Borneo Love.

I was in Sarawak for 2 days last week to meet with the lovely kids that beau and I sponsor who by the way, did awesome in their mid years. A little something in me dies everytime I meet them because their livings lack so much in comparison to a lot of us. They don't even have easy access to basic necessities, they still think it is okay to hunt for food in the woods for leisure and going to school also still means hassle and so much trouble to them. 


Breaks my heart all the time.


When I got back in Malaysia, I was aware of the enlarging number of NGOs helping refugees in Malaysia and I got a bit sad. Sad thinking that while these Malaysians are helping the refugees, a lot more Malaysians are in poverty and even the locals can hardly get basic necessities in life - as simple as education. I'm never saying that helping the refugees is bad but it's really not good to be delivering help to outsiders more than the locals themselves get.


And it is regrettable that people like myself can only do so much...


However, my mood is always lifted seeing how it's the spirit that matters to these people. I will occasionally get texts from these kids saying how the new boats beau gave for school are utilized perfectly and how getting to town is now more convenient with better vehicle. Sometimes, even texts on how they've progressed from failing to passing and from skipping one whole month of school to just one week :P


They say that once we leave this world, we leave nothing behind but our deeds. For all that I lack, I hope this world will keep me in their prayers through the connections built from their hearts to mine.


Amen.

Lesson Learnt.

I have well contemplated on whether to write down on what has happened between Hariss and I for the past weeks or not and this post is written after I sought permission from him. :) Our relationship has gone by for over 2 years and not a day passed by without my feelings becoming deeper.

Some weeks back, a girl very dear to me tried to get in between and being an honest man that he is, he actually told what was happening to me, we were on a phone call for over 2 hours talking and he flew to Seoul where we sat together calmly. It was scary for me because bad expectations were piling up and for a 27 months relationship, lots of emotions were already invested and it was sad if all of that came to an end for such a petty issue.

I was and still glad that we both are very mature and we both appreciate what we have now so much so that we didn't let anything or anyone get in between. While I had said that, I felt guilty that I didn't fight for him as much as he fought for me since I told him to think back of what's best for him and that I would let this relationship go if he thinks that is best for him. It is surreal to know how I'm not a fighter material.

Everything is well now and I'm certain that I've never loved him more. :) Such a darling, this man. So grateful that our paths crossed, he found me and I found him. Makes me whole.

Joker.

1- It's quite unacceptable to be speaking to the elders in English because we're supposed to learn the language and our roots but because I've been living abroad all these while, I always have trouble in expressing some words in Korean. Whenever Hariss comes over, I will introduce to him some cultures that he never know of but one day, we met a son of a family friend whom I've called "oppa" all these while.

Hariss : Why do you need to call him "oppa"?
Me : Because he's older than me.
Hariss : You should just call him formally, by his name. What is this friendly-ness.

2- The Koreans usually bow when meeting each other but Americans hug & give a peck right? I wanted to meet my friends from New York who came over the other day. In the car, Hariss said.

Hariss : Are you going American or Korean this time?
Me : What do you mean?
Hariss : Are you going to greet them American style or Korean style?
Me : ....
Hariss : Greet them Korean style. Respect your culture.

-

A joker.

New Year & New Age.

I turned 22 years old almost a month ago and I sat down with my family and close friends to tell them that I didn't want them to do so much and I would be glad to have a quiet celebration with just who are really dear to my heart. But what did I expect? They threw me a party after another and there was so much love and hard work in between. Blessed!

And Hariss baked me a tremendously nice cake that I didn't even have the heart to cut nor eat!

The cake was also well done by someone who's not a pro at the field and was very significant to me as it was also what I got from my father as a present. :)

All through these years, I feel so grateful that I wasn't really put through hardness by God and everything has been falling into places since Day 1. Couldn't ask for an even better life. And 2012 has been so sweet to me even though it's just begun because I passed all of my final papers which also means my Earth & Environmental Science degree is just a step away after I successfully hand in my coursework and research project!

With all my heart, my spirits are lifted so well and I'm so happy I made it through and didn't listen to what outsiders had got to say. More often than not, a lot of people have the tendency to doubt our abilities to get something done and judge us along the way but what's most important is to know yourself really well and just do it.

I hope it's not too late to wish all of you a happy, bright start to another year! May all of your resolutions come true and everything to go extremely well and smooth for you and your loved ones.

x

Updates.

Happy New Year! :)

I got 2-3 emails asking why haven't I gone into detail in writing on what I'm really up to these days; education, work, personal etc and the reason is that I haven't been inspired at all! ;) Since it's the morning of New Year today, I had a big breakfast with immediate & extended family where we gathered to usher the new year in so much love and unity as a family unit with hugeee spread *still bloated*. After breakfast, we said our prayers of gratefulness in silence besides thanking the God on giving us the good food we had. (we do this after every meal and it is a really healthy practice for all, I think)

In short, I'm now enrolled in Seoul National University reading Earth & Environmental Science as a second degree to deepen my knowledge on this field before I'm properly ready to embark my journey in the industry. I was put straight to the final year due to my prior studies before this in London so my schedule in school isn't as packed. We're quite flexible as to arranging our time table and if one knows he's going to miss like a whole week of lecture, he can do prior learning on his own by listening to the tapes our sunbaes (seniors) had recorded and later on to consult the seniors or our personal tutors for extra help. My studies in London was rather independent where we got very little help from the lecturers as it is not in the westerners culture to do beyond what they're paid to do. Hence, I'm truly happy with the times I'm having in school over here in Korea.

Meanwhile, I'm also sort of interning at GS Caltex where I help out in some research & developments projects (R&D) and also learning bits about marketing and franchising with the seniors. It's like a part-time work I do from Fridays to Sundays to fill in time productively. Although it gets quite busy at times, it's actually really over-whelming since the rest of the workers are really helpful and are all ready to share whatever that they know with me. This chance is also used very well by me and it's such a rare opportunity for a lot of people out there so I'm exceptionally grateful to my grandfather who's always had faith in me and has been the backbone to all the supports that I get in terms of being given spaces and chances to learn, learn and learn.

Also, whenever I don't have evening lectures I would be working alongside my mother at Grand Intercontinental Hotel Seoul Parnas in Gangnam where I work more to public relation field where I attend social events, arranging promos and handling customers care, managing hotels etc . It's a really good exposure for me because I get to meet even more people and I get to experience different sort of work from my day-to-day basis.

Gangnam is located south of Seoul where a lot of my cousins and I were bought an apartment each by the elders in the family so the place is very dear to all of our hearts. It's a normal practice in the family that whenever you reach a certain "mature" age, you are allowed to stay separately from the family so the elders in our family usually buy each of us our own apartment unit and a landed property at an early age so it'll be a smooth transition for us later on. However, most of my cousins and I are still staying with our elders because we've spent a lot of years overseas studying and most of us are only returning for good now at like 22y/o-24y/o so this is the time that we would utilize well to spend with family.

Although we spend quite a lot of times in Gangnam, the homes of our elders are located mostly in Sungbuk-dong, Pyungchang-dong and also Hannam-dong so we rotate a lot. I personally love the whole city but I would prefer to stay not too centre of the city because it gets quite tedious to face the congestions everytime of the day. For now, I'm living at my parents' house in Sungbuk-dong and we also rotate on a monthly basis when we would then live in our other home in Pyungchang-dong, Gangnam, or Hannam.

If anyone of you gets the chance to do it,  I think it's okay to be shifting places every now and then to avoid being bored. For me, I'm loving it a lot. :)

Till my next post.

xx