华人，还是马来西亚人？

以往放学时，有都会从后门速闪，可是今天我从大门离开，踏出讲堂，离开这具有深重意义的最后一堂课前，特地向前握了教授的手，当下的情况也只能用一句“谢谢”来代替千言万语。


我们打从小学开始就被灌输种族和谐的理念，尽管生活在一个多远种族的国家，可从小到大都活在自己的生活圈子里，从来没离开过大马华社半步，上课跟华人同学一起上，人住在檳島，就连逛街或者在街上游荡，看见的多数都是华人，极少接触异族文化，自然国语也讲的不流利。


思维逐渐发展，开始对时事产生兴趣时，却开始被政治洗脑。刚成年的我们还没踏出社会却被网路上一些种族极端主义和政治人物的种族言论清洗，还搞不清楚整件事情到底是怎么一回事，却已经自己认为大马不宜再居住。

中六毕业后，爱探险的我决定自己离开大马，看看这世界，开阔一下视野。

去了柬埔寨以后才发觉，自己国家其实没那么糟；听了捷克的民主革命经验后，才意识到一个国家迈向独立之路不简单；看见英国如何保护非洲移民的人权地位，才知道种族和谐来之不易；去了法国看见他们黑皮肤白皮肤通通都自认是法国人，才知道对自己身份认同的重要性。


我，是华人，还是马来西亚人，后者，成为了我在国际平台的身份。


接着大学开课了，那应该是我人身中真真正正体验大马多元种族与文化的开始，族群比例按照大马实况 6：3：1，不论在课堂里，食堂里，考场里都跑不掉这个比例，再无可逃避的情况下只好操着一口Rojak语言，坚持混了过来。

链接回文章的第一段，最让我感动的是这位教授，Prof. Mohd Ammyrul Ashraf。


这学期我报考了大马建国使（Nationhood Studies），那，是每位大学生的必修科，这科目被政府设定为必修科的主要目的是为了提倡种族团结与爱国精神。老实说，透过课本里的内容与考试的作答范围根本难以达到政府的目的，可是这位教授却把民族和谐的精髓成功的传达给我们。


还记得上第一堂课时，他问的第一个问题是：你，是什么身份。


教授点了几位同学们一个一个轮流回答，马来人的回答’我是马来人’，华人也很理所当然的回答‘我是华人’，接着他说你们都答错了，我们是马来西亚人！全班一片肃静，唤起了我对身份认同课题的共鸣。


他时常都会在班上分享有意义的故事与亲身体验，也时常苦口婆心的告诉我们要记得和谐的可贵，更有一次非常心痛的告诉我们他教过的学生尽然忘了他的教导，在社交网站挑起敏感又脆弱的种族话题。


学期的最后一堂课，他忽然告诉我们，来！现在我们来个小考！全班一片哗啦，糟了，上一堂课不是才小考吗？怎么搞的，今天又来？！接着，他告诉我们不需要紧张，你们的小考是认真的看这部短片，然后回去认真思考短片内容，接着，他便播放了一部关于华，巫，印，三位好朋友的故事。放学前他说：2020宏远，是事在人为，省略了其他科技通讯发达的元素，回归到宏远本身最初的出处，就是希望大马人民能够像短片里那三位好朋友，结伴同行，迈向更好的未来！


这句话，深深的烙印在我的脑海里，也非常的耐人寻味。


反问自己吧，你，是什么人？马来西亚在你心中的地位是什么？

My First Car!

Finally! Finally! I've got my new car!

My parents have been planning to get me a new car this month. well, I was asked to choose any car but the budget limited to below RM55k. Well, you know, when the budget is only that amount, there's only a few options and those car within consideration will only be local made cars.

Anyways, i'm not complaining because, hey, having a car is better then non!

I picked Myvi at first, my reason is simple, it's a nice car and i need the horse power, because i'm traveling to and fro from my university. We proceed into the loan application and I've submitted all the necessary document because I want it fast as I'm schooling already.

Fortunately it took more then two weeks to process everything. Wait, did i just said fortunately? I want the car as soon as possible! well, it goes like this, I saw an article about Proton's Preve, a C-segment sedan, which i wanted badly. I didn't consider it at the beginning because it exceed my budget limit, but after doing some comparison, although it exceeds my budget, but the money value pays off. It's even better then Myvi in some expect!

first drive

I regretted choosing Myvi after reading the article, but wait, the car is not ready yet, can I still change my option? I called up my dad and discuss with him, he seems to see the advantage of getting a Preve instead of a Myvi and agreed to change. I immediately phoned the salesman with joy! The best part is, after all the discount, I'm given a net price of RM58.5k, which is just a few thousand more then the original budget! well, i believe it to be a good investment ;)

look how happy I am!

