Worlds Collide

On a warm Saturday night, not too long ago, I set out for a night on the town. I had recently met some GW Alumni living abroad in Singapore, and we planned to hang out. So, on this one Saturday, not too long ago, after a few missed phone calls, we made just that happen. I was to meet Sean* and his buddies at Emerald Hill (an alley off of Orchard Road that hosts a number of outdoor pubs, a popular hang out).

I called up my friend, Paloma, a first year film student at NYU, originally from New Mexico, and she readily agreed to accompany me. Coincidentally, Paloma had just finished production for a second year film student, and their after party was at Emerald Hill. Paloma and I decided to meet my GW acquaintance first, and then continue on to meet up with the NYU crowd.

We met Sean at a bar, Ice Cold (what a dumb name for a bar), and had a drink. I was delighted to see that this random Singapore bar sells Magners, my drink of choice when in London! I enjoyed talking to Sean and his girlfriend, who were both eager to hear about film school and the play I was debuting the next weekend. They had said on multiple occasions that they would definitely attend the ten minute play festival, and looking forward to seeing my Ikea comedy.

Meanwhile, I struck up a conversation with Chet,* a friend and colleague of Sean’s. Apparently, they both work as Federal Intelligence Agents for the U.S. Navy here in Singapore. Chet reminded me of Jesse, an AirForce guy I knew and liked while working at Gordon Biersch, so I enjoyed the interactions, purely based on nostalgia. After about a half an hour or so, I bid the boys adieu and moved on to NYU.

The NYU kids were just two bars down, at their favorite hangout, Bar 5. (Most liked for its 1 for 1 drink specials and its rustic feel.) Paloma and I found the crew upstairs, playing pool and having a good time. After about another half hour or so, Paloma and I decided to say farewell and head off in search of food.

An hour later, returning from our food and conversation, about to turn in for the night, we ran into Delila,* the girlfriend of one Tad* (one of our NYU buddies), looking visibly upset, and being comforted by Drew,* another NYU buddy. (Interestingly, Delila was a classmate of mine at GW as well, but she transferred after two years.)

Delila and Tad explained that our friends who were playing pool got in a fight and then ran for their lives. Delila was concerned because Tad, who wasn’t involved in the fight, was still at the bar, and she didn’t know what was happening. She was worried that the cops were called and that he’d be forced to give his name and information and she didn’t want him doing anything stupid. She seemed incredibly scared and upset and they didn’t want to go back to the bar. I suggested, that since Paloma and I hadn’t been there for the fight, that we could go back and make sure that Tad, et al, were okay, and we’d get him out of there safely.

So we go back to #5 and up the stairs and sure enough there is Tad who is surrounded by a mob of angry people. I immediately notice that it is the same group I had met at the bar earlier, the GW alumni and his friends. I hang back in order to observe the situation. After a few minutes, the GW gang leaves, and as they pass, I notice that Sean’s face is all bloody. As he sees me he says, in a rather paranoid tone of voice might I add, “Stephanie, you’ve got to get us out of here.” (To this day, I still don’t know what that means!) I basically said, “sorry, I can’t really help you” as I thought to myself, “why don’t you just walk out the door, I’m sure that’s the easiest way out of this place…” Meanwhile, Tad has been taken by what looks like a bouncer to a back corner in the bar. There is a manager there, questioning him. He’s right near the pool table, so I say, “Paloma, come on, we’re going to play pool.” What I was really doing was positioning myself so that I could hear the conversation with the manager, and make sure Tad was okay. In the process, I ended up playing the best pool game of my life, sinking about 6 balls in a row. I cleared the table before Paloma even got a shot! Tad was basically saying to the manager, “Look, if I wanted to cause trouble I wouldn’t have stayed, I’m here now, aren’t I?” He gave the manager his phone number and name, but not the name of the two who fled. Eventually, we followed Tad out.

But Sean and his crew were waiting for us outside. Angry. Being in a position where I knew both parties, and both parties saw me as a friend, so to speak, I decided to try to appease the situation. At first, I talked to Sean’s girlfriend, to try to assess what happened. She was basically saying, “we’re going to find those guys and call the cops.” She asked me if I knew them. I basically plead the fifth, saying, “I’m just here to make sure my friend Tad, who I understand wasn’t involved, get out of here safely. That’s all. I wasn’t here to see what happened our who did what.” Etc, etc. Then I talked to Chet, the guy who was hitting on me earlier. I basically was like, “look, this wasn’t Tad’s fault, try to get your friend to leave him alone.”

I mean, what it boiled down to was this: it was a bar fight. Yeah, bar fights suck, but you know what? If we were in NY or DC, the person would be thrown out of the bar, probably asked to never come back, maybe get a warning from the cops, a fine, I don’t know. But this is Singapore. If my friends had been arrested that night, they would have been jailed or exported, and not back at NYU TischAsia.

Sean was still harassing Tad to the point where Tad was near tears, when Sean proclaimed that Tad had a duty to his country, and implied, that by not giving the names of his friends, Tad was committing some sort of high crime to his country. In an impassioned speech, Tad proclaimed that it was not fair of him to compare a stupid drunken bar fight to being unpatriotic, or whatnot. “I’m twenty-three years old. Twenty-three, and I have a friend being sent to Iraq next week, and you want to bring this to that level?’ We eventually got Tad out of there, alive, but it was after a long night of rationalizing and de-rationalizing.

I don’t know what happened in that bar when I left for dinner. Apparently, Sean came upstairs alone and threatened Joe* (one of the NYU guys playing pool), and Joe, who’s a boxer, punched him three times in rapid succession, according to witnesses it was out of self defense. But the next three times, which temporarily knocked out Sean, was probably not as warranted. What I don’t know is why any of this happened, but what I can’t get over is that those GW guys were only in the bar because that’s where I went after I left them, and my two worlds—GWU and NYU—literally, collided.


*Note: for purposes of this blog post, the names of several of the characters have been changed.