Every year before this it'd have been "June! Holidays!!!" but unfortunately that is no longer. Haha twas an exciting month nonetheless, right till the end. Things are worth remembering and memory's spilling over, so it's time for some plain old archiving.
The first notable thing from June should be visiting Platform 1094 aka the "Harry Potter cafe" or, more appropriately, the Harry Potter-themed cafe #copyrights. Anyway, one of the first things that left an impression was that... ... they were playing LOTR music. After hearing the entire track of "The Breaking of the Fellowship" (sans "In Dreams") I couldn't help portioning some attention to the background music and naming all the tracks I could. All in my head though, my friends weren't interested xD [Yes, there were actual HP tracks playing from time to time.] Food was ok at best. Drinks were amusing though: most we could tell were regular cocktails... but new name new identity! The bday girl ordered this sour blue drink that came in a transparent cauldron-shaped cup along with a plastic-tasting straw. Showtime: the waiter slid a spoonful of flaming substance into the drink so that there literally were blue flames dancing on the surface of the blue drink. Sprinkle some cinnamon powder on top and voila! you get a rain of tiny, falling flares and a nice insta video. The waiter waited awkwardly at the side for us to finish sprinkling more powder for more social media goodness, before capping the cup and extinguishing the flame. My drink brought back memories of the butterbeer from the Harry Potter studios back in London... Was pretty nice, though I suspect it contained a fair bit of ice cream soda after spotting stacks of bottles at the back of the place. Price was not amusing--not-so-cheap thrills I guess. tl;dr worth the novelty, but wouldn't go back. Prob should give the cafe a little more credit though. Considering that I did no advance drafting for this post, the length of the para speaks of how memorable that whole thing was, even if it happened an entire month ago.
Next up there was this slightly intense period at work. Such that one fine Sunday morning I found myself otw to Climb Central, laptop in hand and eyeballing my drafts on the bus so that I could climb in peace afterwards. Also got to experience turning off the lights at the office for the first time. Heh still nowhere near the late nights of the uni days, though I never want to come under those same conditions in working life. Staying in the office with the team till 2340 on D-1 was a milestone enough, and from post-D0 till the end of that week I pretty much felt like an understuffed pillow. In case you missed what we launched on D0, here it is! Best viewed on PC for all the interactive features to work! I'm proud of it. It feels like I've achieved something fairly significant since starting work roughly 5.5 months ago :) Took me a while to recover from that episode though, coz my sleep debts rack up interests of 150%.
Shortly afterwards, I noticed that FB was being v enthusiastic in surfacing my "on this day" memories. Turns out these were from 2 years ago, over a stretch of 10 days, when I'd taken to FB daily to prove my status of "alive and well", from wherever I happened to be in Europe. While I definitely meant to, I never wrote about my solo cross-country trip in the summer of 2015. If there's one thing that deserved to be written about from back then but never got to see light, it's this. So I've decided, that's next up here! Already copied the full 10 days of memories, ready for a major throwback.
Much monkey business in the final half of June, causing an inordinate number of trips up to Novena which I otherwise barely have reason to visit. Back in May I'd acted on a compelling urge to sign up for SOMETHING and ended up joining this year's installment of Velocity Urban Attack (must thank the REP ninja for posting his intentions on FB). Got the early bird too, that's how little dithering there was... Then I spent the following few weeks wondering what I'd done, coz my shoulders haven't exactly been in a very healthy state. Was genuinely pretty unnerved one week before my qualifiers, esp after going down to scout and watching sooo many people fail early in the course. Felt better though, after visiting the HDB Hub gym (again, props to aforementioned ninja) and finding out I could at least still handle monkey bars :D Turns out, compulsive as it was, it was a pretty worthwhile decision! Against all odds, I made it into finals (qualified 15th out of 15 girls) just by completing the first 2 obstacles. Then again, the obstacles were harsh this year. Harsh enough to eliminate many people at the second obstacle, regardless of gender. And that's how I ended up on the right side of the bell curve: just from being able to do a baby campus on wooden rungs of almost-finger-length thickness. Climber's advantage! And then... err.... couldn't get past the third obstacle (google "ninja warrior body prop" to see what it is, got no photos of myself) coz of my perpetually malfunctioning pushing muscles and joints. [Video of my v short run is on insta, or ask me] In any case, by the finals run I'd already gotten to play on the whole course for a couple of hours in total, much more than I'd have gotten without qualifying. Satisfied the adult monkey in me! Pretty happy about all this, considering that just a few weeks previously I was still afraid of doing pull-ups. Well I've had my fun, so I guess it's time to recover once and for all. Haha all this monkey business (long climb on the same weekend included, man that overkill) does take a toll, and I can't keep taping my shoulders forever. No more bouldering for now :/
Most people know that climbing is a weekend staple for me (when I'm not injured). But throughout the month, I've been in various conversations that drew attention to the other weekend staple of mine, the one I never really paid much attention to coz it's always been there. Since I was born (it's been happening since before I was born), every Saturday night is reserved for visiting my grandparents' place in AMK where my entire dad's side extended family gathers. It's always been a regular weekend "routine"... until I heard that others get to see their extended families once every year on CNY. Only then did I realise what kind of luck I was born into. My cousins are not strangers coz I see them every week and literally grew up playing with them. At dinner, everyone--cousins all now part of the adult-sized bunch--has to squeeze shoulder-to-shoulder at the same wooden dining table which a few years ago was so much roomier. Dinner itself's always worth looking forward to coz there's always good food and general entertainment inclusive of vulgar jokes. True story but I will not repeat them here xD That not-so-big AMK flat keeps getting smaller and rowdier over the years. Sign of a close and growing family (and I don't just mean sideways)! It's no time for deep thoughts, but I just wonder how it took almost 24 years for me to realise that this is no mere routine, but a treasure.
Last but not least, the exchange season has started. I'm not going anywhere unfortunately *sobs*, exchange is for younger people. But I still have school-going friends: some are leaving, and others are coming home. For REP in particular, everyone gets to go for one full year away and that same year does not pass in a flash for those who are not overseas enjoying life xD [Happens that today it's exactly 2 years since I came back (on my mum's bday!)] Well, another full year is coming to an end. And for some reason, although it really shouldn't apply to me, I'm looking forward to the start of the new sem :)
Wednesday, 5 July 2017
Tuesday, 16 May 2017
靠 feel
Caught this interview floating around on fb: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/5-governments-5-hdbs-5-moes-tay-kheng-soon-on-decentralisation-8843960?cid=fbcna It's lengthy, but one paragraph stood out: "Why did Lee Kuan Yew worry about having more
trees in Singapore? Because it makes money? No. Because he could see
that the kind of densities that we are living in, the kind of concrete
we are exposed to, it’s not a good thing. Therefore, we must soften the
environment. It was something that came out of his own emotional
reaction to the environment."
