#17 Trip to Kaohsiung!

 Trip to Kaohsiung


After a year-long work together with the ex-cos of the Malaysian Student Association, we actually planned a trip to Kaohsiung, a southern city in Taiwan, sometimes more seen as a southern rival of the northern Taipei City, as you really do see a lot of people from Kaohsiung comparing themselves with Taipei and vice versa.

 I have been to Kaohsiung once, though not really of a tourism nature, I went there during my first few days in Taiwan as I have left some important documents back in Malaysia and I went there to retrieve it from my brother. Back then I only had a few hours in Kaohsiung, not really able to explore the city much, and finally, after two years of confining myself in Taipei and New Taipei City, I finally flew out of the cage and travelled.

 To be honest, I wasn't really enthusiastic about travelling inside Taiwan because I thought that everywhere in Taiwan is more or less the same, and I am not really a nature kind of guy so most of my travel happens in city bounds, and to me, cities looks the same inside the same country, more or less. If it wasn't because I take this trip as a trip to strengthen bonds between my fellows that worked our ass out for one whole year, I really would not want to go.

 Well, we've are in Kaohsiung City while we speak, and although it is a city, with a population of about one-third of my residence New Taipei City, it was much less crowded gave me a serene vibe in an urban setting. The roads are considerably wide even for alleys, those super-tight alleys that are very common in Taipei are less of a view here in Kaohsiung, in fact, I have never seen those during the times I am here, and I thought, this is how a planned-city looks like!

 But urban-planning wise, there is one thing about Kaohsiung that is kind of annoying to me - the climate. I have long heard stories about how Kaohsiung is very hot especially during summertime, almost unbearable kind of hot. Well, I am here during times when it's not really summer yet but it's not really spring, and it got hot, really hot. Well, just to keep it simple, all of us got sunburnt quite bad after only two days under the sun, some even with sunscreen on, which really says something about Kaohsiung's sun.

 The trip was planned as our "consolation" or something as such after one year being together working on and going through so much together as a team, although the attendance wasn't 100%, but at least most of us are here already, which I don't think after this we can gather together like this anymore since everything will be caught up with their future planning and stuff, of course, it is impossible to have everyone coming together again, well, sounds really familiar. 

 The trip was really fun, we got our first-time stay at a backpacker's hostel, and lucky our group has just enough number of people to occupy two full rooms all for ourselves, at least for our first-time experience, we don't have to be stuffed with strangers. But overall, the hostel was quite acceptable, equipped with a common room that has tables to take to people, or we can enjoy 24/7 movies at the lounge, or we can have games and beer and stuff at the rooftop lounge, although a little hot. We had quite some beer as well as games together on the first night since we were still energetic enough. The hotel itself is really cosy enough that we really enjoyed our stay there.

 For food, Kaohsiung City really does have some good offering for food. We went to Ruifeng night market there, which is quite well-known, considering that when we got there, it was cramped as hell, like it was totally the first time in my life where I really experience people cramping like sardines trying to walk, it's really like a full-scale grid-lock traffic jam, except replacing cars with people; and we came across this presumably Filipino woman (I caught her Filipino accent) pushing her way out of the crowd without considering the fact that it was so packed literally no one could move. I almost fell down because of her pushing, well, that was a little bit of bad experience but back to the food, the night market was really different from what they have back in Taipei.

 Night market in Taipei although much more spacious with much more stalls, a lot of the stalls sells the exact same thing, even having identical stall banner and design, so to me, Taipei's night market offering is really lacking in terms of variety, and I got sick of it real quick for the fact that they sell the same thing every freaking where; if you'd try taking away all the identical stalls leaving only one left in the night market, I'd say half of the night market would now be empty. But, this isn't the case for Kaohsiung, there was just so much more variety inside, although still with some repetition, I was really spoiled with choices! Considering the prices aren't really too high there, I had a ton of food really, especially with those sweet sweet oysters which I couldn't really find in night markets in Taipei, I really enjoyed it. I ate like 20 plus oysters in one night and I'd say that I really, really enjoyed food and night market in Kaohsiung.

