2018, still alive and kickin..

its been more than 10 years since i wrote my first post ,( including the previous blog, you can refer to my first post on this blog for further reference) Many of those who started out with me, possibly found other meaningful things to do and other commitment in life and decided to stop. Here i am still hanging on. I hope i dont stop writing. Despite the busy life we keep on having as we grow older, i kept a promise to myself that i would atleast write something on my birthday.

Birthdays; what seems like a loop in the circle of life,  but is actually just a path in any journey with a beginning, the complex journey in the middle, and a certain ending. a date is certainly a reminder for you to ask yourself, " what has changed from this year and the previous ones?? what have you done better than last year??" and thank God, i could really see the difference between last year's and this year's 23rd february.

last year's 23rd february was probably the typical year of what any undergraduate student would be busy doing; studying and hoping to do great during exams so we could move on to the next chapter of our life. so often, pushing into our subconscious that same thing over and over again. "you can do it" "just a little more" "5 years of struggle is hard enough, dont make it 6" and after all the dramas and with a little bit of sheer luck, passing the last exam was an emotional one. thoughts were racing in my head at that time,

"for 5 years i told my self, just a little more , and now i have to stop telling my self to push harder?"

"before i entered medical school i said that id need to renew my driving license after graduating, and so the time has come. hahah"

some of the many thoughts. and of course the right way is to keep moving forward, and how does one really moves forward after being stagnant with the same thing for 5 years? some may consider of moving on to the next chapters of their lives(congrats lads!), some go on the hunt for money (wise..) and others just wants to layback and enjoy the moments where the previous 5 years refrained us from doing. As for me? well i opted to go for what a great doctor / lecturer once told me; " Who you know, is better than What you know ". Hence here i am, wondering to the great beyond, of places where i've never been, and picking up things where i left off .

i never had the luxury of travelling pompously, but i guess God has a better plan for me. With some luck i got accepted to handle programs with regards to students from japan. Little do people know ever since i was a child, japan was one of the places i wanted to go, and the japanese people were among the people i wanted to talk to. since i was small Umi's brief experience in Japan made me so hooked up to that place and people. Ive been through the 1st batch in my last post, now i guess its time for me to talk about the second group of students, and the last one.

i have to thank the first group of students for giving the proper heads up and necessary information about what they are about to face, and how to go around things in Malaysia. for these reasons, im guessing it makes me myself a little less shy ( i was a shy person during the first group.. sincerely)

as of for the second batch, they appointed me as the leader to help around with the tasks of what i thought would be similar to the 1st batch. In comparison to the 1st batch that we manage to do many things with a carefree mood and environment, the second one was more rigid and 'well organized' as the management have seen the flaws from the prior batch and they corrected it all in order to make the program more focused on academic and less of a tour de malaysia. One of the flaws pointed out was that we were too close with the students. i laughed out knowing this fact and wondered myself, ' how could being nice to someone, making the person feel comfortable is something wrong ?'

nevertheless, many more cants and donts that made it a bit more difficult to do things. but with the helps of the friends and helpful trainers, we manage to get away with it. with a little downside of course, and that is when so many things were already arranged for you, you get a bit carried away, and hence less time for yourself  with them, non-academically. But i am grateful for the peoples that i knew this time. all of them :)

(Abe chan, and Mei chan, with hijabs :)

My buddies , Mei chan, Abe chan, brilliant students, both quite the contrary, to the fact that one is the very shy one and the other is the all rounder for being the best and one of the those who talks a lot, makes it easy for other people to get along with her. and a plus point for her for being the best female soccer player ive seen. haha. Moeka Abe despite being a shy person i was happy that she could still follow me around to many places that i took her to, and thanks to Mei for dragging her hehe. and at certain times, she will also bring along her roomate, Sonoka, being my first buddies i tend to spend more time with them rather than the second buddies. and so many more places that i promised to bring you to, but did not manage to do so as time was not on our side. gomennasai ....

(day one, Sonoka beside me was very shy at this time, as well as the birthday girl, Abe chan >.<)

(the last day, last buddy session)

Mei chan, despite of your age, i see a very mature person with a high level of curiosity and with this, you can go far and the only advice i think anyone can give to you is to just keep on doing what you do :) :)

( the last day before changing partners, and buddies. Mei seems happy, haha )

Abe chan, people say you are shy, i just think that you are just in your comfortable zone. Perhaps its not a bad thing to be 'shy' as long as it doesnt stop you from achieving your goals in life. And at a certain point, i think you are the kind of person who CAN do that and i respect you in able to do so.  Please finish the book that i gave to you. hehe :D