Happens that I recently attended a talk, and the only thing I remembered from it somewhat relates to the above paragraph. Twas pretty much a research presentation (think FYP presentation but with an audience larger than ~3 ppl) highly focused on methodology and numeric results. On what topic? The perceived densities of urban spaces. As in, while the true mass over volume may be constant across different scenarios within the same space, what the human feels may differ depending on what makes up the mass. [They didn't actually use m/V, more like line of sight i.e. how much one sees and at what distance.]
So here's the interesting part. The study found that when even when more space is taken up by greenery (such as when walking down a boulevard with trees bearing down on you and blocking out the sun) as compared to concrete (pavements, tall buildings beside, no shade), perceived density reflects the opposite. Perceived density is like a measure of liveability -- unless one is some sort of small creature with many legs it's prob harder to live where one feels overly boxed in. This led to the conclusion that green spaces, though denser they may be, are more liveable.
The science way definitely proved that, after running hundreds of volunteers down simulated streets, getting their scaled responses and finding correlations. But then must hand it to LKY la his foresight really damn good. He saw the same results like 50 years before any sort of these technologies used in the experiments came into the light. I guess as a visionary he's really exemplary, but all of us normal people can also feel when things are right to certain extents. We don't need a detailed scientific study to tell us we prefer trees to concrete, right? [Not dissing the study, it is ongoing but this was one of the more confirmed outcomes.]
Not everything works this way (esp not designing a plane/being hungry in a supermarket), but when we feel that things are right (or wrong), it might be worth heeding the feel. And doing what we feel works. Well it's worked for SG, just because someone thought it right to plant trees.
[I'm not about to do anything drastic HAHA. Just interesting to think about separate happenings that fall under the same theme.]
Happens that I recently attended a talk, and the only thing I remembered from it somewhat relates to the above paragraph. Twas pretty much a research presentation (think FYP presentation but with an audience larger than ~3 ppl) highly focused on methodology and numeric results. On what topic? The perceived densities of urban spaces. As in, while the true mass over volume may be constant across different scenarios within the same space, what the human feels may differ depending on what makes up the mass. [They didn't actually use m/V, more like line of sight i.e. how much one sees and at what distance.]
So here's the interesting part. The study found that when even when more space is taken up by greenery (such as when walking down a boulevard with trees bearing down on you and blocking out the sun) as compared to concrete (pavements, tall buildings beside, no shade), perceived density reflects the opposite. Perceived density is like a measure of liveability -- unless one is some sort of small creature with many legs it's prob harder to live where one feels overly boxed in. This led to the conclusion that green spaces, though denser they may be, are more liveable.
The science way definitely proved that, after running hundreds of volunteers down simulated streets, getting their scaled responses and finding correlations. But then must hand it to LKY la his foresight really damn good. He saw the same results like 50 years before any sort of these technologies used in the experiments came into the light. I guess as a visionary he's really exemplary, but all of us normal people can also feel when things are right to certain extents. We don't need a detailed scientific study to tell us we prefer trees to concrete, right? [Not dissing the study, it is ongoing but this was one of the more confirmed outcomes.]
Not everything works this way (esp not designing a plane/being hungry in a supermarket), but when we feel that things are right (or wrong), it might be worth heeding the feel. And doing what we feel works. Well it's worked for SG, just because someone thought it right to plant trees.
[I'm not about to do anything drastic HAHA. Just interesting to think about separate happenings that fall under the same theme.]
Sunday, 23 April 2017
Relativity
Presenting the latest collection
of short stories, I guess it's the best way to compile topics that haven't much
to do with one another -- like fish, climbing, and time. The thoughts get
deeper further down hahaha, happy reading!
Ikan Bilis Ignoramus
During the weekend in Kluang we stopped by an ikan bilis wholesaler so my mum could restock. As I wandered around looking at all the different kinds [this suaku hadn't seen dried anchovies in so many different forms before], the seller was explaining how whole ikan bilis cost RM(x) per kg while cleaned ones cost RM(1.5x) for the same, with x denoting an amount I've forgotten. She then went on to say that the higher price was to compensate those who spent time and effort beheading the fish. Therefore, the uncleaned fish were "cheaper".
I clearly rmb feeling something fishy about that whole reasoning... but it failed to register at that point, thanks to the heat and sleep deprivation. Lol the wholesaler even mentioned that cleaned ikan bilis weigh a third less than whole ones after removing the head, bones, and squishy black stuff inside. Yep, thanks to my lagging brain I'd already beheaded and gutted hundreds of the small fish, before it hit me that we could've gotten someone else to do it for practically free. But then again I don't normally get much chance to unravel the inner workings of ikan bilis. Had a few suans shot my way while at it though. Hahaha I'd actually thought I was going pretty fast... until I looked up and saw that my pile of heads barely reached half of my mum's and grandma's. I may not speak my dialects well, but I understand them fairly ok, especially when my mum announced in hakka that for every fish I cleaned she'd have cleaned three. My grandma sniggered too, but at least she praised my immaculate fish -- quality counts!
Also interesting was how I got to put my finger armour to the test. During a long break from climbing the excess skin sheds from underuse, and with it goes the notable ability to handle hot stuff. This meant that I definitely felt the heat of the freshly scalded bitter gourds while helping to stuff them (for hakka yong tau foo). But my fingers held up well against the ikan bilis. At the very beginning of the cleaning session, my mum got up to get gloves to protect her hands coz apparently the fish bones were sharp and pricking her. As I was experiencing none of this assault, I carried on gloveless... until I felt the needle bones of one of my final few fish pierce through. So they were sharp after all, but my skin was thicker HAHA. Looks like the armour has many uses other than allowing me to stay longer on the wall and help people open their stingrays at bbqs xD
Climber Finder
I seem to have some kind of fortune when it comes to finding people to climb with. When I started in Y1 I joined the club alone, but I made friends there and we progressed together through those shaky newbie days. On exchange, I met my first climbing friend halfway up a stairwell in London, and she led me to people I climbed with regularly till now. When I jio-ed in REP, people came, and people stayed. Even out of nowhere in the most random of situations -- helping facilitate an unaffiliated camp for money in the summer -- a climbing friend awaited. When I started work I always knew that I'd one day jio my colleagues to climb (and have done so, it's great fun!). Usually, there'll be people interested to try it for the first time or else they might have done it once in OBS and want to give it another go. But lo and behold, there's a colleague who'd started climbing before I was even aware of such a sport called rock climbing. Stun.
