Life through the eyes of emery

Trainee. Tour guide. Tourist. Professional. Consultant. Participant. Team Lead. Event Manager.

The past 2 weeks were almost surreal for me! Checking in to the Sheraton, free meals, free accomodation, meeting 75 new people from all over Asia Pac, working in teams from 8am-7pm every day, partying from 8pm onwards and going back to class looking 'fresh' - that sums it up for my core training at my firm. One word - awesome!!

Initially I was so worried, being the one out of 2 participants from Malaysia ... will I find people to click with? Furthermore, the other participant doesn't really hang out with the others after class, leaving me to be the tour guide etc. Things always work out better when you least expect it!!

I ended up hanging out with a whole group of Australians, who often tell me how unMalaysian I am. :P Ok, just cause I didn't know my way around, but I'm still very Malaysian. They taught me so much about everything - to be yourself, to not care about what others think and to be a unique individual. To quote one of them, "Don't be shy, be Australian" :P Thanks so much for the friendship and company!!

The one core thing about my firm is that everyone's really good at working hard and playing hard, the world over! The Singaporeans, Japanese, Indonesians, Chinese etc... you name it. We went to Cynna, Passion, Beach Club, Zouk, shopping at Bukit Bintang (or 'bucket bentang' as the Aussies pronounced it), more shopping at 1 Utama and Central Market, Petaling Street, eating at Jalan Alor, more partying at Passion, visiting the office at Twin Towers, yummy dinners (free!), Luna Bar, and an all-nighter Zouk and mamak session later. No wonder I am sick now!

I also learnt that it is hard to be a tourist in KL. Everyone tries to rip you off - especially cab drivers. End up haggling on prices, finding cabbies that use the meters, being a bitch sometimes to get my way, using all the Cantonese I can master to get bargains for my foreign friends, pulling all my help when it comes to directions (yes, a local getting 11 foreigners lost). In the end, they brought me around KL! :) All in all, I had heaps of FUN - it must've been the highlight of my career so far. I learnt heaps, of course, training materials too :P and had a good chat with one of the trainers on career development.... learnt of my personality type and definitely how to handle myself and clients better.

What more could I ask for? However, the hardest part is yet to come - getting back to reality!! All good things do come to an end. I'm gonna miss all of you so much... Jenny, Ozona, Linda, Mo, Paul, Marius, Pete, Dave, Luke, Al, Leon, Anthony, Ivan, Jamein, Yanxi, Anand, Anggie, Diane etc etc etc.

"Dream as if you will live forever; live as if you will die tomorrow"

Adios my friends. Hopefully one day, our paths will cross again!! :)

posted by emeryz @ 10:32 PM 0 comments

Growing old(er)..

Hanging out with my cousins over CNY have made me realized how much we've grown. We were reminiscing on the days where we got caught watching a 18SG movie (which was at least 8 years ago), and having my baby cousin Zi (she's already 19 now) telling me things she recalled from her childhood which I don't even remember. Well, most were some memories of how we bullied her. I asked her to name one good thing she recalled and after some time, she said "You cooked Maggi mee for me". Phew, I knew I wasn't all that mean :P

Now I know how it is when my siblings or parents look at me and still think I'm so young, when I am not. That's how it is when I see my younger cousins that I grew up with. They are like younger siblings to me (having none myself). I love to spoil them for movies or meals, coz I never get that chance since my elder siblings always pay for everything. ;)

And when I read their blogs, I realized how much they have grown. How they have gone through hard times, been through the usual ups and downs as a teenager now approaching adulthood and it's awesome. It's awesome that most of them have graduated / graduating / doing well in college. It's awesome to watch them grow and be someone. Yea, I sound old because I am.

Because time goes by so quickly, we gotta make the most of everyday, because you don't want to be looking back and go, "I should have done this or that". Just do it. Regrets are relative, I mean, at that point in time, you would think that was the best thing to do, which is why you did it, and now looking back, you regret. Yet, everything is a learning process, so perhaps you were meant to go through it in the first place and thus, there shouldn't be regrets. Gosh, my slacking mind is causing me to over-analyze things again. I better not write anymore.

posted by emeryz @ 6:24 AM 1 comments