USA Entry #1

The Golden Gate Bridge at San Francisco!

(I was born to be a photographer:b)

Yep, I'm secretly Michael Jackson, only at the Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz though.

Sunset at Pier 39, San Francisco. 

It was so beautiful!!!

Hello, I'm sorry I haven't updated my blog for awhile. It's because I haven't really stayed by myself yet here in the States so I couldn't really blog much about my experience here. I'm officially here alone now because my mum and aunt just left a night ago.  sobs. They've been here for about 3 weeks with me, helping me settle in and all which I'm really grateful for. It's quite a lot to take in but thankfully they were here with me, it made things so much easier.

Classes won't start for me until September 21st so it's kinda a long way more to go. I bet you guys are thinking, "Then why did you go so early for??" Well, the orientation programme (yea, thats right, I stay true to the British way of spelling things!) for international students was from Aug10-26. Not everyday but yeah, it was spread out and it was compulsory if not we would have missed our placement tests... Smart way for making students come for orientation because most of the times students will skip it. Then again, if you're going to another country to study, why would you skip orientation right? It's so different from Malaysia and it's so complicating, lol. People here don't even know what A-levels are but then again, their own education system is good enough.

Moving on...

I remember when I was 15, I wanted to leave the country super badly not because of like the bad education system or what but because I was so bored with my life back in Malaysia. I wanted something new and different... I thought, "What fun it would be to have a new life somewhere else!"

Boy, was I wrong. I'm not saying that it's not fun, it's nice here and I think I'll adjust well I guess but you just don't get the same comfort from being at home (duh). You're on your own now. All these things you gotta do by yourself and I have to think of what to cook everyday, ugh! I'm not the type of person that likes to eat out a lot because I get very jelak after awhile. Then there's laundry to do, things to buy, blah blah blah. Man, I just thought how nice it would be just to start anew somewhere else... Damn, I take it all back now. I have to worry about bills too *cries*

Yes, I do admit that I had things there for me already when I was back at home, all thanks to my mum. I had a maid to wash my clothes for me and clean my room, my grandma to prepare dinner for me everyday, my mum pays the bills, house installment etc. I do know how blessed I am, but being here made me realise that many people went through so much just so I could have a comfortable life. I'm not rich neither am I spoilt, please don't get me wrong. My mum worked very hard to get my family where we are today. It just goes to show that we live so comfortably and sometimes we don't really acknowledge the people who make our lives so comfortable. Plus, our currency dropping some more, mum has to work 5 times harder :(

But yeah, being here, I'm always constantly reminded of the people who gave me the comfort like when I wash and fold my clothes, when I cook my own food, when I pay my phone bills. I had everything done for me back in Malaysia, but now, I have to learn to do it on my own which is for my own good and I'm not seeing it in a negative way :)  It's tough now but we all have to grow up sooner or later. It's too soon for me to judge how it is like living here. Classes haven't started yet so... I guess we'll see. Hopefully this will be a great experience for me, learning how to be independent and all that shit, and bills... ugh. I know I know, I haven't started working yet, I know that'll be a bigger pain in the ass.

Anyway, there are a shit load of Asians here, it's a good thing because they have asian supermarkets so I can still have my asian food, bad thing.. I won't have much exposure with Americans at all. The only caucasian American I met was my landlord in San Jose and even my landlady now is an ABC (American born chinese) and I live right behind an Asian Supermarket, hahaha! 80% Asians here where I live.

Honestly, I'm just blogging to pass time, I do apologise for my mindless ranting. On the bright side, I have a few Malaysian friends and they're really nice plus I can say "La, ma, lo, ah". It's so hard to talk without it, it feels incomplete.

This is all for now... I'll probably update again when classes officially start! :) I've been living like a tourist here, just shopping and travelling :b Thank you so much for reading!!

Love Rachel*