Immediately one week after the decision, I've got my first car in my life.

Thank you mum & dad! <3>

Life in Timisoara

Timisoara, the third largest city in Romania, and one of the wealthiest city. I guess that's the reason why I choose Timisoara. We all know that Romania is dangerous with gypsies and pickpockets, well, I would like to avoid all that!

let's begin with the routine life here. well, all of us have been assigned to work in an institution, but unfortunately not all the institution are functioning! I have friends who sleep til 2pm in the afternoon and have lunch after 3pm, sleeps around 4am after clubbing. that's their summer.

I've tried to construct my summer holiday to be better than that by waking before 12 pm,  have my lunch between 12 to 1pm, work and finally sleep around 12 am.

nothing much in this city because most of the attractions are under construction! that's a really sad thing as we couldn't see the best of Timisoara within our stay, hence,  Iulius mall became our first choice place to visit! 

                I introduce you, Iulius mall!

A mall with the biggest hypermarket in town, Auchan, with big brands like H&M and Zara, a big food court and a big cinema!

it has become the EPs first choice of visit as we all have to do our grocery, buy ingredients for dinner, entertained, and hide from the sun and rain.

well, some little thing that I've noticed during my stay in Romanian. They love coffee! There are coffee machines almost everywhere serving all kind of instant coffee with only one lei per cup! The Romanian simply love it. They have to take a cup of coffee from the machine whenever it's possible. besides that, most of the driver in Romania are gentle. They will stop for pedestrian to cross the road even there's no traffic light. its a good habit that they have. speaking of good habit, well, one of the habit that the Romanian have that I hate the most is, they love smoking! they smoke everywhere, even indoors and public area, they couldn't stop smoking, and smoking seems to be the national habit of Romania! I wonder have they ever learn about the harm of smoking.

With that, it basically sums up my life in Timisoara.

My dorm in Timisoara

I'm going to talk about the life here.

so i'm staying with another 4 people in my room and I'm sleeping on the upper bed of the double-decker. its a multiracial room as I have an Italian,  an Indian,  a Ukrainian, and a Turkish in my room. here are some photos of my room

well, it's not tidy and clean. I have been sleeping with cockroaches for weeks and as you can see, the room is messy, nothing of it belongs to me!

The worse part is the toilet! I'm going to talk about the bathroom  first. although guys and girl's bathroom are seperated,  but there's no doors to seperate every shower room! there are five shower rooms in the boys bathroom, and if you are using the first one, four of the other will walk by your shower room, and because there's no door, your naked body is exposed to them! god! I have been struggling for almost 3 minutes before I decided to use the bathroom for the first time. but we'll,  it all goes well, as most of the guys doesn't really bath! haha

 

and as for the toilet, well, guys and girls are sharing the same toilet. I've once seen a sanitary pad unwrapped in the rubbish bin with blood on it. OMG, and also, cockroaches! I couldn't believe I've made it for 6 freaking weeks!

The kitchen is nothing better either! those EPs never wash their dish and clean up the kitchen after using, and it's always dirty. because of the budget problem, the Asians decided to cook for dinner every weekdays, well, we became the main people responsible to clean up the kitchen.

well, I have so much to blame, but still, overall it's a different experience staying in such a dirty dorm. anyway, it's free of charge, I've seen worse accommodation that Aiesecers provided for EPs!

ReBranders

So let's put my travel stories aside, first, let me blog about my exchange experience.

I've signed up for exchange through AIESEC last year, and have already decided to go Europe. Found a good project to attend in April and Here I am, Timisoara, Romania.

ReBranders, the name of my project, and the name speaks itself. It is a career development internship, whereby we (exchange participant) have to help our assigned institution on re-branding and establishing new marketing strategic.

I was assigned to work with Muzeul Consumatorului Comunist, a start up museum of consumer item in the communist ere. The owner owns a pub in the same time, so we are allowed to work in his pub, with a flexible working time. I love the pub, it's decorated in an artistic way, but the down side is that there is no non-smoking area. The highlight of the pub is, it's decorated with things that can be found in the 70s, those are all antiques now!

There's also a theater in the pub, a black box theater, which is really small, but somehow it adds on the sense or feel of art in this pub! before i met the owner, i thought that I'm going to work for the theater, which I'll be more than happy to do so! Well, I'm working for the museum now, which is challenging for me, because it's a start up, what he need is all about designs and stuff.

That's all for now. Will be blogging about the lifestyle in Europe!

