There was a lot going through my mind just before my departure from Singapore in Feb 2003. That I was stepping into a larger world was foremost. At that point, since I wasn’t seeing anyone, my only ties to Singapore were family, my colleagues, and some friends from my ex-small group, Salmon Run, that I still kept in touch with. Singapore had not started its big push into interactive entertainment then, and the hubs for game studies weren’t in Asia or Australia. The possibility of permanent residency outside Singapore was a real consideration that I wasn’t adverse to.
In any case, I wrote a large number of emails and letters to friends – back then there wasn’t this thing called Facebook where you can just set a status flag and inform everyone at a go – informing them of my arrangements, catching up and the like. Lots of little emotions I remembered. A lot of anticipation to learn and see new things. A little worried about my costs and expenditure (though parents helped a lot in this respect). A little sad that my relationship with someone I was seeing hadn’t worked out – she’d stated in emphatic terms that she just didn’t see a relationship with someone doing an Ph.D outside Singapore turning well.
So, on a quiet Sunday morning on 24 Feb, the Lentor branch of the Foo clan all came to bid me farewell, and I took off.
One of the nice things about living in Western Australia is its proximity to Singapore. Not only are flight times reasonably short at just under 5 hours, time zones are typically similar outside periods of daylight savings. There were two airlines (Singapore Air and Qantas) flying daily to Perth too, and Valuair introduced flights later on as well.
As it turned out, my flight to Perth was delayed by 30 minutes but was otherwise uneventful. The airport was a short 15 minute drive from the University and my new home. I was picked up at the airport by Dr. Dreher, who drove me first to meet the housing agent to finish up parts of the the paperwork that couldn’t be done online and through email.
After getting the house keys and a quick inspection of the house, we went by the University for a tour of the campus. The place was eerily quiet and completely devoid of all activity. It was a Sunday afterall, and even if not, semester break. Quite different from NTU’s Jurong campus, which was permanently bustling with activity from hostelites at all times, even well dead into the nights.
The day’s events closed off with dinner with a visit to Dr. Dreher’s place, then dinner with his family (we hit an Asian restaurant), and finally a return back to my new home at Beveridge Street. More on this in the next post.:)
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