Culture Shock - Arriving in singapore

[zzm9980]

- OMG, a young girl wearing 'Ugly Betty' spectacle frames, with no lenses in. Something, again, that I have not seen since I was last in Singapore.

Haha this drives me nuts. I see it all over Asia though. I actually had lunch with a friend in Shanghai last week and she was doing this. I reached over, motioned as if to tap her lense and just said 为ä»â‚¬ä¹ˆ? (wei shen me / Why?) with a condescending look (not intentional!) on my face. Pretty sure I embarrassed the hell out of her which I didn't mean to.

[sundaymorningstaple]

- A girl with a circular vaccination scar on her shoulder, and red iodine stains dripped down her arm. It creates an impression of her having been bitten by a vampire.

This was another of the things that caught my eye when I first got here - the sheer numbers of huge, near-mutilation level vaccination scars, I'd never seen that anywhere else before

The scarring of the vaccinations is called keloid scarring and it is more prevalent in Africans, Asians and Indians due to darker pigmentation of the skin for some reason.

http://keloid212.com/

[Wd40]

At lunch, Indian food was served and I pity the UK folks. They were trying to eat the rotis with fork and spoons

Well duh! ( ), that's how we do it in England, so obviously it's the proper way yah?

No way, absolutely not. This is how you eat roti

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aC8VHdCZoQ

and btw, just back from Vivocity and I saw your Pull&Bear shop there

[Sergei82]

- Pondering the contradiction of fining people for littering, but then not providing any litter bins.

- Nowhere to sit anywhere public, not even in the park. Shame as I'd love to get some sun as the Vitamin D and general acclimatisation would be good for me. I sit on a bit of wall, but within a few minutes it (the wall, not the sun!) becomes too hot to stay.

- Super pricey discretionary products (crisps, nuts, biscuits, condiments etc) all put on the ends of aisles.

+ 1 EXTREMELY frustrating!!!

- A girl with a circular vaccination scar on her shoulder, and red iodine stains dripped down her arm. It creates an impression of her having been bitten by a vampire.

This is interesting. Until now I do not understand why so many Singaporeans (including my gf) are so much scarred with this up to a point that sometimes it looks like a mutilation. I have a vaccination scar (USSR, childhood), but it is very small, not as huge as locals have! Butchers!

[Sergei82]

At lunch, Indian food was served and I pity the UK folks. They were trying to eat the rotis with fork and spoons

Well duh! ( ), that's how we do it in England, so obviously it's the proper way yah?

No way, absolutely not. This is how you eat roti

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aC8VHdCZoQ

and btw, just back from Vivocity and I saw your Pull&Bear shop there

I'm sorry, Wd40, I can't hold it... even now when I know, I will use fork and knife anyway. Sheehs!!!
Is information I read in the internet about prevalent use of "right hand method" in toilets instead of toilet paper in India correct? Is roti eaten before or after that?

[Sergei82]

- A girl with a circular vaccination scar on her shoulder, and red iodine stains dripped down her arm. It creates an impression of her having been bitten by a vampire.

This was another of the things that caught my eye when I first got here - the sheer numbers of huge, near-mutilation level vaccination scars, I'd never seen that anywhere else before

The scarring of the vaccinations is called keloid scarring and it is more prevalent in Africans, Asians and Indians due to darker pigmentation of the skin for some reason.

http://keloid212.com/

I see a Chinese guy in gym's changing room every so often - his whole chest and back are covered with these things!

[Addadude]

This is interesting. Until now I do not understand why so many Singaporeans (including my gf) are so much scarred with this up to a point that sometimes it looks like a mutilation. I have a vaccination scar (USSR, childhood), but it is very small, not as huge as locals have! Butchers!

To JR and Sergei: In my experience, raised keloid scars from BCG shots are relatively rare in Singaporeans. It tends to be more commonly seen in Malaysians.

[Sergei82]

To JR and Sergei: In my experience, raised keloid scars from BCG shots are relatively rare in Singaporeans. It tends to be more commonly seen in Malaysians.

True. But I saw it on fair-skinned Malay Chinese as well. Interesting, is it an exception or a pattern and they inject something dangerous in Malaysia?

