When daylight saving time ends

3rd month living as an international student. If you ask if I had settled down well in this foreign country, not to mention the temperature dropping every single day, the answer is Yes :) Surprisingly, I had adapted quite well to the Gua Lou lifestyle pretty well.

Being here actually changed me quite a lot. I had learnt to cook and even try to experiment some new recipe alongside my good friend. If I was still in my home country, I doubt I can have simple meals 3 times a day which only consist of sandwiches for lunch and defrost and steamed dish with vegetable for dinner. I was brought up that way that I had traditional Chinese cooking which consists of AT LEAST 3 dishes, 2 meat and 1 vegetable, so back when I was still doing my first 2 years in Malaysia, I find it so hard to cook by myself and I am not satisfy with just one dish. Coming here, suddenly I learnt to appreciate every single meal and just one dish can brighten up my day :) Simple desserts such as fruits and occasionally tiramisu/ice cream/ cheesecakes. My mum called this place Dessert Heaven, which is so true :D

I appreciated sunlight a lot since coming here. All of you back in Malaysia, try not to complain about how hot the weather is and I know it is very hard but you'll definitely miss it here as sunlight is so sacred! Another thing I appreciate is TIME. It might sound weird but time seems to fly by so fast here. In a blink of an eye, it's the end of October already and I'm still trying my best to keep up with everything. Days are getting shorter day by day, it gets dark at about 5pm now and soon, 4pm. So, the days are really getting shorter, however the workload seems to have an inverse relationship with the amount of daylight.

Simple pleasures like a walk to grocery shopping, looking at food and playing piano had become motivation for me to stay positive and smile. Things that I used to take for granted had became such important pleasures  here that I looked forward to every weekend or free day!

Anyway, I am proud to say that I am adapting very well here and appreciating this once in a lifetime chance very much =)

7 hour difference

The time that I had always feared finally came. It was time for me to pack up my belongings and leave the comfort zone to an entirely new place.

Prior to entering 3rd year, I have to switched from the Malaysia Campus to the UK campus. During my summer holidays right after my trip to NZ, I have to rush to get my visa done and start to pack up. Believe me, I did not feel anything at that moment in time. Neither did I feel like I am about to leave when my lovely family planned a catered farewell dinner for me a week before I fly off. I thought to myself, hey, am I in denial? Then the day came. It wasn't until I have to bid my daddy and 2 younger siblings farewell that I feel like I am about to leave. When I hugged my dad, tears started to gush out from the corner of my eyes. I can feel my daddy is feeling heavy hearted as well and that activates my tear glands even more!

Luckily, I have my mum with me for 2 weeks. She did a really good job in helping me to settle in to a new place, set a routine for me as well and most importantly COOKS for me! Then came the one week placement with Boots pharmacy. That week went off in the speed of light and before I know it, my mum is starting to pack her things to go back. And ta-da! I felt my anxiety coming back to me the day before she left. I promised myself that I would not cry when she gets on the taxi, and miraculously I didn't! My good friend FY came over after she left and I am really glad that she came, because she kept me company and I did not have time to miss home.

Orientation started the following week and I started to feel abit stressed out by the groupings and labs AND LECTURES that we are going to have, that is when I started to feel homesick. My best friend helps me a lot by giving me really good advice on how to cope with the situation and make this short 2 years an experience of a lifetime. The first week of lectures did not went so well as I have yet to jump-start my momentum and there were an issue with the house I was currently renting. The only comfort was that we planned a trip to London that week and I was really glad I went there. A very nice friend of mine showed us around and I was able to take my mind off certain things and had a listening ear for me to vent out my problems. A big thank you to you :)

And thus, I have almost been here for 1 month now and I surprise myself for being able to settle in so fast as compared to when I am still in KY and Malaysia Campus. I guess I did grow up after all. Let just hope everything would get better from now on. For those who are starting their term soon as well, Happy Studying then :)

21

I finally crept into adulthood, well.. Legally I guess.

If you ask me if I feel any difference, well no. I guess not. I am still the same old 18 years old me :) My face didn't stop growing pimples, and neither am I starting to lose my baby fats. So, in conclusion, age is just a number! WEEE!!!

But I know one thing has changed, that is I have to start taking responsibility for myself as I am an adult legally! Parents are not liable for what troubles I created and I shall start to think about financial independence I guess. Wow, maybe turning 21 is not such a good thing! Anyway, turning 21 in Vietnam is cool as well. My family went as far as to purchase a local birthday cake for me and ended up the whole restaurant singing birthday song for me :) Such a warm country Vietnam is. Even the customers joined in the fun! My mum, which is in Malaysia posted a lovely picture of my Labrador with a happy birthday cardboard dangling on his neck! That picture is so cute!

