Kitties!

Last weekend I had visited somewhere pretty special. I was bored and I decided to search online about something interesting places to visit. I had something in mind that time, it was the cafe where they have cats roaming around.

I knew something like that existed here in Korea, but to my surprise, they have one of those kitty cafes in my area of Bucheon! Without hesitation I went to visit that place with my trusty old camera, and took a bunch of photos of the playful kitties over there. Here are some of the best which I like!  Enjoy!

Pearly white kitty!

What did I do?

Bossy kitty who hates interaction with people

Interested on something

Can I go out?

Angel above!

Emo kitty... awww...

Don't disturb my nap time!

Photogenic kitty!

If kitties could fish

Puma kitty!

Still cute as ever!

I want some more treats!

Me, myself and I

The perfect gift to ponder apon

 

It’s really funny… Here I am sitting at a slightly crowded cafe by my self, thinking about everything that’s related to myself. I don’t do those normally, but tomorrow is my 25th birthday, and officially my second birthday in this foreign land I called home for the past 7 years (have been spending my birthday in my hometown during summer vacation when I was studying).

Anyways, here I am, alone with this cup of cafe latte on the table, thinking whether being here is a success or a failure.

I like the freedom I have here in Korea. Well, I’m am not talking about the freedom of time from work, frankly I don’t have those… But the freedom of doing anything I want, meeting the people I want.

To be honest, I came from a well lived family, didn’t struggle much in my life. But having to grow up in a fairly strict asian family, I enjoy the freedom that I had earn right now. Don’t get me wrong, I still respect my parents and love them very much.

But sometimes if you ask me, I would gladly choose freedom over family even though to get the freedom I need to sacrifice a lot.

Sometimes people can be very insensitive to others, thinking what they do is always right. The ever slight inconsideration can cause everything to go wrong in many situations.

On the other hand, when you are left all alone facing that world by yourself, the smallest consideration can go a very long way.

The human nature has always been like this: we never appreciate what we have in front of us, until we lose it. By then we only realize the importance of even the smallest things in our life.

Well, I like it this way. I’m far away from my family, so that I wouldn’t burden them, and I would appreciate them more since I would am not around them that often. Sacrificing that I gain my freedom while teaching myself to appreciate every little small things in life.

But it really tears me apart when I think of myself not being able to spend my time with my beloved ones, especially my grandmother that I love dearly. I guess I wouldn’t appreciate her as much if I’m beside her all the time.

Well in the end, all I have is an empty cup where I first had my cafe latte in. In the future when I look back, I hope I wouldn’t regret on the decision that I had made.

Happy birthday.

Relationship – friends

Can you find a friend in this sea of people?

Relationship is difficult for me it seems. Here, I’m talking about friendship. Some people will tell you that it might be as simple as starting a conversation first, but for someone like me living in a foreign land, that’s a pretty daunting task.

To be honest, most of us only hang out with those we are comfortable with, or those who speak a similar tone with us, be it language, interest, religion or whatsoever. So naturally, I had less friends when I’m here in South Korea compare to when I was in Malaysia. Most of the friends that I had when I was studying in university were those fellow students that came with me. Back then I didn’t bother much about making new friends since I had the mind-set of “I’m the alien and I should let them strike the first conversation”.

And also being the cautious person I am, I’m always wary of that most people would only befriend someone so that they can benefit from them. By experience we  also know that there are many kinds of people out there trying to get us too, waiting to back stab us at any moment for whatever reasons.

But as life and time goes by, we would get the chance to meet loads more good people around us if we spend a little bit more effort to seek them out. I had been skeptical from the beginning about this last time since one of the stereotypes about Koreans is that they are not really that friendly with anyone, always arrogant (to fellow Asians at least), particularly those from Seoul. But being off school and stepping into the 8-to-8-working world, I have been forced to re-construct my social circle among the locals since I was alone.

Maybe I was fortunate enough because most of the people who I had befriended up til now are really good people, whom I can trust and would give me a hand when I’m in trouble. So I had concluded that I was wrong, that there exist friendly people everywhere, even at my work place.

Right now, I have people I consider friends, and friends that I consider like my own brothers and sisters which I had never thought of. Even though some of them are from the management level and significantly older than me, I am able to communicate with them well, sharing our thoughts, our ups and downs together, talking about anything and everything. Mind you, S. Koreans always have this social hierarchy that’s really though to handle, and also the language barrier that always hinders me, but they were good to overlook that most of the time.

Furthermore, I was too blessed with other foreign friends that I had met, from work and from social interaction. There are so many things to learn from them since they are from all walks of life and have traveled more, and have more experience in life compare to what I have seen. So, now I had realized that I missed out some great opportunities of meeting great people while I was studying, and also realizing that 1 really close friend is better than 5 superficial friends.

It is nice to have people to interact with even in the age of social networking where most people would face their smart phones screens poking their friends on Facebook and sending tweets rather than talking to someone face to face. All in all, be careful while befriending someone and we shall benefit from each other and who knows this world might become a better place to live in.

Having fun under the summer sun

Innocent and pure fun under the summer sun

Looking back, I was surprised since I didn’t write anything during the month of July. I’m not sure why, but for sure many things happen in the 7th month of this meaningful 2011.