We went to quite a few places of interest though, in Kaohsiung, we actually made plans for the trip, due to some delays and the weather, we skipped quite some of the plans for good. We visited Ruifeng Night Market, Qijin Old Street and places around Qijin as there are quite some popular tourist spots there. We rented 3 4-seated, electrical-powered bicycles to go around the old street, it was fun, the weather is so good that despite getting sunburn, we got to travel freely around the old street, and took quite some nice group photos, it was really fun, especially when we were on the bicycle, we talked and laughed, having the time of our lives after a hectic year together.

 Overall, the trip was really a successful one to me as everything went very well. Yes, it is the last time that most of us are able to come together and do something as one, to come together and talk, play, laugh and really have fun and bond together. Really, to me, this is the best kind of ending for this team that got together for only a year. Although from this on, at least for me, the team has been officially dissolved. 

 Anyhow, for the first time travelling out of Taipei and actually have a trip in Taiwan, the trip has been really unforgettable, it's been so long since I had a road trip with friends and I really was enjoying the experience again, let's hope we would have more time together in the future! Here's to our friendship and more trips together!
#37371787

#15 #16 End of Another Chapter

 End of Another Chapter

...where to go next?

#16 marks the official end of my term as exco for the Malaysian Students' Association in my university. Time really flies, it felt like one month ago when I first started taking up the post of treasurer for the association.

 To be honest, taking up the post of treasurer came as a bit of surprise to me as I wasn't really told that I will be the treasurer for the association, especially when I have absolutely no idea about how to do journal entries as well as all those financial report thingies. Initially, I was going to be the vice-president for the association, which I was actually asked to take up, but then because of reasons, as well as considering that I might not have what it takes to take up such heavy responsibility, I declined the offer and opted to take up another post instead, but not expecting anything really in fact, so, when I was contacted by the president, I was told straight that I was going to be taking up the post of the treasurer.

 Well, being in the position for one whole year, besides getting some chronic lack of sleep and, I actually managed to learn quite a bit about money management in an organisation, and more than anything, being able to work in a team, and able to learn and practice more on how to communicate in a team.

 Well, as of now, all these association work finally came to an end with a super extravaganza party, together with many other associations and societies, we did had a hell of a last day when we were rushing to get all the documents ready for inspection during the annual report day for all the association and societies in the university, but although it's very tiring, I didn't feel too happy that it is going to end, but in fact, I started to feel a little empty.

 Indeed. Whenever you are freed up from the busy schedule, you will empty inside, having no idea what to do next. I did give some thoughts into what am I going to do after all these have finished though, I thought of continuing to focus on my Spanish studies, and learning some programming, like overall, I wanted to learn stuff that prepares me for the future, like practical skills, as well as spending more time working so that I can meet my goal of earning at least $8000 a month.

 Well, no matter what the next step is, I'd say this year was very fulfilling for me, like work hard play hard kind fo fulfilling. It really did remind me of the days I work in an association during my high school days, having a great team working together towards the same goal, that feeling is the best.

 I only hope that the friendship we fostered during this one year will see its continuity in the future. Great job everyone.

#11 #12 #13 #14 All Association Work

All Association Work


The past month has been very packed for me as there were tons of school work, presentations, reports and association work. First, there was the AGM (Annual General Meeting), and there were so much paperwork and reports to prepare, especially when I am holding the position of the treasurer and all money-matter matters. Of course, the AGM didn't go too well IMO because there were quite some drams-llamas there, but nonetheless, we managed to get over it.

 Mid-terms came and went by, and to be honest, I haven't been doing too well for the first half of this semester, I wouldn't blame it on anything that I have on hand for doing bad, and I honestly think I have been quite relaxed, and maybe a little slacking for this semester. I think I should be paying more attention to my school work. But to be honest, association work is taking up so much of my time, and most of the time I did chose to prioritize on the association work, so I guess there's nothing more to say.

Of course, I am still trying to aim for an average of over 85 this semester, although I think it's still doable, I don't think my overall average this semester will be over 90. But to be fair, I have been also slacking off quite a bit for this semester, gotten quite lazy. Kinda worried about my semester goals and stuff, but I think everything is still under control?

