Read the unvarnished truth about the expat lifestyle! Singapore, shining example of modernity and development in Asia? Or "Disneyland with the Death Penalty"? I was ready to leave Europe, but knew nothing about Asian culture. Landing in Singapore was a crash course. Learning the difference between North Americans and Europeans was kindergarten compared to East meeting West. I'd left my job just before the grand entrance of the Global Financial Crisis, and Singapore was fiercely protecting its own. I was no longer branded with a corporate identity and I wasn't anyone's mother. Not only did my external landscape undergo a radical transformation, my internal one was left in ashes. I had to go looking for it in Tokyo, Cambodia, Vietnam, and New Zealand − places I never expected to find myself. When I did, no one was more surprised than I.