This might seem a little like bragging, but that's really not my intention. I just feel from all my experience that this is a sport where friendships come easily. Climbing is unlike many other sports which are predominantly team-oriented. Of course we all come from schools/clubs/countries which we may represent in competitions, but nothing stops a climber from climbing with another climber wherever they come from. It's a sport that bonds rather than divides. And now that our sport is growing, it may be easier to bump into random climbers in random places. But given that I've only been in this sport for 4+ years, my situation seems a little 夸张.
Haha, it's as though certain specific lucky stars are constantly shining down upon me, while others adamantly face away. If only this strange luck of mine could be transferred to other aspects like say... keeping injury-free. [It's no joke given that the breaks I've had to take total up to roughly a year #sibeisian, but that's another story] As it is currently, I spread my ~6 climbs per month amongst different people, but I look forward to every session. Mostly it's because of the awesome people I get to spend these good times with :)
Time
Since Y4S2 I've been fascinated with the perception of time. How not to be, when the whole of 2016 went like: blink one time, end of the week, yawn another time, end of the month. Like tumbling through some sort of final year wormhole, until Y5 vanished and 16th Jan arrived.
For all of us who started work on 16th Jan, we've crossed 3 months in the workforce! Huh wait... Only 3 months? Feels too short a time to have contained everything that's happened so far, but it is. A few friends have reported similar sentiments. But strangely reaffirming is the fact that I've had colleagues remark the same thing I've been feeling -- that it's as though I've been around for half a year or so at least.
It's like time is always on the move from day to day, not quite in a rush but definitely enough to create a conveyor belt kind of feeling. But zoom out and it's only been a fairly short ~3 months, quite the opposite of how 2016 went. Why ah? It's not like time flew > Mach 1 in 2016 coz final year was too much fun, and it's not like I'm suffering now. Loading-wise, Y5 was hiong enough to sort of rival my current work pace. So that overused adage clearly ain't everything. Thinking about it, if fun (or lack thereof) isn't the culprit, then it could be 2 other things.
Things (whether at work or outside) normally overlap/run in parallel but the time spent doing them is perceived in series. Coz even if there's many things to do it's still not technically possible to be doing 2 different things at the same moment in time, at least at the newbie level I dunno how it's like higher up. [Drinking tea while reading doesn't count, y'all know what I mean haha] The constant switching between tasks gives the illusion of things being done one after another, but this is just the micro aspect of larger things that don't actually come after one another. The time and effort we perceive to be spending in series actually feed into different parallels that all stack within the same time periods. Hence, my friends, this is my theory of why we're only at 3 months even for some of you fantastically overworked people.
Also important is that I think I'll be working here for some unknown length of time. It's not like a summer internship racing the clock down where with every passing week we get so much closer to the end. Ah it's definitely not like a looming graduation, which for me came like one of those ghosts that suddenly crawl at high speed towards you on your screen. Endings are like islands in the sea of time; without them we don't really know where we're headed and how long it'll take to get there. And so we keep cruising/swimming/drifting, whichever floats your boat. Well who knows where the end is now, but I highly doubt I'll get to it very soon.
In the meantime let time flow slowly if it wants to, so I can enjoy my youth longer haha!
Sunday, 19 March 2017
Student-mode
Recently, while in the lift with le sis, we met a neighbour she was acquainted with. It was a weekday night, so I was in office attire and she was wearing the Singaporean tertiary school uniform (t-shirt, shorts, slippers). The neighbour stared hard at both of us and went "who's the older one?". Le sis responded that I was. To that, the neighbour blinked and then went "ohhhhh, but you're twins right?"
For those who don't know, my sis is a good 4 years younger than I am ;) The above situation is also v common.
Then at the IT fair yesterday (where I was scouring for a new laptop), there was this salesman. Clearly I look like I've just finished my O levels, coz he asked if I was buying a laptop in time for poly to start. Or it could be that he was being exceedingly polite. So I shook my head slightly and he corrected himself: "Oh, starting uni?".
The attire probably played a part -- t-shirt, shorts, slippers FTW.
So it seems, school hasn't left me yet. Or maybe adulthood hasn't found me yet xD
In any case, I don't mind!
For those who don't know, my sis is a good 4 years younger than I am ;) The above situation is also v common.
Then at the IT fair yesterday (where I was scouring for a new laptop), there was this salesman. Clearly I look like I've just finished my O levels, coz he asked if I was buying a laptop in time for poly to start. Or it could be that he was being exceedingly polite. So I shook my head slightly and he corrected himself: "Oh, starting uni?".
The attire probably played a part -- t-shirt, shorts, slippers FTW.
So it seems, school hasn't left me yet. Or maybe adulthood hasn't found me yet xD
In any case, I don't mind!
Monday, 13 March 2017
Some pain, some gain
Not sure if I've ever mentioned here, but I believe in fate. Mostly coz multiple times now, I've gotten this feeling that life's been neatly planning itself into a prescription. This includes meeting (literally) painful lessons which I'd very much like to avoid.
Rewind a few weeks back to sometime in Feb, where my left shoulder decided to go exploring the world outside its socket. Once it felt like the bone was invading muscle space, I disengaged and leaped off the wall so the shoulder didn't come out completely. Still, it was damaged enough to end my climb right there. SADDED. I think... I'd somehow failed/forgotten to engage the surrounding muscles before moving off from a straight-armed position. Kinda like hanging from the skeleton and trying to pull with one arm all of a sudden.
Most interestingly, this happened at the time I was (mildly) considering staving off climbing for a bit to let my wrists regain some normalcy. But yea, all climbers know that the hardest thing about climbing is not climbing, so while I was indeed considering pausing... I prob wouldn't have done it. *Dry laughter* So life handed me a better reason to stop.
Well, life for me doesn't revolve around climbing, but in any case it's dreadful having to stay away. So even more curious was how everything else kinda fit into this particular chapter and made it lots better than it could've been. It so happens that in those weeks following the curious shoulder incident, I wouldn't have climbed after work anyway (coz busy/sleepy). And on the weekends, there was this coincidental abundance of other fun sporty stuff to keep me happily exhausted.
[Must admit though, I did climb a tiiiiny bit coz of the UMC alumni event. Restraint was hard work. My favourite kinds of routes involve inclines and heel hooks, but my shoulder couldn't seem to tank the overhangs much :( If you like food, it's kinda like refraining from eating that one more serving of whatever sinful thing it is you shouldn't be eating too much of. So I spent lots more time than usual on the flat wall. Or else I sat firmly on the mat and resisted the itch to do some fun (but likely damaging) stuff. Was nice to be back at least -- it's the place where it all started.]
