First solo flight

I am now back in Malaysia for the summer, and boy does it feel like summer. If you have ever been to Malaysia -- or know how it feels like to be in a tropical country near the equator, you know how I feel. After 6 months of freezing cold to chilling winds and mildly hot days, I am now melting. Boy, have I have missed being sticky and sweaty.

Anyway, to get back to Malaysia I had to fly alone for the first time. I actually thought I would be pretty scared and nervous but surprisingly I was not. For some reason I was really chill, which makes me wonder if I was on some sort of morphine high or something because I was TOO chill. But it was a cool experience. I've been on a lot of flights before so I guess that helped a lot.

In total along with transit time, my journey took 25 hours. Well if I start from the time the shuttle picked me up, that would be 3 1/2 more hours, so 28 1/2 hours. And by the end I was feeling like I had been on a plane for my whole life.

And now that I am back, it feels as though I have never left. Still, it is too hot. Too hot. Can't wait to get back to Canada now!

World Partnership Walk

Celebrating its 30th anniversary, I was lucky to be part of this huge event here in Edmonton. I volunteered to help out and got assigned to be a route volunteer. The World Partnership Walk is a 5km walk to raise awareness and funds to end global poverty (especially those of mothers and children) and 100% of the proceeds goes to the Aga Khan foundation. A spectacular event with a huge turnout of more than a thousand people walking with a purpose. And I know approximately how many people walked because I had a counter (those old school clicky ones) and did my best to count every person that passed me.

It was a pretty fun day and I was standing 90% of the time, so am pretty exhausted right now. But the main advantage of volunteering at events like these (apart from helping a good cause) is that you meet new people and make friends. I have definitely become more open and less shy around new people since I've been here and that's a good thing. I'm not saying I'm no longer an introvert (I'm pretty sure I always will be), but that I am now less uncomfortable and awkward around those I have just met.

I feel like I am experiencing life right now, and what better time than in university huh? Being all on my own and exploring new places, opportunities, people. These few years are going to be fun. I'll definitely want to help out next year (this is a yearly walk).

To end, here is a picture of me at the event grounds:

Host Edmonton 2014

 

Host Edmonton is about Eat. Drink. Think. I'm not here to promote it or anything, but I got to volunteer at the event and it was a fun experience. Their website looks really professional and you would never think that this was their first year doing this. Here's the site: http://hostedmonton.com/.

 

It was a 4 day event from Thurs-Sun, but the core of it was on Friday and Saturday. I volunteered the whole day Saturday (yesterday). Honestly, we volunteers were unsure of what we were supposed to be doing, and just followed the core team's instructions and doing whatever they wanted us to. It may have been a bit chaotic behind the scenes, but overall I think it was pretty well done, considering that this was their first year (they hope to go on for three more years).

Also, it must have been a really big budget production. They had so much excess customized pens and notebooks and they got quite a few big shot names in the culinary world to come up and speak. However, the turnout wasn't as big as expected. Maybe they should have advertised it more because I certainly hadn't heard of it until it was posted on a volunteer page at my university.

Regardless, it was a fun day and I met a lot of new people and had fun coming out of my shell. I was greeting people coming off the escalators in the morning, then doing odd errands and staying at the registration booth for the remainder of the late afternoon-evening.

And I must say that the core team really took care of us volunteers. They fed us with good food, let us attend the talks, and gave us free drinks. And yes there were alcoholic drinks too, which we could try. A really fun day, and if they have this again next year, I wouldn't mind helping out again.

Defend Our Climate!

So yesterday, on the 10th of May, was Canada's national 'Defend Our Climate, Defend Our Communities' day. This day opposes the government's relationship with oil companies-- especially against the tar sands and pipeline productions.

In Edmonton, a mock ceremony was held to depict the 'too-close' relationship between the government and oil companies. Here is the news coverage of that day: http://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=361502&binId=1.1203428&playlistPageNum=1
And if you want to watch the whole ceremony, it's on here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6h5IiWq3X018 minutes long, but it's pretty funny.

I actually did not know we were going to have quite a big turnout. It was pretty epic even though there were some mishaps and problems along the way (especially with the weather). This was an event organized by Greenpeace, and I was one of the volunteers. I was supposed to be at a table giving out information leaflets and flyers to people who wanted them, but it was too windy and at some point it started to snow, so we didn't set the table up.

Not the best day to be out and about at a wedding, but it was definitely worth it. My only regret is that I didn't take a picture at the end with the backdrop. Well I'm just glad that there are so many people out there who cares about our environment. Even young children participated. And it was across Canada, in places like Toronto, Vancouver and Victoria which had much bigger turnouts, though I personally feel that ours was more epic.

You don't have to be in Canada to defend our climate. Defend yours with small steps at a time! Leave your environmental footprint behind and let people know that you care.

I was here, were you?

