La vie vivante aux fulles: Junior Year! Part 1

It’s been awhile since i last updated my blog(s)- i need to make a new account since, idk :(. So this would be a really really long update about my whole junior year, 2^nd semester experiences! But this post will be divided into various posts (sobrang haba kasi talaga!)

d'CATCH 2013 participants infront of King Rama's statue
(Chulalongkorn University)

First in the list is my d’CATCH experience. D’CATCH or Decentralized Transnational Asian Challenge is a quadripartite video exchange program that happened in Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand. This is actually my second d’CATCH experience and what makes it different? I lost my laptop! Seriously, I know I should not point that out but then that experience made me realize how pessimistic I could be when it comes to such situations.

The epic PINK VAIO LAPTOP (My Chinese friends borrowed it then *poof*)

Ajarn Ma (a Thai professor) keeps on telling me to let everything go and just accept the situation. At first, it was hard (dude, all my files were stored in that vaio laptop!) but I only realized that he was right when I’ve talked to my mom already.

Ajarn Ma inspired me to look on the brighter side of life all the time. So for the past 3 months, I’ve been trying to keep calm and just give my best to everything that I need to do. To show my gratitude, I PMed him on Facebook with this message:

“Hi Ajarn Ma, i wrote this note 2 days after we arrived here in the Philippines and at that time i was too shy to send this one to you. 555 but i think now is the right time to give it to you because i have totally cleared my mind about what happened...

here it goes,

Hi Ajarn Ma!  I just want to say thank you for being so accommodating during our stay in Chula. Most especially thank you for your advice when my laptop was stolen. to be honest during that time i did not understand why i need to let go of the memory easily but then i realised before leaving Thailand that you're right, there are things that we could not control and we just need to fully accept it since if we don't do that we would only hurt ourselves more. thank you so much, i will never forget your kindness. take care of yourself and hoping to go back in BKK soon. 

yours,

 Mayyeng

-sorry for being random, went over my notes and i saw it. i think you just really need to read it!  and by the way... Team Philippines miss everyone there already!”

He replied to my message saying:

“ Hi Hi Mayyeng,

Oh !!! my lovely girl. You are so shy but I'll tell you the truth, this thing you've done to me is really make me become the happiest man in the world during I read your beautiful words.

I couldn't write my words to you after my reading was over too. I tried to think about how I can express my feeling to you.

Today I tell myself that it's no useful to wait to tell something very meaningful to you. You just tell what you want to say from your feeling. You may not have a chance to say tomorrow.

I'm so proud of you.In Buddhist way of life if someone can find him/herself and then tell him/herself that what is the right way to walk from the right reason. That person is great. And you've already found the true happiness.

God bless you

. Aj.Ma”

So yeah, I’m great! Joke! But this experience really changed me for the best. Thank you to that thief, I was able to discover something about myself. I am forever thankful for that great lesson I learned in Thailand.

d'CATCH 2013 timeline: