Let’s move to something different and lighter: differences when it comes to eating. The first day of my internship I was taken to an Asian Food court to eat. It is located on the fourth floor of a business complex known as Amara. You can eat Chinese, Hainanese, Indian, Korean, Japanaese and other typical Asian cuisine. I opted for Chinese cousine and chose something very light and not suspicious: rise, meat balls and vegatables. Everything fine with that.

As I previously wrote, Singapore is a very safe city and its citizens are proud of it. But nothing is as simple as it may appear to be. Security requires tighter controls and surveillance which clash with some of our basic rights. Why am I saying this? It’s fairly simple. Whenever you take the MRT (which refers to the underground), especially for long distances as I do, you keep hearing “If you see any suspicious looking person or article, please inform our staff. Or press the emergency communication button located at the side of the door”. I found this announcement rather amusing, but I was shocked when the first Sunday I was here I was waiting for the Train and I watched a video which clearly illustrated what a “suspicious looking person” was and what action the good and diligent citizen had to take.

Three things strike you when you get to Singapore: the green, security and order. If you think you’ll find the same mess as in China you are completely wrong. It’s nothing like that. Every detail is carefully looked after. Flower-beds and parks are cleaned nearly every day. Pavements are neat and so is every building. Even the underground is clean and you feel you can sit down without worrying about grease and dirt or a bad smell (I really can’t say the same about Milan…).

I’ve been in Singapore for over a month and I thought I’d share some comments on this incredible city. Please note that I didn’t have the time to get ready for this experience seeing as I only had a week to get everything up and running with lots to do before leaving Italy. So I will post some titbits as I come across them.