Real True Friendships beyond cultural boundries

One of the many things I love about life is a beautiful friendship. Ever since I was a little girl, friends have been really important part of my life. I worship Friendship and it's my religion. But I was never really lucky with finding real true friends back in my own country. It was ALL about competition who got the No #1 prize at school. The school system over there gives top 10 students of the whole school prizes with an annual ceremony.

Well another chapter of my life, I came to U.S. for college. I found so many amazing people from all over the world. We did have cultural differences and language barriers but the friendship went beyond all those. And I met my BEST friend in my junior year. I would never thought we would be besties. He was annoyingly good looking, funny and smart but just wanted to hook up with every moving thing on campus. ( hehe RT, sorry for my awesome commercial about you!) I was too tiny to get his attention when we first met.

We became friends because he had to wait for me when we all had lunch together. I'm always a slow eater. Everyone left the table and I would still be chewing :) But within very short period, we became VERY CLOSE friends. We hanged out EVERY SINGLE DAY. He knocked my dorm room every afternoon after he finished studying. We'd be just laughing for HOURS in my room. ( some of my neighbors thought that we were having sex. :) ) And he wasn't just a fair-weather friend. Although I am almost always happy, I do have my down time. He WAS there for my down time. Well the only sad thing was that he was there only for a semester. I didn't think that our friendship would continue when we are apart. People get out of touch and it's normal. But we have been in touch ALL ALONG. Our friendship is REALLY true and real. We live across the continents - he lives in Brazil. All these years, we only reunited this summer for once. It was really like seeing a family. We were both SO HAPPY.

And a year ago or so, I met this really super awesome girl, AS, at work. I'd never thought she'd be my real friend either :) We had some train rides together and once she said ''I LOVE being single." I've never seen another female creature who's so happy being single. She is also from another continent of the world but the great thing is that she's still around. I think this will be also a lifetime friendship. And luckily, for the time being, we both love New York so much. We have great appetite for life and very similar ideals about love and friendship. Most important thing is that we have mutual trust in our friendship - even after we've gone thru unintentional hurtful things we said/did to each other, we'd always know that we are in the same side and want the best for each other.

It was kind of almost SO HARD to believe for me and trust in our friendship because in my experience with female friends back home, there are only two kinds of friends.
1. competitive friends ( who want to be close b/c you are the enemy in fact.)
2. butterfly friends ( who only want to be friends when they are single.)
I got hurt so many times. So becoming closer and closer with AS made me nervous many times. But now I've passed all those. I think she is my very FIRST closest female friend. We already said I LOVE you to each other and we mean it. :) VERY BEAUTIFUL thing.......

Friends with Ex?

When someone said “I love you’’, have you ever said ‘please don’t’? For Burmese people and most people here, once you broke up with your boyfriend or girlfriend, you just cut out all the communications.

When I broke up with my 3 years boyfriend, I wanted to end it in very good terms. I wanted to be friends with him although I was really unhappy as his girlfriend. But the same time, I didn’t want him to be attached to me and didn't want to give him false hopes. He is really a great guy, the most intelligent and well-read guy I’ve ever known for his age. He’s a Princeton alum. Then, I started seeing someone just right before we broke up ( yeah I’m bad.)

Although I broke up with him, it was unbearable to see him in full of pain. So I sort of ended up continue seeing him while also seeing the new guy. I thought he would gradually get over me. And I was taking advantage of freedom of single life.

We broke up 2 years ago but my ex never really disappeared from my life. Some times, I did try to cut contact because I didn’t want him to be attached to me and not move on. Now that I think he’s very assured that I’ll never go back to him, I decided to be friends with him again. But whenever we hang out, he still treats me like we are still together and tells me he loves me. I told him ‘please don’t’.

It sounds awful but friendship is my religion and I really don’t want to abandon him from my life. I don’t have any romantic feelings and will never have them for sure. But our intellectual connection is really strong. I know that I don’t need him but I also don’t think I need to abandon him….

Now I wonder if this makes me afraid or wary of serious dating. I do have crushes on people every now and then. But I never want to date anyone seriously since after that serious relationship......

Change of Life!!

I'm a pretty simple creature. I do not own many things. I believe in minimalism and mostly buy things that are absolutely necessary. Most of my $$ goes to rent, dinning out and other social activities.

I did not have a cell phone until junior year in college when it got harder to not have a cell phone. I thought it would take me a longer time until I need a smart phone like everyone does. After recent frustrations with juggling things within very short time frame, I finally decided to acquire a smart phone!

I can't believe how this little device has changed my life! I wake up and before I can barely open my eyes, I start browsing news headlines on my phone. With my computer, I would have to open, get wireless connected, then go to browser, open my emails. With this little one, everything is just literally on my finger tip!!

Then I have my calendar and it will be sending me the remainders about today appointments, events etc. I will never have to call some friends to give me directions in the middle of the road. I frequently use dictionary. I like to know exact dictionary meanings of certain words. A lot of people "understand" words but when you ask them, they cannot always give you great, relevant examples. I now have Webster right on top of all other apps on my phone!

Instant access to my emails! which is great because I now have multiple assignments due and have been communicating heavily with my classmates and professors through emails. And I can have other entertainments such as netflix, youtube and facebook!

Yes, I'm loving it!

Importance of Healthy Mind

Most of us live in a life full of pressure, multiple deadlines, hassles and frustrations. I did mention before how I love living under pressure and living on the edge. But when your mind is constantly in an emergency mood, it reaches close to its limits and has to pay the price. Constantly stressful and exhausted mind can no longer help you perform under pressure and motivate you.

I've been exploiting both my body and mind so much. I do a zillion of things each week:
1. work that takes more than 50% of my energy as solving problems constantly while juggling to meet deadlines.
2. school - 2 or 3 assignments due each week, reading, group projects, research, news
3. job hunt - not much done lately
4.socializing - I do go out a lot- seeing friends, meeting new people etc. there are ALWAYS full of events and invites!
5. blogging - I love writing. So what can I do? Only less than half I wrote were posted on my blog:)
6. And lots of other non-productive activities - browsing internet, looking up news, facebook, emails, texting, eating, sleeping, thinking :)
7. swimming & running
8. other small personal errands

With all these things non-stop going on, before I noticed my stressful mind, I first noticed my MESSY room. It was awful just to even step into my room. All my clothes kept piling up on my bed. Lots of things were spread on my desk, chair, fridge, table. A lot of shoes, some boxes and trash were on the floor. Uncleaned dishes were also kept in the room and my mini-fridge. My washed clothes were still in laundry basket that no where to keep my unwashed clothes.
It was so OVERWHELMING just to think about cleaning that room. But I finally managed to pull myself together to clean the room.

Then I realized how all these so many things piled up in my mind and found myself very overwhelmed. Besides those regular things, I've got many more things came in my way- booking a trip home, registration for next semester, preparation for traveling, visa, gift shopping etc.

My mind started saying NO to everything I command. I need to study, read, think but the mind just stops working. I don't find myself very energetic, excited and hyper as I usually am. I suspect it is going to take a lot more than cleaning my room.

But I have a plan.
#1. Sleep
2. start working little by little on my very long to-do list

I think as in physical health, you don't value how important it is to have a healthy mind. I think it is very important to treat your mind very well as much as you treat your body. Everything has a limit it can take.