 These two weeks we have been preparing the last event for our term, the graduation party. It's a big event and so, much time has been devoted to organising the event. My house has been packed full of people doing all sorts of work these few days, and for days, people were working until 3 or 4am just to get the work done, and I couldn't be excluded. 

 Of course, working together is a lot of fun. This reminds me of the time when I was in high school when I was in the students' association, I had a team just as great, and we spent so much time working together and we became close as ever, we would eat, sleep, work and play together all the time, especially during times when we have huge events to organise. Eventually, we graduated, and we parted, the chapter ended like all chapters would. Now, some of us would meet up occasionally, but there's really nothing much to connect us together except for the past memories we have had.

 Soon, it is going to be the last event we are going to organise before our term as the exco of the Malaysian Students Association ends, really, time flies. One year ago around this time, I as an exco didn't even know more than half of my fellow exco members, and now, here we are, closer than ever before, like we have been friends for how many years. I am here writing this post feeling a little sad because a whole chapter is coming to an end like all chapters would eventually. Heh, sounds familiar?

 In one or two more weeks, after the annual report thing, our term would officially end, more or less, I am not sure. But one thing I could be sure is my life would be very different. Without the burden of association work, I would have much more free time for myself, and maybe, just maybe, I'd feel empty for that. I hope the friendship we made along the way would continue on though.

#10 One Week Before Mid-Terms

One Week Before Mid-Terms

...exams, exams exams


 Time flies, it's already one week before mid-terms. Without really noticing, half of the semester has already passed. I guess being busy really make time flies, every single day is so occupied that you won't even notice that time passes, and when you look back, days felt like minutes.

 Come to think about it, this is really the life I have been wanting back when I quit Monash and had so much free time with me but I had no idea what to do with it. Now when I come to think about it, I should have worked more back then, but I just couldn't find work that I've liked. To be honest, I never liked doing restaurant work, I really liked office work more, doing office chores and stuff, I wonder why.

 I have been preparing for my exams for the past few days, since I really did pay attention during classes, I thought that I really didn't have to study much. To be honest, I had a few quizzes a few weeks back and I haven't been really preparing for those quizzes, but what do I know, I did all the quizzes without any prior preparations and I actually aced all of them. Especially for subjects like Economics, I was really surprised that I was able to do everything perfectly even though I haven't been studying. But to be fair, I paid a lot of attention during classes and I did a lot of notes, plus I have already had prior studies back in A Levels, classes here for Economics are more like revision than actual learning - something I didn't expect from a university Economics class. (P.s. I'm not trying to be pompous haha)

 Well, that being said, exams are still exams, I've still got to prepare for so many stuff. Although work is still piling up, I just couldn't care more because I had to prioritise on my studies, something I feel like I have been neglecting since the beginning of this semester, felt like I have to do something about it.

 Well, there goes half a semester of my life, padayon pa (keep on going) for me for the next half of the semester! I can do it! 

#9 Defeated (Almost)

Defeated

...almost

Hell of a week, after a fun one week vacation in the Philippines, my work kind of pilled up. Mostly it was association work, where one week worth of work is (almost) enough to bury you six feet below the ground.

 Association work has been quite heavy this semester as most events are almost back to back, and for the first time in forever, I had a fight with our advisors because I think they are just not doing their work as they are supposed to, at least one of them. But I don't want to get into details anymore because this already passed, no point bringing up, just gonna do my work as I am supposed to.

 Sometimes I do think, what is the worth of doing so much of these, considering I have so much to do in school, so much to learn, also, things are getting heavier at the academic side of things for this semester as well. All these association work is taking up so much of my time, I don't really have much time left for my studies (I did procrastinate some, but I think much less than the previous semester).

 Really, I think work is literally raining down on me and I just have to deal with so many stuff, well, this semester I do feel that I am so exhausted that I wanted to flung and give up on everything and live a relaxing life and that's it. Sometimes I think, what's the point?

 But well, since I chose to do it in the first place, I guess I just have to hold on and continue doing it. 
Photo of the Paint Ball game the association organised, well we.
I took the photo and got complimented, at least that's a consolation for this week.

#8 Short Trip to the Philippines

Short Trip to the Philippines

#itsmorefuninthephilippines


It was a spring holiday this week for my school, so I have decided to travel to the Philippines to Joyce, originally as a surprise to Joyce for her birthday, but it was blown like literally the second day after I booked my flight, so, no surprise there.