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Out of all these, I think most deserving of attention would be the Urban Adventure Trek with team Cockfosters. [Cockfosters is nothing vulgar -- it's the name of a terminal tube station in London. But as young ppl, we find these things amusing.] After all, we almost won. Coz it happened that for that set of station activities, being a team of climbers was pretty advantageous ;) Slacklining, anyone? 10 seconds for a full 3 points was a pretty steep requirement, esp for non-climbers seeing the line for the first time. But we aced it! K not saying I'm any good, but proud to say my team member cleared a whopping 17 seconds on the line. Totally should've given us more points for that haha. So in terms of mastery (being one of the rare teams to complete all stations with full points and visit all photo checkpoints), we'd have won... If not for a slight slip up in technology: a single lost photo which cost us the winning point and put us in 14th place.
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| Live better indeed. Without climbing and all these other sports stuff, I'd become a potato soon enough given the excessive consumption of muffins at work lately. |
I like that we just shrugged and went off for lunch with our nice new free towels. Would've been nice to win, but winning isn't everything! The whole thing was pretty fun -- getting up the low wall without help, doing random legwork activities, being smart enough to understand hints. I realised something from all these team events (both sports and non-sports) I've been joining. I can be quite chill about things, and I don't enter competitive events with a competitive frame of mind. It's only when/if the feeling comes that we stand a chance, that I fire up the engines. It seems like my team was mostly like that too -- IIRC we only started running from station to station after the slackline challenge ;)
Getting injured sucks. But wow, in a flash it's been ~3 weeks since my last proper climb and things haven't really been all that bad! Aiming to get back on the wall soon, maybe climb cautiously... Which means, it might be a good time to gather some new kakis from the workplace as well!
Last bit! One restless day after work I took the 1.5h walk to Stadium, and took this pic:
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| Person who guessed this place wrongly I am disappointed in you xD |
Haha I think I've learnt the lesson life wanted to knock into my head and yet tried to make comfortable for me. Enough of using my body in an unsustainable manner, there's still a long way to go.
Sunday, 12 February 2017
Snippets
We're not that far into the year but it's been pretty eventful so far -- how often do we clear two new years in a month? And also, I've roughly just completed my first month in the workforce! Haha, how time flies. At least there isn't that feeling of slipping and sliding from one month to the next, but maybe that's yet to come and before I know it 2018's gonna come knocking. But I'll take things as they come, and in the mean time try to keep up some diligent documentation!
First, CNY fortune! My fortune slip from the office CNY celebration told that I'm destined to own a cat. Definitely looking forward to that hahaha. But generally, the animal of the year always seems to get a bad lot. "Respiratory illness" is predicted to befall roosters this year, but since I'd already spent the first 2 weeks of the year with lungs on fire I hope I've filled my quota.
There's nth much else to mention about CNY coz it's usually quiet for my family. We don't do chain visits -- just one mass visit to the grandma's and then come home for a nice long afternoon nap. Very efficient.
Oh, must mention the office celebration. We played 老鹰抓小鸡... and it was the most violent game I've ever witnessed. Never knew office workers could be so zealous when it comes to games haha, kids need to learn to play harder. Like, eagle just go ahead and tackle the mother hen otw to mass murder of the chicks.
Work thankfully hasn't been that murderous (thus far). Currently still finding my way out of the fog and bumping into things along the way. And things are ramping up, set to rocket very soon. In retrospect, it's prob a good thing that the final stages of uni weren't as chill as we'd have liked -- not much time for us to grow sluggish before getting thrown into the workforce. I must say though, that it's a blessing to land in an office where everyone is so nice and helpful, taxed as they may be. Never in my life have I felt like I don't know so much, but people here are very kind :')
Aside from work-work, there's a whole host of other things to get used to. Firstly, I swear work has doubled my appetite. Lunch for me used to be a low-priority meal and snacks were never really part of my diet. Then enter office hours, where breakfast, lunch, and dinner seem to be 12 hours apart and I need biscuits or whatever other "emergency sugar" to tide me through in the meantime. I dunno man, how is it I feel so hungry just by sitting and typing? How many calories worth of brain juice is exerted in one day?
Maxwell is the most convenient cure for midday starvation, coz it's practically downstairs. But sometimes I go exploring. My first trip and back to Amoy food centre made for one such adventure. There is a shortcut through a carpark and another building, taking a few flights of stairs/a lift along the way. As I'd never been there before, my colleague offered to show me the way... only she's relatively new too. So on the way there we climbed a few flights and walked a few loops more than necessary, and although I'd tried my best to remember... we did the same on the way back. *Insert sweatdrop emoji* Hahaha I got asked how I survived one year overseas with such dismal navigational sense. The thing is, I can navigate well when necessary (I did go on a 10-day solo trip and clearly survived), just that I can't seem to keep my nav-sense switched on when there's other people around. Call me reliant, but I prefer to frame it as trusting ;) Here's to overshooting a floor by one up and one down and chuckling all the way back to office.
Unlike uni life, work life doesn't seem to deal compulsory sleep deprivation (at least for now, when there's minimal homework). Just sleep at 10:15pm lor -- like a well-behaved pri sch kid. Tried and tested, I need a full 8 hours minimum, esp since 2 hour naps are no longer possible during work days D: I do have a choice of getting up later because of flexi-hours (start anytime between 7-10am). But then, the later one starts, the later one ends. Hence, even while temptation runs high on mornings that follow the late nights after climbing, I refuse to pay for today's enjoyment with tomorrow's time. So far.
Nothing new on the climbing front, except I should've written "stay injury-free, please" on the 天灯 we set off in Cambodia. Left wrist hates slopers. Now right wrist hates slopers AND pinches, oh joy. Maybe I should be thankful my wrists are rarely injured at the same time... but let's not jinx anything. I have intentions of keeping up twice a week as long as the body doesn't complain. Still need that active lifestyle and the friends that are a part of it.
Speaking of active lifestyle. On Fridays I get to wear the most comfy attire of the entire work week (yayyy sneakers); perfect for taking walks after work ends. It's the day to skip the crowd-jostling in good ol' Tanjong Pagar, and head somewhere else. I usually decide on an end point in the office, but I don't always end up where I plan. Inaugural walking tour was to City Hall mrt (30 mins), inclusive of discovering that there is an actual bridge between North and South Bridge roads. [Suaku I know, haha that's why trying to get to know central-south SG better] Latest journey took me all the way to Promenade (~1h). I'd been aiming for Marina Bay, with the intention of scouting an alternative way to get to the climbing gyms, but along the way I got distracted by the 海边风 coming from the bay. Weather was nice and for once I wasn't that hungry: good conditions to take the scenic route all the way down the boardwalk and across the helix bridge towards Promenade. There, I was like one person crossing in the direction against the huge flood heading to Chingay. Future plans? There is still Chinatown and the like around the area. Also, it is technically possible to walk to Climb Central from my workplace... maybe one day soon when I've got more emergency sugar on hand haha.
