
People
would probably be pelting me with eggs if I concluded that 2013 sucked. If
anything, I could even go as far as to say that it has been the most exciting
year of my life so far, with a lot of good stuff that happened. Even so, I
still could not help but think that there has always been something missing,
and perhaps as human beings we are just programmed in a way that we tend to
look for what is not there instead of appreciating what is. In any case, it is
always good to look back and be reminded of how life has treated you for the
past year or so. While such past events could no longer be modified to suit the
ideal concept of a life well-lived, they could always be used as reminders so
as not to repeat the same mistake, or better yet serve as an inspiration to
achieve something on par or even greater for the future. Looking back, here are
the 10 highlights of my 2013, both good and bad.
I
guess every kid born in the tropics would, at one point in his life, dream
about snow and how awesome it would be to play around with it, lay on it, make
snowballs out of it, etc. I was fascinated with snow before Harbin; I hated it
even before I left. Still, this is one dream that has been fulfilled, and
Harbin is not bad either, if only it isn’t that much of a frigid bitch that
dips below 25 degrees Celsius. I consider this a highlight because it is
included in my 30-Before-30 list, and crossing out items off that list with
less than two years to go now has been honestly quite challenging.
NORTH KOREA
Travel
is easy when you are young and your life is devoid of obligations, but still,
there are places that are off the beaten path which people would try their best
to avoid. Maybe you can count North Korea as one of those places. I went to
Pyongyang last April, when every bit of news from the web would lead you to
believe that the US was going to bomb them at any moment. Perhaps, that added
more to the thrill when we finally landed on North Korean soil. My stay was
rather short, and many people would argue that the tour we were part of was
planned in a way that it would give a myopic view of life in that city, obviously
limiting what we should see. In any case, I went there as a curious tourist,
not as a diplomat, and definitely not as an agent of change aiming to shake up
the status quo. Pyongyang is not Seoul, but not everyone could really brag that
they have been to one of the most reclusive nations in the planet. Curiosity
satisfied, mission accomplished.
LANGUAGE CERTIFICATES

This
year has witnessed how obsessed I have been with language certificates after
getting around half a dozen of them. I concluded 2012 with three language exams
in December, all taken IN ONE DAY: JLPT N5, HSK 2, and HSKK Beginner. The year
started with all three certificates from those exams at my doorstep. I think I
would never subject myself to a similar kind of torture again, and I guess I
managed to pass all three simply because they are all beginner levels anyway,
and the schedules happened to match. I retook the written part of the PLIDA
last April, and finally got my Italian C1 certificate a few months later. And
then I did the CPE in Hong Kong and the DELF in Manila last May, yielding me an
English C2 and a French B2, respectively. My Portuguese C1 followed after
finding out that I passed the DAPLE in Macau held last July, which was also the
same month in which I took the follow-up Japanese test and obtained a JLPT N4
in Singapore. I almost forgot that I also took the TOPIK 2 in April, and the
certificate is now also at hand. Closing the year last month was the HSK 3 exam
here in Xiamen, and I just found out today that I passed that exam as well.
Next weekend, I am set to take the HSK 4, but I do not have high hopes for
that. I think another level up for Mandarin is just too soon. I would like to
take things slow, but since the exam comes free with the scholarship, I might
as well take my chances. I think I am going to lie low this 2014. With only
German left without a certificate, I think my mind deserves some rest.
MACAU
Macau
was a bit eventless, to say the least. For one month, it has always been the
same routine of going to class in the morning and squandering some serious
amount of cash at Grand Lisboa in the afternoon. Even so, this is still my
first legitimate in-country language learning experience, although people are
not really that open to the idea of learning Portuguese in Macau. As for me, I
have never really had a genuine classroom learning experience when it comes to
Portuguese, even more so the European variant. As such, it marked many firsts,
not to mention that the all-inclusive program cost was really cheap, which
meant more ammunition for my casino trips. I did not really travel around because
I already explored Macau two years ago, but as a place of residence, I appreciate
the ambiguous tranquillity that Macau offers vis-à-vis the frenetic atmosphere prevalent
in neighboring Hong Kong.
SEOUL

XIAMEN
I
was not really keen on getting a scholarship in Mainland China. The one I have
been eyeing for quite some time was the Taiwanese Huayu Enrichment Scholarship.
I applied for both anyway, albeit not enthusiastically with regards to the
Confucius Institute one. What happened next was that infamous rift between
Manila and Taipei, which led to the latter cancelling all scholarship
applications. I then thought that perhaps this was just not for me until one
afternoon, after an exhausting day of temple hopping in Mandalay, I decided to
log in and check the status of my Confucius Scholarship application and realized
that they had just awarded me one-semester for free. Who was I to refuse,
right? While some things did not turn out to be how I expected, like getting
exiled in some distant farmland of a campus rather than staying in the main one
with a beach in front, I could say that the experience has been quite pleasant,
and I know that my Mandarin would be improving slowly but surely.
RAINBOW GANG

KIDNEY STONES

LOCATION INDEPENDENCE

THE FRIENDZONE

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