Great reason to make a new post

.. so that I can skimp on writing and call this a blog update. :)

Posting the live version because it beats the studio version, hands down. So much energy and a flawless performance.

Retrospection 2012

For some reason I thought that today was 30th January and that New Year will be on Wednesday, until I got a notification of a new post by Jeremy that the year 2012 is actually coming to an end pretty soon.

If I could sum up 2012 for me in one word it would be change... and blur. Ok, probably in two words. Looking back in 2012 while I'm somewhat aware of what happened I still had to rack my brain to figure out where did all those calendar pages fly by? So many things happened, so many changes in my life and I'm still barely on top of things in my life now.

I started out this year a little uncertain of where things will take me. I've submitted my Masters thesis in September last year and was still waiting for my defense. I continued looking for a PhD position and started applying for a few different places. Then I was offered the chance to do an attachment with Dr. Sam at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland for 3 months. At the same time I managed to get past the first interview for a PhD position at the University of Glasgow and was invited there for a second interview. In Glasgow I met up with my long-time secondary school friend, Alvin and stayed at his place for a few days for the interview. 

Unfortunately I was not successful for that interview, and as I was working in Aberdeen I got a surprising reply to one of my "casual" PhD application. "Casual" in the sense that the offered position seemed really interesting and quite out of my league that I didn't think much of it as one of my more potential applications. Anyway I got a call later from Dr. Michael and 3 weeks later I hopped on a plane to Dresden, Germany to visit his lab at the Max-Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics. I came back to Malaysia in June and after two short months, packed my bags and left for Germany with much trepidation to begin a new unknown chapter of my life.

This is the first year that I've spend more time out of Malaysia then in it. Living in a foreign country can be quite draining, particularly one where you don't understand the language. Everything here is in Germany, from applying for a bank account to getting a phone and signing a contract. It can be quite draining at times, when you consider that a simple things like figuring out the lunch menu or looking at product label at a supermarket requires some considerable effort of guesswork.

I also found out how difficult it is to explain how things are in Malaysia and the way we see things. How do you respond to a guy from China who says "Your name sounds like a Chinese name.". Erm, cos I am?? There was also another time when someone said, "Oh Chinese people are usually quite thin, I've never seen fat Chinese people before", to which I laughed and said of course there are and it's a growing problem. "But you're not Chinese right, you're from Malaysia!" Uh, yes I am and yes I'm from Malaysia as well. I guess the concept of cultural plurality as well as ethnicity and nationality

being two completely different things are slightly harder to grasp for folks that came from  a predominantly homogenous country. 

On the upside, I've gotten to know quite a lot of different folks here from many different countries including Egypt, Croatia, Serbia. And I also had my first wintry Christmas here. Learning German .. has a bit slow and difficult (much more than English!) but while I can't speak that well or fully understand conversations, I could make do mostly shopping for groceries or ordering off the menu.

Being away from Malaysia, there are lots of things I missed - the food, the weather, the people. And by people I also mean the chance to have a witty and engaging conversation in English. I also really miss hanging out with them over a nice (!) meal. Granted,  I don't hang out much anyway while I was back in Malaysia but I think living outside and mostly independently back then have really prepared me to living by myself in a foreign country.

Hopefully 2013 will be less drastic so that I can occasionally take a breath and realise - the flowers along the way are smelling quite differently now.

Happy new year 2013.