 It has been quite a longed trip for me because I really do love the Philippines, not quite sure how to put it, but even though the country is a little backwards, the environment is dirtier than what I have been accustomed to, but ever since the first time I went there I really fell in love with the place, it is a place that makes me feel home, even though it's not my home, I just feel so relaxed when I'm there.

 I travelled there for one week, and this one week is a much needed week for me after all the busy days that I've been through. I really needed a break, even though it came with a hefty bill and literally burnt a hole through my wallet, I still think it's worth it.

 Anyways, this time Joyce and I planned a trip for ourselves, an official trip, not a spontaneous road trip. We initially planned to travel to Dumaguete, just a few hours drive and a ferry ride away to the south of Cebu City, but we decided to call that off as it looked too small for a 2D1N trip, so eventually, we settled with Iloilo City instead.

 The trip to the Philippines this time is a little special for me as this is the first time Joyce and I actually rode a plane together and travelled, also, this is the first time I finally booked a flight with Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific Air, both of which I have been wanting to fly with for a long time, and I've gotten both this time. 

 Well, flying with Philippine Airlines is overall a pleasant flight for me, the service is considered good, but I felt like the airline is more oriented towards a low-cost carrier instead of a full-fledged airline, comparing it with airlines like Malaysian Airlines and Singapore Airlines. But still, their service is good, their in-flight meal was acceptable (I had something with chicken), and I had some red wine on the flight, for free, of course, which is also, of course, a first-time experience for me.

 Back to the Iloilo trip, it actually started with quite a bad experience, in which our flight - with Cebu Pacific Air, actually got delayed for around 4 hours. The PR handling of the incident was, to say the least, not good. The 4 hours delay was actually the total delay, we arrived at the airport at around 7am thinking that we are running a little late, but upon arrival, we got the announcement saying that the flight will be delayed for 30 minutes for additional servicing work to be done on the aircraft, but over an hour after the scheduled boarding time, there weren't any updates on the situation and we were kept waiting, until some passengers grew more impatient and started to talk to the ground staff, only then they announced once more that the flight would be delayed even more, there were a lot of scolding that went on after the second announcement for delays, at the end, we boarded the plane at around 1pm instead of the scheduled 8.30am. 

 Anyways, the flight to Iloilo was actually fast, in less than an hour after takeoff we landed at Iloilo International Airport, even though we flew with a prop-plane. The airport is definitely much smaller in scale compared to Mactan-Cebu International Airport, more so than compared to NAIA (as a side note, even though NAIA is the largest airport in the Philippines, its interior definitely looks very old, it may not be good to say this, but the terminal of NAIA, at least the one that I went to during my transfer, is the least appealing I have ever been). 

 We rented a car to get around in Iloilo (renting a car is what we do for road trips, as public transport in the Philippines leaves something to be desired). The city proper was filled with old and historic buildings, just like the old town in Ipoh, except they are under-maintained, making them look old and a little creepy at night since the city proper itself is not really well-lit, but I do love the city for its full-of-history atmosphere.
A city full of historical gems

The city itself wasn't too crowded too, without crowded streets, honking everywhere and dirty air everywhere like Cebu, I really liked it. I read one thread online regarding Cebu City, it was mentioned that Cebu City is a failure in city planning, after comparing the two cities, I feel like there might be a truth somewhere in the statement itself. With a metropolitan population of almost a million, the city is relatively quiet, I feel like Ipoh, with around the same population, is actually more crowded. Some of the dispersion roads are well built and are very wide, the air is clean, the roads are not overcrowded, and interestingly, the city does not have a lot of traffic lights - not that I have seen much, installed (at some intersection they are installed but does not work), even at intersection where two 4-lanes roads meet, so it does require some attention while driving. 

 The city was also interesting to me for it doesn't use Cebuano, it uses their own language called Hiligaynon, which according to Joyce, sounds half Cebuano and half Tagalog, Joyce has been a translator for me throughout the whole trip in Iloilo, and also, this is the first time I actually went outside of Cebuano-speaking area in the Philippines, which is quite an experience for me, considering I haven't been to a place where I really couldn't understand anything for a very long time.