And speaking of friends. Props to Cow and family for organising the R2 (bonus one R5) CNY steamboat session! It's interesting and different to see everyone standing around after dinner and just talking. Haha, almost like real grown ups meeting again after a long time. Alright it hasn't been that long; our final finals only ended about 2 months ago now that I think about it. But still, the people I used to see everyday in school have been replaced by a new set of people. So it really felt like REunion :) While I cannot comfortably partake in gambling, I was pretty happy with watching others/watching things like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KuwVAq8-lY on the smart TV [Go and check out the original of that song. It'll make the cover the best thing you've heard all day.] So much entertainment going on inside while the gambling den outside was exploding with noise. At the end of the day, we had the prettiest yu sheng ever. Now we know to use pink pomelo if we ever need to beautify the dish. I had to miss my family lohei for that night... but I guess while family ranks v highly, it pays to be flexible in life! Won't get to see these people all that often, but I hope everyone gets all the good things requested with blessing of the lohei (bonus and GPA 5.0 especially ;)). We'll catch up again, let's not let work eat us alive!
For the rest of the year ahead, huat ah!
First, CNY fortune! My fortune slip from the office CNY celebration told that I'm destined to own a cat. Definitely looking forward to that hahaha. But generally, the animal of the year always seems to get a bad lot. "Respiratory illness" is predicted to befall roosters this year, but since I'd already spent the first 2 weeks of the year with lungs on fire I hope I've filled my quota.
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| Legit. |
Oh, must mention the office celebration. We played 老鹰抓小鸡... and it was the most violent game I've ever witnessed. Never knew office workers could be so zealous when it comes to games haha, kids need to learn to play harder. Like, eagle just go ahead and tackle the mother hen otw to mass murder of the chicks.
Work thankfully hasn't been that murderous (thus far). Currently still finding my way out of the fog and bumping into things along the way. And things are ramping up, set to rocket very soon. In retrospect, it's prob a good thing that the final stages of uni weren't as chill as we'd have liked -- not much time for us to grow sluggish before getting thrown into the workforce. I must say though, that it's a blessing to land in an office where everyone is so nice and helpful, taxed as they may be. Never in my life have I felt like I don't know so much, but people here are very kind :')
Aside from work-work, there's a whole host of other things to get used to. Firstly, I swear work has doubled my appetite. Lunch for me used to be a low-priority meal and snacks were never really part of my diet. Then enter office hours, where breakfast, lunch, and dinner seem to be 12 hours apart and I need biscuits or whatever other "emergency sugar" to tide me through in the meantime. I dunno man, how is it I feel so hungry just by sitting and typing? How many calories worth of brain juice is exerted in one day?
Maxwell is the most convenient cure for midday starvation, coz it's practically downstairs. But sometimes I go exploring. My first trip and back to Amoy food centre made for one such adventure. There is a shortcut through a carpark and another building, taking a few flights of stairs/a lift along the way. As I'd never been there before, my colleague offered to show me the way... only she's relatively new too. So on the way there we climbed a few flights and walked a few loops more than necessary, and although I'd tried my best to remember... we did the same on the way back. *Insert sweatdrop emoji* Hahaha I got asked how I survived one year overseas with such dismal navigational sense. The thing is, I can navigate well when necessary (I did go on a 10-day solo trip and clearly survived), just that I can't seem to keep my nav-sense switched on when there's other people around. Call me reliant, but I prefer to frame it as trusting ;) Here's to overshooting a floor by one up and one down and chuckling all the way back to office.
Unlike uni life, work life doesn't seem to deal compulsory sleep deprivation (at least for now, when there's minimal homework). Just sleep at 10:15pm lor -- like a well-behaved pri sch kid. Tried and tested, I need a full 8 hours minimum, esp since 2 hour naps are no longer possible during work days D: I do have a choice of getting up later because of flexi-hours (start anytime between 7-10am). But then, the later one starts, the later one ends. Hence, even while temptation runs high on mornings that follow the late nights after climbing, I refuse to pay for today's enjoyment with tomorrow's time. So far.
Nothing new on the climbing front, except I should've written "stay injury-free, please" on the 天灯 we set off in Cambodia. Left wrist hates slopers. Now right wrist hates slopers AND pinches, oh joy. Maybe I should be thankful my wrists are rarely injured at the same time... but let's not jinx anything. I have intentions of keeping up twice a week as long as the body doesn't complain. Still need that active lifestyle and the friends that are a part of it.
Speaking of active lifestyle. On Fridays I get to wear the most comfy attire of the entire work week (yayyy sneakers); perfect for taking walks after work ends. It's the day to skip the crowd-jostling in good ol' Tanjong Pagar, and head somewhere else. I usually decide on an end point in the office, but I don't always end up where I plan. Inaugural walking tour was to City Hall mrt (30 mins), inclusive of discovering that there is an actual bridge between North and South Bridge roads. [Suaku I know, haha that's why trying to get to know central-south SG better] Latest journey took me all the way to Promenade (~1h). I'd been aiming for Marina Bay, with the intention of scouting an alternative way to get to the climbing gyms, but along the way I got distracted by the 海边风 coming from the bay. Weather was nice and for once I wasn't that hungry: good conditions to take the scenic route all the way down the boardwalk and across the helix bridge towards Promenade. There, I was like one person crossing in the direction against the huge flood heading to Chingay. Future plans? There is still Chinatown and the like around the area. Also, it is technically possible to walk to Climb Central from my workplace... maybe one day soon when I've got more emergency sugar on hand haha.
 |
| The usual view was pretty dusty that day, and I'd never noticed these "box pavilions" lining the board walk. |
And speaking of friends. Props to Cow and family for organising the R2 (bonus one R5) CNY steamboat session! It's interesting and different to see everyone standing around after dinner and just talking. Haha, almost like real grown ups meeting again after a long time. Alright it hasn't been that long; our final finals only ended about 2 months ago now that I think about it. But still, the people I used to see everyday in school have been replaced by a new set of people. So it really felt like REunion :) While I cannot comfortably partake in gambling, I was pretty happy with watching others/watching things like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KuwVAq8-lY on the smart TV [Go and check out the original of that song. It'll make the cover the best thing you've heard all day.] So much entertainment going on inside while the gambling den outside was exploding with noise. At the end of the day, we had the prettiest yu sheng ever. Now we know to use pink pomelo if we ever need to beautify the dish. I had to miss my family lohei for that night... but I guess while family ranks v highly, it pays to be flexible in life! Won't get to see these people all that often, but I hope everyone gets all the good things requested with blessing of the lohei (bonus and GPA 5.0 especially ;)). We'll catch up again, let's not let work eat us alive!
For the rest of the year ahead, huat ah!
Tuesday, 3 January 2017
Cambodia 2016/17
Oh look, a travel post! It's been a long time.