First of all, was the 9th of July street rally dubbed as “Bersih”, which is the word CLEAN in the Malay language – a rally done by peaceful Malaysians asking for fair and equal election. That rally happened in the streets of Kuala Lumpur, and I believe those who follow global news would know about it. That time, I heard a small rally would be held in Seoul too. So I brought along my camera with some excitement thinking I would be able to expect some crowd in Guang Hwa Mun, the place where some Malaysians in Seoul would gather. I think I was a tad too late, well 30 minutes late and I didn’t see anyone there at all. Instead, I had a great time shooting some interesting photos in one of the must-visit tourist attraction spot in S. Korea.

Above is one of the best that I got, at least for me. I love how I was able to capture the atmosphere, the innocent laughter of this little girl playing in the water fountain in front of the King Sejong statue right in the middle of Guang Hwa Mun. It reminds me of the time when we were young, when everything was so simple, and all we want was pure and naive fun.

In the midst of busy work schedule and less interesting day-to-day life, to my surprise I was invited to a dinner session with the King and Queen of Malaysia, who came to S. Korea for a short 3-day visiting trip! Actually, I had to put up my name to the embassy, and only 100 or so Malaysians, whom were mostly students were selected for that dinner. It was one heck of an experience for me; having the chance to enjoy French cuisine in a 5-star hotel in Gwang Hwa Mun (again), and meeting, and greeting His Majesty the King and Her Majesty the Queen of Malaysia weren’t something simple words can describe.

Sunny summer days doesn’t last too long in the month of July. Heavy downpour for a whole week had made Seoul into a sea of nightmare. Landslides, people killed and missing, houses destroyed and sunken cars littered the city streets. It was horrible, and there’s yet reports of more rainfall beginning next week.

Well, one thing good for me is, my holiday officially starts today, and I will be going back to my dear hometown on this Sunday for a short one week vacation! How should I spend the next 7 days? I hope I can make them as meaningful as ever!

Life is full with so much ups and downs that to be honest, I do not know what to expect next.

I wish I can find back the way to enjoy “fun”, just like that kid…

Is this fate?

City of the unexpected

I miss you like crazy right now. I never knew this could ever happen in such a short time. Just 3 days, it only took 3 days to totally fall for you. I never imagined this would ever happen in this gloomy city of Shenyang, but it seems that it has. Your absence is driving me to the verge of insanity.

I have been thinking about what I should do just to get you right beside me. You make me feel that I had found my long lost friend. I miss the way how you would correct your glasses with your hands when you are talking, I miss the way you look when you blurr out when everything comes at you at once. I miss the time when we spoke in your hotel room, the time we spoke when we were alone together.

I really wish you would know how I feel right now. I will do everything for you. Would you do the same for me? What should I do next?

God please let me know.

All alone in the park

Today is Wednesday, a day which I don’t need to work until 8.30pm, sitting on a bench at central park near my house, listening to taylor swift while writing this post. The scenery is pretty good; overlooking a small pond while many people walk pass by. The journey to the park had me thinking about my future, about what I really want in life. To be honest, I don’t know what I really wanted. I recently met someone new in my life who inspires me a lot, inspires me to do things that I would have never imagined. All in all, to be inspired and to really try a new thing is two whole different things. Would I have the courage to do what really inspires me, or just stick to the status quo? Even though I am proud of myself being able to achieve a lot where normal people aren’t able to, at the same time I’m disappointed that I couldn’t achieve what I really wanted the most. Heck, right now I don’t even know what I really want now. All I can do right now is breathe out a huge *sigh* and do what I do best, wait and let faith brings me to my other destination.  This time I hope that I am lucky enough, and not hoping to be as fortunate as before…

How long should I wait?

I have no reason not to post ANYMORE!

Well, I just installed this new WordPress app for android and I think I have no more reasons not to blog anymore. The only draw back is that I only can post photos from my android and must always have my device connected to wifi. See you all soon!

Last one before spring cleaning

Walking through

It’s the time of the year again! And I mean the annual cleaning of my pc….

Well, I skipped doing this tedious process for the last 2 years, and my precious laptop is really really slow right now.

So right before I clean this up with a full clean format, I will like to do one more post.

I actually took this photo quite some time ago. Just want to share it out right now.

And here’s another interesting one. Enjoy your day!

Peculiar...

I can’t see clearly even though it’s clear…

It's clear

Many things had happened since the last few hours…

My crush had left the company…

Another long time crush suddenly messaged me on Facebook chat.

An old friend will be visiting Seoul.

And yet, I’m still here, standing still doing nothing.

Am I doing everything accordingly? Am I going to get lucky?

Someone told me, I cannot consider myself lucky, but instead being fortunate….

and now I know the difference. Do you know the difference?

I wish to be fortunate once again. Wish me luck!

When you don’t know where to go

Aimless and chained

Have you ever felt like you are wondering around, without knowing the real purpose of existing and what you really wanted the most?

This reminds me the life of being a pet. The sole existance of the pet dog for instance, is to follow its master everywhere they go, and listen to their commands. What if when the master suddenly stops giving orders, chained it, and leave the dog somewhere by itself? How would the dog feel? Who would you feel when you are in that situation?

Suddenly you lose aim of what you are trying so hard to achieve for, the feeling of anxiety, fear; looking for something or someone that we can count on, but couldn’t find them anywhere.

All the dog can do is, whine and howl, wishing its master will return.

What will you do?