 The food in the city was great, in which their staple dish, La Paz Batchoy was a blast to my picky tastebuds. I originally thought that batchoy is a vegetable kind of dish (as I mistook it as Bokchoy), and I was a little shocked when I saw it was actually soup noodle. We had Buko Batchoy (soup noodle in a coconut), as our first meal in Iloilo, and it was really delicious, and to be honest, I haven't been trying a lot of traditional Filipino food (more of the street food kind of Filipino food) because Joyce wouldn't let me, and to be honest, it's quite dirty. But this time in Iloilo, I got to try many Filipino dishes that are normally eaten on a family dining table, not like Jollibee most of the time. There, I actually fell in love with Filipino dishes, with their sour kind of taste, I really loved it. 
Buko Batchoy
The city itself, of the area in general, was packed full of centuries-old churches, mostly remnants of the Spanish colonial era, and it was just gorgeous. Personally, I really like old buildings because I really like to see with my own eyes, the places that people, who are (probably) mostly (definitely) dead, has been to, and all the stories that have unfolded in those places during the centuries. This is one of the reasons why I really like the city, and I felt happy that we have chosen to travel to Iloilo over Dumaguete.

San Jose Church (Built in 1873, the original church was erected in 1607)

Molo Church (Built in 1831)

Miagao Church (Opened in 1797)

Surprisingly, during a roam around the city proper, I was able to find schools and Chinese commerce association in the city, it was only then I learned of the city's Chinese name of 怡朗 yi2 lang3, which only has a one-word difference from the Chinese name of Ipoh, 怡保 yi2 bao3. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to come across Chinese-speaking Filipino there (though I bumped into a Filipino-Chinese family in NAIA and I heard them speaking in Hokkien, which differs quite a lot from the Hokkien that I know of). 

 More interestingly, they are still using Traditional Chinese characters in the Philippines, which Chinese speaking areas out of Mainland China and Taiwan are using less and less.


Joyce and I went also to Garin Pilgrimage Farm, which is, interesting, to say the least. It's basically a farm, filled with Christianity, Jesus and God, literally.




Well, overall, it has been a fun trip, and it made a fun spring break for me. To be honest, this is the kind of trip that I really enjoyed, I do not like to go to places full of tourists or something, I have always loved to travel to places, and try to live the life as similar as the locals, even if it just for a very short time. I like to travel to places, mostly big cities, but at the same time, they preserve their historical heritage. A city like Iloilo for example, there are areas in the city in which some skyscrapers are sprouting, but at the same time, the city itself has preserved a lot of its historical buildings, in which it makes a huge contrast in the city itself. Walking in a city like this is like walking through a time tunnel, which brings you across times modern and ancient. This is the ideal kind of travel which I love.

All and all, the Philippines is really a fun place, and I do look forward to the next time I pay my visit to this gem of a country.

#6 #7 Productivity Overload Week

Productivity Overload Week

...or busyness overload week


 It has been a very busy and fulfilling sixth and seventh week, work got so packed up that I haven't been able to squeeze out even a little time to write updates here, but here I am, although am late even for #7, I'm still writing.

 There have been a few things that have been occupying my time like a hogger, and for two weeks I got so squeezed out that I mostly do not have time for myself and I didn't even have had proper rest.

 Foreign Students' Week
It's a school's annual event where us foreign students in TKU holds a foreign students' week to introduce our country's food and culture and stuff to the mass public in our school. The event itself is primarily organised by the Overseas Chinese Students Association and the Indonesian Students Association this year, and for students from different countries, their respective students' association will be handling their part of the and I have been chosen to organise the Malaysian part of the whole event.

 Work had to start before the Winter break mainly because we had to decide what kinds of Malaysian food we are going to put on sale at the venue, we had to buy it beforehand as we can only get it from Malaysia. But the real busy part actually starts around one month before the event itself, of course, some procrastination later I have only got about 2 weeks left to make all the preparations for the week-long event itself. 