There was this period in the final sem where I didn't think I'd be leaving the country after graduation, because (a) I'd yet to secure a job and (b) I'd already traveled a fair bit for over the summer, purely for leisure. I guess I was pretty indifferent about traveling, as I'd already had my fun with some of my best friends and my family wasn't planning on going anywhere. However, while sitting in class and watching people plan their chain-travels one fine day, I remembered an opportunity earlier extended to me. An opportunity to travel and do something meaningful. And that was how I ended up going on my sole grad trip, destination: Cambodia.
Tiny background: this was the 6th or 7th installment of Project Smiling Angels, an annual community service expedition to Cambodia, where the aim is always sustainable improvement. Every year, the team comprises members from Zone 8 SJAB (of course, because this was where it originated), and I guess occasional outsiders like myself. I got on board by virtue of knowing a certain Mr. Sim and a few others on the team with whom I'd worked before.
As with everything 2016, Christmas eve chionged forth and off I went to Phnom Penh. And then *snap fingers* I was back in SG looking a few shades darker and covered in mozzie bite scars. The meat of this post is dedicated to the village experience (6 out of 10 days), because in all my years of education I've never been on OCIP. It really was something... different.
We spent the 2nd to 7th days at the village proper (just daytimes except for Christmas; the other nights were reserved for crashing/drinking in the hotel). Our time there involved carrying weights of all sorts (rocks, sand, water, ... children), and can be divided neatly into work and play, all under the scorching Cambodian sun. Best pre-trip investment: spectacle hooks.
Werk werk werk werk werk. Actually no, it was more like work, take 5 (x10), lunch + wonder/wander, work, pang gang (sometimes early). This year's task was to build part of a new school block -- the end-goals were a little vague at the beginning -- and it soon became clear that we'd get no further than the foundations. Not that we were slacking, at least not by Cambodian standards. These people really know how to chill, and when they work, they do one thing at a time, or sometimes one thing in a day. And go for 2+ hours lunch breaks. I realised how difficult it was for me to just sit still and do nothing. It's not a lifestyle I could get used to in a short while, but hey, when you're in Cambodia do as Cambodians do. The thing is, when Cambodians actually do, they leave us feeling like we'd be of better use giving eye power.
Mostly, we could be found transporting a huge mound each of rocks and sand from one end of the school compound to the other. Mounds don't transport themselves, nor did we have anti-gravity force fields to help us. Hence it was time to put in some muscle, one basket-/groundsheet-full at a time. [We did wonder why they didn't deposit the materials closer to the building site earlier on, but I guess it gave us things to do that we couldn't go wrong at. Efficiency got thrown out the unbuilt windows of course -- it could've been 1 truck trip vs a thousand human trips.] When one uses pure strength like this, ahh up goes the appetite. So I ate double of what I usually eat over those work days (and went back to normal over R&R).
Aside from the heavy lifting there were the more skill-based bits such as digging out the ground. Yes, digging and evicting many earthworms along the way. But if you're picturing a circular hole in the ground that's not really it... The ground plan looked more like a grid of squares and rectangles -- shapes which take skill and precision to carve out of the ground. Our first taste of digging went like this: one villager armed with a changkul first dug out perfect square outlines, and we were supposed to clear the dirt from within this outline up (or should I say down) to a certain depth. Well let's just say that some of those squares didn't remain squares for much longer, and who knows what kinds of shapes resulted when we started in those areas without outline guides. I found that while I had the strength to remove fairly sizeable scoops of ground, I couldn't do it for long in quick succession, especially not with great accuracy (aiming is not easy!!!). So once in a while, a villager (probably amused or impatient to the limit) would take over and get the job done in quadruple speed. Essentially, we were the unskilled labour, coz unfortunately uni didn't teach us to use changkuls and shovels.
After the ground was dug deep enough, all the heavy stuff we'd been carrying (except the children) was mixed within these holes, leaving solid cement foundations once dry. [The gross thing was that while the cement was hardening overnight, all the residing earthworms chionged up to the surface for air. And that was where we found lots of them next morning -- dead on the concrete.] Then it was time to put up the concrete pillars! Those must've been the heaviest things I've helped carry in my life -- so heavy that when you're putting in the muscle it doesn't seem like you're playing a part in supporting the weight, something like pressing against a ceiling. But obviously, let go at everyone else's peril. And I wasn't even at the heavy (guys') end! In case you're wondering how: thick, sturdy branches as handles for dozens of hands along with rubber tires as slings. Could be real wrist- and back-busters if one wasn't careful.
As mentioned, when in Cambodia for all parts work done add equal parts rest. Action relaxation. My tendency to fidget surfaced when the time came to chill and hence I was always happy to take extended walks around the village... or find someone/thing to play with.
I hadn't interacted with children in a long time, not to mention a school-load of them. To the kids, everything could be played with -- the mound of sand, empty bottles, a gigantic blue tarp, ... us. It was Christmas day. There was to be a Christmas party for all the villagers in the night but the kids had come in early to play. For the better part of the afternoon, all of us would've been carrying at least one kid on our backs at some point in time. At their command we would run and chase our fellow horses so that our riders could tickle each other/us. The kids also seemed to greatly enjoy aerial manoeuvres courtesy of our muscles. Spinning, throwing, swinging -- the school grounds was transformed into a theme park full of human rides and kids screaming in delight. The kids weighed 15-25kg btw, so talk about working out!
Most of us had our "favourite kid" or else had become a kid's favourite person. The younger kids just wanted to play and run around, and seeing them happy made me happy to exchange my physical energy for their enjoyment. But my favourite kid was this 12-year-old girl who was quiet and reserved compared to other kids -- kinda like myself. It was the our second last day at the school and I was sitting under the shade stoning, when she came along to sit beside me. From then on she stuck with me, playing with me and giving me tiny bouquets of rainbow flowers picked from all over the village. Though small, these were really very beautiful. At the end of the second last day, she asked, "tomorrow?" and I was able to reply "tomorrow" although I knew it would be the last.
I guess what made my goodbye easier was that it happened early, and it was a very solid one. At the end of our final day at the school, we happened to be in a pretty weird position physically. Like we were told to say goodbye to the kids and go settle whatever before heading off, but we were standing deep within the compound, far from the gates. I dunno if you can imagine it, but I really wasn't sure how any sort of goodbye could be definite with a mob of increasingly clingy kids standing between us and the exit. So while some of us were milling awkwardly around waiting for the others to pull away, esp those more acquainted with the younger ones, she just stood a distance away, looking at me. I didn't really know what to do, but I raised my arms and she ran forward to give me one final hug. Then she asked once again, "tomorrow?", to which I replied, "next time". I'm not sure what she understood by that, but I know that she knew we weren't going to be meeting the next day. In any case she turned and walked all the way across the field, out of the gates and in the direction of her house. Not once did she look back. All this, while the younger kids and some of our group had burst into tears at prospect of impending separation.
