I left my current home in Hanoi to party it up with a crowd of 08’ers here in Singapore. It was pretty great to reunite with old friends in a totally new locale - certainly made the global Princeton family feel even more tight knit.Kurt Kuehne (’08) and I began with dinner at the foodstall hawker center in the center of town. Kebabs and meat soup, OJ and Tiger beer, and followed with fried dough and a mango-milk-ice creation were our last meal of the year.
From there, we made our way towards Sentosa, one of Singapore’s nightlife spots. It's actually a party island, though like much of Singapore, it's got the same super clean and overly planned feeling that Disney World does, which makes it less convincing as a wild, hedonistic party.
Speaking of perfect - the air was rolling in off the ocean, cool and not polluted, something I appreciate coming from Hanoi. We walked with flocks of other people in beach attire down towards the booming music at the Siloso Beach Party, with fireworks going off around us. It took us a while to navigate the system of redeeming our one free drink – critical to we PiAers of little budget in a country with an alcohol tax as high as Singapore’s – and then went over to meet Jay Serpe, Caroline Loevner, Colin Emerson (all ’08) and Nathan Edgerton (’07) in the hookah tent.
We relaxed and chatted, as the PiA-Singapore teachers all caught up with each other on their adventures traveling during their school holidays – trips back home to California and crazy tales of traveling in Myanmar – until just about quarter to midnight.
It made me wonder what 2009 will bring for me, and for all of us in the class of 2008, especially given the whirlwind turns of events in the US the past few months.
From there, we made our way towards Sentosa, one of Singapore’s nightlife spots. It's actually a party island, though like much of Singapore, it's got the same super clean and overly planned feeling that Disney World does, which makes it less convincing as a wild, hedonistic party.
Speaking of perfect - the air was rolling in off the ocean, cool and not polluted, something I appreciate coming from Hanoi. We walked with flocks of other people in beach attire down towards the booming music at the Siloso Beach Party, with fireworks going off around us. It took us a while to navigate the system of redeeming our one free drink – critical to we PiAers of little budget in a country with an alcohol tax as high as Singapore’s – and then went over to meet Jay Serpe, Caroline Loevner, Colin Emerson (all ’08) and Nathan Edgerton (’07) in the hookah tent.
We relaxed and chatted, as the PiA-Singapore teachers all caught up with each other on their adventures traveling during their school holidays – trips back home to California and crazy tales of traveling in Myanmar – until just about quarter to midnight.
Realizing we only had a few more minutes of 2008, we joined the crowd of Singaporeans (ethnically Malaysian, Chinese, Indian etc etc), foreign expats, and visitors of all ages on the beach near the stage. As the DJ reminded us how many minutes of 2008 remained (15 minutes! ... 10 minutes!), I thought how in 2008 I'd managed to graduate from college, move to Asia, and was now celebrating the start of 2009 with a sand-and-foam-covered international mélange of people.
It made me wonder what 2009 will bring for me, and for all of us in the class of 2008, especially given the whirlwind turns of events in the US the past few months.
Fortunately, we hit 10 seconds, then 5, then 3…2…1! and all the big questions about the future were forgotten. For the next hours, it was all about the party (and the giant trampoline).
HAPPY NEW YEARS! For those in New York (my original, original home town), enjoy the last hours of 2008 - we're already in recovery mode here, and the ball is just about to drop in Times Square. I hope the champagne is flowing.