 I had to make arrangements for my fellow Malaysians to be on-duty for the Malaysian area of the exhibition, which itself is a very time-consuming job considering most people chose the same timeframe, leaving most other timeframes in the void of anyone to be on-duty, it is very annoying, plus there is a lot of miscommunication between us and the main organiser regarding the starting and ending time of the exhibition which added another layer of work to be done. 

 FInishing duty-time table and I have to oversee many other things that are supposed to be overseen by my partner, well, I wouldn't want to bad mouth but in the end, I carried on most of the work that I am not assigned to do initially. It does get on my nerves sometimes that I am doing work that I am not supposed to be doing, and I had to do it because of the fact that my partner has done jacksh*t about anything, and someone has to do it.

 Well, sometimes I do think that I am a person that is well-suited to do work on my own, I have always enjoyed doing work in a quiet office alone, without anyone to report to and stuff, I find doing my work like that gives me more freedom and I feel less constricted. Maybe it's because of this I haven't been learning how to communicate well with my fellow partners? There are many occasions during presentations that I just prepared the points to present and the PowerPoint slides itself while most of my teammates were just left aside waiting to do the presentation, I guess most students actually hate to do a presentation in front of the crowd, and they expect everyone else to do it, and most of the time if I am in their team they are lucky, I do all the work. 

 And for the foreign students' week, I guess maybe it's my inability to effectively communicate with my partner and this left her empty minded on what to do, or maybe she just couldn't care more! I don't know really haha.

 Overall, getting involved in this event is really fun, I almost forgot how fun it is to actually organise events. I really learned a lot, especially on how to do work and stuff, I learned to try to communicate more with partners and stuff, as I realised that it is really very important to the success of something, you have to communicate on problems, and communicate on how to solve problems, I guess if there is this one thing I learned on #6 and #7, that's it.





Early Thesis Writing
For some reason, I have decided that I could actually start researching what I want to write for my thesis, I'm not sure if I really am going to write the actual thesis before my senior year but I thought in case I really did it before my Senior year, I might have a honeymoon year during my senior year. 

 I have been thinking about writing a thesis in the field of linguistics, since my major is the Japanese language, the scope of what I can write is fairly limited to cultural stuff, or literature, or linguistics. I have been quite interested in the scientific study of language since quite some time ago, well, I've been loving science forever. I thought I can do some studies about language, and I choose to do language comparison between Malay (my national language) and Cebuano (Joyce's native tongue).

 For quite some time I have been quite interested in the Austronesian family of languages and I happen to have a girlfriend who speaks an Austronesian language besides Malay, it really got me very interested in the language family (to be honest, I thought Malay only started existing about 500 years ago before I learned about Cebuano and the Austronesian languages). 

For this, I have actually been talking to a Professor in my department regarding this, and he's good enough to support me doing this, for some reason, and luckily enough, I happened to have met a PhD student in my school from Cebu, who is also quite interested in the theme I am planning to do on, she has offered to contact me up with some of her friends currently teaching at UP and Universit of San Carlos, both in Cebu, whom expertise are in Cebuano history and language, to help me out with my studies.

To be honest, I do not know if I am capable of doing such studies for my undergraduate thesis, but I am very interested in a theme that I think I'd continue on it. I've signed up for some basic linguistics courses on MOOCs online to give myself some fundamentals on the subject of linguistics. God, I don't know if I am crazy but I really am doing this? It's hard to say if this will actually be what comes out on my thesis, but I don't really see this as something unnecessary that I am doing, I really see this as doing something I am interested in. 
These two weeks has been very busy and very fulfilling for me, and I might have learned some very important life lesson from it too!

 Well, this semester is going to be so busy, like every other semester before this, but I think I am getting more productivity this week because I am feeling like I am getting a hang out of not procrastinating!

#5 Bright Way Ahead

Bright Way Ahead

...and getting along with rules

The fifth week going, and I feel like I haven't been achieving a lot. Of course, as usual, things are getting a little out of hand as I am getting busier and busier, with so much work piling up while I am trying and trying to finish them one by one, but the burden keeps getting heavier and heavier.