(during the first day we were given a task, to take a picture with something funny. And Shima Sensei was very funny and was so easy going just like the students )

Personally, i enjoy spending time with those who finds difficulty in adjusting to the surrounding.
some said to me

"ali, why should you do all this? this is not part of the job"
"ali, our part is finished, if they need anything they should work it out on their own"

 I can see why some actually disagree with what i do, but I cant help but felt the calling and urgency to go and do more than needed just to make sure other people's life and job gets easier. As long as it doesnt hurt anyone, and i have the time and energy to slot in a few extra things to do, i guess i have no reasons to say no. and in the end, i find pleasure and satisfaction knowing i made somebody's day better just by a few extra effort done. and it helps knowing that there are those who shares the same opinion with me. one of the reasons why i enjoyed this work of which on paper, seems so unpleasant and at times, tiring. On the other hand, i know that this attitude makes us vulnerable and easily taken advantage of. but yeah, ill keep this in mind and ensure my limits in the future. hehe

(with the 1st and 2nd pairing for buddies. Ayae is trying her best not to cry :)

Along the way, Miho and Ayae chan happen to be my second buddies of which i figured i would have the same amount of time to splurge with them, apparently not. the little 2 weeks of time was never enough right?? they have things to do, i have things to do, and slotting time in between was somewhat, bearable. but i hope i served my purpose. i really want to spend more time academically, knowing how hard it is to learn english. as a person who has been exposed to english since 6 years old and yet still having difficulty now, i seem to be able to understand the struggle they face as most japanese people learnt english at a later stage of studying.

(As everyone was busy taking pictures, i was doing something for the lecturers, but she insisted on taking a picture. thank you Miho chan :)

 i hope after this Miho chan will no longer be the class's sleeping beauty and will practice more english inside class and outside class. :D

(the few moments of a simple session. Ayae chan, followed by Miho chan)

As for everyone's (especially Haziq's. hehe) dearest, Ayae chan, at times i know you say that learning english is difficult. but for me, positive attitude is always the key to make things easier. So keep smiling as usual, and keep on learning. your malaysian buddies will surely be happy to assist you any time, accordingly. :))

then, theres the PBL group of people, Kotaro, Momoka, Mina, Koharu, Honoka, and also Miho. they need to do a short project with a presentation and we ( me, Haziq and Dzahirul) were assigned to assist them as necessary. but they were so independent and so good that they made as if we were not doing our job. along the way of your presentation I manage to look upon all of you and felt the feeling of proud of being the buddies in charge of all of you :)

(the PBL group that did superbly!)

and a few person whom i figured worth mentioning are the boys, whom are very excited with sports as i am.  and the person whom i can always count on to help me out with the students, Saito Yu, as funny and friendly person she is, she is also a strong girl knowing how independent she is since that her parents are actually living in Malaysia and she lives in Japan, alone. but now she is on an exchange student program in Philippines. All the best and have fun over there :D and my warmest thoughts to everyone else, whom i think made me smiled and satisfied with the job that i did. too many to mention, but you all know who you are right? :)

(This is a video of one of the dance they did during the last day. And Yosuke was crazy enough to try a woman's clothes, even the owner was suprised. :)

(Saito Yu has the same shirt as me. haha)

(A picture with everyone as soon as they finished their first class in Japan, and i just woke up at this time. T.T)

and not to be forgotten ofcourse, i cant help to feel the feeling of missing those who came during the 1st group of students. everything we do and everywhere we go became so sentimental as it reminds us of all of you,. i hope you are all fine and doing well in your english exams as well as your part time jobs hehe. Japanese people are amazing, seeing how commited and how nice a person can be, should straight things out that there are good people out there and maybe during your working times people may not be as good as you wished they would, maybe we should be strong and better for the good people elsewhere :) 

( Some of them knew each other and are actually close friends. i hope i can see them all again together in the nearest future)

This program is a good way to start my 2018 as it straights up my perspective on how people of different religion can somehow be better than yourself, as a human being. So hopefully after this, being a person with Islam, we can add up what is not in us, and be a better person and not being the blame for what Islam is not. Lessons in life like this is hard to learn from books, as well as from the typical Malaysian surrounding. And for this, I am very, very thankful for the opportunity for the epiphany that i could get. i hope to see you again, in Malaysia, and as well as in Japan. hopefully seeing everyone at their hometown can provide me with a better epiphany in the future. Im looking forward for it. Arigatou, nihon jin, as well as the malays

Ja ne ? :)

P/S; Of course, the next part is the part where i had the chance to visit UK. next post perhaps. Recently ive been told that my posts are too long to read. sorry ^^,  and thank you for reading till the end.