I definitely felt loved by everyone and how blessed I am to have such a great family :)

So, A BIG THANK YOU TO EVERY ONE OF YOU WHO MADE ME WHO I AM TODAY! I love you guys so much!

Blah Blah Blah

Life is short. We don't have enough time so why waste your time being someone you are not?

Love that phrase. Yet, I guess the society/norm force us to sometimes be someone who we are not. Either you do it, or you end up being a social outcast!

I for one, is very antisocial. Since secondary school, my circle of friends is very small, I mean I am comfortable being with that few people so I don't feel the need to go and mingle around. My mum is always worried about that fact, as this means that I will not have opportunity to meet new people. Well, to be honest, I am not rude or arrogant. If you see me and I didn't smile at you sometimes, it means that I didn't see you. Not because I purposely ignore you. I am born with sharp looking eyes and so please don't take it personally and think that I have some bad impression about you.

Also, I am shy. Yes, as hard as it seems, I find it difficult to start a conversation with someone. So, don't take it personally. If you know me well enough, you will realise that I am actually quite a chatterbox. I'm open to all criticism so if you do have something to tell me, don't hide it and just say it straight to my face. I would rather you tell me face-to-face that you don't particularly like something I did than making me wondering what have I done to you that make you feel that way.

Anyway, that's me :)

Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai

from left: Tsuruko, Yukiatsu, Menma, Jintan, Anaru and Poppo

It's a long name, I know. Even now I had trouble remembering it.

Anyways, I've been cooped up with all the exam revisions recently ( the exam is still ongoing til this very moment ) that I desperately want to de-stress. Knowing myself that I'm a hardcore anime and manga fan, I searched all over the net for some really nice anime to relieve the tension. Then it struck my mind. The recent Shounen Jump, well NOT the Shounen Jump from Japan but the one translated by our locals featured this beautiful piece of Anime. Due to its lengthy name, the production group and fans called it Ano Hana, which basically means that flower. Well, if you want a full translation of the lengthy anime title, it's called We still don't know the name of the flower we saw that day.

It's a beautifully done piece of work. With its plot surrounding 5 grieving childhood friends who are still feeling guilty over the death of our protagonist Menma that lead them to drift away from each other. Given the recent Anime which deals with more physical appearance ( showing more skin) this focus more on the emotional side of human nature.

The story starts out with our main character Yadomi Jinta, or known to us as Jintan started seeing his deceased childhood friend Honma Meiko (Menma) at his house. Jintan thought it was a manifestation of his guilt and stress towards the death of Menma that he started hallucinating her, even calling her the beast of summer. However, Menma told him that she haven't fulfilled her wish so she can't go to heaven and be reincarnated yet. The problem is that, Menma can't remember what's the wish she wanted to fulfill. Thus, the story begins. Jintan had been a shut-in since Menma's death and so we can slowly see the changes as he try to help Menma fulfill her wish. And this means that he would have to go back to the painful past. The beautiful thing about this story is that it is so realistic. All the childhood friends are guilty about her death, thinking that they played a part as they were with her that very day. They think that if they didn't do what they had done that day, Menma wouldn't have died. They were stuck at the time when Menma passed on. Her name has been a taboo for all of them and when Jintan told them that Menma is around them, they were all thinking that he was mad, telling him to snap out of it while trying to convince themselves at the same time too.

Each episode gives emphasis on one of the people close to Menma. How some were envious of her, some were in love with her and it even gives us a viewpoint from the family of Menma. How the parents were also unable to move on, how the mother cope with the death of her young daughter. You might think it's kinda creepy as it revolves around a dead spirit clinging onto a person, but it is being projected in a way that totally does not resembles any ghost movies.

enma, although she knew that she died, still holds on to her happy-go-lucky personality and certainly does not blame anyone for her death. Each character are also projected as someone you can relate to. How they struggle to live everyday despite the death of a person very dear to them. As a saying goes, it's not the one who pass away are sad. It's those who were left behind and have no other choice but continue to live. Although the Anime only last 11 episodes, it's still worth a watch. It finishes the story bittersweet. The difference with such Anime is that right from the very start, we know that at the end, the protagonist will be gone. Another example will be Final Fantasy Crisis Core, where from the very start of the game we know the main character is going to die at the end. However, this does not stop you from playing. This Anime has that power to make you wanna watch til the very end.

Anyway, I highly recommend this Anime :) It'll make you think twice before being nasty to someone and encourage you to live your life to the fullest, treating each day like the very last day you'll be on Earth.

What might happen if Menma didn't died that day :)