我，与我自己

一场生日会，把大家都给聚在一起了。
本来打算到场嘻哈两下，见大家一面，吃一顿饱饭便掉头回家读书，谁知道老友相聚，一座，就是几个小时。

我的主席常常会告诉我，要我站在家庭比较不富裕的角度看待世界，老实说，她那番话从来都不带任何影响力，只有我跟我的几个死党在一起时，我才知道自己应该反省。

跟他们在一起的日子，我懂得自立根生，我知道什么事情都得自己争取，我懂得我得对自己的生命负责人。

今天的一番话，怎么让我觉得，我在大学的态度似乎完全不对了？

Where to go?

Relationship. Love.

I don't know why these two words came into my mind tonight. I'm not watching any drama tonight, I'm not discussing about this topic with my friends tonight, but why these two words couldn't get out of my mind?

A busy mind i have. and I never thought that I'll have time for that. Maybe the hunger games had just came to an end, and I'm actually having a relaxing day after six weeks of battle. An empty mind is a devil's workshop. 

Sad but yes, a relationship to me, is a crime. At least for the time being.

I never had a real relationship. Ever. The friendship that came close to this status was years behind. Friendship? yes, not a relationship. It's simple, i guess. because i still have my first kiss with me.

I wouldn't mind getting into a relationship, seriously. Only if time allows me to. In fact, maybe I watched great dramas too much, the whole idea of a relationship, to me, is to walk my soul mate back home after a cocktail party; to spend silent moments together, allowing music to do the talking; to have a simple vacation, sharing every joyful moment; bothering about what to get for her when her birthday is arriving; go kayaking with her, spending an eternal lifetime in this picturesque lake; and being able to spend nights under the stars together.

#prayforMH370

I've been travelling with Malaysia Airline, and basically I'm quite satisfied with the service.

I'm supposed to travel back to UUM that Saturday, but because I was too tired to drive, I skipped my ko-k and stayed in Penang for an extra day.

I was really shock when the news came out, MH370 was missing?

It bugged me the whole day. I decided to do something. I cold called a few malls to get permission to do a flash mob, but sadly I couldn't get the permission. Together with my sister, we did a candle light flash mob event at gurney drive.

I set up two big card board, one with information about the news, another one is for by passer to sign on it.

Shortly after I set up the card boards, people started to sign on it.

After i came back from dinner, few signs were added. Two kids 'volunteered' to be the maintenance team because the sticky notes i provided is not sticky enough, two of the kids keep on sticking those sticky notes which dropped back on the board. A random by passer used the wax from the candle to stick the sticky notes and I find that it is a good idea, so i put wax on those dropped notes to make sure that they stick on the board.

It is really touching to see people sending their prayers to the victims. I was enjoying every moment with my sister looking at those random by passer to put their prayers on the board. Deep inside, we wish that the victims will receive our prayers as well, regardless of religion and believes. We Care.

Love and unity was shown that night.

The election

I have so many things in my mind I just couldn't stop thinking about it.

I was running for VP of iGIP recently. Passed the VoC with 81% votes and went through this interview like half an hour ago.
I was not performing well during the interview. I was thinking, what if I failed the interview? Am I going for the second round? Will I still be motivated to do all that? Seriously, I don't know. I don't want to stop my journey in AIESEC just like that, but I also dont want to do everything all over again. How frustrating it is to start from zero? I can as well give up and enjoy my holiday! I can go Europe this coming break for two months, I can plan another trip on October, I can enjoy my Himalaya trip on February next year and I can do so much more!
You see, when i go for something, I put a lot of effort to make sure I got it done, and I expect equal return from my investment. I was in the national hunger games, and I was the top performer for 4 continuous weeks. When I bring my troop out for competition, I make sure I get the champion back.
How demotivating it is to fail the election when you have basically neglected your study, putting so much effort and money and time into this hunger game, and basically forget what is the taste of break and holiday.

MyLDS 2014

OH finally I'm willing to blog about MyLDS after so long!

Why did I joined MyLDS? Well, the one and only reason is to widen my network. Yes, I've been missing a lot of AIESEC gathering and I barely know anyone outside iGIP(my AIESEC department). I took up this Global Villager position in the chief delegate team, which I'm really regretted before pre pre MyLDS. 

It took me a lot of time, doing preparations, meetings, this and that. And I'm actually frustrated with all these job especially during my finals. I couldn't believe why I commit into this in the first place!

I survived!

until pre pre MyLDS, I finally found my sense of belonging. Sad but true, after weeks of meetings and I only found my sense of belonging to the team? Time went by, from being uncomfortable with literary EVERYONE to being one of the team, making new friends and doing crazy things together.