meeting fellow singaporeans in a foreign city can be a very exciting and happy thing. on wednesday, 3 singaporean colleagues, lai peng, choon eng and ying soon treated us (the 3 interns) to dinner. these 3 colleagues were sent over from the main office in singapore, and they were doing management and consulting work here china. so, they are, in actual fact, expatriates from singapore, holding high positions, earning big pay cheques and living in service apartments, etc. i was pleasantly surprised when one of them initiated to bring us out for dinner, them being on the management level, and us being interns. and the whole event turned out to be very enjoyable. we had dinner in a chinese restaurant in hengshan area. hengshan area actually really looks like orchard road! hmm, the dishes were good, and there were some spicy food. (i miss chilli!) the best must be the pig’s trotter. wah, one whole big lump of fats! put some into your mouth and they really melt! heavenly man! we ordered too much food, and ended up wasting a lot of food. we were really full! then we went to “xin tian di” for ice-cream. we went to a super high class ice-cream restaurant. lai peng treated, and she recommended lemon ice-cream. it was really sour, but super shiok! i ate and ate until i got hiccups. wahaha… what a glutton. the ice-cream costs almost as much as our main meal, so i guess it must be really expensive. “xin tian di” is a place with a very modern, pub area, like our boat quay and holland v, only the atmosphere is a lot more livelier and better. there were american, french and other other types of restaurants and pubs there, very alfresco. one interesting thing was that, when walking along the walkways, you can really spot the “girls” sitting alone, waiting to be picked up and earn their bucks. they are very indiscreet about looking out for “targets”. woah! the 3 expats told us here in shanghai, they have a chinese saying that goes, “men becomes bad when they get rich, women becomes rich when they get bad.” (男人有钱会变坏，女人变坏会有钱.) going out with singaporeans feels very warm and familiar, especially in a foreign place. we hit off pretty fast, and it was a good feeling to be able to speak english/ singlish/ non-standard mandarin at ease. the topics are also less restrictive, and we do not have to watch how politically correct we are all the time. i think that’s how the filipinos and indian nationals and thais and americans in singapore feel too, that’s why they all have “their” own place to gather and meet fellow countrymen. they really want to feel at ease sometime in a totally foreign environment, to mingle with their own people, because it’s where you feel you can really connect. i really understand the good feeling of meeting fellow countrymen (同乡) man!