What does it mean to be content and to be happy? These children clearly don't have all the gadgets and toys that we grew up with. You see them happy and wonder how they could be happy when they have so little, so much less than we do? But then if we swapped lives, If I went to live in the Cambodian countryside instead and one of the kids took my place in the bustling city, who says we'd both be happy. I'd probably die of boredom and the kid would be dealt the stress and hustle no village kid would ever have to face where they come from. Happiness cannot be transacted but I guess it can be cultivated. We can't just buy another life, but by recognising what we have in our own, we can be happy too. In the city we have sooo much, and maybe it's because we know that there's so much more that we could have, that we lose sight of the things that are enough. Now that I've had this experience, maybe next time I start to "crave more", I'll think back on what it means for me to be contented. I'll think back and remember those kids who have everything they know, and who know everything they have.
As for my interactions with that particular girl, I still don't really know what to make of it. Why she enjoyed my company so much, to pull me by the hand everywhere and give me all those beautiful flowers... Maybe she took pity on me sitting alone and stoning from being too tired haha. Or maybe she and I weren't all that different, if you look past age, skin colour, and language. It's rare that I don't know what to learn from "interesting" or somewhat impactful experiences. At the end of the day, I enjoyed my time at the school and that girl was a major part of it. I don't know if I'll ever see this girl again, and although I didn't cry at the school grounds I did tear a little on the bus ride back while looking at the flowers wilting in my cap. But I strongly believe that we don't meet people by accident in life; paths cross for good reasons. Ah I think I get it now. My time with this girl taught me to live in the moment. Yes it was fleeting, and in the end I couldn't save the souvenirs she gave me, but I enjoyed it, all of the 1.5 days that we were friends. Maybe that's all that matters.
I went on this trip knowing about a handful out of the 18 other people. This was the first time I'd travelled with people who weren't already my friends or family. It wasn't really a conscious decision, but I spent most times hopping around different groups instead of sticking to the people I already knew. And it also helped that we'd pair up to carry sand/rocks/water, so those hundreds of up-and-down trips really were good opportunities for conversations with different people. Then tired alr, so use long bus rides for recharging. It seems that one thing that's changed about me in 2016 was that I wasn't really scared of going out there and getting to know new people anymore. I'm still a real introvert; interacting with big groups of new people intimidates and tires me. So it really was my fortune to go on a trip with people who were welcoming and kind, and who treated me as one of them. [I will never forget the time I got tickled until I fell off the bed xD]
R&R was nice. Suddenly it was 2017, and we were consuming alcohol as usual. I remember making a mental note that sometimes, decisions can be arrived at faster with two-way communication, rather than waiting around for the bosses to make the call and getting increasingly frustrated. Next day, or more like a few hours later, we were up to catch the sunrise at Angkor Wat. [Yes, the temples also looked nice and climbable.]
It's not easy to imagine how manual labour with a group of people I hardly knew could be considered a fun travel plan. Then again, I wasn't just looking to have fun, and the stories that the others told me before the trip thoroughly convinced me that it'd be a meaningful way to spend both Christmas and the New Year. All I had to do was go and experience something new.
I guess one of my strengths is that whenever I set out to enjoy something, I usually do :)
Prelude
There was this period in the final sem where I didn't think I'd be leaving the country after graduation, because (a) I'd yet to secure a job and (b) I'd already traveled a fair bit for over the summer, purely for leisure. I guess I was pretty indifferent about traveling, as I'd already had my fun with some of my best friends and my family wasn't planning on going anywhere. However, while sitting in class and watching people plan their chain-travels one fine day, I remembered an opportunity earlier extended to me. An opportunity to travel and do something meaningful. And that was how I ended up going on my sole grad trip, destination: Cambodia.
Tiny background: this was the 6th or 7th installment of Project Smiling Angels, an annual community service expedition to Cambodia, where the aim is always sustainable improvement. Every year, the team comprises members from Zone 8 SJAB (of course, because this was where it originated), and I guess occasional outsiders like myself. I got on board by virtue of knowing a certain Mr. Sim and a few others on the team with whom I'd worked before.
As with everything 2016, Christmas eve chionged forth and off I went to Phnom Penh. And then *snap fingers* I was back in SG looking a few shades darker and covered in mozzie bite scars. The meat of this post is dedicated to the village experience (6 out of 10 days), because in all my years of education I've never been on OCIP. It really was something... different.
Village Experience
We spent the 2nd to 7th days at the village proper (just daytimes except for Christmas; the other nights were reserved for crashing/drinking in the hotel). Our time there involved carrying weights of all sorts (rocks, sand, water, ... children), and can be divided neatly into work and play, all under the scorching Cambodian sun. Best pre-trip investment: spectacle hooks.
Work
Werk werk werk werk werk. Actually no, it was more like work, take 5 (x10), lunch + wonder/wander, work, pang gang (sometimes early). This year's task was to build part of a new school block -- the end-goals were a little vague at the beginning -- and it soon became clear that we'd get no further than the foundations. Not that we were slacking, at least not by Cambodian standards. These people really know how to chill, and when they work, they do one thing at a time, or sometimes one thing in a day. And go for 2+ hours lunch breaks. I realised how difficult it was for me to just sit still and do nothing. It's not a lifestyle I could get used to in a short while, but hey, when you're in Cambodia do as Cambodians do. The thing is, when Cambodians actually do, they leave us feeling like we'd be of better use giving eye power.
Mostly, we could be found transporting a huge mound each of rocks and sand from one end of the school compound to the other. Mounds don't transport themselves, nor did we have anti-gravity force fields to help us. Hence it was time to put in some muscle, one basket-/groundsheet-full at a time. [We did wonder why they didn't deposit the materials closer to the building site earlier on, but I guess it gave us things to do that we couldn't go wrong at. Efficiency got thrown out the unbuilt windows of course -- it could've been 1 truck trip vs a thousand human trips.] When one uses pure strength like this, ahh up goes the appetite. So I ate double of what I usually eat over those work days (and went back to normal over R&R).
Aside from the heavy lifting there were the more skill-based bits such as digging out the ground. Yes, digging and evicting many earthworms along the way. But if you're picturing a circular hole in the ground that's not really it... The ground plan looked more like a grid of squares and rectangles -- shapes which take skill and precision to carve out of the ground. Our first taste of digging went like this: one villager armed with a changkul first dug out perfect square outlines, and we were supposed to clear the dirt from within this outline up (or should I say down) to a certain depth. Well let's just say that some of those squares didn't remain squares for much longer, and who knows what kinds of shapes resulted when we started in those areas without outline guides. I found that while I had the strength to remove fairly sizeable scoops of ground, I couldn't do it for long in quick succession, especially not with great accuracy (aiming is not easy!!!). So once in a while, a villager (probably amused or impatient to the limit) would take over and get the job done in quadruple speed. Essentially, we were the unskilled labour, coz unfortunately uni didn't teach us to use changkuls and shovels.