Happy Earth Day!

It's Earth Day!

On top of that, I had my last finals today, so I'm doubly happy. =]

Yesterday I volunteered at an Earth Day event with Greenpeace Edmonton. It was just a few organizations gathering to promote what they do and raise awareness in the community though, nothing big.

There were also activities planned for children, as it was located in a community centre, and one of the activities was learning basic sign language. I joined that one, and yay I can sign most of the alphabet now. I forgot a few letters, but know enough to spell my name!

Here's a little poster to get you thinking.

 

Think of everyday as Earth day. If the Earth dies, you do too.

Do what you can to save this world, one footprint at a time. 

Why study overseas?

I've just finished my first term here in Canada, so have been here for about 4 months. During this time, I've told people that I'm an international student about a billion times. I got many responses to that and quite a lot were to do with why I came here. I don't know what it is exactly (and I mean no offence when I say this) but people here are pretty self-involved. They don't know much about the world outside of their own and that just seems kind of ignorant to me. Don't get me wrong, they're nice people, and of course I don't expect them to know every culture in other countries, but it's like they only focus on their own. Maybe that was offensive.. OK honestly, it's probably a culture shock since I come from a country that is very multicultural.

Anyway, one of the responses I got when I said I was from Malaysia, was, "But Malaysia has a lot of good schools as well, no?" Yea, no. For those of us who can, getting an education abroad paves the way for a better future. It is a great experience as well becoming independent in a new country, but there are times when I have thought, if only Malaysia had a better education system, then I wouldn't have to move halfway across the world. Not only would it save a ton of money, I would also be able to stay with my family and friends. But then I wouldn't get to explore other cultures; I guess there are pros and cons to every decision. I just really miss driving around and honestly, the food as well. Before coming over, I was adamant that I would not miss the food, because I eat whatever and don't really crave anything. But...how I miss dim sum.

Just part of growing up I guess. Adapting to new changes and working hard for the future. I've been pretty busy these few weeks, been volunteering and stuff. I'm looking to volunteer in more places.

Here's a list of my volunteer activities:
Recently, I volunteered at an event in my university which was called PositiviDAY. It was hosted during the last day of term and was aimed at uplifting people's spirits for the coming finals. A very fun day and it brought a lot of smiles around. Stay positive people!

I've also attended a Greenpeace volunteer meeting, and will be attending these regularly as well as participating in any other events planned.

And March 29th was Earth Hour! I participated in a Lights Out Flash Mob, which was just us going around in pairs switching lights off around campus. That was a fun night as well. Many don't see the point of Earth Hour, but it's baby steps. If the world can collectively switch their lights off for an hour then it raises public awareness and we can progress from there. (I hope you switch off any electrical iterms when you're not using them).

So that about sums up the past few weeks. Paying it forward one footprint at a time. I was here, were you?

Highs and lows of the past few months

Sorry, this post is going to be about university life again. It's a huge experience, so will have quite a few posts dedicated to it.

I think that because I am now living alone and don't have support (meaning my family and my pets) when I reach my new home; that I've become more sensitive to emotional triggers. I think I mentioned before that I cry easily in situations. Well those situations are mostly limited to confrontations but now, I get easily upset when I don't do well. To be fair, I do have high expectations for myself and when I don't achieve them, I  feel pretty down.

For example, I am taking this one class which is an Introduction to Women's/Gender Studies and though it is very interesting, it is also quite hard to score highly. I did quite poorly on my mid-term and subsequent assignments. I have been feeling low after every one of this class, then I take a day or so to feel better and then the class comes again and another cycle starts. I have been trying hard to improve and one of the things is that I'm extremely shy and don't talk at all in class. Problem is, 10% is for participation, so I've already lost 10%. And I've never felt like withdrawing from a course before, but I seriously considered dropping this. But then I got over that and told myself that I don't give up. I'll just have to try and improve my grade the best that I can.

A good thing about this course is that it has a Community Service Learning component to it, so I signed up for that and paired with an organization called Men Edmonton. They hope to help raise awareness in boys and men of sexism. For this project I created a web-based campaign and posted photos I edited as well as any other videos I could find. Here's the link if you want to take a look! www.fightforgenderequality.tumblr.com

Anyhwo, back to the subject of highs and lows. I think a big part of what kept me from feeling so low, was playing basketball and exercising. I mainly walk to the supermarket on days that have good weather, and since Spring is here, that means most of the time. Its good to be able to just take a stroll and not be kept inside for the whole day. I also joined this co-rec basketball team and though we lost both games so far, it was still fun and I made some friends.

So yeap, I hope I've moved past the lows. It's also because of this new environment that would've influenced how I felt. So if you're ever feeling lonely, I know how you feel. But know that things will get better and to exercise!
(I put this under 'issues', because of the gender studies component. Sexism is a huge issue!)