 I started another on-campus part-time job at the Office of International Affairs, this is my first week and things are going along quite well, adding another 6 hours to my already tight schedule is a little burdening, but working there is, for the most part, fun and to say the least, kinda easy. I have been going to the Office of International Affairs for numerous times up to now and I have had a little idea what working there feels like, plus I had some experience working in an office, what's with the copying machine and answering and transferring phone calls, so I am catching up with work over there quite easily. Now I just have to understand the office rules there to make my life even easier. 

 I realized that sometimes we feel like it's so hard to work in some working environment is that because we are usually unfamiliar with the rules of that particular environment. It's not like the well-documented rules that are written on a guidebook, it's the un-mentioned rules, the underlying rules that we are unfamiliar with that gives us a hard time staying in a working environment. I used to work in some other offices and I feel so stressed and that everyone is so cold, I sat at the corner always minding my own business, doing tasks that I am assigned to and, for the most part, I am just working alone in an office with half a dozen people. Well, until I learned that I have to man up and start talking to them, to communicate with office-mates, especially some with similar age or personality with you, when you communicate well with them, they may share you some of the underlying rules like the dos and do-not in that particular office. You know, my teacher once said, if you want to survive an office environment, you have to know and understand all the underlying rules, and then that's when you can play with all these rules to your advantage and make your life easier. It's true after all, or so it seems. Well, took me quite some time to understand that.

 Well, I think I am getting ahead of myself and probably that should be a post on its own. Well, I think this week is half great and half not-so-great for me. Maybe I should try making a list:

 The Greats:
  1. I actually bought air tickets to Cebu for the coming spring holiday, it was supposed to be a secret surprise but it got blown, so it's ok.
  2. Started my second on-campus part-time job and it was mostly great, having quite some fun working there.
  3. I finally resumed my Spanish studies despite a very packed schedule.
  4. I started reading this book "Dracula", from more than a hundred years ago, and it's awesome.
  5. I am starting to think about what I am going to write about my thesis, and got a bottom line green light after I discussed with a Professor about the general direction of the thesis, might have to ask him to be my guidance Professor during my senior year.
The Not-so-greats:
  1. Association work is starting to pile up, 4 events to plan and prepare for in 2 months' time, well, 'great'.
  2. Classes are tougher for the second semester, although I have expected it, it is tougher than what I expected, so I have to actually put in more effort.
  3. My financial position is getting worse as the days go, but my schedule is currently so packed I am afraid that I won't be able to do any more part-time jobs.
  4. Although Spanish studies resumed, progress isn't all that great, currently on a 1-day streak.
  5. Learned that a friend of mine, who used to be quite close with me, ran into a serious accident, it gave me quite a shock and situation were bad, but a few days ago I got told that things are getting better and better, well, speedy recovery and May God Bless Her.
Well comparing the greats and not-so-greats, it seems like it not really worse than I thought, at least I do not have not-so-greats more than 'greats'

 Well, life is still wonderful I guess?
This week I also got to know this guy, who is also a Malaysian, that has been playing with stock markets with considerable success, I thought I might want to catch up with him more and actually learn stuff on how to earn money on the stock market, I guess that's one step closer to financial independent? 

 I really have to learn how to play with investments, I want to be rich really, I mean, who doesn't want to be rich in this world? Nothing materialises without money in this capitalistic world. 

 Well, good luck to me!

 I guess this pretty much sums up my week and looking back, I really feel like I am living my life right now, although there still procrastination here and there, I feel like there's less and less of that. Well, what do I know? I managed to wake up early for half of the days this week! Which is a great improvement! Or maybe it's just the liver supplement actually working because I really feel less fatigue since I had that.

 Tough weeks ahead, but let's get through it!
New York because it's my dream destination, it makes me feel happier.

#4 One Step Closer

One Step Closer

A great step towards my Investment Portfolio

Another week passed just like that! To be honest, I did not realise that I have to write my weekly update today until just now! I really did not realise that another weekend has arrived. Even though it's a weekend, I've been spending my whole Saturday at work, so I didn't really have time to contemplate the fact that it's weekend again.

 For me, this weekend has been busy and so it's just like any other day, I had to wake up early today to go to work in a business suit, plus it's been raining for 3 days straight, so walking in a suit under the rain is anything but pleasant, at least it's springtime so I didn't have to endure the summer heat while wearing a suit. 

