the most costly.

A good place to start would be right here on this site:

http://www.singaporeexpats.com/housing- ... operty.htm

You can check out districts 9-11 here about mid-way down the list or go to the bottom of the page and use "Search condo for RENT by Districts" section there.

Here you can find a list of the various Postal Districts that are used in the Real Estate Business e.g., districts 9, 10 & 11 as well as a map showing their location:

http://www.singaporeexpats.com/singapor ... ctures.htm

[American]

Found this old thread quite interesting. I'm always thinking of where to send the kids when they are of age, SAS of course being on the list. I was over at Newton Food Court for dinner on a Friday a few weekends ago and a good number of SAS kids were hangin' out, bein' teens, just as they would in America. Most were drinking Tiger big bottles (not a big deal, a lot safer than the 'keg' parties I partook in as a teen), making out (I sure hope my daughter doesn't do this!), and just generally being testosterone-driven teens out to have a good time on a Friday night. One of the teens was completely wasted, walking around the food court in circles, stumbling, and mumbling to his friends. Next thing you know, BAM, the kid slams to the floor face town, piss drunk. His friends leave him there for a few minutes and he manages to recover and walk away. Everyone laughs...

While i'm no strict disciplinarian, these have the potential to reflect badly on the student's family, club, school, and fellow Americans here in Singapore. Is it too old fashioned to want our youth to carry themselves as upstanding citizens, at least in highly public areas? As visitors in a foreign land, we should respect and go out of our way to carry ourselves with a higher standard of dignity than we would back home. Whatever happened to getting drunk in the woods or at the beach, far away from your parents friends and family Not at the neighborhood food court in front of all the other expat families (children included ), and a local community with an increasingly anti-foreigner sentiment.

Well I guess the one good thing is that people will come to the rescue and help these kids if they take their drinking (or frisky antics) too far...