EN - Singaporean football and library culture

After giving you the silent treatment for two weeks, I decided that it was time to write a new blog. Since my blogs are mostly about school and travelling, I decided to dedicate a small part of this blog to talk about something I really love: football!

Two weeks ago, after being back from Lombok for only 2 days, we had planned our next exciting activity. Since the national stadium of Singapore hasn’t been open for long, they try to host lots of activities. Due to the fact that Singapore’s national team is shite, they organized a match on 14 October with other countries that every football fan was looking forward to: Japan vs. Brazil. This match surprised me in many ways!

Japan started the game pretty convincing, but it soon became apparent that they wouldn’t stand a chance. The Brazilian whirlwind, led by Neymar (he scored 4 times) wiped Japan off the pitch and got the people off their seats time after time. The final whistle was blown at 0-4, and we left the stadium satisfied. This match exceeded our expectations, but what happened outside the pitch was even more surprising!

Soon after the first whistle, it became apparent that Singaporeans don’t know anything about football and football culture. Instead of supporting either of the two teams, the fans only went crazy when players like Neymar received the ball, whether he did something useful with it or not, all people started cheering. One wave after the other was being started, but these constantly died down when they reached the fans who paid for expensive tickets. And during halftime, the public could play games on the big screens by yelling as loud as possible, which was followed with organ music (of which I’m pretty sure they only play it during baseball games).

The match was one of the few exciting things I did since, because I’ve been pretty preoccupied with school lately. I’ve went out a couple of times, but that’s it. Since the semester is coming to an end soon, a lot of group and individual projects have to be finished, and just now I had my first exam already. Due to the celebration of Diwali (a Hindu festival), I only had one day of school last week, but the rest of the week I spent a lot of time in the library. On Sunday, I even found out that students queue up in large amounts to enter the library when it opens, so they can get the best spots (I’m not kidding). And here comes the worst part: we decided to just join them..

But like I said, the end of the semester is getting near. In a bit more than 2 weeks, classes are over, and two weeks after that, on the 26th of November, I have my last exam. And since I don’t feel that I need to study two weeks for only one exam, we decided to go to Bali for a week in between.

In addition to that, I’m also planning my big trip after the semester. If nothing changes, I’m probably leaving on the 29th of November, and returning to Singapore on the 15th of January. That leaves me about 7 weeks to travel to Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, and possibly another country as well. Anyway, I’m really excited!

Take care and see you next time!

I attached a couple of pictures in the Dutch version of this blog!