American Football

Dated: 4 Feb 2013

I woke up early in the morning in part because I had gone to sleep at 3pm the day before, and also the Super Bowl was on at 7am (Singapore time). I may sound really American when I say this, but I NEVER miss the Super Bowl! So I got a huge wave of home sickness as I read Facebook feeds of people going off to bars and hackling each other about who's going to win this year. I admit, I cried a little. When I let my mother know about my home sickness she looked up this bar in the business district. The bar was called Dallas (ugh, why couldn't it be called Washington... But I digress...). So I gathered my courage, took a shower, and asked my grandfather to help me hail a cab. My grandfather thought it was funny that I was going to a bar at 7:30am, but you gotta do what you gotta do to keep yourself from completely losing yourself to home sickness.
The cab ride was around $15 for a 20 minute ride because of three factors: hailed it off the street ($3 fee), took it during rush hour (~$3), and the route the cab driver took was through the business district toll area (~$5). Add it on to the regular fare and it came out to be an expensive ride. But I didn't mind, this was the Super Bowl we're talking about. $15 is chump change compared to the $1,000 tickets people paid to sit in the stadium's parking lot.
I found the bar easily because it was the only one open and with so many Caucasians staring at the three TVs available. I sat at the bar because I didn't reserve a table, and later found out that I was lucky to even find sitting space. Apparently all the other American bars and clubs were packed. I had missed about 10 minutes into the game. I ordered myself a drink ($16 - Singapore is crazy expensive at bars) and plugged myself into the game.
I felt good to be there cause I was in my element. One of my first real jobs was at an Irish pub and they had a great saying: strangers are only friends you hadn't met yet. Soon I was talking to everyone around me. We discussed the game, politics, business, and, of course, life in Singapore. Everyone was older and were already established with a job so I looked like the bright-eyed youngster who's taking a backpacking trip. I worked in that I was looking for a job, but did not gain any good networks protaining to my career field. However, I was quite satisfied - not about the game, cause I was rooting for the 49ers, or about my job search - but because I was able to be on my own, in a different place, with different people, and still manage to enjoy myself. I was worried that I was going to be closed up and shy, but it turns out that all you need to do is baby steps. I took one baby step out of the comfort of my grandparents house and took on a new part of the world.