Frankly from a Friendly Foreigner

UM (University of Malaya) is near my condominium. I sometimes go there after work and there’s always something happening there every time!  The students are so bloody active!  (Maybe because UM encourages them to do extra-curricular activities by letting active students stay on-campus.)  No wonder they were in the top 100 universities in 2005 (100th place actually, lol, but hey, that’s not bad!)

There was a charity 10 km running competition in UM last Sunday.  I’ve been jogging for the last few months, so I felt prepared to perhaps even win the race (I’m a giant so my steps are pretty big, lol).

I missed the event completely!  The girl who’d told me about it had said it would start at 5:45.  "AM or PM?", I asked.  Only PM made logical sense, so that’s what she replied.  But it had in fact started at 5:45 AM before sunrise!

I didn’t regret it a single bit.  In fact, I’m glad I missed the race because I heard an entire jogging club had taken part and the winner had run the distance in just 20 minutes!  Oh my word!!!  I have a book here in front of me that says if you had superior fitness you’d be able to run 10 km in 28 minutes!  Is there a mistake somewhere or did the club fly all the way from Kenya?

That’s the title of the book I’m reading.  The cover reads "1200 inspiring ideas for work, home and happiness".  Here are some amusing quotes from the book I thought I’d share with you:

Avoid negative self-talk:
If you think you can, you can.  If you think you can’t, you’re right.  -Mary Kay Ash
My comments:  Oh my God, that is so true!

Exercise wisely:
Whenever the urge to exercise comes upon me, I lie down for a while and it passes.  -Robert Maynard Hutchins
My comments: Haha..  This one’s just ridiculous!

Relax:
Don’t take life too seriously.  You will never get out of it alive.  -Elbert Hubbard

Stop procrastinating:
I’m going to stop putting things off starting tomorrow.  -Sam Levenson

Learn to deliver impromptu presentations:
It usually takes me more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.  -Mark Twain

Handle difficult people:
If there were no bad people there could be no good lawyers.  -Charles Dickens

Prosper at work:
If you’re not fired with enthusiasm you’ll be fired with enthusiasm.  -Vince Lombardi

I was walking past China Town in KL earlier tonight when I saw a gang of 5 or 6 Malay guys beating two Chinese-looking foreigners in an alley.  One of them was bleeding from the nose, and the gangsters would kick them every few minutes.  The victims simply had no choice but to quietly take the beatings and prevent the situation from escalating.  Some of the gangsters had walkie-talkies, but they were too brutal to be the police, although the police are occasionally violent in this part of the world.

I’d never seen a Malay gang before.  They are generally such peaceful and calm people.  A group of passers-by -including myself- stood there staring at them, but no one dared to interfere.

It was only when things had calmed down and I’d walked off that I realized I could’ve called the police.  It wasn’t too late.  I dialled 999, they directed me to the police station nearest to where I was.    At this time, the gang had started moving and they were taking the two foreigners with them.  I explained the situation to the man on the line.  I tried to follow the gang, but I was too far behind and I lost them.  There was nothing more I or the police could do.

It was a shocking but interesting experience.  At least now I know what to do the next time something like this happens.

I’ve been running and swimming a lot recently.  Every two weeks when I go back to our house in Ipoh, I open the curtains and look at myself in the large glass window (which acts as a full-body mirror at night when you turn on all the lights inside).  Anyone passing by the neighbourhood would think our house has turned into a strip-club!

He kinda looks like me, doesn’t he?

I spend some time every day waiting in bus/LRT stations and using public transport.  I like to make the most of it by reading books, thinking about something important or winking at the girl sitting in front, lol..

But seriously, I’ve recently been practising my speaking skills using my wonderful little MP3 player.  I record my voice while talking about a certain topic.  Then I listen to it and find things I could’ve said better.  I’ve even started my very first Audio Diary series.  I like speaking in my walkman; it makes me look like a detective or journalist, just like in the movies.

It’s surprising how many otherwise-attractive young women smoke in Kuala Lumpur.  I personally find it to be a turn-off.

I had a chat with my boss today.  I asked him what English-speaking country he’d rather live in.  Here’s the substance of his response:

• US: Crazy.  Their president is a cow-boy!
• UK: A retracting empire. The British are too conservative, they want to keep things just the way they are.  Not very warm people either.
• Canada: Too damn cold!
• Australia: A growing nation in need of skilled migrants, with nice weather, friendly people and a happy lifestyle.

My supervisor at Benaim is a great guy!  He’s become my role-model.  Not only is he very dedicated to his job, he’s fantastic at handling people too.  Despite being busy as hell, he still manages to explain things to me or find me a new engineering task.  He always takes his time and deals with things calmly but nearly perfectly.

The other day I asked him about the bridge in the wallpaper photo on his desktop.  "It’s my baby," he proudly said.  Haha..  It was an innovative bridge in Ireland that he himself had designed and he told me all about it.  His passion about bridges is contagious!  I wasn’t really into bridges at the beginning of my internship, but now I subconsciously inspect every single bridge, ramp or viaduct I see.

Whenever I get that question I go, "It’s a secret."  The usual response is "But why is it a secret?"  Then I tell them that’s just the way it is and I let them guess 3 times but they never get it right.  I’ve had people guess everything from England, Australia, Italy, France, Eastern Europe to Turkey, Turkmenistan, Arab countries, Sudan, Pakistan and even India!  And when they run out of guesses they demand, "Come on, tell me where you’re from!"  At this point I like to remind them that it’s a secret and this drives them completely nuts!  Haha..  Every once in a while, though, a wise person comes along and impresses me by getting it right the very first time.