[Sergei82]

JR8, have you already observed what is happening with tails of most local cats? Or it was the same last time you lived in Singapore?

[the lynx]

Mine is just a very small scar, less than 1 cm in diameter.

I personally think raised keloid scars depends on individuals. Not exactly a Malaysian/Singaporean thing and I don't think it is some form on vaccination scandal Sergei is alluding to.

[Sergei82]

Mine is just a very small scar, less than 1 cm in diameter.

I personally think raised keloid scars depends on individuals. Not exactly a Malaysian/Singaporean thing and I don't think it is some form on vaccination scandal Sergei is alluding to.

I've never seen this while living in Ukraine, Russia, Korea. Only here.

[JR8]

JR8, have you already observed what is happening with tails of most local cats? Or it was the same last time you lived in Singapore?

Hi Sergei,
Apparently it's genetic in-breeding between stray cats. It's certainly nothing new in my experience.

[Wd40]

Well duh! ( ), that's how we do it in England, so obviously it's the proper way yah?

No way, absolutely not. This is how you eat roti

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aC8VHdCZoQ

and btw, just back from Vivocity and I saw your Pull&Bear shop there

I'm sorry, Wd40, I can't hold it... even now when I know, I will use fork and knife anyway. Sheehs!!!
Is information I read in the internet about prevalent use of "right hand method" in toilets instead of toilet paper in India correct? Is roti eaten before or after that?

Nope, its the left hand method. Roti can be eaten before or after, but not "during"

[JR8]

- Walk out of hotel, and within 100m a black Lamborghini goes by.

- A teenage girl, wearing a white hoodie (hood up), with two little 'furry animal ears' on top of the hood.

- Low seating at Canele for lunch, again well below my knee height.

- Spending about 2hrs in a local bank simply to make my wife's account a joint account. One hour queueing, and one hour standing by the counter answering questions (we originally went to a busier branch where they estimated the queue alone at 2hrs long!). If this is how they treat us now...

- Next to the 'House of condoms' on Orchard is a massage shop called 'Press and rub'. Sounds rude.

- A sports car branded on badge as 'T', and model name Tuscani. Seems it's a Hyundai?

- An armed guard in the bank.

- No glass wall between the public and cashier area in the bank (seems to contradict the above).

- Adverts for ' D'Nest ' condo. OMG, how vulgar!

- Classified property ads. About 50 ads from Huttons over two columns, all re: two apartments in two condos, just listed under individual negotiator names. Can't figure this one at all.

- Condo name ' D'Hiro '

- A scruffy woman at the bank depositing a S$10k note and maybe 20 * $1k notes that she sort of randomly fished out of her handbag one by one into a pile.

- Guy on the other side of me withdrawing $50 notes. About the equivalent stack of four house-bricks. - Cash economy issit?

- There being a coin-counter behind the bank-teller (sounded like a Tokyo pachinko parlour), and banknote counter by each clerk, when either was running (most of the time, apparently), I couldn't hear a thing the teller said to me. A veritable cacophony.

- Teenagers doing their first-steps making out in public at the mall (staring into each others eyes in rather a possessed awkward way, stroking hair. At one point the young chap tried to hug a girl, but instead got her in something of a head-lock).

- The bank calling at 8pm to say we hadn't signed one form (I had, wife hadn't), and could we come back tomorrow.... grrr!

- A girl with spectacles above which sprouted a pair of diamante covered rabbit-ear projections.

- The bank asking me if I'd had an account with them before, and me replying yes, but about 18 years ago... and then them pulling up all the account details in 5 seconds!?

[zzm9980]

- A sports car branded on badge as 'T', and model name Tuscani. Seems it's a Hyundai?

It is a Hyundai. Despite their marketing department's best efforts, it is not a sports car. In the US (and perhaps Europe) it is the Tiburon, Spanish for Shark.

- Guy on the other side of me withdrawing $50 notes. About the equivalent stack of four house-bricks. - Cash economy issit?

I saw the exact same thing the very first time I went to POSB to open an account. The one at Raffle's Place Arcade. Three Miami-Vice wanna-be gangster looking Indian guys. $105k SGD in 50s. They even put it into a brown paper bag. I assume they were paying the banglas I see all over.