 Last week during class allocation, I've taken up a module on Business Evaluation and Risk Management, it's a course opened under the Honours programme and although it turns out to be way out of my league, I thought I might as well give it a try. For beginners, my school's Honours programme is open for students that have their exam ranking of the top 10% in their respective classes, which modules under the programme are designed to be more like classes for graduate classes with countless presentations and reports as well as short theses and with less emphasis on hard-core memorisation-frenzy-style examinations, I thought it suited me well. Another thing about the programme is that since students admitted to the programme are all from different faculties and majors, modules are designed in such a way that it's not too technical but it's in-depth enough for you in order to be able to apply it into real life.

 BUT. It's a big BUT. This module on Business Evaluation and Risk Management blew away my understanding of the whole programme. The module was very technical, in-depth and requires a very clear understanding and application of the concept of Accounting. Well, I've been taking classes on Accounting but I haven't been good at applying the concepts of Accounting to do financial analyses of firms to evaluate the value of a business. But well, as God-like investor Warren Buffet says, you have to know how to evaluate a firm in order to make a sound analysis in whether to invest in a company. I know it very well that it's not going to be easy this time, but I guess if I am going to have a great start on my investment portfolio, I guess I need some more professional knowledge.

 This week has been a hell of a ride for me, I did something so crazy I still kinda in denial of I did it, but I did. Well, I'll update on this in the future.

 Well, I guess that's it for this week, it's been a short week for me really, and weeks are just going to get shorter and shorter as I get busier and busier, probably going to be busy all the way until end-of-May, I hope I will still be alive.

 I've also set a little goal for myself this week too! I am going to restart my studies on Spanish, I realise I haven't been doing anything on Spanish, time to restart it. I remembered that day I was helping my roommate's friend to download MATLAB on his computer, which is all Spanish. I was surprised that I was able to read some of the things on the computer so I was actually able to work with that computer more or less. Of course, most of it is because I recognise the English counterpart of the word since they are so similar, but I was also able to recognise some of the words that I have studied before in Duolingo. 

Well, my little goal towards intermediate Spanish is going to be obtaining a 30-day streak on Duolingo, starting on the first day of #5, wish me luck then!



#3 Relaxing Week

Relaxing Week

But I should start gearing up

Third week going.

 Time feels like it's flying when you are so busy with everything. It just does. This week I have been busy decided on my modules, same as every beginning of a semester. I have decided on 24 credits points for this semester, 2 credit points less than last semester. For some reason, I have been overly relaxed since the start of this semester, albeit only the second week for the semester.

 I have been tracking my credit points since the last two semesters what modules that I have taken and what modules I still have to take in order to graduate with an honour degree as well as a minor. It's been tough to plan which modules I should take each semester, and I need about 30 more credits than normal to graduate will all those additional modules. Therefore, I think I might have to seriously consider taking on summer classes to help with lessening my burden during normal semesters.

 This week has been relatively relaxing for me as I only had 3 school days thanks to so public holiday and weekend being back-to-back, so I had two days of holidays on which I spent it quite recklessly, frankly speaking, although I am not sure if that's the right word. I have been spending my days on food and movies, nothing more and nothing less. I might have to catch up with work more during the real "weekends". I have to say, today has been relatively productive and I have had less procrastination than normal.

 Here is a thing I realised this week, the thing about procrastination, the one way to overcome it is to take the first step in starting whatever you have to do. This week, I have been trying to overcome my procrastination and achieving moderate success. I started by first creating a working environment that is suitable for me to work in - I closed up the curtains in my room and turned off the room light, leaving only the table light, that a perfect working environment for me. I realised that I am really a night person, and if I can't make nighttime come faster, I might as well make myself a nighttime environment. I do realise that my productivity is much higher when I work in a night-like environment. Well, now that I have found a way to be more productive, I guess I should use it more.

 I haven't got any calls from the steamboat shop that I have been looking for a job at, so I wouldn't say I have met my $8000 per month income yet, but I hope I could meet that as soon as possible. 

 In conclusion, this week has been relatively relaxed for me and think it's a good thing, but I think I should start gearing up on the things I should be doing. 

 Well, wish me good luck on #4 then.

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