After the ground was dug deep enough, all the heavy stuff we'd been carrying (except the children) was mixed within these holes, leaving solid cement foundations once dry. [The gross thing was that while the cement was hardening overnight, all the residing earthworms chionged up to the surface for air. And that was where we found lots of them next morning -- dead on the concrete.] Then it was time to put up the concrete pillars! Those must've been the heaviest things I've helped carry in my life -- so heavy that when you're putting in the muscle it doesn't seem like you're playing a part in supporting the weight, something like pressing against a ceiling. But obviously, let go at everyone else's peril. And I wasn't even at the heavy (guys') end! In case you're wondering how: thick, sturdy branches as handles for dozens of hands along with rubber tires as slings. Could be real wrist- and back-busters if one wasn't careful.
As mentioned, when in Cambodia for all parts work done add equal parts rest. Action relaxation. My tendency to fidget surfaced when the time came to chill and hence I was always happy to take extended walks around the village... or find someone/thing to play with.
Play
I hadn't interacted with children in a long time, not to mention a school-load of them. To the kids, everything could be played with -- the mound of sand, empty bottles, a gigantic blue tarp, ... us. It was Christmas day. There was to be a Christmas party for all the villagers in the night but the kids had come in early to play. For the better part of the afternoon, all of us would've been carrying at least one kid on our backs at some point in time. At their command we would run and chase our fellow horses so that our riders could tickle each other/us. The kids also seemed to greatly enjoy aerial manoeuvres courtesy of our muscles. Spinning, throwing, swinging -- the school grounds was transformed into a theme park full of human rides and kids screaming in delight. The kids weighed 15-25kg btw, so talk about working out!
Most of us had our "favourite kid" or else had become a kid's favourite person. The younger kids just wanted to play and run around, and seeing them happy made me happy to exchange my physical energy for their enjoyment. But my favourite kid was this 12-year-old girl who was quiet and reserved compared to other kids -- kinda like myself. It was the our second last day at the school and I was sitting under the shade stoning, when she came along to sit beside me. From then on she stuck with me, playing with me and giving me tiny bouquets of rainbow flowers picked from all over the village. Though small, these were really very beautiful. At the end of the second last day, she asked, "tomorrow?" and I was able to reply "tomorrow" although I knew it would be the last.
I guess what made my goodbye easier was that it happened early, and it was a very solid one. At the end of our final day at the school, we happened to be in a pretty weird position physically. Like we were told to say goodbye to the kids and go settle whatever before heading off, but we were standing deep within the compound, far from the gates. I dunno if you can imagine it, but I really wasn't sure how any sort of goodbye could be definite with a mob of increasingly clingy kids standing between us and the exit. So while some of us were milling awkwardly around waiting for the others to pull away, esp those more acquainted with the younger ones, she just stood a distance away, looking at me. I didn't really know what to do, but I raised my arms and she ran forward to give me one final hug. Then she asked once again, "tomorrow?", to which I replied, "next time". I'm not sure what she understood by that, but I know that she knew we weren't going to be meeting the next day. In any case she turned and walked all the way across the field, out of the gates and in the direction of her house. Not once did she look back. All this, while the younger kids and some of our group had burst into tears at prospect of impending separation.
Insights
What does it mean to be content and to be happy? These children clearly don't have all the gadgets and toys that we grew up with. You see them happy and wonder how they could be happy when they have so little, so much less than we do? But then if we swapped lives, If I went to live in the Cambodian countryside instead and one of the kids took my place in the bustling city, who says we'd both be happy. I'd probably die of boredom and the kid would be dealt the stress and hustle no village kid would ever have to face where they come from. Happiness cannot be transacted but I guess it can be cultivated. We can't just buy another life, but by recognising what we have in our own, we can be happy too. In the city we have sooo much, and maybe it's because we know that there's so much more that we could have, that we lose sight of the things that are enough. Now that I've had this experience, maybe next time I start to "crave more", I'll think back on what it means for me to be contented. I'll think back and remember those kids who have everything they know, and who know everything they have.
As for my interactions with that particular girl, I still don't really know what to make of it. Why she enjoyed my company so much, to pull me by the hand everywhere and give me all those beautiful flowers... Maybe she took pity on me sitting alone and stoning from being too tired haha. Or maybe she and I weren't all that different, if you look past age, skin colour, and language. It's rare that I don't know what to learn from "interesting" or somewhat impactful experiences. At the end of the day, I enjoyed my time at the school and that girl was a major part of it. I don't know if I'll ever see this girl again, and although I didn't cry at the school grounds I did tear a little on the bus ride back while looking at the flowers wilting in my cap. But I strongly believe that we don't meet people by accident in life; paths cross for good reasons. Ah I think I get it now. My time with this girl taught me to live in the moment. Yes it was fleeting, and in the end I couldn't save the souvenirs she gave me, but I enjoyed it, all of the 1.5 days that we were friends. Maybe that's all that matters.
Everything else
I went on this trip knowing about a handful out of the 18 other people. This was the first time I'd travelled with people who weren't already my friends or family. It wasn't really a conscious decision, but I spent most times hopping around different groups instead of sticking to the people I already knew. And it also helped that we'd pair up to carry sand/rocks/water, so those hundreds of up-and-down trips really were good opportunities for conversations with different people. Then tired alr, so use long bus rides for recharging. It seems that one thing that's changed about me in 2016 was that I wasn't really scared of going out there and getting to know new people anymore. I'm still a real introvert; interacting with big groups of new people intimidates and tires me. So it really was my fortune to go on a trip with people who were welcoming and kind, and who treated me as one of them. [I will never forget the time I got tickled until I fell off the bed xD]
R&R was nice. Suddenly it was 2017, and we were consuming alcohol as usual. I remember making a mental note that sometimes, decisions can be arrived at faster with two-way communication, rather than waiting around for the bosses to make the call and getting increasingly frustrated. Next day, or more like a few hours later, we were up to catch the sunrise at Angkor Wat. [Yes, the temples also looked nice and climbable.]
It's not easy to imagine how manual labour with a group of people I hardly knew could be considered a fun travel plan. Then again, I wasn't just looking to have fun, and the stories that the others told me before the trip thoroughly convinced me that it'd be a meaningful way to spend both Christmas and the New Year. All I had to do was go and experience something new.
I guess one of my strengths is that whenever I set out to enjoy something, I usually do :)
 |
| Angkor Wat, 1st Jan 2017. Dawn of the New Year! |
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