New England here I come!

It has been days since I reached Ann Arbor. These few days have been great, as there's nothing much to worry about except what to eat for meals. Life won't be as good when school starts, (or even before school starts) as there will be more and more to do. Right now, I'm about to leave for New England. Hope this trip will be a wonderful one!

BTW I must say Nodame Cantabile is a great J-drama...a must watch for classical music lovers!!!

God bless A

I was again appalled by the outrageously horrendous way the country treated the visitors. No, I wasn't brutally beaten up or tortured; yet, there's no way a nation can claim itself as a supernation by still practising a primitively and laughable system in its effort to thwart terrorism. Yes, I am talking about the frigging Ann-ciers program. First, upon reaching the airport, I was suppose to line up for the new visiting procedure. When it's my turn, oh, I got the unforgivable mark on my passport, which its existence is in the very first place questionable. Hence, I was asked to another site to wait for the special registration to be done.

The waiting experience in the waiting room was hellish. Gathered in the room was colored people with different shades; well, the albinos were exempted I guess. The detainees were not allowed to leave the room, and to make things more exciting, there's no restrooms nor water coolers in the venturable vicinity. This wouldn't be that bad if we weren't all just off from the plain, for another ingenious measure dictates that no bottled water was to be carried on when one's on flight. Hence, suffering from thirst and the conflicting urge to relieve, I had nothing else to do but to observe the other pathetic travellers, whose souls were mostly sucked out from the long hours of travelling. For some like me, the constant fear of missing the next connecting flight intensified with time; others were worried that their fellow friends would be waiting too long for them. While these negative emotions emit from the floor and filled the room, making the atmosphere more unbearable, the shitfaces sitting behind the counter seemed oblivious, each exuding an aura of calmness that was impenetrable by the disturbance caused by the fidgety crowd. They moved as if they were trying to master the deepest techniques of the ancient art of tai-chi, in such way further infuriating the meekly waiters who were in no mood of appreciating any sort of clumsiness.

To make things more unbelievable, they had no ordering system in putting the pastports on the shelf. Those books were casually placed in slots, which the officers would randomly pick from later. That's of course, a careful observation of mine out of sheer boredom, but I could be wrong. They might be adhering to the elusive chaos theory which they probably learnt from K-level. Discarding that possibility, it was difficult to picture that I was actually in a country which claimed itself as the pinnacle of modern civilization.

As time passed by, I was gradually becoming more zen, which I acheived by constantly muttering the sacred mantra that bears three syllabus of hokkien word. Meanwhile, one of the girl was not that fortunate; she burst into sobs while speaking on the phone. When it was her turn, she broke down again and tried to argue with the officer about something. I couldn't quite figure out what was the content of the conversation, as I myself was still obstinately chanting to maintain my state of sanity.

Despite my efforts, when my photo was finally taken by the webcam, I must have looked like Gollum. Needless to say, the plane which I was supposed to be in was already soaring gloriously in the nightsky. Yes, what else could I do? A couple more hours of waiting won't hurt further, would it?

South Korea trip

So I mentioned that I was in Seoul in a previous post. Well there's not many reasons for me to be there, except for traveling, and yup, that's why I was there.

The trip spanned seven days, and I went there with my father, since my mum was traveling somewhere else. Overall South Korea was not as beautiful as China; it does not have great landscapes for that matter. However, I was pretty impressed with the cleanliness and seeming order of the country. The Koreans are very environmental conscious. To save trees, they make an effort to only use steel chopsticks and degradable toothpicks. Plastic bags are also charged for money in some places. All in all, from small things like these one can see that the nation is shifting from a developing country to a developed nation.

It is interesting to note that Seoul has more than ten million inhabitants, making it one of the most populated city in the world. Imagine almost 40% of the Malaysia's population living in one city. The streets in the city are are wide and well planned, at least for those that I've seen. The city seemed to bustle with activities, and the excitement increases as night falls. All those signs of advancement contrasted with conditions in the capital of my beloved country only caused me to wonder when KL can transcend from the lumpur.

Jeju Island was another main attraction of my trip apart from Seoul. It is an island on the southern part of South Korea. Since there's a volcano on the island, volcanic formations are littered everywhere on the island. Sceneries there were considerably better than those on the mainland, but still no where near the standards of the majestic views in China. Of course it can be unfair comparing oranges to apples, but that's just how I felt.

Throughout the trip, we got the chance to try some of the most famous Korean food. Korean food, as the Korean tour guide admitted, was not as interesting and delectable as the Chinese food (duh, making comparisons again!) However, I'd say that Korean food is definitely much healthier. I got the chance to try the Korean BBQ (in Korea!), Ginseng chicken, abalone porridge, varitey of Kimchi (which I came to appreciate it) , Stone Rice, sashimi-s of different seafood. Since they're prepared with healthier way (steamed, boiled, less salt, less oil etc), I didn't have the "jelak" feeling even after a week of Korean food.

Conclusively, South Korea is not a great country to travel to, but IMO is a great country to stay and relax. Here are the photos:



Something like Petaling street in Seoul


Seoraksan 雪岳山


Ice Bar (yup, even the glasses are made of ice!)


A waterfall in Jeju Island


Jeju Island (in the process of transforming to a super saiyan lol)


One of the volcanic formations


Contrast this with the river that meanders through KL...


Winter Sonata shooting place

Hello my blog

"All is well."

So that's how the journey that lasted for 7 years ended. That can be said to the way my internship ended too. I wouldn't boast that I've learned tonnes from the experience, nevertheless it's a decent experience, and it really did offer me a glimpse of how working life would be.

Working in KL can be a frustrating experience because of the daily commuting. While taking LRT from Sentul Timur to Bukit Jalil everyday is not exactly very enjoyable, I realized that things could be tenfold worse. Imagine being trapped in traffic jam at least twice a day, imagine having to take a few trains to reach your workplace, imagine...... The weather doesn't help much either in alleviating the pain. Occasional downpours that coupled with the "excellent" city flood plan can bring the worst nightmare to every driver out there. But well, I guess these are some of the inevitables most people will face working in big cities (or is it true only for big asian cities? hmm)

However, on the plus side, working in KL means that you are surrounded by "zhi ji ren" aka close friends and relatives. The variety of local food also serves to spice up life considerably. Weekends can mean tonnes of fun too, when there's so much to do (of course, that is only if you have the money).

So do I like working life? Let's put it this way: I'm glad that I still have one more year of studies to be completed...